Category Archives: Japan

Which is the world’s hardest-working city?

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Tokyo may be the most ‘overworked’ city – but there are ways to measure how hard a city works other than simply totting up the overtime

In July 2013, 31-year-old Miwa Sado, a reporter for Japan’s national broadcaster NHK, was found dead in her Tokyo apartment. She had died from heart failure. It was later revealed that Sado had logged 159 hours and 37 minutes of overtime at work in the month before her death. Sado’s death was officially designated as a “death from overwork”.

So common are cases of people dying from overwork in Japan that the country has a special term for it, karoshi. The first case of karoshi was recorded in 1969; according to government data, Japan had 190 deaths from overwork in 2017.

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Japan should scrap nuclear reactors after Fukushima, says new environment minister

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Shinjiro Koizumi says: ‘We will be doomed if we allow another accident to occur’

Japan’s new environment minister has called for the country’s nuclear reactors to be scrapped to prevent a repeat of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Shinjiro Koizumi’s comments, made hours after he became Japan’s third-youngest cabinet minister since the war, could set him on a collision course with Japan’s pro-nuclear prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

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Typhoon Faxai forces thousands to evacuate in Greater Tokyo Area – video

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One of the strongest typhoons to hit the Japanese capital in recent years made landfall just east of Tokyo on Monday, bringing record-breaking winds, stinging rain and sending some rivers close to the top of their banks. About 5,000 people in Chiba and nearby Kanagawa prefecture were ordered to evacuate and more than 100 flights were cancelled and scores of train lines were closed.  

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Japan’s former empress Michiko has surgery for breast cancer

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The 84-year-old Michiko, wife of former emperor Akihito, has undergone surgery for early-stage breast cancer

Japan’s former empress Michiko underwent surgery on Sunday after the 84-year-old was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the imperial household agency said.

Michiko’s husband Akihito formally stepped down as emperor in April, the first abdication for 200 years in the world’s oldest monarchy.

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North Korea fires two suspected missiles after branding Pompeo a ‘toxin’

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Launch comes day after regime called US secretary of state ‘impudent’ and questioned his ability in nuclear talks

North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Saturday in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Korea’s military said, a day after it threatened to remain America’s biggest threat in protest against US-led sanctions on the country.

The North had been expected to halt weapons tests because 10-day joint US-South Korean military exercises ended earlier this week. Pyongyang regards these drills as an invasion rehearsal.

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North Korea now able to miniaturise nuclear warheads – Japan defence report

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Upcoming review out of Tokyo will reportedly say missile programme poses ‘serious and imminent threat’

Japan’s government will reportedly state that North Korea is capable of miniaturising nuclear warheads in a forthcoming defence report, it has emerged.

Tokyo will upgrade its estimate of the regime’s nuclear capability, having said last year only that the technical feat was a possibility, the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said on Wednesday, without citing sources.

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Japanese food store closes after videos of rats browsing its shelves go viral

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Footage of rodents running along the top of fridges, down walls and across aisles of FamilyMart shop in Tokyo viewed 5m times

A major convenience store operator in Japan has closed one of its shops and issued an apology after video clips of several rats scurrying across its floor and dropping from its shelves were widely shared online.

FamilyMart, which has 14,000 stores nationwide, said it had closed the store in the busy Tokyo district of Shibuya after users posted clips of at least half a dozen rats inside the shop.

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North Korea missile tests could be effort to divide US, Japan and South

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Three launches in eight days point to ulterior motive amid strained relations between its neighbours and Washington

The series of short-range missile tests by North Korea over the last eight days could be an attempt by Pyongyang to exploit strained US-Japan-South Korea relations, analysts have said.

The latest launches, at about 3am on Friday from North Korea’s east coast, involved the firing of two unidentified projectiles into the Sea of Japan. They follow two tests in the past eight days.

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South Korean petrol stations refuse to fill up Japanese cars amid growing boycott

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Sales of holidays, beer and even tickets to see Butt Detective the Movie slump amid trade tensions

Petrol stations and garages in South Korea are refusing to fill up or service Japanese cars as part of a growing boycott of Japanese goods sparked by trade and political tensions.

Sales of trips to Japan, Japanese beer and even tickets for the anime work Butt Detective the Movie have all been affected, and there are demonstrations outside Japan’s embassy in Seoul, though some now worry the campaign is setting Koreans against each other.

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Nissan plans to shed 10,000 jobs worldwide, reports claim

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Cuts would be twice as many as the carmaker announced in May and will increase fears of UK losses

The carmaker Nissan plans to cut more than 10,000 jobs around the world as part of efforts to turn itself around, Japanese media have reported.

Nissan announced in May it would cut 4,800 jobs from its global workforce of around 139,000 as it grapples with a fall in profits to a near-decade low amid “a difficult business environment”.

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Kyoto Animation’s stories celebrated warmth and belonging. The fire is a tragic loss of life and legacy | Patrick Lum

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The studio that nurtured creativity and treasured its staff made anime that found magic in the everyday

Like many fans, I wasn’t really aware of specific animation houses or companies when I first got into Japanese animation as a kid. Anime, as far as I was concerned, came from Japan: end of story. But over time, it became apparent that some of my favourite series and movies were all done by the same studio – a powerhouse named Kyoto Animation.

Related: Kyoto Animation studio fire suspect named by police

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Listen, bend and stretch: how Japan fell in love with exercise on the radio

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Millions join in a mass rajio taisō workout broadcast daily for nearly 70 years

“One, two, three, four … five, six, seven, eight …” That is the cue for half a dozen people braving a humid morning at Kamezuka park in Tokyo to bend, stretch, jump, and run on the spot. The group’s personal trainer is a portable radio perched on the top of a children’s slide. A male voice’s simple instructions, issued to a jaunty piano accompaniment, has become a staple of daily life in Japan since the broadcasts, known as rajio taisō (radio calisthenics), first hit the airwaves almost a century ago.

The three-minute routine is the perfect way to start the day, says Yukihide Maruyama, a 79-year-old retired businessman who has performed the routine nearly every day for a decade. “The exercises aren’t that difficult and afterwards you feel like your body has properly woken up.”

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Mourners pay tribute to victims of Kyoto Animation studio fire – video

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Mourners gathered in Japan on Friday to lay flowers outside Kyoto Animation after an arson attack that killed at least 33 people. Many of the victims were employees of the studio, which works on movies and TV productions but is best known for its mega-hit stories featuring high-school girls

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Kyoto Animation fire: police search for clues as donations pass $1m mark

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Fire officials say most victims were found on top floor as tens of thousands donate to crowdfunding appeal

Japan has been plunged into a state of shock after an arson attack on a popular anime studio killed at least 33 people as investigators searched for a motive and clues as to why the fire proved so deadly.

Thirty-six others were injured, some of them critically, in Thursday’s blaze at Kyoto Animation, which is Japan’s deadliest fire in nearly two decades.

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Kyoto Animation studio fire: at least 25 dead after arson attack in Japan

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Dozens more injured after ‘man threw liquid and set fire’ to building, police say

Japan has been plunged into a state of shock after an arson attack on an anime studio left at least 33 people dead and dozens injured in the country’s worst mass murder in nearly two decades.

The perpetrator, who was also injured and has been taken into police custody, walked into the 1st Studio building of Kyoto Animation in Fujimi ward, Kyoto, at about 10.30am. He poured what is suspected to be petrol in multiple areas of the building before igniting it.

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KyoAni fire: arson attack at Kyoto Animation studio – video report

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Fire swept through an animation studio in Japan on Thursday, killing at least 33 people and injuring scores more, with the cause suspected to have been arson after a man was seen shouting 'die' as he doused the building with petrol. Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, tweeted that the fire in Kyoto was 'too appalling for words' and offered condolences to the victims. Police have taken a 41-year-old man into custody

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