Japanese artist remembered for his ‘unique world of creation’ including comic series that spawned films, video games and TV series
Akira Toriyama, the influential Japanese manga artist who created the Dragon Ball series, has died at the age of 68.
He died on 1 March from an acute subdural haematoma. The news was confirmed by Bird Studio, the manga company that Toriyama founded in 1983.
Continue reading...Gion residents asked city council to crack down after rise in tourist numbers leads to increased harassment of traditional entertainers
Visitors to the geisha district of Gion – one of Kyoto’s most popular sightseeing spots – will be banned from entering its picturesque alleyways as authorities in Japan attempt to tackle a dramatic rise in tourism.
Residents of Japan’s ancient capital have struggled to reconcile the financial boost from a return to pre-pandemic visitor numbers with overcrowding and incidents of bad behaviour among tourists.
Continue reading...Congestion charge comes amid boom in tourism that has put pressure on infrastructure and increased potential for accidents
People hoping to ascend Mount Fuji along its most popular route will be charged ¥2,000 (£10.50, $13.35, A$20.50) when the climbing season starts in the summer, as local authorities try to ease congestion fuelled by Japan’s tourism boom.
The trails leading up Japan’s highest mountain – a Unesco world heritage site since 2013 – are becoming increasingly overcrowded, prompting concern over littering and “bullet ascents”, in which often inexperienced climbers try to scale the 3,776-metre peak without resting.
Continue reading...The Pritzker prize has been won by the 78-year-old Japanese master whose whose work ranges from an open-access Hiroshima fire station to a building seemingly made of books
From rows of public housing connected by elevated walkways and shared terraces, to sleek glass university buildings designed for maximum transparency between departments, the architecture of Riken Yamamoto has always been about seeing and being seen. Now it’s his turn to be put in the spotlight, as the 78-year-old Japanese architect has been named the 2024 recipient of the Pritzker prize, architecture’s highest honour.
It’s a surprising choice. Yamamoto has never been part of the fashionable avant garde, of the “starchitect” kind that the Pritzker has often honoured in the past. Nor is he from an overlooked or undervalued region, as the prize has looked to highlight in some recent years. Instead, during a career spanning the last five decades, he has produced a consistent body of work in a neutral, modernist style, creating cubic, gridded forms in steel, concrete and glass, which might be hard to get excited about at first glance.
Continue reading...High-budget series with largely Japanese cast avoids well-worn western orientalist fantasies and wins plaudits in Japan
Japanese audiences could have been forgiven for bracing themselves when Disney announced Shōgun, a 10-part adaptation of James Clavell’s classic 1975 novel.
With few exceptions, Hollywood depictions of Japan and the Japanese have relied on one-dimensional characters whose purpose is to confirm cultural stereotypes, set against the backdrop of an inscrutable archipelago whose people have much to learn from the western hero.
Continue reading...Report accused Hideo Kojima of inappropriate touching and patting female workers on their heads
A Japanese mayor facing 99 allegations of sexual harassment has resigned after he denied some cases and wept at a press conference.
An official investigation accused Hideo Kojima, the mayor of a town in the central Gifu region, of several incidents of harassment, including touching a colleague’s breasts and buttocks.
Continue reading...Average number of births per woman falls to 0.72 in country that already has the world’s lowest rate, and has spent billions since 2006 to reverse the trend
South Korea’s demographic crisis has deepened with the release of data showing its birthrate – already the world’s lowest – fell to a new record low in 2023, despite billions of dollars in government schemes designed to persuade families to have more children.
Reports that South Korea’s population had shrunk for the fourth straight year came soon after neighbouring Japan reported a record decline in its population last year, along with a record fall in the number of births and the lowest number of marriages since the end of the second world war.
Continue reading...Birthrate continues to fall as young people increasingly reluctant to have children due to bleak job prospects, cost of living and work culture
The number of babies born in Japan last year fell for an eighth straight year to a new low, government data has shown, and a top official says it is critical for the country to reverse the trend in the coming half-dozen years.
The 758,631 babies born in Japan in 2023 were a 5.1% decline from the previous year, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry on Tuesday. It was the lowest number of births since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899.
Continue reading...Unmanned Slim spacecraft responds to signal from Earth after touching down at awkward angle in January
Japan’s moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth, suggesting it survived the two-week lunar night, the country’s space agency has said.
The unmanned Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (Slim) touched down last month at a wonky angle that left its solar panels facing the wrong way. But as the sun’s angle shifted, it powered up for two days and carried out scientific observations of a crater with a hi-spec camera.
Continue reading...The earthquake hit parts of the Ishikawa region on New Year’s Day killing 241 people and sparking a major fire, water remains cut off to some areas
Japan will spend an additional $660m rebuilding areas ravaged by a devastating New Year’s Day earthquake, prime minister Fumio Kishida said, taking the total amount of relief to $1.7bn.
The new financial aid was announced by the prime minister on Saturday as he visited the quake-hit areas.
Continue reading...Row over £1.05m amenities block comes amid growing concern over the cost of the event, which is taking place in Osaka in 2025
Visitors to next year’s world exposition in Japan could find themselves spending a penny in toilets that cost more than £1m to build, with recent construction estimates for restrooms sparking a row over the event’s spiralling costs.
Japanese media reported this week that some of the 40-plus bathrooms being built at the site in Osaka, a port city in the west of the country, will cost as much as ¥200m (£1.05m).
Continue reading...Takeshi Ebisawa is being charged over a conspiracy to traffic uranium and plutonium from Myanmar, believing Iran would use it to make weapons
The head of a Japanese crime syndicate conspired to traffic uranium and plutonium in the belief that Iran would use it to make nuclear weapons, US prosecutors have alleged.
Federal officials said Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and others showed samples of nuclear materials that had been transported from Myanmar to Thailand to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA] agent.
Continue reading...Rail company inundated with requests after putting up for sale 50 of the disused trolleys from the Tokyo-Osaka shinkansen route
They are simple, practical items that have rolled seamlessly along bullet train aisles for decades, carrying snacks to millions of hungry travellers as they are whisked along at speeds of around 300km/h (186mph).
But now the humble food and beverage trolleys of one of Japan’s shinkansen routes have become an unlikely must-have item in canteens and household kitchens across the country.
Continue reading...The environmentally friendly LignoSat probe – set to orbit this summer – has been created to combat harmful aluminium particles
Japanese scientists have created one of the world’s most unusual spacecraft – a tiny satellite that is made of timber.
The LignoSat probe has been built of magnolia wood, which, in experiments carried out on the International Space Station (ISS), was found to be particularly stable and resistant to cracking. Now plans are being finalised for it to be launched on a US rocket this summer.
Continue reading...Space agency announces ‘successful liftoff’ and says rocket has already released one micro-satellite
Japan’s space agency has successfully launched a second test model of its new flagship rocket H3, in a welcome boost to its space program after last year’s inaugural flight failed.
The launch further burnishes the country’s space credentials after the historic “pinpoint” moon landing of Japan’s Slim spacecraft last month.
Continue reading...Fall in rank below Germany has been attributed to a weak yen and country’s ageing, shrinking population
Japan has been eclipsed by Germany as the world’s third-biggest economy and has slipped into recession, according to data released Thursday, as the country battles a weak yen and an ageing, shrinking population.
Japan’s economy, now the world’s fourth-biggest, grew 1.9% in 2023 in nominal terms – meaning it is not adjusted for inflation – but in dollar terms its gross domestic product (GDP) stood at $4.2tn compared with $4.5tn for Germany.
Continue reading...MPs find Treasury-affiliated bodies have engaged Horizon firm since damning 2019 high court judgment
The Japanese technology company Fujitsu, whose flawed technology for the Post Office led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of subpostmasters, is confirmed to have held contracts worth more than £3.4bn linked to the Treasury since 2019.
Figures published by the Commons’ treasury committee show £1.4bn of contracts were awarded to Treasury-affiliated organisations after a high court ruling in December 2019 over the company’s software. The judgment found that “bugs, errors and defects” in Fujitsu’s Horizon system could cause shortfalls in Post Office branch accounts.
Continue reading...Hong Kong fans need answers over missed fixture, government says, amid online furore over Inter Miami tour
Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and fans have cried foul after Lionel Messi played in a match in Japan, just days after he stayed on the bench for a highly-anticipated match in Hong Kong.
Many in Hong Kong were dismayed on Sunday when the 36-year-old Argentinian player did not come on to the field during a much-hyped Inter Miami fixture to a sell-out crowd with fans demanding answers and a refund. Miami’s head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said Messi was deemed unfit to play in Sunday’s match in the Hong Kong friendly.
Continue reading...Ruling comes months after supreme court ruled that requiring sterilisation before a change of gender in official records was unconstitutional
A court in western Japan has approved a transgender man’s request to have his gender changed in official records without undergoing sterilisation surgery, the first known ruling of its kind since the country’s top court struck down a surgery requirement for such record changes.
Tacaquito Usui, 50, could get the gender listed for him in his family registry updated to male, the Okayama family court’s Tsuyama branch ruled on Wednesday. Usui’s original application for the revision was rejected five years ago.
Continue reading...Pod of orcas in north Japan freed themselves as gaps between the ice grew, officials say
A pod of killer whales trapped by drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, have apparently safely escaped, officials have said.
The orcas were initially spotted by a fisher who reported them to officials in the town of Rausu, on the north-east coast of Hokkaido, on Tuesday morning.
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