Russell Thomas from The Japan Times:
Those who say you can’t find good Mexican food in Tokyo are mistaken — they just haven’t looked hard enough.
Plumb the depths of the many thousands of eateries that jostle for space in Tokyo’s 23 wards and you will find Mexican cuisine galore. To be fair, it is a bit of a chimeric landscape. There is Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex (California’s take on Mexican food), honest takes on Mexican home cooking, Japanized mashups of chile con carne proportions and sometimes a mix featuring all of the above.
Michitaka Kaiya from The Yomiuri Shimbun:
So why has his approval rating failed to rise? Kishida needs to address the problem in good faith. Although Kishida has demonstrated his ability to resolve issues that were obvious even before he came to power, he has been beset by a reputation for lacking any real agenda of his own. Kishida is also notable for taking an evasive political stance. In the area of measures to combat the declining birth rate, Kishida has ducked discussions on increasing the painful burden on the people. A fixed-amount tax cut, intended to boost his Cabinet’s approval rating, was also unpopular.
This is the key point to not only Kishida's unpopularity but also to the unpopularity of many political leaders worldwide. No agenda, no hope, no idea for the future.
Ayane Matsuyama from The Mainichi:
It has been 171 years since ramune's precursor beverage arrived at Japan's shores with the U.S. Navy's "Black Ships" under Commodore Matthew Perry, who had come to force isolated Japan to open to trade. Now, it is Japanese ramune that is crossing oceans, perhaps promising to offset declining domestic demand, though serious challenges remain.
Classico Japan import, reexport strategy.
Chisato Tsukahara from The Yomiuri Shimbun:
Six months after the major earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula, one calico cat still won’t leave its damaged home. Named Mei, she lived in the house with her owner, who was killed in the quake, for about 10 years.
Takabayashi visited her mother, Kazue Ueno, then 86, on New Year’s Day. “Come back tomorrow with your husband,” her mother told her. Then after Takabayashi left, the earthquake struck. Her mother’s house was declared “totally destroyed,” though it has just barely managed to stay standing. Kazue was killed by a nearby building that collapsed on her while she was evacuating.
Animals are the best. Echos of Hachiko.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The vice governor of the western Japan prefecture of Hyogo said Friday that he will resign over the death of a prefectural government official who created and distributed a document about alleged harassment and other problems with Governor Motohiko Saito.
Vice Governor Yasutaka Katayama submitted a letter of resignation on Friday and will leave office at the end of this month. Since assuming his current post in 2021, Katayama has been supporting the 46-year-old governor.
Following on from the initial story, the Vice Governor is taking the fall for the alleged harassment that led to the death of a prefectural employee. Governor Saito refused to resign.