Hundreds of people attempted to get hold of special edition newspapers at a station in central Tokyo after the name of Japan's new imperial era was announced on Monday. The government announced the era, beginning when Crown Prince Naruhito becomes emperor on 1 May, will be called Reiwa, which can be loosely translated to 'fortunate harmony'
Continue reading...Category Archives: Japan
Japanese cherry blossom in full bloom – in pictures
Japan’s sakura (cherry blossom) season has officially begun, with crowds flocking to parks to photograph the early blooms
Continue reading...‘It’s our time to rise up’: youth climate strikes held in 100 countries
School and university students continue Friday protests to call for political action on crisis
From Australia to America, children put down their books on Friday to march for change in the first global climate strike.
The event was embraced in the developing nations of India and Uganda and in the Philippines and Nepal – countries acutely impacted by climate change - as tens of thousands of schoolchildren and students in more than 100 countries went on “strike”, demanding the political elite urgently address what they say is a climate emergency.
Continue reading...Fukushima grapples with toxic soil that no one wants
Eight years after the disaster, not a single location will take the millions of cubic metres of radioactive soil that remain
Not even the icy wind blowing in from the coast seems to bother the men in protective masks, helmets and gloves, playing their part in the world’s biggest nuclear cleanup.
Related: Eight years after Fukushima, what has made evacuees come home?
Continue reading...More than 80 injured in Japan ferry collision
Vessel believed to have collided with marine life, possibly a whale, off Sado island
A ferry collided with what was believed to be a marine animal off a Japanese island on Saturday, injuring more than 80 people, local media reported.
The incident happened just after noon off Sado island, Kyodo News agency reported.
Continue reading...Japanese woman, 116, named world’s oldest living person
Kane Tanaka, born in 1903, recognised by Guinness World Records
A 116-year-old Japanese woman who loves playing the board game Othello has been named the world’s oldest living person by Guinness World Records.
Kane Tanaka was recognised in a ceremony on Saturday at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka, in Japan’s south-west.
Continue reading...Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth
After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to the planet, to human health – and to culture itself
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the global building industry will have poured more than 19,000 bathtubs of concrete. By the time you are halfway through this article, the volume would fill the Albert Hall and spill out into Hyde Park. In a day it would be almost the size of China’s Three Gorges Dam. In a single year, there is enough to patio over every hill, dale, nook and cranny in England.
After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US.
Continue reading...Okinawa referendum rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on
Tokyo sees controversial plan for new base at Henoko as key to US security alliance
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum.
Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.
Continue reading...Japan’s Hayabusa 2 successfully touches down on Ryugu asteroid
The probe was due to fire a pellet into the surface of the asteroid to try to capture dust
A Japanese spacecraft has successfully touched down on a speeding asteroid 300 million kilometres from the Earth as it attempts an audacious manoeuvre to collect samples and bring them back for scientists to study.
The Hayabusa 2 probe touched down on the asteroid Ryugu at around 11:30pm GMT on Thursday. Data from the probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had reached the asteroid’s surface, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
Continue reading...Honda’s decision is a vote of no confidence in Britain’s future
There is a sense that while the Swindon plant’s days were numbered, Brexit tipped the balance
Honda claims Brexit had nothing to do with the decision to shutter its Swindon plant, but almost nobody seems to be buying it.
The consensus among industry pundits is that it suits Honda to avoid dipping its toe into the toxic pool of Brexit.
Continue reading...Hunt and Fox’s Japanese fumble is a sign of UK’s weakness
Attempt to hustle Japan into a trade deal highlights the problems facing ‘global Britain’
It takes a lot to anger the unfailingly polite, anglophile Japanese. But Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, appear to have managed it with their ill-judged attempt to hustle Tokyo into a quick-fire Brexit trade deal.
The diplomatic fumble has highlighted rapidly escalating difficulties facing “global Britain” – the government’s nebulous vision for life after the EU – in forging new business and trade relationships around the world without an agreed post-Brexit strategy.
Continue reading...Japan almost cancelled Brexit talks due to ‘high-handed’ letter – report
Trade talks will go ahead despite reported dismay at language used by Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt
Japanese officials have reportedly accused Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox of taking a “high-handed” approach towards a post-Brexit free trade deal, and briefly considered cancelling bilateral talks due to take place this week.
The Financial Times cited unnamed officials in Tokyo who reacted with dismay to a letter sent on 8 February in which Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Fox, the international trade secretary, insisted that “time is of the essence” in securing a trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy.
Continue reading...Same-sex couples in Japan launch Valentine’s Day bid for marriage equality
Five lesbian and eight gay couples seek damages from government for denying them same rights as heterosexual spouses
Chizuka Oe and Yoko Ogawa have been together for 25 years, but when they submitted their marriage registration at a Tokyo town hall they knew it would be rejected.
“We were told that they cannot accept our registration because we are both women,” said Ogawa, standing in the winter sun outside the building in Nakano in western Tokyo.
Continue reading...Taiji dolphin hunt: activists to launch unprecedented legal challenge
Exclusive: lawsuit in Japan contends that dolphins are wrongly classified as fish and should be protected as mammals
Animal rights activists have launched an unprecedented legal challenge to the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, claiming that fishermen are routinely violating animal welfare laws and exceeding government-set quotas.
The London-based organisation Action for Dolphins and the Japanese NGO Life Investigation Agency on Wednesday submitted evidence they hope will halt the annual dolphin hunts in Taiji, a whaling town on Japan’s Pacific coast, the Guardian can reveal.
Continue reading...Japanese women push back against Valentine’s tradition of ‘obligation chocolate’
For many, pressure to avoid causing offence by spending thousands of yen on treats for coworkers is becoming intolerable
Japanese women are pushing back against a tradition that dictates they must give chocolates to male colleagues on Valentine’s Day, with growing anger at the practice of “forced giving”.
Until recently, women in the workplace were expected to buy chocolates for their male workmates as part of a tradition called giri choco – literally, obligation chocolates.
Continue reading...No-deal Brexit: UK exporters risk being locked out of world’s harbours
Goods dispatched in coming days may not arrive until after 29 March deadline
British exporters sending goods to far-flung destinations in the coming days risk being locked out of harbours around the world as a no-deal Brexit looms, business leaders have warned.
Independent trade experts and the UK’s biggest business groups said exporters could be dispatching goods from UK ports imminently that would not arrive until after the 29 March deadline. This raised the prospect of goods being stuck in ports or facing hefty additional costs in the event of a disorderly Brexit.
Continue reading...Japan’s deputy PM blames women for nation’s falling population
Anger after Taro Aso appears to say women not giving birth are the ‘problem’
Japan’s gaffe-prone deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, has been forced to retract remarks that appeared to blame women who do not have children for problems associated with the country’s low birthrate and ageing population.
Aso, who doubles as finance minister, told a constituency meeting in Fukuoka, south-west Japan, at the weekend that older people were being unfairly singled out to explain the country’s demographic crisis.
Continue reading...Tokyo 2020 organisers cut crowds at sailing events over tsunami risk
Olympic authorities reduce crowd size to make evacuations easier
The organisers of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have decided to cut the number of spectators for the sailing events by a third so they can be quickly evacuated to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics organising committee had initially planned to allow up to 5,000 people to watch the sailing events off Enoshima island, just south of the Japanese capital, according to the public broadcaster NHK.
Continue reading...Ariana Grande mocked for Japanese tattoo typo: ‘Leave me and my grill alone’
Singer was hoping for a Japanese translation of the title of her hit 7 Rings. Instead she ended up with a tattoo which means ‘small charcoal grill’
Too bad pop star Ariana Grande is vegan – she just tattooed an accidental homage to a Japanese barbeque grill on her palm.
The US singer’s attempt to ink an ode to her hit single 7 Rings backfired Wednesday after social media quickly chimed in to tell her the characters actually translated to “shichirin”: a small charcoal grill.
Continue reading...Naomi Osaka sponsor apologises for ‘whitewashing’ tennis star in ad
Noodle company Nissin says it will ‘pay more attention to diversity issues in the future’
One of Naomi Osaka’s sponsors has been forced to apologise after depicting the Japanese tennis star, who is half-Haitian, with pale skin in an advertisement.
Nissin featured Osaka in an ad for its Cup Noodle range of instant ramen. It depicts Osaka, who holds dual Japanese and American citizenship, with pale skin, wavy brown hair and Caucasian facial features.
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