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September 14, 2025
 

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Philip Brasor
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2017
Japan's fisheries still swimming upstream
In March, the internet news site Videonews.com posted a conversation between environmental journalist Tetsuji Ida and Waseda University researcher Yasuhiro Sanada, who writes about fisheries. During the talk, Sanada said that whaling is a "dead industry," and seemed to think that the ongoing controversy...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 12, 2017
Japan waking up to the problems of sleeping cash
In recent weeks there have been two well-reported robberies of people carrying large amounts of cash on the street. Thieves got away with ¥384 million after attacking a merchant in a Fukuoka parking lot. In Tokyo's Ginza district, a mugger managed to take ¥40 million from a man walking along a popular...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2017
Japanese tradition denies surrogacy
Most major media covered the March 22 Tokyo news conference where Sachiko Kishimoto of the nonprofit organization Oocyte Donation Network (OD-Net) explained how a woman in her 40s had recently given birth to a daughter who had been conceived using the woman's husband's sperm and an egg from a third party....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Apr 30, 2017
Safety Net Law to offer new lease on life for abandoned buildings
On April 19, the Lower House of the Diet unanimously passed a revision to the Safety Net Law. The revision creates a new system that will register vacant properties with local governments and, ideally, these properties will be renovated and then rented out to low-income individuals and families who are...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 29, 2017
Voter apathy can threaten democracy
On April 17 the Asahi Shimbun reviewed the results of various local elections that had taken place the day before. The main story was not who got voted in or out, but whether or not anyone cared.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 22, 2017
Tellmeclub's bankruptcy grounds discount travel services
On March 27, discount travel company Tellmeclub filed for bankruptcy while a number of its Japanese customers were still overseas on package tours.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 22, 2017
Documentary renews debate over renewable energy
Earlier this month, Kyodo News surveyed 44 companies that started selling electricity to consumers after the energy market was liberalized in April 2016.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 2017
Television has forgotten its golden years
Japanese commercial television companies have a problem. The bulk of their programming has always been aimed at relatively young people, because that's what advertisers want. But young people no longer watch TV, or, at least, not in the numbers they used to. Having grown up in a world ruled by the internet,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2017
Higher education keeps overreaching
Since the mid-2000s, the number of Japanese people who turn 18 in a given year has remained constant at about 1.2 million. That will change with the high school graduating class of 2018, which will be smaller than the class of 2017.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 8, 2017
'Nekonomics' does its bit to keep Japan's economy purring
In our last column we talked about the economic effectiveness (keizai kōka) of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Keizai kōka is often used as an indication of how much money a given scheme or phenomenon adds to a particular economy. As we pointed out, the number only takes into consideration the positive effects...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Apr 2, 2017
Temporary disaster housing has an unforeseen permanence
The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake left 110,000 people in three prefectures without shelter. Most of these people moved into emergency evacuation centers while the authorities prepared temporary housing for them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 2017
What, if anything, makes Japan unique?
In February, American comedian Atsugiri Jason remarked on a Fuji TV talk show that one of the "demerits" of being a foreign TV personality in Japan is that he can't publicly say he thinks those aspects of Japanese culture which Japanese people believe are "uniquely amazing" are not, in fact, uniquely...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 25, 2017
How the word 'terrorism' can help pass a bill
During the recent Diet grilling over his alleged involvement in the Moritomo Gakuen land purchase scandal, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accused his opposition party tormentors of resorting to inshō sōsa. The most accurate English translation is probably "image manipulation," which, in the age of fake...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 25, 2017
Reassessing the negative impact of hosting the 2020 Olympics
The estimated cost of the 2020 Olympic Games has increased astronomically since Tokyo won the right to host it. On Dec. 22, Asahi Shimbun reported that the estimated price could be as much as ¥1.8 trillion. The original bid estimate for constructing new Olympic venues was ¥499 billion and that is now...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 18, 2017
Asking the tough questions on Fukushima
In January, regional newspaper Fukushima Minpo interviewed Yosuke Takagi, state minister of economy, trade and industry. While talking about reconstruction plans for areas near the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Takagi mentioned resurrecting Dash-mura (Dash Village), a farm created from...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 11, 2017
Measuring the economics behind a shift to streaming
An article in the Feb. 17 issue of the Asahi Shimbun describes a restaurant in Osaka where diners can watch J. League soccer games. The restaurant has three TV monitors hooked up to Sky PerfecTV, one of Japan's satellite broadcast services. At the end of January, however, the J. League shifted its exclusive...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2017
The first missteps for Japan's first lady
On Feb. 27, Democratic Party lawmaker Kiyomi Tsujimoto submitted questions to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party about the activities of Akie Abe, the wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in regard to her relationship with Moritomo Gakuen, a controversial corporate body that wants to build an elementary...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Mar 4, 2017
Will we ever see no obstacles in our way?
Infrastructure in Japan is up to world standards in most areas, and in terms of public transportation it often surpasses those standards — but there's one field it falls way behind: utility poles and overhead cables that carry electrical power and telecommunications.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 4, 2017
No free ride for U.S. auto manufacturers
Anyone who was around in the 1980s will remember the turmoil caused by the U.S.-Japan trade imbalance, especially in the automotive field. In order to maintain their growing position in the American market, Japanese car manufacturers knew they would have to move some of their operations to the United...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 25, 2017
Premium Friday is not about taking a holiday
The anonymous writer of Asahi Shimbun's finance-related Keizai Kishodai column pointed out in the Feb. 18 edition that Japanese people only think of time off on a day-by-day basis, whereas Europeans tend to conceptualize it in week-long blocks, as 'vacations.'
Japan's cutting-edge railgun successfully strikes target vessel
The Defense Ministry’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) conducted a ship-board railgun shooting test from June to early July this year with the support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens?
Convenience stores are a fixture of Japanese life and 7-Eleven, a chain that began in the U.S. in 1927, opened its first store in Japan in 1974 — and then became wholly Japanese-owned in 2005 through parent company Seven & I Holdings.
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
People rush to make furusato nozei donations ahead of tighter rules
A booth from the town of Betsukai in Hokkaido at an Amazon Japan furusato nо̄zei promotion event, on Sept. 5 in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
Aging Japan’s centenarian population nears 100,000
Shigeko Kagawa, Japan's oldest person at 114, in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, on July 30
‘Fairytale’ Shirakawago ranked one of the world’s most beautiful villages
Forbes and Unforgettable Travel Company have ranked Shirakawago in Gifu Prefecture as Asia's most beautiful village.
Aging Japan’s centenarian population nears 100,000
Shigeko Kagawa, Japan's oldest person at 114, in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, on July 30
Niinami’s ouster quick but not unusual as corporations protect reputation
Takeshi Niinami resigns as chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings.
As Manila modernizes its military, new opportunities emerge for Tokyo
A Brahmos missile system is displayed during a rehearsal for a military parade in New Delhi in January. The Philippines will soon receive its second batch of the supersonic cruise missiles from India.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition
As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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