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The Self-Defense Forces face numerous obstacles in meeting their recruitment targets: Demographics, private-sector competition and image and morale issues.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2023

The SDF has a big problem: Filling its ranks

The Japanese government needs to take steps to address SDF recruitment challenges that put the nation's security at risk.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Nov 6, 2023

Israel-Hamas conflict to dominate Tokyo summit of top G7 diplomats

Japan will be looking to further align the bloc’s responses to the war amid growing calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa speak as they wait for a group photo session during the Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 8, 2023

G7 top diplomats call for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in Israel-Hamas war

The statement didn’t mention a cease-fire, only noting the necessity of humanitarian action.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend a news conference after visiting the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 9, 2023

Australia’s Albanese to face anti-nuclear push at Pacific talks

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is beginning 24 hours of intensive meetings between the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum.
The Metropolitan Police Department and other police departments across Japan are increasingly using a kit to test for date rape-drugs.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 9, 2023

Japanese police increasingly using date-rape drug testing kit

The kit can detect in a matter of minutes whether a date rape drug has been used on someone.
Coffee is served from a Toyota-developed fuel cell food truck at an event in Hita, Oita Prefecture, in October.
BUSINESS / Tech / Regional voices: Chubu
Nov 13, 2023

Toyota's fuel cell vehicles include food trucks and mobile offices

The carmaker is offering a variety of ways to utilize FCVs by taking advantage of their lack of tailpipe emissions and ability to generate electricity.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 11, 2023

Komeito chief Natsuo Yamaguchi to visit China from Nov. 22

Yamaguchi had initially planned to visit China in August, but the trip was postponed amid a row over the Fukushima water release decision.
If you spot a wild animal in the city, it's likely lost. Still, alert authorities immediately to prevent any unpleasantness.
ENVIRONMENT / Wildlife / Longform
Nov 13, 2023

The concrete forest: Bears, boars and more head to the cities

Warmer winters, less food and an aging society all play a part in why wild animals are increasingly venturing into human-populated areas.
Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura has said that trade talks with China could help stabilize relations.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2023

Japan and China to hold regular talks on trade, media reports say

Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said the talks could help stabilize relations.
People pass an electronic board showing the rate of the yen against the dollar on a street in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Nov 15, 2023

Former currency czar sees structural factors behind yen weakness

"I wonder whether overseas investors may be thinking what's in it for investing in Japan," said Rintaro Tamaki.
Shiseido shares tumbled the most in 36 years on Monday after it slashed full-year profit forecasts on sluggish China demand.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 16, 2023

China slowdown adds to boycott woes for Japanese beauty stocks

Cosmetics firms are finding that reliance on the world's second-biggest economy to drive sales is a double-edged sword.
Japan's exports gained 1.6% from a year earlier in October, slowing from a 4.3% increase in the previous month.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 16, 2023

Japan’s economy remains under pressure as export growth slows

The value of exports gained 1.6% from a year earlier, slowing from a 4.3% increase in the previous month, according to the Finance Ministry.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

LDP lawmaker Mio Sugita under fire again over Ainu comments

In September this year, the Sapporo Legal Affairs Bureau found that her blog post about the Ainu people in 2016 violated their human rights.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a family photo during an APEC summit in San Francisco on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 17, 2023

Kishida and Xi aim for trade progress despite lingering tensions

Their talks signaled initial momentum toward a cautious detente, although the two countries appeared to prioritize an improvement in economic ties.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a family photo during Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco on Nov. 16
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2023

Less than 30% of Japanese firms plan China expansion: survey

Many Japanese businesses have been put off by economic slowdown, increasing competition and geopolitical tension.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 22, 2023

Things get warmer with Xi; Johnny’s get the cold shoulder

While Japan and China look to ease tensions, NHK makes things tense with a Johnny’s-less “Kohaku” announcement.
A Komeito delegation, including party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi, is visiting Beijing in a bid to improve China-Japan ties.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 22, 2023

Komeito delegation visits China to bolster frayed ties

A group led by Natsuo Yamaguchi has met with Cai Qi, head of the powerful Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Helping Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s political fortunes is the Liberal Democratic Party’s inability to agree on a successor.
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2023

Kishida is in trouble, but he’ll survive — for now

A Jiji Press survey released earlier this month put the Kishida Cabinet's approval at 21.3%, the lowest level since his inauguration in 2021.
Heidrun Holzfeind documents urban and rural scenes, such as two policemen on bicycles nonchalantly rolling down a street, in her video piece "The 49th Year." The footage is presented alongside incarcerated New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata’s writings about Japan’s highly supervised society in the exhibition "News from K."
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2023

'News From K' captures the oppression of landscape

Letters from prison by New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata reveal a sense of limbo in Heidrun Holzfeind’s new work.
The JT-60SA, the world's biggest nuclear fusion reactor constructed to date, before its planned inauguration in the city of Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Friday
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2023

Japanese experimental nuclear fusion reactor inaugurated

Fusion technology is still in its infancy but is billed by some as the answer to humanity's future energy needs.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida prepares to speak at a COP28 session in Dubai on Friday.
JAPAN
Dec 2, 2023

Japan pledges to end construction of new unabated coal plants

The pledge comes after some nations called on attendees at COP28 to agree to immediately end new unabated coal-fired power generation.
Rina Gonoi, a former member of the Self-Defense Forces, who has accused colleagues of sexually assaulting her during her time in the military, speaks in Yokohama on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 11, 2023

Former Japanese soldier fights for justice in landmark sexual assault case

A former Self-Defence Forces member's yearslong fight for justice against the men she has accused of sexually assaulting her will reach a climax on Tuesday when a court delivers a verdict in a trial that has drawn international attention.
Former Self-Defense Forces member Rina Gonoi arrives Tuesday at the Fukushima District Court, which found three ex-soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting her.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 12, 2023

Guilty verdicts in SDF sexual assault case

Rina Gonoi, 24, took to YouTube last year to share her account after an internal military probe was dropped for lack of evidence.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Dec 15, 2023

Hokkaido to face issues around Rapidus, seafood and '2024 problem'

An influx of foreign residents is expected in Chitose, while China's ban on marine products continues to hurt the region.
While non-Japanese readers have in recent years been spoiled for choice when it comes to Japanese literature in translation, there is still a wealth of notable works that translators would love to see rendered into English.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2023

A wish list of hidden gems for Japanese literature lovers

Eight translators reveal their top Japanese books that English readers have yet to enjoy.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2023

JERA starts operating Yokosuka coal-fired plant ahead of schedule

The move comes despite mounting criticism over its continued use of power plants that are fired by the dirtiest fossil fuel.
In writing "Climate Capitalism: Winning the Global Race to Zero Emissions," journalist Akshat Rathi said his goal was to try and determine where climate solutions are being built and uncover the challenges that they face.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Dec 24, 2023

Finding crucial solutions in a time of climate crisis

Journalist Akshat Rathi explores the economic side of the emergency in his book ‘Climate Capitalism.'
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visit the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima on May 21 during the Group of Seven summit. Zelenskyy’s visit to one of the two cities attacked with a nuclear weapon came amid Russia’s veiled threats to use its nuclear arsenal in its war against Ukraine.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2023

Images of 2023: Japan

Outside of the successful G7 summit, the year was not kind to PM Fumio Kishida's unpopular administration. A kickback scandal provided one final headache.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 2, 2024

Who might succeed Fumio Kishida in 2024?

Several names have emerged as potential candidates for prime minister in the wake of a political funds scandal enveloping the LDP.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida awaits the results of a no-confidence vote against his Cabinet in the country's parliament on Dec. 13.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2024

Unpacking the LDP's expected leadership race

LDP politicians are already talking about a leadership change, and the polls have shifted to who the public wants to see in the prime minister’s office.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?