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August 15, 2024
 

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Eric Johnston

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Eric Johnston
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Apr 8, 2020
What changes under Japan's state of emergency declaration?
After weeks of intense pressure Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared a state of emergency in seven urban areas, but what does that change?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Apr 7, 2020
Local officials and residents fear influx from Japan's virus hot spots
With the number of novel coronavirus infections rising in Tokyo and other major urban centers, some concerned residents are fleeing to nearby prefectures where the number of cases is minimal.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 2, 2020
With suicide note and lawsuit, Moritomo scandal back to haunt Abe
With the publication of a suicide note by a former Finance Ministry official and subsequent lawsuit by his widow, the Moritomo Gakuen scandal has returned to haunt Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But with Abe saying the issue has been settled and Japan finding itself in the midst of the coronavirus crisis,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2020
Coronavirus casts shadow over Japan's timeline for casino resorts
With the Diet focused on responding to the worsening spread of COVID-19, the timeline for the central government to approve the nation’s first casino resorts has been thrown into doubt.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / EXPLAINER
Mar 29, 2020
A closer look at Kansai Electric and its gift-giving scandal
Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by Kepco's investigative panel...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2020
Kansai leaders call for those who returned from abroad to self-quarantine
With over 340 cases of novel coronavirus in six Kansai area prefectures as of Friday, local leaders want all residents who have just returned from overseas to self-quarantine.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 25, 2020
25 years after Tokyo subway attack, Aum is a shadow of its former self
Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo's sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway trains shocked Japan and the world, raising concerns over nonstate organizations obtaining weapons of mass destruction.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2020
Free school lunches to start year early in Osaka due to coronavirus
Osaka city approved a plan Wednesday that will make it the first major city in Japan to offer free school lunches to all students at municipal elementary and junior high schools, as part of its economic measures to ease the burden on parents in the wake of the spread of COVID-19.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 14, 2020
The 1970 Osaka Expo: Looking back at the past to gauge where Japan sits in the present
The 1970 Osaka Expo laid down a bold statement about Japan's future. Fifty years later, has the country been able to live up to its promises?
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Mar 14, 2020
Outbreak turns Kyoto's overtourism into 'undertourism'
A mild winter in many parts of Japan means the cherry blossoms are expected to arrive earlier than usual. By the time we hit April — the start of the fiscal year, the school term, and when new employees begin their first day on the job — the cherry blossoms are likely to be almost finished in the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 11, 2020
Spreading clusters of coronavirus cases worry Japan's local governments
While the national government drive forward legal revisions to allow the declaration of a national emergency over the COVID-19 virus as early as this week, local governments are growing increasingly concerned about the spread of the novel coronavirus in so-called clusters.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 10, 2020
What will Abe's amended law for a national emergency mean in practice?
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government aims to pass by week's end controversial revisions to a 2012 law governing national actions to be taken in the event of new types of influenza.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 6, 2020
Women in Japanese politics: Why so few after so very long?
To mark International Women's Day on March 8, there will be worldwide marches, parades, protests and public awareness activities on the contributions of women and the barriers and discrimination they still face.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 1, 2020
A Tokyo prosecutor's delayed retirement spurs more allegations of Abe cronyism
Over the past month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his government once again found themselves the target of allegations of political favoritism.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2020
Panic-buying of 'made in China' tissues and toilet paper erupts in Japanese cities
Fears that COVID-19 could lead to shortages of daily items sparked incidents of stockpiling from Thursday night through Saturday, causing drugstores and supermarkets in several cities to run short of toilet paper and other items.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2020
Tokyo Disneyland joins long list of establishments and events hit by COVID-19
With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having asked organizers of big sporting and cultural events scheduled for the next two weeks to consider canceling, postponing or downsizing them during what is seen as a critical time for stemming the spread of COVID-19 infections, the list of closed facilities and canceled...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 23, 2020
The Japanese Communist Party's quest to unify a shattered opposition
Last month, for the first time in 16 years, the Japanese Communist Party met to revise its basic political program. Part of the reason was that the party hopes a change of rhetoric, at least, will make it easier to form an opposition coalition to challenge the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 17, 2020
Osaka referendum: Merger gets second chance, but are voters on board?
Five years after voters in the city of Osaka narrowly voted down a referendum on consolidating its 24 wards into five with more autonomy and eliminating the municipal assembly and mayor, another referendum is set for later this year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Feb 15, 2020
COVID-19 tests Osaka's ability to reach East Asia
Since Kansai International Airport opened in 1994, business and political leaders in Osaka have touted the region as the gateway to Asia. Often showing little interest in other parts of the world, they would tell each other in conference rooms, cocktail parties, symposiums and seminars that China and...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 3, 2020
The Kawai scandal and the race to succeed Shinzo Abe
Hiroshima-based Liberal Democratic Party Diet member Anri Kawai admitted in January to receiving ¥150 million from LDP headquarters prior to the July 2019 Upper House election. Kawai, a novice in national politics, is also the wife of disgraced former Justice Minister Katsuyuki Kawai, who was forced...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

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

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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