NEWSWORTHY
Kansai gropes for missile response as Korean war hype builds
With North Korea test-launching missiles on a regular basis toward Japan, towns, cities and prefectures are getting more serious about how best to respond if and when one approaches. Parts of the Kansai region along the Sea of Japan coast appear to lie within range ...
Kansai leaders grope for ways to keep regional population stable amid projected slide
A projection showing that Japan's population could fall from 127.09 million in 2015 to 88.08 million by 2065 has pushed Kansai leaders harder for more policies and funding to increase the local birthrate, keep younger people from leaving and protect the growing ranks of ...
Business leaders critical of Abe's overtures to Trump
Senior business leaders, former diplomats and government advisers, and national security experts Friday warned that while Japan's relationship with the United States is the foundation for regional security, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempts to forge a close relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump carried ...
Kansai leaders say Trump must be taken seriously, but not always literally
Japan's leaders need to take U.S. President Donald Trump seriously, but not always literally, and must exercise great caution in interpreting what he says. But Japan must also stress to him the importance, and benefits, of the U.S.-Japan security and economic relationship. That was the ...
Kansai sizes up ways to work with a Trump administration
In 3½ weeks, Kansai's business leaders will gather in Kyoto for their annual summit. Some of the world's most recognizable firms will send their top executives to the two-day retreat. There, they will rub shoulders with local politicians, academics, and "business consultant" types who, ...
Train, casino, reactor woes to grab Kansai headlines in '17
A casino, an expo, tourists, trains, and old nuclear power plants. These are just some of the major issues the Kansai region faces in 2017. In addition, the fortunes of Osaka-centric opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai and Komeito in both the Diet and the ...
Bar association urges AirAsia X to apologize over 2014 wheelchair incident
Japan's bar association is urging a Malaysian low-cost carrier to apologize to a Japanese man with disabilities after it refused to check-in his electric wheelchair, eventually causing him to miss his flight at Kansai airport. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations said on Wednesday it ...
'Thursday Night Football' NFL draws Friday morning tweeters in Japan
Reading the tweets as they scroll below NFL games shown live on Twitter has become my new Japanese study obsession.
Some central Japan prefectures and even cities like Kyoto and Nara are increasingly adopting measures to reduce the number of vacant homes, including via subsidies for owners.
Strolling the quiet alleyways of Japan's forgotten capital
It's hard playing second fiddle when you used to be first chair. Just ask Nara, Kyoto's underpraised southern neighbor. In 710, Japan's seat of power settled in Nara, on the plains of the Yamato Province. While previous centuries had seen the capital move after the ...
Afrirampo leads 'Zero Generation' into adulthood
Anarchic, anything-goes garage-punk band Afrirampo is defined first and foremost by feelings: The feelings that drive the duo as artists and the feelings they evoke in audiences. As the band returns to the live circuit after a six-year absence, guitarist Mayumi "Oni" Saeki is ...
