Category Archives: Japan

Fukushima unveils plans to become renewable energy hub

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Japan aims to power region, scene of 2011 meltdown, with 100% renewable energy by 2040

Fukushima is planning to transform itself into a renewable energy hub, almost nine years after it became the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident for a quarter of a century.

The prefecture in north-east Japan will forever be associated with the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011, but in an ambitious project the local government has vowed to power the region with 100% renewable energy by 2040, compared with 40% today.

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My father, the quiet hero: how Japan’s Schindler saved 6,000 Jews

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Chiune Sugihara’s son tells how he learned of his father’s rescue mission in Lithuania, which commemorates his achievements this year

As a child in Japan in the 1950s and 60s, Nobuki Sugihara never knew his father had saved thousands of lives. Few did. His father, Chiune Sugihara, was a trader who lived in a small coastal town about 34 miles south of Tokyo. When not on business trips to Moscow, he coached his young son in mathematics and English. He made breakfast, spreading butter on the toast so thinly “nobody could compete”.

His son had no idea his father saved 6,000 Jews during the second world war. Over six weeks in the summer of 1940, while serving as a diplomat in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara defied orders from his bosses in Tokyo, and issued several thousand visas for Jewish refugees to travel to Japan.

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Carlos Ghosn: an arrest, an escape, and questions about justice in Japan

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The feted car executive had railed against the motives behind his detention since the day he was arrested

Carlos Ghosn’s dramatic escape from Japan to Lebanon last week has raised many questions over how he pulled off such an audacious act, but his motives are not in doubt. With four months to go before his financial misconduct trial was due to begin, the net was closing in on the former auto executive, and he knew it.

Nissan’s one-time saviour had not been permitted to speak to his wife over Christmas, and was disturbed by news that Japanese prosecutors had questioned his son and daughter in the US in early December. For Ghosn, according to sources close to him, it amounted to an attempt to force him to confess.

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Japan’s warship deployment could push a pacifist country into conflict | Jeff Kingston

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Prime minister Shinzo Abe is trying to keep Donald Trump on side, but the Japanese people are watching with worry

Since the end of the second world war and the enactment of its pacifist constitution, Japan has deployed its forces overseas mostly on peacekeeping operations under UN auspices – and almost never to places where its troops are in harm’s way. But next month, the country will send a naval destroyer to the Middle East. On what is being described as an intelligence-gathering mission, the warship will patrol the Gulf of Oman, the northern part of the Arabian sea and a portion of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, following a series of attacks on oil tankers in the region – including one that was Japanese-operated.

In 2015, Abe passed unpopular legislation allowing Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defence

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Japan issues Interpol wanted notice for Carlos Ghosn

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Move follows tycoon’s dramatic flight to Beirut to escape corruption charges

Japanese authorities have issued an Interpol wanted notice for Carlos Ghosn, as the former Nissan and Renault chairman released a statement denying his wife or family were involved in his dramatic flight from corruption charges in Japan.

The international policing organisation’s “red notice” alerts forces around the world that a person is wanted, in this case by Japanese police.

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Carlos Ghosn prepares to speak as Japan comes to terms with saviour who fled

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Wife dismisses reports husband escaped inside an instrument case as world awaits full explanation from fugitive

The world will have to wait until next week for what could be the only definitive account of how Carlos Ghosn managed to leave Japan months before he was due to stand trial for alleged financial misconduct.

The former Nissan chairman who fled the country to Lebanon while out on bail, will speak to the media in Beirut next Wednesday, media reports said, in a public appearance that could provide answers to myriad questions swirling around his daring escape.

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Japan’s media accuse Carlos Ghosn of ‘cowardly act’ after flight to Lebanon

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Papers question granting of bail, while reports suggest Ghosn met Lebanese president

The usually staid Japanese media have criticised Carlos Ghosn after the tycoon jumped bail and fled to Lebanon – reportedly inside a musical instrument case – to avoid what he called “political persecution” in Japan.

“Running away is a cowardly act that mocks Japan’s justice system,” said the Yomiuri Shimbun. By leaving the country, Ghosn had “lost the opportunity to prove his innocence and vindicate his honour”, the paper added, noting that the courts, his defence lawyers and immigration control officials also bore some responsibility in the affair.

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Carlos Ghosn escaped Japan ‘hiding in a musical instrument case’

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His ‘big adventure’ reportedly involved his wife, a Gregorian band and ex-special services

Carlos Ghosn reportedly fled house arrest in Japan in a musical instrument case, in an audacious Hollywood movie-style escape masterminded by his wife, Carole, with the assistance of a Gregorian music band and a team of ex-special forces officers.

The escape began when the band arrived at his home in Tokyo, where Ghosn has been held under house arrest and strict police surveillance, according to Lebanese TV news channel MTV. At the end of the performance, as the musicians packed up their instruments, Ghosn – whose height is stated at 1.7m, or just under 5ft 6in, in his Wikipedia entry – apparently slipped into one of the larger cases and was taken to a small local airport.

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Carlos Ghosn, ousted Nissan boss, says he has fled ‘Japanese injustice’

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Ghosn, who had been banned from leaving Japan, flies to Lebanon and says he will no longer be held in a rigged system

Carlos Ghosn, who is awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct, has left Japan and arrived in Lebanon to “escape injustice”.

The former Nissan chairman issued a statement on Tuesday morning in which he said he would “no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed”.

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Seven bodies found on suspected North Korean fishing boat in Japan

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Experts say vessel was possibly travelling far out to sea for bigger catches

Seven badly decomposed bodies were found in a suspected North Korean fishing boat that washed up on a Japanese island, a coast guard official.

The remains were found on Saturday in a broken vessel on the shore of Sado Island, which lies around 900km from North Korea across the Sea of Japan.

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How Japan has fared in 30 years since the stock market bubble burst

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Nostalgia for the good times has been a coping mechanism for the world’s third largest economy

On 29 December 1989, Japan’s Nikkei stock market index hit a high of 38,916, a milestone that proved to be the last hurrah of the country’s asset-inflated bubble economy – a period of ostentatious consumption and overconfidence in the infallibility of Japan, Inc.

What followed was a spectacular fall from the heights of the mid- to late 1980s. The stock market plummeted, losing more than $2tn (£1.5tn) in value by December 1990. In the years that followed, the Japanese surveyed an alien landscape of “restructuring” – code for cost-cutting – deflation and stagnation. When the bubble party ended, its hosts appeared to have no idea how to clean up the mess left by absurdly high share and property prices.

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Fight to become Japan’s gyoza capital gently simmers

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Utsunomiya’s culinary obsession with dumplings dates back to the end of the war, but the city has a new rival

Pan-fried, deep-fried or simmered in boiling water, the humble gyoza is venerated in Japan, but nowhere more so than in Utsunomiya, whose residents have the tiny parcels of pork and cabbage to thank for rescuing their city from obscurity.

The city of just over half a million, 60 miles (100km) north of Tokyo, has built an entire tourist industry around its association with the dumplings, drawing 9 million visitors a year with the sole purpose of eating Utsunomiya’s contribution to Japanese cuisine.

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Little Miss Period: the manga character challenging Japan’s menstruation taboos

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Film praised by women in Japan where talking about periods in public is considered dirty or embarrassing

A manga character shaped like a pink blob with bright red lips and leggings is challenging taboos surrounding menstruation in Japan, but not everyone is convinced that Seiri-chan – Little Miss Period – is a force for good.

The anthropomorphised period, now the star of an anime movie of the same name, has received a largely positive response from women in Japan where talking in public about menstruation is often seen as dirty or embarrassing.

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Japanese officials helped procure wartime sex slaves, report claims

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News agency says diplomatic dispatches contradict claims that so-called ‘comfort women’ worked willingly

The Japanese imperial army asked the government to provide one wartime sex slave for every 70 soldiers serving in China in the late 1930s, according to dispatches that offer evidence of official involvement in the recruitment of women to work in military brothels.

The dispatches from Japanese diplomatic missions in China include requests to the foreign ministry in Tokyo to provide “comfort women”, Kyodo news agency reported. The term was a euphemism used to describe tens of thousands of women from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and other countries who were forced into sexual servitude before and during the second world war.

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Japanese aid chief among six dead in Afghanistan attack

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Japanese prime minister among those to pay tribute after Tetsu Nakamura is killed in deadly ambush on car

The head of a Japanese aid agency and five other people have been killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan

Among the victims was Tetsu Nakamura, 73, the respected physician and head of Peace Japan Medical Services, who had recently been granted honorary Afghan citizenship for his decades of humanitarian work in the country.

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World’s best sushi restaurant stripped of its three Michelin stars

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Guide will not rate Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo as it is no longer open to the public

The world’s best sushi restaurant has been stripped of its three Michelin stars.

But the decision, which was announced in Tokyo on Tuesday, has nothing to do with the quality of the restaurant’s tuna belly or the consistency of its vinegared rice. It is because it is no longer open to the public.

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Shinzo Abe weathers scandals to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister

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Analysts say Abe has benefited from a weak opposition and a desire for stability among voters

Shinzo Abe has become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, but the milestone came amid a political scandal and doubts over his ability to realise his dream of revising the country’s postwar “pacifist” constitution.

Abe has spent a total of 2,887 days as leader during two periods in office, beating the previous record set by Taro Katsura more than a century ago.

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Japan’s rising sun flag is not a symbol of militarism | Letter

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Ohtaka Masato of Japan’s foreign affairs ministry says his country’s flag should not be banned at the 2020 Olympics

Alexis Dudden’s opinion piece presents an argument on the rising sun flag based on the misunderstanding of Japan’s sincere dealings with the past (Japan’s rising sun flag has a history of horror. It must be banned at the Tokyo Olympics, 1 November).

Looking at Prime Minister Abe’s statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of the second world war – issued by cabinet consensus – it is clear that Japan has squarely faced the facts of history and repeatedly expressed feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology for its actions during the war, which this opinion piece fails to recognise.

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Japanese women demand right to wear glasses at work

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Public outcry after TV show exposes businesses imposing ban on female staff

Japanese women on social media are demanding the right to wear glasses to work, after reports that employers were imposing bans.

In the latest protest against rigid rules over women’s appearance, the hashtag “glasses are forbidden” was trending on Twitter in reaction to a Japanese television show that exposed businesses that were imposing the bans on female staff.

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Sky-high selfies: Japan warns US over ‘outrageous’ antics of military pilots

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Marine corps pilots took photos and read books while flying, according to a US military investigation

Japan’s defence ministry is to call on US forces based in the country to ensure the safety of their aircraft after pilots from a marine corps unit involved in a deadly crash last year were shown taking selfies and reading books while flying.

A US military report on the investigation into the December 2018 crash revealed widespread misconduct among the unit’s pilots, including some who had posted selfies from their cockpits on social media.

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