Face masks can foster a false sense of security
What’s happening in Japan is written all over our faces — our blank, expressionless, masked faces. Never before, it seems safe to say, have so many people gone about masked. Thus we confront the microbes that assault us. Are the microbes disconcerted? It seems not. “As self-protection, ...
Why are Japan’s millennials shunning alcohol?
Some time before the coronavirus outbreak put a damper on this year’s hanami (blossom viewing) parties and other social activities, the media had already noted that the decline in alcohol consumption by younger Japanese has been accelerating. This phenomenon even made the front page ...
The panic buying of toiletries: It's like 1973 all over again
Where are all the masks? And where's the toilet paper? Nikkei Business (Feb. 28) suggested that panic buying in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which also occurred in eastern Japan following the catastrophic earthquake of March 2011, may be influenced in part by ...
Kansai businesses suffer as COVID-19 alarm hurts tourism
The Japanese expression "kankodori ga naku" (literally, "the cuckoo sings") is frequently used to describe a business slump. "Kankodori" appears in a headline in Flash (Feb. 18) concerning Nara Park. Not only are visitor numbers to this destination way down, but the famous deer that ...
Tetsu Nakamura's death in Afghanistan exposes a gap of perception in Japan
Following the assassination of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura in Afghanistan earlier this month, the government of Afghanistan held a memorial ceremony for him as his body was delivered to the airplane that would take it out of the country. President Ashraf Ghani was one of ...
Japan trade chief Isshu Sugawara exits amid allegations he broke election campaign law
A tabloid’s expose on a funeral gift to a supporter ousts the METI chief after just a month and a half in office.
Japan's trade minister Isshu Sugawara in hot seat for allegedly breaking election law
The report could come as a headache for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has entrusted Sugawara with overseeing trade and industrial policies.
Japan's Shukan Post apologizes after being blasted for discrimination toward South Koreans
A weekly magazine's editorial department has apologized for what has been widely slammed as discriminatory coverage of South Koreans, with the magazine having branded them as pathologically quick-tempered and insisted that Tokyo cut ties with Seoul because the neighbor is "troublesome." In the latest edition, ...
Friction growing in Osaka over rising foreign population
The guests from the gala Group of 20 conference may be gone, but Osaka continues to garner attention in the media. Nishinari Ward, an arguably sordid section of the city perhaps best known for its large population of day laborers, is on the verge of ...
Tokyo court admits Asahi reporter was defamed but denies damages over 'comfort women' articles
The Tokyo District Court recognized Wednesday that a former Asahi Shimbun newspaper reporter was defamed in connection with his 1991 articles on "comfort women," but it rejected his claim for damages against a major publisher and a scholar. The term comfort women is a euphemism ...
Spa! magazine publishes apology for ranking colleges based on sexual availability of female students
Weekly tabloid magazine Spa! issued an apology in its latest edition after a list it published in December — which ranked colleges based on the perceived sexual availability of their female students — received heavy criticism and led the publication to re-evaluate its editorial ...
Colleges named in Japan tabloid's list of schools with 'easy girls' condemn article as misogynistic
The fallout over an article in a tabloid magazine ranking colleges according to the promiscuity of their female students after drinking intensified Wednesday, with all institutions named in the article accusing the publication of sexism. The criticism from the universities follows growing anger and frustration ...
