Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

September 04, 2025

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Eric Johnston

JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS

Jul 4, 2017

Success of Koike's Tomin First echoes Ishin no Kai movement

A popular, media-savvy figure originally from the Kansai region wins the governorship by running as a reformer, then forming a political party to take on the Liberal Democratic Party in the local assembly election. Upon winning a plurality of votes, the party teams up with Komeito to form a majority,...

JAPAN / Politics

Jul 2, 2017

Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido returned for fifth term as voters take experience over change

While Tokyo voters took a new direction with Gov. Yuriko Koike's Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) on Sunday, Hyogo voters opted for more of the same by giving 71-year-old Gov. Toshizo Ido a fifth term on his promises to deal with the prefecture's ailing finances and falling population.

JAPAN / Politics

Jul 1, 2017

'Comfort women' statue in Georgia latest to irk Japan

A new “comfort women” statue pops up in a suburb just northeast of Atlanta as the movement to commemorate the victims continues to frustrate Japanese diplomats.

JAPAN

Jun 28, 2017

Hokkaido salmon catch seen dropping due to colder waters: research institute

A Hokkaido research institute predicts about a 4 percent drop in the catch of salmon in prefectural waters this autumn due to colder waters that make it harder for fry to survive.

JAPAN

Jun 27, 2017

Canceled flight leaves former residents of Russian-held isles stranded

With the cancellation last week of the first chartered flight between Hokkaido and the Russian-held islands off Japan's northeast coast, former residents want politicians to pay less attention to the political weather in Tokyo and Moscow and put more focus on the real weather when planning the next trip....

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Jun 26, 2017

Osaka sets sights on 2025 World Expo, but formidable challenges remain

Earlier this month, Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui led a delegation of local politicians and business leaders to Paris, where they formally announced at a general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions that the prefecture was bidding to host the 2025 World Expo.

JAPAN / History / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE

Jun 25, 2017

Taking a look back at Kobe's opening to the West nearly 150 years ago

On Jan. 1, 1868, foreign merchants, who had spent the preceding days on ships offshore waiting for the official opening of the Port of Kobe, finally received permission to land on the beach of what had been a sleepy village well known locally for its thriving sake and fishing industries.

JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE

Jun 25, 2017

Wakayama seeks to lift itself out of obscurity with fruit and gambling

In the Kansai region, known mostly for the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Kobe, Wakayama Prefecture rarely tops the destination list of most tourists.

JAPAN / Politics

Jun 24, 2017

Watch what you do and say: Broader ramifications of the new conspiracy law cause concern

"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order ... and the like." — U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas, 1970

JAPAN

Jun 19, 2017

First visitation flight to disputed isles off Hokkaido canceled over poor weather

Two days of bad weather forced the cancellation Monday of what was to have been the first chartered flight by former residents to visit Kunashiri and Etorofu, two of the four Russia-held islands off northeastern Hokkaido claimed by Japan.

JAPAN

Jun 18, 2017

Kyoto lobbies for Emperor to live in former Imperial capital after abdication

A petition drive by a small Kyoto-based political group requesting that Emperor Akihito move to Kyoto upon his abdication had drawn over 10,000 signatures as of Friday.

JAPAN / View from Osaka

Jun 17, 2017

Kansai takes measured view on missile drills

Over the past two months, hardly a week has passed without news of another North Korean missile launch. It's become routine: An early morning South Korean media report, based on government sources, says that "an object has been launched," forcing politicians, bureaucrats, and journalists in Tokyo out...

JAPAN / History

Jun 9, 2017

Declassified papers reveal U.S. held debate on Japan's nuclear ambitions in 1970s

Japan's push to establish a nuclear fuel recycling program and use the plutonium created in the process was the center of an intense debate in the U.S. government four decades ago, pitting those who wanted smooth relations with Tokyo against those who worried the plan might lead to the proliferation...

JAPAN

Jun 9, 2017

Local leaders question effectiveness of evacuation drills amid North Korea threat

As Japan plays up evacuation drills to prepare for North Korean missile strikes, people begin to question their practicality.

JAPAN

Jun 6, 2017

Kepco restarts second Takahama reactor as Greenpeace warns of French MOX fuel shipment

Kansai Electric Power Co. restarted its Takahama No. 3 reactor Tuesday afternoon, bringing to five the number of nuclear reactors nationwide that have come back online since the March 11, 2011, triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jun 2, 2017

Japan disappointed by Trump's decision to quit Paris agreement

Let down by President Donald Trump's decision to exit the Paris climate accord, Japanese officials, business leaders and environmental groups vow to work with Washington on climate change anyway.

JAPAN

May 30, 2017

North Korea's missile launches stoke concern for Japan's anglers

With North Korea launching three missiles in May, including one early Monday morning that landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, concern is intensifying among fishermen whose boats ply the waters in the Sea of Japan that they could find themselves in the path of an incoming projectile.

JAPAN

May 28, 2017

Nuclear storage crisis grows as reactor restarts continue

More than six years after the March 11, 2011, Tohoku quake, tsunami, and triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Japan is accelerating efforts to restart as many reactors as it possibly can. Four have been revived so far, and Kansai Electric Power Co. plans to restart the Takahama...

JAPAN / Politics

May 24, 2017

Dozens of local governments across Japan voice concerns over conspiracy bill

As a contentious and now internationally controversial bill to criminalize conspiracies faces stiffening opposition in the Diet, dozens of local governments nationwide are voicing concerns, warning against possible human rights violations and the rise of a surveillance state.

JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE

May 21, 2017

Redrawing of Nara's electoral map may force internal affairs chief into rematch with DP's Mabuchi

The Cabinet's decision last week to approve the redrawing of Japan's electoral map by eliminating one Lower House district from each of six prefectures (Aomori, Iwate, Mie, Nara, Kumamoto and Kagoshima) is the central government's response to a declining population that is increasingly concentrated in...

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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