Nipponica

Ishiba's resignation seems inevitable in the current political environment. He is expected to make a final decision as early as August on whether to step down.

On how long they would like Ishiba to stay, 36% of respondents said that "he should be replaced immediately" -- the highest percentage since he took office.

August is going to begin quite soon. Better start your pros and cons list Ishiba-chan.

Principal Miki Okada remarked, "In recent years, even Sapporo has experienced dangerous heat levels. Last year, there were days when the temperature inside the school building exceeded 30 C. Air conditioning is essential not only for creating a conducive learning environment but also for protecting students' lives."

Following the record high temperature of 36.3 C in Sapporo in the summer of 2023, the city began installing air conditioning in all municipal schools and kindergartens (312 facilities, approximately 6,000 rooms) starting in fiscal 2024. This summer, 39 schools (roughly 580 rooms), accounting for 12.5% of the total, had permanent air conditioners with outdoor units for the first time. The education board is expected to have 67.3% coverage by the summer of 2026, with all schools equipped by the summer of 2027.

As a Hokkaido-jin, this is a sad but necessary reality. This year’s summer was horrendous and most infrastructure was never built to need AC. I have never felt so lucky to have AC in my building than I was this year.

On Thursday, Koike held a 15-minute meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the organisation’s headquarters in New York. There, she proposed that more of the UN’s offices be relocated to cities elsewhere in the world, including Tokyo.

“Tokyo would like to provide various types of support [to the UN],” Koike told reporters after the meeting, highlighting the city’s advantages over other locations, such as “public safety, security and now, with the weak yen, there are other positive aspects to life”.

Guterres acknowledged that his office had “received offers of cooperation from various countries and regions”, but declined to elaborate on the Japanese proposal or whether it might be pursued further.

The UN offices across the world are heavily weighted towards New York and Europe, with the base in Nairobi being the main exception. Tokyo is already an HQ for one UN body, the United Nations University so it would make sense as a new Asian base outside its primarily regional office in Bangkok (which is facing a huge funding problem this year).

Traveling abroad as a Japanese resident forces me to become a honorary diplomat for my home nation. The ‘Cool Japan’ era has been over for a long while, but the country still is a soft powerhouse throughout the world.

As part of the extended deterrence talks in recent years, Tokyo and Washington have held multiple tabletop exercises to strategize a scenario in which a conflict broke out in East Asia and the United States is pressured to use nuclear weapons, according to the sources.

With that in mind, Japan and the United States reviewed how to coordinate and how to deal with issues stemming from the possible use of nuclear weapons, such as managing public opinion. Discussions also broached how much information the United States can share with Japan, the sources said.

A totally normal thing to do and publicly report I'm sure.

Nongshim, the South Korean food company known for its Shin Ramyun instant noodle brand, opened a Shin Ramyun Bunsik pop-up shop in June that will last for a year. "Bunsik" is Korean for "food made from flour" and commonly refers to inexpensive Korean dishes like ramen and tteokbokki simmered rice cakes.

Housed in the Okudo Dining & Cafe on trendy Takeshita-dori Street, the Korean-style noodle bar is operated by sales subsidiary Nongshim Japan and aims to attract Japanese women and visitors from abroad. In its instagrammable interior, customers can cook noodles, sold in plastic bags, using automated cookers. After setting the timers on the cookers, hot water pours into the dedicated bowls, which are being warmed at the same time.

Interested that they are focusing on 'Japanese women and visitors from abroad'. Are Japanese men too close-minded to try Korean food?

A postelection survey conducted by Kyodo News showed Friday that 56.4 percent of House of Councillors members do not favor a ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party and its junior partner Komeito party.

Asked about the preferred form of government after the election, 23.3 percent supported an opposition-led coalition, while 33.1 percent called for a new political framework through realignment, indicating a desire for change from the current ruling structure.

Thoughts and prayers to Ishiba-chan.

Mirai II, a Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) research vessel, is capable of breaking through sea ice up to 1.2 meters thick. The 128-meter-long Mirai II will help open marine transportation routes and conduct weather observations that previously had been difficult because sea routes were unavailable in the Arctic Ocean.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry has poured ¥33.9 billion into construction of the Mirai II, which is Japan’s first research vessel equipped with ice-breaking capabilities. Construction began in 2021, the vessel was launched in March this year and it will be completed in autumn 2026. The ship’s ability to smash through thick ice will enable it to sail through the Arctic Ocean almost all year round.

A very cool ship that will help Japan secure itself as both an Arctic and Antarctic nation. With the Americans pulling funding for their science programs, Japan has the opportunity to step into the red, white, and blue void to be a leader in Arctic research.

Even now, eight decades after his arrival, MacArthur's legacy casts a long shadow over Japan's politics, identity and security. For some, he was a reformer who laid the foundations of democracy, pacifism and prosperity. For others, he was a foreign dictator who imposed a constitution that stifled Japan's sovereignty. Either way, the U.S.-led occupation -- and the institutions it birthed -- continue to define Japan's postwar trajectory.

A good history of MacArthur, the drafting of the Japanese constitution, and how all of that could be undermined in our current world. Bonus points for the photo of the nasty chair at Dougie's desk.

Japan’s only passenger hovercraft service carrying riders between Oita Airport in Kunisaki, Oita Prefecture, and Oita City was launched on Saturday.

The service takes just 35 minutes to travel between the two sites, compared to about an hour by road, making the airport more accessible than it was before.

I know they are fairly commonplace now, but the word hovercraft still excites the 10 year old in me.

Dozens of shops, restaurants and bars lining the streets of Tateishi Nakamise, a covered shopping arcade – or shotengai – in the capital’s eastern suburbs will make way for a new development. It will transform the skyline, but also change beyond recognition an entire community whose roots lie in the destruction caused by the second world war.

Across Tokyo and other Japanese cities, shotengai that sprung up during the Showa era [1926-1989] are in a losing battle against property developers, depopulation and a consumer culture that demands convenience.

On one side of the local railway station, a tall screen partially hides cranes preparing the ground for apartment blocks, shops and a multi-storey local government office. On the other, families that have run shops, bars and restaurants for two or three generations are bracing for the inevitable arrival of the wrecking balls.

This one hits close to home as I live on a famous shotengai that luckily is still bustling. When supported and funded properly by cities, these areas are communities unto themselves and should be protected. So much connection is lost when these unique alleys are replaced by cookie cutter developments.

A send-off event was held at the Japanese Embassy in New Delhi on Friday for 11 assistant language teachers and three international exchange coordinators who will be dispatched from India to Japan.

This marks the first regular dispatch of assistant language teachers from India under the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, a government initiative to promote international exchanges at the regional level. Only a few such personnel from India have participated in the program until now.

This is fantastic news and will diversify the JET program beyond English speakers from the Anglo world. I still have reservations of JET as a language education program as English levels of Japanese youth fail to rise. But as a cultural exchange program, it is world class.

The South Korean Air Force said Friday that a transport aircraft bound for Guam urgently landed at the U.S. Air Force's Kadena base in Okinawa Prefecture on July 13 as it ran out of fuel.

The South Korean military transport aircraft is believed to have entered Japan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) without prior notice, causing the Air Self-Defense Force aircraft to scramble.

I'm far from an expert on fuel consumption but this must have been quite the diversion to force a landing at Kadena. Someone fucked up in a big way here.

The rapid ascent of the right-wing Sanseito party in Japan has shone a spotlight on public attitudes to immigration, unnerving some non-Japanese residents.

Sanseito, founded in 2020, won 14 seats in Sunday's upper house election on its "Japanese First" platform advocating stricter rules on immigration and foreign capital, along with proposing tax cuts and welfare spending. The party had held only one seat in the 248-member chamber of parliament prior to the vote.

In a stump speech during the election campaign, party leader Sohei Kamiya called for limits on the number of unskilled foreign workers entering Japan to make up for the nation's labor shortage, which he described as a "national doping scheme."

Nikkei Asia asked a number of foreign residents in Japan to describe their reactions to Sanseito's election performance.

A good roundup of foreign resident's thoughts on this new party.

"The most attractive part is the kindness of Japanese people," Galata said, adding he has been particularly impressed by the well-maintained roads, packaging for onigiri rice balls sold at convenience stores, and how he was served at restaurants.

These kinds of puff pieces are typical, but I am fascinated that onigiri packaging is in the top three for this guy's Japan loves. Too much tuna mayo can rot the brain.

Japanese ocean shipping group Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is exploring options for sending employees to English-speaking countries other than the U.S., citing the possibility of longer-term impacts.

The company has eight participants in its program, with four each at New York University and University of California, Irvine. They have student visas to take part in three-month programs to study English and business.

"The Trump administration's xenophobic policies will in the long term hurt the free-spirited charm has attracted exceptional young talent from all over the world and has been a U.S. strength," Mitsui O.S.K. Lines chief executive Takeshi Hashimoto said.

The internal affairs ministry plans to survey municipalities about uncollected resident tax from foreigners who leave Japan without paying, in order to consider countermeasures, a government source said Friday.

Workers living in Japan as of Jan. 1 are subject to resident tax for that year. However, it is typically paid in monthly installments from June of the following year and the time lag contributes to the problem, as some foreign workers leave Japan before their payments begin.

The core of the problem here is that municipalities are taxing people on a year delay, not people not paying. It is the first thing in the populist playbook to claim the immigrants aren't paying their fair share, but the answer to this problem is not to punish people when the system itself should be the object of reform. Adopting an immediate resident tax would simplify everything.

It is said that home is the place you long for when you are lost in the world. The place where you can be the person you are rather than the person you have to be.

For your narrator, this place is the land that lies beyond the sliding doors that separate the void from the Arrivals Floor in Haneda Airport in Tokyo Bay. Past the immigration sentries, the luggage daycare, and the passage of non-declaration, those doors are a portal to the country that took me in when I was lost in the world many years ago.