Nipponica

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will announce the initiative at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Yokohama, Japan, that runs from Wednesday to Aug. 22.

Japan will support efforts to link India, the Middle East and Africa. The aim is to capture demand in African emerging markets and pursue economic security aims, such as ensuring a stable supply of resources.

To increase maritime shipping in the western Indian Ocean, Tokyo will use official development assistance to help build ports and roads in East Africa.

More belts. More roads.

The number of foreign-born workers has more than quadrupled in seven Japanese prefectures compared with a decade ago, underscoring how prominent immigrants have become in supporting understaffed small-town economies.

Foreign workers are now essential participants at every link in the supply chain, from harvesting crops to processing and shipping goods to customer service and retail.

Foreigners are holding the country together and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Parties that are anti-immigrant are anti-Japan, plain and simple.

Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka and leader of Nippon Ishin no Kai, has suggested the possibility of making another bid for a so-called Osaka metropolis plan, an idea rejected twice in local referendums.

The long-discussed plan would scrap the city of Osaka and reorganize it into special administrative districts under Osaka Prefecture.

I’m curious to know the public’s thoughts on why the previous referendums were rejected. A reorganization might fall in the “ain’t broke, don’t fix it” bucket but perhaps increased autonomy in the wards would be better in the long run. Interested to see how this plays out again.

Tatsuhiko Hoshino, an international relations officer at the nonprofit Japan Association of Overseas Studies (JAOS), said the depreciation of the yen had a significant impact on Japanese students looking to study abroad.

“There has been a notable shift away from traditionally expensive destinations,” Hoshino said, noting that students who still had their hearts set on Europe were looking to more affordable countries such as Germany, Hungary or Malta.

“This trend is unlikely to change, and I believe we will see even more Japanese students opting to study in Asia or EU countries going forward,” Hoshino said.

If I was a Japanese student looking at prices of an American undergrad education, I would do the same thing. It is simply unsustainable in this economy to expect students to go into lifetime debt for an educational gamble.

Japan is set to join Estonia's housing construction project by supplying façade materials for an 18-unit apartment building in the city of Brusyliv, Ukraine, under JICA's new initiative to engage Japan's private sector in Ukraine's reconstruction. The building's façade materials will be procured from NICHIHA Corporation, one of Japan's leading producers of fiber cement material.

The joint JICA-ESTDEV project in Brusyliv will deliver a modern, eco-friendly modular timber-frame apartment building, designed with energy efficiency, Passive House principles and solar readiness at its core.

This is what international leadership looks like. Not funding violence. Not prioritizing politics. It is caring for people.

The visitor toilet accreditation system in Gunma Prefecture began in 2003, with conditions at 259 bathrooms meeting its standards as of fiscal 2024. Facilities are judged on cleanliness, safety, ease of use and other factors based on around 25 points, with certified lavatories bearing a plaque with the prefectural mascot Gunmachan.

Please don’t let the rating system be a touch screen installed by the toilet paper.

On August 12, 1985, the crash of a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 in central Japan resulted in 520 fatalities. It was Japan’s deadliest air accident, as well as the deadliest air disaster in history involving a single aircraft and no additional deaths on the ground.

A sad tale. The TV program Mayday did an episode on this crash it is worth the watch. The fact that four people managed to survive is frankly amazing.

The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition on Aug. 11 announced that a total of 18,095,703 tickets to the Osaka Expo had been sold as of Aug. 8, surpassing the approximately 18 million tickets set as a guideline for the break-even point for operating expenses.

However, the association has not disclosed the final outlook for profitability of the Expo, which will continue until Oct. 13, as unforeseen expenses could arise due to disasters or other factors.

Even if it doesn’t break even in the end with all expenses, it is a small miracle that it might be able to. World Expos are not money makers these days.

The app, named Bears, allows users to report bear sightings by accessing the city’s official LINE account, which is linked to the app, then tapping “Bear Information” followed by “I saw a bear! (Report).” Users then input their name, their phone number, the date, the time, the number of bears sighted (selecting adult or cub), and the location (searchable on a map) to submit the report. The process takes about one to two minutes to complete.

Serious commentary: This is actually a good idea to build upon LINE, something that basically everyone already uses to disseminate information like this. Should also be simple to spread this to other municipalities that are having the same problems.

Unserious commentary: This is a shameful example of LGBT discrimination in Japan. Leave bears alone!

Mt. Shinmoedake, located on the border between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures in the Kirishima Mountains range, erupted at 5:23 a.m. on Sunday, sending an ash plume over 3,000 meters high from the crater.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, ashfall is expected to the northeast, and there is a risk of small volcanic rocks being carried by the wind and falling within a range of approximately 14 kilometers.

Eyes to the sky. Stay safe out there.