Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

October 30, 2025

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Eric Johnston

BUSINESS / EXPLAINER

Mar 29, 2020

A closer look at Kansai Electric and its gift-giving scandal

Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by Kepco's investigative panel...

JAPAN

Mar 27, 2020

Kansai leaders call for those who returned from abroad to self-quarantine

With over 340 cases of novel coronavirus in six Kansai area prefectures as of Friday, local leaders want all residents who have just returned from overseas to self-quarantine.

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Mar 25, 2020

25 years after Tokyo subway attack, Aum is a shadow of its former self

Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway trains shocked Japan and the world, raising concerns over nonstate organizations obtaining weapons of mass destruction.

JAPAN

Mar 18, 2020

Free school lunches to start year early in Osaka due to coronavirus

Osaka city approved a plan Wednesday that will make it the first major city in Japan to offer free school lunches to all students at municipal elementary and junior high schools, as part of its economic measures to ease the burden on parents in the wake of the spread of COVID-19.

JAPAN / History

Mar 14, 2020

The 1970 Osaka Expo: Looking back at the past to gauge where Japan sits in the present

The 1970 Osaka Expo laid down a bold statement about Japan's future. Fifty years later, has the country been able to live up to its promises?

JAPAN / View from Osaka

Mar 14, 2020

Outbreak turns Kyoto's overtourism into 'undertourism'

A mild winter in many parts of Japan means the cherry blossoms are expected to arrive earlier than usual. By the time we hit April — the start of the fiscal year, the school term, and when new employees begin their first day on the job — the cherry blossoms are likely to be almost finished in the...

JAPAN / Science & Health

Mar 11, 2020

Spreading clusters of coronavirus cases worry Japan's local governments

While the national government drive forward legal revisions to allow the declaration of a national emergency over the COVID-19 virus as early as this week, local governments are growing increasingly concerned about the spread of the novel coronavirus in so-called clusters.

Japan Times

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Mar 10, 2020

What will Abe's amended law for a national emergency mean in practice?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government aims to pass by week's end controversial revisions to a 2012 law governing national actions to be taken in the event of new types of influenza.

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Mar 6, 2020

Women in Japanese politics: Why so few after so very long?

To mark International Women's Day on March 8, there will be worldwide marches, parades, protests and public awareness activities on the contributions of women and the barriers and discrimination they still face.

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Mar 1, 2020

A Tokyo prosecutor's delayed retirement spurs more allegations of Abe cronyism

Over the past month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government once again found themselves the target of allegations of political favoritism.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Feb 29, 2020

Panic-buying of 'made in China' tissues and toilet paper erupts in Japanese cities

Fears that COVID-19 could lead to shortages of daily items sparked incidents of stockpiling from Thursday night through Saturday, causing drugstores and supermarkets in several cities to run short of toilet paper and other items.

JAPAN

Feb 28, 2020

Tokyo Disneyland joins long list of establishments and events hit by COVID-19

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having asked organizers of big sporting and cultural events scheduled for the next two weeks to consider canceling, postponing or downsizing them during what is seen as a critical time for stemming the spread of COVID-19 infections, the list of closed facilities and canceled...

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Feb 23, 2020

The Japanese Communist Party's quest to unify a shattered opposition

Last month, for the first time in 16 years, the Japanese Communist Party met to revise its basic political program. Part of the reason was that the party hopes a change of rhetoric, at least, will make it easier to form an opposition coalition to challenge the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling...

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Feb 17, 2020

Osaka referendum: Merger gets second chance, but are voters on board?

Five years after voters in the city of Osaka narrowly voted down a referendum on consolidating its 24 wards into five with more autonomy and eliminating the municipal assembly and mayor, another referendum is set for later this year.

JAPAN / View from Osaka

Feb 15, 2020

COVID-19 tests Osaka's ability to reach East Asia

Since Kansai International Airport opened in 1994, business and political leaders in Osaka have touted the region as the gateway to Asia. Often showing little interest in other parts of the world, they would tell each other in conference rooms, cocktail parties, symposiums and seminars that China and...

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Feb 3, 2020

The Kawai scandal and the race to succeed Shinzo Abe

Hiroshima-based Liberal Democratic Party Diet member Anri Kawai admitted in January to receiving ¥150 million from LDP headquarters prior to the July 2019 Upper House election. Kawai, a novice in national politics, is also the wife of disgraced former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, who was forced...

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 31, 2020

Could growing tourism troubles unseat Kyoto's long-time mayor?

Kyoto voters head to the polls Sunday to cast their ballots in a mayoral election that will have an impact on the city's future policies for domestic and international tourism, at a time when voter concerns about the problems of too many tourists are paramount.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jan 27, 2020

Ghosn's escape exposes business jet industry's security loopholes

Beside the prominent entrance to Kansai International Airport's Terminal 2, which serves several budget airlines, is a nondescript door to which a sign saying Premium Gate Tamayura has been affixed.

JAPAN / Science & Health

Jan 24, 2020

How lessons learned from SARS could apply to the coronavirus outbreak

With the arrival of the Lunar New Year, Japan and other international destinations are bracing for an annual influx of tourists.

Japan Times

JAPAN / Politics

Jan 19, 2020

Casino bribes scandal threatens to upend Diet debate as public opposition climbs

Just a month ago, the Diet session opening Monday was expected to hotly debate but ultimately approve more specific measures on how Japan will operate what will eventually be its first casino resorts.

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

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.

Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell

By Alex K.T. Martin

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