Eric Johnston - The Japan Times

JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE

Jul 23, 2017

Osaka's bid to outshine Paris for 2025 Expo still on shaky ground

With only four months to go until it must unveil detailed plans for its 2025 World Expo bid, Osaka's leaders plan to use the rest of the summer and early autumn to ramp up domestic and international efforts to raise the region's profile and tout its advantages over arch-rival Paris .

JAPAN / Politics

Jul 20, 2017

Fukui governor and mayors ask Inada for added protection for reactors against North Korea attacks

Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa and the mayors of six towns and villages in the prefecture hosting nuclear power plants have called on Defense Minister Tomomi Inada to dispatch Self-Defense Forces personnel to the prefecture to guard Fukui's 15 reactors (including those being decommissioned) against a possible...

JAPAN / View from Osaka

Jul 15, 2017

Doubt cast over Tomin First's national appeal

"Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be."

JAPAN

Jul 12, 2017

Okinawa moves to block U.S. base construction at Henoko

Three months after the Okinawa Defense Bureau started seawall construction off the coast of Nago in Okinawa's Henoko district, work to build a replacement facility for a U.S. military base in Ginowan is moving forward — and along with it, renewed legal and political resistance to the controversial...

JAPAN / Politics

Jul 10, 2017

Nara Mayor Gen Nakagawa snares third term in close race; LDP-backed candidate crushed

Nara Mayor Gen Nakagawa, 41, was declared the winner of Sunday's mayoral election by just 2,000 votes Monday morning, a narrow difference that election officials say was caused by voter confusion.

JAPAN / Politics

Jul 7, 2017

Depopulation, tourism on voters' minds as Nara gears up for mayoral election

Nara voters head to the polls Sunday for a mayoral election that has been dominated by concerns over a shrinking population and an expanding tourist industry.

JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS

Jul 4, 2017

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

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.

author

Meta

Podcast

Longform

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox