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May 03, 2024
 

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Eric Johnston

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Eric Johnston
For Eric Johnston's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Located in Ehime Prefecture at the base of the Cape Sada Peninsula, the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant lies about 45 kilometers from the town of Saganoseki within the city of Oita.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 7, 2024
Court rejects class action suit opposing nuclear plant in Ehime
Local residents in Oita, less than 50 kilometers from the facility, had called into question the safety of the plant during natural disasters.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrives for a meeting of a parliamentary ethics committee at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Feb. 29.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Mar 7, 2024
Kishida's three challenges: Discipline, by-elections and Motegi
How the prime minister handles these matters could impact his political future as well as that of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tells reporters that he plans to attend a Lower House ethics committee hearing, in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 28, 2024
Kishida says he will attend ethics committee hearing on funds scandal
In addition to Kishida, five senior LDP members will face the committee in front of a fully-open session of the Lower House on Thursday and Friday.
In principle, political ethics committee meetings are not open to either the media or other lawmakers. But the committee can open them to both at its discretion.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2024
What to know about the ethics committee probing the LDP funds scandal
When the committee convenes later this week, at least five senior ruling party officials are expected to testify on what they knew about the scandal.
Eleven portraits of Ainu chieftains, completed in 1790, are now held by the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besancon, France. There were originally 12 paintings in the original set, collectively known as the “Ishu Retsuzo,” but one has disappeared.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Feb 26, 2024
The ongoing mystery of the Ainu portraits in France
A former Hokkaido journalist is hoping to find out how portraits of Ainu chieftains from 1790 made it to Europe.
Former Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2024
Senior LDP members likely to appear before ethics committee next week
While the opposition said the willingness of additional LDP figures to answer questions was an improvement, they called for more to step up.
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Kazunori Yamanoi shows a Liberal Democratic Party survey about a slush funds scandal to reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 16, 2024
LDP survey doesn't quell demand from opposition for ethics hearing
The scandal, and the demand to convene a meeting of the ethics committee, have Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in a political bind.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida replies to a question from CDP lawmaker Kazunori Yamanoi at a Lower House budget committee session in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 14, 2024
Kishida calls ethics committee hearing 'a matter for parliament to decide'
The prime minister declined to voice support for a political ethics committee investigation into LDP members caught up in a slush-fund scandal.
A Lower House budget session discusses the political fund scandal in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 13, 2024
LDP survey shows 85 members failed to report political funds
The survey’s results are unlikely to bring an end to the scandal, with its methods criticized by opposition parties as inadequate and lacking objectivity.
A statue of Myaku-Myaku, the official mascot of the 2025 Expo, in Osaka. Organizers expect the six-month expo to draw some 28 million people, including 3.5 million from abroad.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2024
Osaka Expo budget expected to rise again by ¥200 million
The latest request would raise the total amount of money directly spent by the national government on all expo-related activities to ¥164.9 billion.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends a Lower House budget committee session in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 6, 2024
Kishida insists corporate donations have no effect on LDP policy
The responses came during Lower House budget committee questions from Akira Nagatsuma, policy chief of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party.
Newly elected Kyoto Mayor Koji Matsui receives a sea bream as a congratulatory gift in Kyoto on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2024
New Kyoto mayor aims to tackle over-tourism with higher fares
Koji Matsui faces many hurdles, and he takes over at a time when the demerits of over-tourism have become a particular topic of concern for residents.
Akira Ogawa (center) celebrates her win in the Maebashi mayoral election in Gunma Prefecture on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 5, 2024
Opposition-backed candidate wins in Maebashi mayoral election
Akira Ogawa will become the first female mayor in Maebashi after defeating incumbent Ryu Yamamoto.
Ryu Shionoya, who headed the faction’s leadership committee but was never formally appointed chairman after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in July 2022, announced that the faction was done on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 1, 2024
Curtain falls on Abe faction's 45-year history but scrutiny to continue
Unanswered questions over members' involvement in the LDP's political funds scandal mean the dissolution may not be the end of the story.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a Lower House plenary session in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 31, 2024
Kishida faces heat from all sides over political funds scandal
The prime minister finds himself in hot water not only with the main opposition party, but also with his own ruling party.
In the 2022 fiscal year, which ended in March 2023, Hokkaido's Niseko resort area saw a cumulative total of more than 1.4 million visitors, including day-trippers and those who spent at least one night.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Jan 29, 2024
Ski season surge tests limits of Niseko’s infrastructure
The return of tourists to the Hokkaido resort area is putting pressure on food retailers and transportation.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Liberal Democratic Party Vice President Taro Aso and LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi attend a party meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 26, 2024
LDP faction shake-up damages prospects of Kishida rivals
Numerous LDP lawmakers have announced they will leave their factions, weakening faction leaders who had been seen as possible Kishida successors.
Many buildings in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, collapsed as a result of the earthquake on Jan. 1.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2024
Kishida's new aid package aims to help recovery of quake-hit areas
It will offer subsidies to small and medium-sized firms in Ishikawa Prefecture, as well as those in neighboring Niigata, Toyama, and Fukui prefectures.
As the political upheaval continues, the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is readying itself for the release of a party political reform panel’s report on the slush funds scandal and its recommendations for ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 22, 2024
Kishida's LDP factions gamble fails to improve his popularity
A Yomiuri Shimbun poll conducted over the weekend found the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating was 24%, the lowest since the LDP returned to power in 2012.
An offshore wind turbine off the coast of Naraha, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2013. Japan aims to increase its offshore wind power capacity to 10 GW by 2030.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 21, 2024
As Japan makes major investments in wind power, some residents are pushing back
In a sense, the city of Ishikari represents the idealized, natural version of Hokkaido for many Japanese. Some residents say massive wind turbines will destroy that image.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Kishida sets sights on energy and climate in South America trip
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will use a policy speech in Sao Paulo to set out his vision for ties between Japan and South America, almost 10 years after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe advocated for stronger ties between the two in the same city.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

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Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

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