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February 23, 2025
 

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RURAL LIFE

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba receives fruit from tangerine farmers of Shizuoka Prefecture in Tokyo on Jan. 22. The government's new regional revitalization plan focuses on convincing younger workers to choose a career and life somewhere other than a major urban center such as Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 18, 2025
Can Ishiba's 'joyful Japan' policy revitalize the nation's rural regions?
The prime minister may be taking cues from the mistakes of past efforts, but ultimately, even the best rural revitalization plan is tough to realize in practice.
Fukushima University student Itsuki Yamada (right) takes part in a workshop in December in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, together with local residents. Yamada leads a group of student volunteers that runs an internet community radio program featuring Iitate.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Feb 17, 2025
University students launch community radio show for Fukushima village
The program aims to spread word about the realities faced by Iitate's aging population, and support the village's revitalization.
A little-used section of the JR Geibi Line, which runs through the Chugoku Mountains in Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures, faces a threat of closure.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Feb 10, 2025
Underutilized Hiroshima-Okayama rail route struggles to survive
While the number of passengers has continued to decline, the Geibi Line has served as a lifeline for some residents.
The day care room for younger children at a multipurpose facility on Tonaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, has never been used since its establishment in 2019.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Feb 3, 2025
The harsh reality of migration outflow on Okinawa’s least populated island
Since Tonaki Island established its only day care center in 2019, not a single child has set foot inside.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba delivers his policy speech at the Lower House of parliament in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 27, 2025
Japan's young government officials to help municipalities as side gig
The measure, part of regional revitalization efforts by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, aims to help municipalities struggling with a lack of personnel.
Beds lie in a corridor of a hospital in Duan Yao autonomous county in Guangxi region, China, on Jan. 9.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 20, 2025
China's aging villages face yawning health care gap in a fragile economy
Far lower wages in rural China mean many qualified doctors are heading to the cities to make a living.
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
LIFE / Travel
Jan 18, 2025
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
Japan’s much-lauded four seasons aren’t felt as much in Tokyo as they are in the full, rural vistas of Yamagata Prefecture.
To counter the impact of aging rural demographics, the agriculture ministry is introducing a new initiative to dispatch corporate personnel to rural areas to increase the number of people engaged with farming communities.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 13, 2025
Japan farm ministry aims to dispatch corporate workers to rural areas
The initiative aims to promote rural revitalization through corporate-sponsored training programs and employee side jobs connecting businesses with farming villages.
A bear trap in Hokkaido Prefecture. Bears have recently been found inside homes and shops.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 27, 2024
Increasing number of Japanese bears find human dwellings ‘just right’
Cases of bears making their way into homes and shops are on the rise across the country as the animal's natural food sources become scarce.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (second from the left) making a statement at a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Japan eyes regional revitalization and economic growth
A basic concept for the promotion of regional revitalization was drawn up to promote economic growth and address the issue of overcrowding in Tokyo.
Small businesses in Ino, a town in Kochi Prefecture known for its paper industry, show how a labor shortage is a growing threat to smaller companies that provide seven out of every 10 jobs in Japan.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 24, 2024
Small businesses with low wages struggle to tackle labor shortages
A worker shortage is threatening firms that are otherwise robust, including those that have invested in automation and creative hiring.
Yoshitaka Ito, minister for regional revitalization (right), and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba set up a signboard for an office in charge of regional revitalization on Nov. 8 in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2024
Japan will help revitalize willing municipalities, minister says
The government is working to create a 10-year basic plan for rural revitalization, said Yoshitaka Ito, minister for regional revitalization.
Best known as the home of Kuon Temple, Minobu, Yamanashi Prefecture, is a charming day trip from Tokyo with the potential for cultural verisimilitude.
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2024
In rugged Yamanashi, a wild-goose chase for ‘real Japan’
Japan’s countryside certainly offers a different experience than its cities, but whether that makes it categorically superior is up for debate.
Asako Osaki attends the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, in New York in March.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Nov 3, 2024
How global lessons can improve prospects for women in rural Japan
Through motherhood, education and work, Asako Osaki worked to bring global standards to the front lines of gender issues.
A woman walks past campaign posters for the Lower House election in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 19, 2024
Ruling and opposition parties vow redoubled regional revitalization efforts
Both sides are offering ideas for stopping population outflow from regional communities in their campaigning for the Oct. 27 general election.
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.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 4, 2024
In Bank of Japan chief's birthplace, Ueda's policy puzzle is laid bare
Makinohara's mayor says the Shizuoka Prefecture surf town is not keeping pace with Japan's broader recovery.
Ryobi Holdings has hired Kyosuke Suzuki, a former currency trader at Societe Generale, to set up an artificial intelligence-powered hedge fund specializing in forex.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 3, 2024
Bus group Ryobi sets up forex fund to survive population fall
The move follows its previous investments in real estate, supermarkets and other areas as it tries to secure funds to maintain its bus fleet and grow.
An abandoned house in Urayama, Saitama Prefecture. Buying an <i>akiya</i>, which means empty house in Japanese, can be a rewarding experience that yields a unique space and a livable home, competitively priced. Or it could turn out to be a money pit.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 2, 2024
First lesson of Japan’s akiya gold rush: No such thing as a free house.
Renovations are usually the most expensive part of the journey and the laundry list of what needs to be done is long and tends to get longer after the process starts.
Jonah Ndeuludila (right) is studying at Tochigi Prefecture's Asian Rural Institute in order to bring skills back to his job at Namibia's Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 2, 2024
Over half a century, seeds of change grow at a Tochigi farm
Founded by Toshihiro Takami in 1973, ARI promotes organic, subsistence farming methods and the practice of servant leadership.
Bureaucrats had envisioned payments of up to ¥600,000 for women who got married and settled outside of Tokyo, according to media reports.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2024
Japan scraps idea to woo women out of city with cash
Bureaucrats had envisioned payments of up to ¥600,000 for women who got married and settled outside of Tokyo.
Japan's Prince Hisahito to hold first news conference on March 3
Prince Hisahito heads to greet the Emperor and Empress on the occasion of his 18th birthday in Tokyo on Sep. 6.
Special website created 30 years after Tokyo subway sarin attack
Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system by Aum Shinrikyo, the Public Security Intelligence Agency launched a special website Friday.
LDP and opposition lock horns over Japan budget
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in parliament on Friday
Japanese nationals returned from Myanmar as scam probe continues
Multinational victims of scam centers, who were allegedly trafficked into working in Myanmar and were sent to Thailand on Feb. 12 amid a mounting crackdown on scam centers operating along a porous border, queue to get food at a shelter in Tak province, Thailand, on Wednesday.
Over 80% of Japanese say death penalty system is 'unavoidable'
Former death row inmate Iwao Hakamata (left) and his sister, Hideko, attend a gathering of his supporters after his acquittal in a retrial over a 1966 murder case was finalized in October last year.
As Ukraine rift emerges, Kyiv's envoy says Japan must take on bigger global role
Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan Sergiy Korsunsky speaks during an interview at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tokyo on Monday.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown ready to sprint past Paris disappointment
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (center) runs during a 100-meter heat at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 3, 2024.
What is the ceiling for sumo’s newest yokozuna?
Newly promoted grand champion Hoshoryu (center) performs a dedication ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Jan. 31.
‘Yasuko, Songs of Days Past’ puts overlooked star in the spotlight
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past” centers on a real-life love triangle between poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido, left), actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose, center) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada).

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