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September 03, 2025
 

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT

JAPAN
Mar 4, 2019
As pool of candidates in rural Japan dwindles, Kochi village to allow councilors to retain side jobs
Faced with a rapidly shrinking population of elderly residents reluctant to run for seats on the local council, the village of Okawa, Kochi Prefecture, passed a referendum Monday designed to make it easier serve on the council while concurrently holding side jobs.
JAPAN / Beyond Tokyo
Feb 24, 2019
As the world drowns in plastic, Kameoka in Kyoto and other cities across Japan fight back
Plastic pollution in the ocean has become one of the world's most urgent environmental problems. Footage of vast fields of floating plastic debris between California and Hawaii — now commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — have driven home the gravity of the problem, with scientists and...
EDITORIALS
Jan 26, 2019
Local autonomy in dire peril
Demographic pressure is reaching crisis proportions in communities across Japan. It's time to act.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2018
80% of state bodies fail to meet disabled employee target
The number of disabled employees at 35 of the 43 state institutions stood below the level required by law as of June 1 this year, the welfare ministry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 10, 2018
Can five Little Japans defuse one big demographic time bomb?
What about if Japan split into a confederation of five semi-autonomous 'regions,' each delineated roughly by geography and population?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Sep 10, 2018
Let's discuss Noemi Inoue, Bolivia-born Tokyo councilor
Bolivian-born Noemi Inoue felt it was necessary to naturalize to feel fully integrated in Japanese society and to become the first non-Japan-born person to serve as a city councilor in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2017
Japan plans to assign individual ID numbers for public health insurance
The health ministry plans to assign an identification number to each person covered by Japan's universal public health insurance system, officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 26, 2017
Finance Ministry proposes cuts in medical fees and reductions in cost of new drugs
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday proposed reducing the fees charged by medical institutions, to curb social security costs which have ballooned due to the country's rapidly aging population.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2017
Fukui Prefectural Assembly OKs restart of Oi reactors, leaving final decision to governor
The Fukui Prefectural Assembly on Thursday effectively gave the green light to restarting reactors 3 and 4 at the Oi nuclear power plant.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2017
The case of a small Kochi village
Owing to depopulation, small towns across Japan need to find new ways to maintain representative government.
WORLD / Society
Aug 29, 2016
U.K. plan to make social housing tenants 'pay to stay' won't meet aim: report
Britain's "pay to stay" rule requiring social housing tenants to pay higher rents may leave local councils worse off, cause stress for families and fail to generate expected revenues for the central government, according to a report published Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2016
Lifting the lid on Japan's growing crowd of manhole cover spotters
Some tourists look around them but Hidetoshi Ishii prefers to look down.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 21, 2016
Lessons in history and bureaucracy lurk within Japan's geographical layer cake
Although in English we say Japan has 47 prefectures, Japanese uses four terms to express the same concept. And that's just for starters.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 21, 2015
Tokyo's Kita Ward adopts hearing and speaking aids to help legislators with disabilities
The Kita Ward Assembly, where deaf-mute Tokyo author Rie Saito was elected in the quadrennial unified elections in April, has become the first legislature in the nation to develop a system that allows lawmakers with hearing or speech impediments to participate in sessions in real time.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2015
Unified elections help diversify representation in Tokyo
Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidates lose three of five key mayoral races in the final wave of unified elections as voter turnout sinks to another record low.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Nov 12, 2014
Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government
Every time I try to read or write about local government in Japan I get so easily distra— say, is that paint drying over there? You see the problem?!
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2014
Kagoshima assembly and governor green-light restart of Sendai reactors
The Sendai nuclear power plant is a step closer to becoming the first in Japan to resume generating electricity in the wake of the 2011 triple meltdown.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 29, 2014
Town hall meetings: Abandon logic, all ye who enter here
The first thing you want to do when you get to the meeting room, whether it be summer or winter, is open all the windows. This is because you'll have to throw all logic out the window. Open as many as possible, 'cause there's a lot of logic to heave.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 21, 2014
Chores, charges and chin-wags: the chōnaikai ties that bind
Perhaps fearing that the entire council could fall apart, some neighborhood associations resort to drastic measures to keep members active and in line. The culture clash is not foreigner vs. Japanese, but traditional vs. modern.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Feb 2, 2014
Hashimoto's costly comeback bid vexes voters
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's surprise resignation and second mayoral bid is greeted with criticism and concern in the city and prefecture.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
Suntory CEO Takeshi Niinami resigns over alleged possession of illegal drugs
Takeshi Niinami, then-chief executive officer of Suntory Holdings, in May 2024
Tamagotchi hatches 100 million shipments worldwide thanks to ’90s nostalgia
The latest version of Tamagotchi, called Tamagotchi Paradise, is awarded the best digital toy at Tokyo Toy Show on Aug. 28.
Why Stalin didn’t invade Hokkaido still largely unknown, 80 years after WWII
During a survey to collect the remains of victims from the Taito Maru, one of the vessels involved in the Three Ships Incident, a metal helmet was found near the stern of the vessel on Aug. 5, 1984, at Rumoi Port. No human remains were discovered.
More sweltering days forecast for September after hottest summer on record
By the end of August, 8,341 people had been transported by ambulance for heatstroke in Tokyo alone.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.

Podcast

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

Longform

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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