Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

September 04, 2025

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Eric Johnston

JAPAN

Mar 18, 2016

Japan to return 331 kg of plutonium as U.S. official warns of proliferation risk

A large shipment of plutonium is expected to depart Japan soon amid a warning from a senior American official saying nuclear reprocessing in East Asia could lead to increased amounts of nuclear material that could be used for nuclear weapons.

JAPAN / Politics

Mar 16, 2016

Osaka Ishin to campaign on local autonomy, free education in Upper House poll

Expanded local autonomy and free education until college are part of a series of proposals for constitutional revision that Osaka Ishin no Kai is finalizing in advance of this summer's Upper House election.

BUSINESS / Tech

Mar 12, 2016

Knowledge is power: Navigating the household electricity market after deregulation

The country's household and small business electricity market will be deregulated from April 1, allowing individuals to choose their electricity provider. Optimists, especially renewable energy advocates and small entrepreneurs, hope the development will break the stranglehold that the country's 10 regional...

JAPAN / ANALYSIS

Mar 10, 2016

Takahama injunction delivers body blow to Japan's nuclear power industry

Pro-nuclear politicians fear that the nation's push to restart as many reactors as possible as quickly as possible has come to a halt.

JAPAN

Mar 9, 2016

Court issues surprise injunction to halt Takahama nuclear reactors

The Otsu District Court issues a provisional injunction ordering Kansai Electric Power Co. to shut down two reactors at its Takahama facility.

JAPAN / REVISITING 3/11

Mar 8, 2016

Five years on, joint disaster training a legacy of U.S. military's Operation Tomodachi

In the wake of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami, a range of U.S. troops and civilian rescue workers joined the relief effort. The scale of the disaster led to unprecedented logistical challenges on both sides and calls for more joint training specifically for disaster relief.

BUSINESS

Mar 7, 2016

Japan's prefectures map out damage to agriculture sectors by TPP trade pact

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet expected to approve a set of bills related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the stage is set in the Diet for a debate on the controversial 12-nation deal.

JAPAN

Feb 26, 2016

Japan restarts fourth atomic reactor since 2012 moratorium

The Takahama No. 4 reactor in Fukui becomes the fourth to be restarted since 2012 and the first to burn plutonium-containing MOX fuel.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Society

Feb 24, 2016

Nara targets gay tourists with new focus on LGBT economy

The city of Nara, Japan's ancient capital, will target LGBT tourists from Japan and abroad from April 1.

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 21, 2016

With new TV show, Osaka's Hashimoto plots return to public eye

After an absence of more than eight years, Toru Hashimoto, former Osaka mayor, governor and founder of the Ishin movement, returns to television as a regular commentator next month in what is expected to be the start of a regular series beginning in April.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE

Feb 21, 2016

As residents and reactors age, Fukui's fortunes fade

On a gray winter day late last month alternating between rain and sleet, many in the Sea of Japan town of Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, were feeling sunny. For the restart of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Takahama plant No. 3 reactor means not only a return to nuclear power, but a return of the money stream...

JAPAN / View from Osaka

Feb 20, 2016

Kansai is in need of some youthful innovation

In its latest report, released Feb. 12, the Kansai Economic Federation presented mixed news about the local economy. Looking at monthly sentiment in eight different areas ranging from industrial production to housing purchases to sentiment toward China, the report showed that, on the whole, 2015 was...

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 18, 2016

Kyoto pushes for Maizuru in fifth Hokuriku bullet train extension plan

Kyoto's leaders have formally asked the government to consider a new route for the planned Hokuriku Shinkansen Line extension between Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, and Osaka that would see the new line stop in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, and the city of Kyoto.

Japan Times

JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

Feb 15, 2016

Kanazawa retirement community a relocation-from-Tokyo success story

With its artistic traditions and preserved traditional neighborhoods, the city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, has long been known as "Little Kyoto." But over the past year, it has also been seen as a potential model for future continuing care retirement communities, or CCRCs, nationwide.

JAPAN

Feb 10, 2016

Ginowan mayor wants to lobby for base closure in Washington

Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima hopes to visit Washington D.C. as early as April to press his case for closing U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma as early as possible.

BUSINESS

Feb 4, 2016

Kansai business leaders hail nuclear power plant restarts, urge TPP ratification

The annual meeting of Kansai area corporate leaders opened Thursday in Kyoto with declarations of support for a recently restarted nuclear power plant and calls for the swift ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

JAPAN / Politics

Feb 3, 2016

New calls for reopening talks on U.S. Okinawa base closure emerge after Ginowan elects new mayor

The newly re-elected mayor of the Okinawan town hosting U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma has called on the prefectural governor to reopen negotiations on closing the controversial base within five years.

Japan Times

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Feb 1, 2016

U.S. presidential contenders vow status quo in Japan ties

With the Iowa caucus Monday, the primary voting process that will select Democratic and Republican candidates to run in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election has begun. Over the next four months, American, and international, attention will be focused on the primary races, and who emerges as their party's...

JAPAN

Jan 29, 2016

Third reactor restart spurs fears over shaky Kansai evacuation plans

Kansai Electric fires up a reactor at the Takahama plant in Fukui despite misgivings about the region's ability to respond to a nuclear accident.

JAPAN

Jan 27, 2016

JR West chief gives blessing to Obama-Kyoto extension of Hokuriku Shinkansen Line

A plan by West Japan Railway Co. to the build an extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line between Obama, Fukui Prefecture, and the city of Kyoto has emerged as the front-runner in a tightly contested race, after the railway firm's president gave it his blessing.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.

From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past

By Alex K.T. Martin

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