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TOKYO
October 04, 2024
The Independent Voice in Asia
October 04, 2024
Shigeru Ishiba
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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his inaugural policy address to parliament in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Ishiba omits divisive proposals in first policy speech as PM
By Gabriele Ninivaggi
He elaborated on his long-held ideas about creating a disaster-prevention agency and increasing grants for rural municipalities.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his inaugural policy address to parliament in Tokyo on Friday.
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike speaks to a reporter on Sept. 27. Aggressive acts toward front-line workers, dubbed "customer harassment," have become a growing problem.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Tokyo passes nation's first customer harassment ordinance
By Yukana Inoue
The ordinance, however, does not include any criminal punishment for those accused of harassment.
The city of Kumamoto on Sept. 18, when the temperature climbed to 37.5 degrees Celsius
JAPAN
High temperatures to continue in Japan throughout October
By Karin Kaneko
The recent heat continues a run of high temperatures stretching back through the summer, with eastern and western Japan witnessing their hottest Septembers on record.
Nippon Ishin no Kai head Nobuyuki Baba (back left) and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan head Yoshihiko Noda (back right) discuss cooperation during the upcoming general election in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Opposition parties have little time to form united front ahead of polls
By Eric Johnston
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s surprise announcement of an Oct. 27 general election has left others scrambling to coordinate in order to avoid multi-cornered fights.
Shigeru Ishiba's nascent administration is attracting something of a reputation for flip-flopping — and it hasn’t even been a week.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Don’t take Japan's new leader literally. But should you take him seriously?
Gearoid Reidy
Ishiba will discover that his supply of capital with the public will run out quickly if he offers no break from his predecessor.
Shigeru Ishiba's nascent administration is attracting something of a reputation for flip-flopping — and it hasn’t even been a week.

JAPAN

Children walk home from school in Ishikawa Prefecture on Sept. 26. Cases of hand, foot and mouth disease peaked a second time this year in the second week of September.
Hand, foot and mouth disease rebounds in Japan
By Francis Tang
The latest data — for the week of Sept. 16 to 22 — showed cases averaging roughly six times the number from the same week last year.
Rikiya Morita, a suspect wanted in connection with a robbery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture
Suspect in violent Kanto burglaries placed on public wanted list
Rikiya Morita and three other men allegedly broke into an elderly couple’s residence in the city of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture.
Meteorological agency ramps up 'tsunami flag' awareness efforts
Japanese airport reopens after WWII U.S. bomb blast
Japan to require passenger ships sailing in cold waters to carry life rafts
Digitalization advances gradually in Japan's parliament

BUSINESS

A tea field in Makinohara, the birthplace of Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda, in August. The city in Shizuoka Prefecture, which once thrived on a now-declining tea industry, exemplifies disparities between Japan's struggling rural areas and its bustling megacities.
In Bank of Japan chief's birthplace, Ueda's policy puzzle is laid bare
By Sakura Murakami
Makinohara's mayor says the Shizuoka Prefecture surf town is not keeping pace with Japan's broader recovery.
Port workers from the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) participate in a strike at the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth, Virginia, on Wednesday.
U.S. port workers, operators reach deal to end East Coast strike
By Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson
A tentative agreement for a wage hike of around 62% over six years will immediately end a crippling three-day strike.
IMF says Japan should keep raising rates if inflation data warrants it
By David Lawder
AI bubble or 'revolution'? OpenAI's big payday fuels debate
By Glenn CHAPMAN
More stocks trade below book value in Japan despite reforms
By Hideyuki Sano
Starbucks buys research farms as climate change threatens coffee supply
By Daniela Sirtori

WORLD

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav has repeatedly stressed that Israel must take the fight to Lebanon.
Israel's hawkish Yoav Gallant is driving the war in Lebanon
By Chloe Rouveyrolles-Bazire
Officials in Israel like Yoav Gallant have called to push the Lebanese militant group away from their shared border to allow displaced people to return.
U.S. voters are increasingly concerned about misinformation spreading the good-old-fashioned way — through politicians sowing falsehoods.
More than AI misinformation, U.S. voters worry about lying politicians
By Anuj Chopra
Politicians face almost no legal consequences for distorting the truth, researchers say.
Scientists explain Mount Everest's anomalous growth
By Will Dunham
U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move
By Michelle Nichols
U.K. cedes Chagos Island sovereignty to Mauritius and keeps air base
By Alistair Smout, Michael Holden and Villen Anganan
Europe’s global green ambitions push too hard once again
By John Ainger, Ewa Krukowska and Agnieszka de Sousa

Sports

Ayami Sato is one of the best female players in baseball history.
Japan great Ayami Sato helps shine light on women's baseball in new documentary
By Jason Coskrey
Ayami Sato has helped Japan win six straight Women's Baseball World Cup titles.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start Game 1 of NLDS after Dodgers flip starters
FIFA defers decision on call to suspend Israel
Kirk Cousins goes over 500 yards to lift Falcons to win over Buccaneers in overtime
Caitlin Clark named WNBA Rookie of the Year

Opinion

Shigeru Ishiba's nascent administration is attracting something of a reputation for flip-flopping — and it hasn’t even been a week.
Don’t take Japan's new leader literally. But should you take him seriously?
Gearoid Reidy
Ishiba will discover that his supply of capital with the public will run out quickly if he offers no break from his predecessor.
Japan shouldn’t work with the Taliban, not even to build schools
By Sadiq Amini
The Russian war economy’s days are numbered
By Anders Aslund
Pete Rose fans are wrong: He's not worthy of the Hall of Fame
By Adam Minter
Ishiba faces challenges from the opposition — and his own party

ENVIRONMENT

Cracked ground at a farm in Lincoln, U.K. Extreme weather worldwide is pushing up prices for food staples in ways that could eventually flow through to higher grocery bills.
Rising food costs due to extreme weather likely to drive up grocery bills
By Keira Wright, Bernadette Toh and Charlotte Hughes-Morgan
One index of nine major food products has recorded a monthly gain of more than 7% — the most since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent markets soaring in early 2022.
Green hydrogen hype fades as high costs force project retreat
By William Mathis
Despite snowy winter, Swiss glaciers 'on track to disappear'
By Agnes Pedrero and Elodie LE MAOU
Tuvalu fights to retain its maritime rights amid climate change inundation
By Kirsty Needham
Climate change made Europe’s floods worse and more likely, study shows
By Olivia Rudgard and Eamon Akil Farhat

CULTURE

Bourgeois is perhaps best known among the general public for her giant steel spider sculptures, particularly in Tokyo, where a nearly 10-meter tall bronze cast of the original spider has loomed over the walkway in Roppongi Hills since 2003.
Japan’s biggest Louise Bourgeois exhibit yet leans into ambivalence
By Thu-Huong Ha
At Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, a large-scale retrospective of the visionary artist emphasizes her complex feelings toward femininity, memory, parenthood and the human body.
‘Super Happy Forever’: Melancholy romance makes most of fleeting happiness
By James Hadfield
‘See You Tomorrow’: A pursuit of passion grounded in reality
By Mark Schilling
Netflix war epic to open Asia's largest film festival
By Claire Lee
Wozme, an all-women dance troupe, wants to move the needle in butoh
By Zoria Petkoska

LIFE

A pedestrian walks past a 7-Eleven convenience store in Tokyo. The Japanese model for a convenience store is gaining fans overseas where similar stores sell mostly gasoline and junk food.
Making a habit of describing your morning convenience store run
By Yuko Tamura
Hitting up the local convenience store before or after work can wind up becoming habitual, and there are a number of grammar points to help describe it.
Award ceremony for Japanese alcohol held in Paris
'Need a bag for that?': Knowing what the clerks are saying at the convenience store
By Yuko Tamura
How to own something by the punk poet designer Jun Takahashi
By Jessica Iredale
Neither allergies nor ADHD could stop chef Hiroshi Tsubouchi
By Kimberly Hughes

COMMUNITY

Having grown up in North Carolina, where people are chatty and friendly, Duane Levi says Kansai and Osaka in particular had a similar vibe.
Duane Levi: 'Once you are able to create something that has sustainability … you’re going to get help and support.'
By Patrick St. Michel
Unable to get a job in PA and recording, Duane Levi forged his own path in the Japanese music scene and has introduced many artists to the market here.
What’s a mother to do when your non-Japanese child is bullied in school?
By Harriet Ocharo
Saying good riddance to what bugs me about a Japanese summer
By Jordan Allen
‘The people I’d seen in kimono didn’t have as much melanin as I do’
By Baye McNeil
Andreas Fuchs: ‘I love that no two days are the same’
By Louise George Kittaka

Editors' Picks

ENVIRONMENT
How climate change affects Japan's typhoons
By Jessica Speed
A bus is seen submerged in floodwaters in Yufu, Oita Prefecture, on Aug. 29 as Typhoon Shanshan dumps torrential rain across southern regions of Japan.
SUMO
Who can challenge Onosato's dominance? Takerufuji might be the best bet.
By John Gunning
Takerufuji, the most recent Emperor’s Cup winner apart from Terunofuji and Onosato, claimed the second-tier title in September in his first full tournament back from injury after a six-month absence.
JAPAN
Japan's new top diplomat calls 'Asian NATO' an idea for the future
By Kathleen Benoza
Newly appointed Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya speaks during his first news conference as Japan's top diplomat at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Ishiba looks to 'defense tribe' to fill key Cabinet positions
By Jesse Johnson and Kathleen Benoza
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, 66, has experience as the onetime head of Japan’s former Defense Agency before it became a full-fledged ministry and is seen as a pair of steady hands.
JAPAN
Investment and romance fraud cases triple in first eight months of year
By Himari Semans
The National Police Agency has noted a major rise in online investment fraud cases, incidents of which have more than quadrupled in the first eight months of this year.

Podcast

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

Longform

Wozme, founded by dancer and choreographer Wakaba Kohei, is composed of Kana Kitty, Ami Ishii, Akane Watanabe and Natsuki. Its aim is to inject elegance and beauty, traits traditionally associated with femininity, into the sometimes grotesque art form of butoh dance.
Wozme, an all-women dance troupe, wants to move the needle in butoh
By Zoria Petkoska

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SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy
Sasakawa works for a sustainable blue economy

WHAT’S TRENDING

JAPAN
Early Ishiba missteps add to anticipation over key policy speech
By Gabriele Ninivaggi
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Massive carry trade still lurks in the shadows and looms over markets
By Elizabeth Beattie
Traders borrow in currencies where rates are low and put that money to work in economies where rates are high, pocketing the difference.
JAPAN
17-year-old girl found dead in Osaka hotel room was strangled
A security camera footage shows a 17-year-old girl and a man entering a hotel in the city of Osaka on Saturday. She was found dead in the hotel room several hours later.
JAPAN
Blast from unexploded ordnance halts flights at Japanese regional airport
Unexploded ordnance detonates near a taxiway at Miyazaki Airport on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Ishiba looks to 'defense tribe' to fill key Cabinet positions
By Jesse Johnson and Kathleen Benoza
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, 66, has experience as the onetime head of Japan’s former Defense Agency before it became a full-fledged ministry and is seen as a pair of steady hands.