Nipponica

Naoki Fujii, 64, a former vice-minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, took office as the president of NAA in June. Regarding the functional enhancement of Narita Airport, located in Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo, by adding a new runway and extending another, he stated, "It's meaningful to do what Haneda can't. We will leverage Narita's strengths." In his comments to various media outlets, he also expressed his intention to focus on diversifying the international flight network and expanding low-cost carrier (LCC) flights.

He emphasized the advantage of Narita's dedicated terminal for LCCs, stating, "We want to increase the number of people who choose to fly from Narita because of the lower fares," showing enthusiasm for the expansion of LCCs. He also mentioned strengthening the acceptance of business jets.

It is good that Narita is slowing finding its niche after Haneda’s expansion tanked Narita as the international hub in Tokyo. But, please, install a proper ceiling in Terminal 3. It just looks so bad as it is.

Yonaguni Island, Japan’s westernmost remote island in Okinawa Prefecture, might not have a single doctor from next spring as the island’s only clinic will be unable to secure one, partly due to a possible contingency in Taiwan.

A Tokyo based medical association, which has dispatched doctors to the town of Yonaguni, has indicated that it would stop sending them, raising concerns among those living on the island, which is located only about 110 kilometers from Taiwan.

While it is understandable that many fear the impact of a possible war in Taiwan, an island community without medical care is not a community at all. Give them hazard pay, recruit from overseas, whatever is necessary to keep Yonaguni alive.

The agency is recommending replacing the government’s long-standing Kunrei system with more widely used Hepburn-style spellings. The changes are expected to be approved within the current fiscal year and gradually rolled out in textbooks and other materials.

Under the Kunrei system, codified by Cabinet notification in 1954, phonemes for ち and ふ are written as ti and hu. Most Japanese schools still teach the style in romanization studies.

But the Hepburn system, which renders them as chi and fu, has become dominant both in Japan and abroad, making the impact of the change likely most evident in educational materials such as school textbooks.

The council’s recommendation also adopts Hepburn spellings for し, じ and つ as shi, ji, and tsu, compared to the Kunrei spellings of si, zi and tu. It specifies that double consonants, as in てっぱん, should be written by repeating the consonant, while long vowels such as in かあさん can be indicated with either a macron (kāsan) or doubled letters (kaasan).

It is about a century too late but in Japanese time scales, pretty speedy. On a conceptual level I understand why Kunrei did what it did, but practically it only led to confusion for non-Japanese readers. Hepburn über alles.

Firefighting efforts on the ship, anchored near White Beach Naval Facility in the city of Uruma in Japan's southern island prefecture, involved U.S. Navy personnel as well as support from the Japan Coast Guard and the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki expressed his deep frustration over the incident, warning at a press conference that it could have led to "a major disaster involving residents."

Americans making messes overseas. Just another day.

Two branches of the Japanese convenience store chain Ministop in Kyoto Prefecture are suspected of falsifying expiry dates on foods prepared in their kitchens for several years, the local health center said Tuesday.

The revelation comes after operator Ministop Co., a subsidiary of retail giant Aeon Co., said Monday it had found such misconduct at 23 stores in Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo and Fukuoka prefectures.

This may be my own bias but I’ve always considered Ministops to be a lesser konbini in the great hierarchy so I’m not too surprised. Long live the king, long live Seicomart.

A policy proposal on coexistence with foreign residents in Japan has drawn a strong response after it was compiled by Shizuoka Gov. Yasutomo Suzuki at a meeting of the National Governors’ Association held in Aomori Prefecture in July.

The proposal calls on the central government to establish a comprehensive basic law and set up a central coordinating body for multicultural coexistence policies.

According to the prefectural government, as of Monday morning, it had received approximately 200 emails and phone calls. Many were critical, with comments such as, “It is unreasonable to use tax money to support foreigners,” or “This is inhospitable toward Japanese people.”

A friendly reminder that racism is everywhere.

The memorandum will allow Japan to receive information on non-Japanese people who seek entry to Japan from Taiwan, according to the sources. This will help Japan more effectively screen individuals and determine who may pose a threat to domestic security in the wake of a contingency. Under the memorandum, travelers bound for Japan will also receive a pre-departure check at Taiwan airports outside of contingencies.

“Chinese agents could enter Japan by concealing themselves among Taiwanese nationals,” a Japanese source warned.

The article notes how unusual this kind of agreement is and it is kinda chilling that there is public-level planning for this situation. But best to be prepared rather than improvise in the chaos.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency is set to designate at least four cities in the country as “hometowns” for certain nations in Africa at the 2025 Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

The agency, which assists with implementing development assistance in developing countries, will assign the city of Nagai in Yamagata Prefecture to Tanzania, Kisarazu in Chiba Prefecture to Nigeria, Sanjo in Niigata Prefecture to Ghana and Imabari in Ehime Prefecture to Mozambique.

The purpose stated in the article is that it will promote two-way dialog and bring more population to these cities in Japan. But with an immigration system like it is now, is it realistic to expect that Africans could immigrate to Japan?

A male assistant professor at Hokkaido University assaulted and injured multiple students while intoxicated at a social gathering, sources involved with the university have told the Mainichi Shimbun.

Following the incident, the students called on the university administration to conduct an investigation and take disciplinary action against the assistant professor, a member of the chemistry department of the university's Faculty of Science, questioning the department's reluctance to make the issue public. It took over a month following the incident for the department to distribute a document to students regarding "measures to prevent a recurrence."

Totally outrageous and this faculty should be terminated and prosecuted. Let’s keep the school violence sequestered on the other side of the Pacific and not let it seep into this country.

Japanese trading house Itochu will begin discussions with the banking unit of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain on a capital and business alliance, as it looks to increase its consumer financial service offerings.

The Japanese trader has "agreed to commence discussions" with Seven Bank on the tie-up, "including collaboration across a wide range of financial fields," it said on Monday. Nikkei understands that Itochu is considering acquiring not only Seven Bank's treasury shares -- stock bought back from shareholders -- but also shares held by institutional investors. Combined, they would potentially amount to a 20% stake.

Worth noting that Itochu owns FamilyMart. Compared to the failed Couche-Tard deal, increased domestic partnerships like this seem like a better way to grow.