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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / EXPLAINER
Feb 23, 2021

Influence-peddling scandal: How Suga ended up in the hot seat again

Revelations that Seigo Suga wined and dined officials have again raised questions about influence peddling at the highest levels of government.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 19, 2020

The public and private concerns of a princess in Japan

News outlets exploit the imperial family for their own ends without ever discussing the real meaning of the imperial system.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 8, 2020

COVID-19 pandemic tests our resolve to be self-disciplined

Exercising self-control in an environment that allows more freedom is more difficult than you think.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 9, 2020

A pandemic potpourri of Golden Week news gems

As if the COVID-19 pandemic didn't give Japan enough things to worry about, the unseasonably warm winter and resulting lack of snow may spell severe shortages of water by this summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 18, 2020

It’s a little tough to truly feel free in a time of pestilence

Humanity is eternally vulnerable to the 'unknown' and there's not much that we know about the new coronavirus.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 4, 2020

Defining masculinity in a brave new world of despair

Dad works in a bank. “For a man, work is everything” — that’s his motto. It was his father’s before him. Unquestioned and undoubted, it entered his bloodstream.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 15, 2020

News outlets weigh whether new virus will affect Olympics

Since mid-January, the name on the lips of increasing numbers of TV news announcers and commentators has been "Bukan," which is how the Chinese city of Wuhan is pronounced in Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 22, 2019

2020 Tokyo Olympics puts spotlight on animal welfare

The International Olympic Committee sets procurement standards for materials used in conjunction with the games. One of these standards is sustainability, which was first established for the 2012 London Olympics. In terms of meals supplied to athletes and others, ingredients must be produced and harvested...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 25, 2019

Fatal traffic mishaps put drivers in the media spotlight

"Heartbreaking accidents have continued to occur although measures have been taken," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said ruefully at a meeting of government officials on May 21.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 4, 2019

Deciphering the curious act of talking to oneself

Talking to oneself is not respectable. It suggests many things, none of them good: abysmal loneliness, a mental screw loose, a social wire frayed, insanity, dementia. Shukan Post magazine this month cites experts in dementia who see solitary dialogue as a potential premonitory sign — not a conclusive...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 27, 2019

Trains, planes and automobiles to celebrate Golden Week

If you're looking for some mundane distractions to get you through the holiday period, Shukan Taishu (May 6-13) has got just the thing. Its "Reiwa Commemorative Edition" introduces unusual rides. Okinawa, for example, sports an "Ostrich Land," where you can hop a ride on the back of one of its giant...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 30, 2019

When apo-den telephone scams take deadly turns

On Feb. 28, the body of Kuniko Kato, 80, was found in her ransacked apartment in Tokyo's Koto Ward. Her wrists had been bound with clear plastic wrap and her mouth and ankles bound with duct tape. While the specific cause of death has not been made public, she appeared to have suffocated. A police search...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 23, 2019

Idols and agencies in Japan navigate a brand new landscape

Television personality Masahiro Nakai made an appearance as a "surprise guest" on the March 10 installment of Nippon TV's law-related variety show, "Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo" (“Line-up Law Office”). Earlier, guest Koji Kato had related an anecdote featuring Shingo Katori, Nakai's former...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 16, 2019

Will removing porn from convenience stores in Japan hurt ailing tabloids?

Don't go looking for titillation at your local convenience store.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 3, 2018

Little buzz in Japan over Canada's move to legalize marijuana

Japan's media coverage of Canada's Oct. 17 announcement that possession and use of marijuana would be legalized — subject to certain restrictions — has been mostly brief and low-key.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 18, 2018

Japan's only female minister, Satsuki Katayama, hit by allegation she was paid to influence tax agency

A weekly magazine alleged that Katayama was paid to use her bureaucratic standing to get a tax break for a business owner in 2015.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 13, 2018

Natural disasters shake the nation to attention in 2018

You wake to pitch blackness, the house shaking crazily. Nightmare? Yes — a waking one. "Where are my glasses?" You're helpless without your glasses. The shaking gets worse.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 15, 2018

News outlets fret over the nation's docile democracy

"Nazism." "Fascism." "1984." "Kamikaze." Strong words, suggestive language. It's going mainstream.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 1, 2018

Tabloids in Japan unafraid to question Imperial scandals

The domestic press is more deferential to Japan's Imperial family than the British press is to its royal family. To secure access, Japan's mainstream media must play by the rules of the Imperial Household Agency, which controls said access and watches the resulting coverage closely.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 19, 2018

Finance Ministry's top bureaucrat quits over sex harassment claims, dealing another blow to Abe government

In a fresh blow to the scandal-hit Abe administration, the Finance Ministry's top bureaucrat, Administrative Vice Minister Junichi Fukuda, was forced to step down Wednesday after a weekly magazine publicized last week a voice recording of what it claimed was him sexually harassing a female journalist....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2018

Finance Ministry's top official Junichi Fukuda to sue Japanese weekly over report accusing him of sexually harassing journalists

The ministry says it will ask an independent lawyer to continue investigating the bureaucrat's denials and the allegations made by Shukan Shincho magazine.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 31, 2018

Too much of an education could be bad for your future

While school rucksacks in Japan may be getting heavier, the prospects for the over-educated may be getting bleaker.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 21, 2017

Lawmaker Nakagawa resigns from LDP over extramarital affair

METI's former vice minister, Toshinao Nakagawa, resigns from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over an extramarital affair, causing more turmoil for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 10, 2016

Editors thrive on controversy — but it can bite back

In the early hours of Jan. 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck southern Hyogo Prefecture and the surrounding areas, causing more than 6,000 deaths and seriously damaging infrastructure.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 8, 2016

Nagoya: The most boring city in Japan

At a meeting of city leaders last Monday, the mayor of Nagoya, Takashi Kawamura, expressed annoyance with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. That same day, Abe had opened a new session of the Diet by touching on the issue of regional revitalization in his usual general policy speech; he said that the central...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 3, 2016

Building a stairway to the singularity

A computer's victory over a human go master this past March reminds us of the pending "singularity" — the rapidly approaching moment in time when artificial intelligence overtakes human intelligence. Machines will learn, and we won't be their teachers. Are we prepared for it? Can we prepare for it?...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 27, 2016

Japan's super-rich: fun to envy, difficult to emulate

Japanese multimillionaires are the object of intense study by members of the country's middle class, especially those who entertain probably unrealistic hopes of emulating them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 20, 2016

With deft political move, Japan's Emperor seeks to cement the role he created

Could the Emperor's raising of the issue of possible abdication be a move designed to stave off constitutional revision?

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?