Nipponica

Japan should reaffirm its recognition of history in a proposed joint declaration with South Korea next year, outgoing South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min said in a recent interview with Jiji Press.

Yun reiterated hopes that Japanese and South Korean leaders will announce such a declaration in 2025 to mark the 60th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral diplomatic ties.

Japan has always considered its history of Korea, and all the negative aspects of it including comfort women, to be a closed book that should never be invoked. Doubt this will change that policy.

The mayor of Moka, Tochigi Prefecture, announced in a recent regular press conference that city employees spray painted the design on a total of 59 grates at 19 locations, mainly in areas where thefts of the grates have occurred.

In the city, there has been a string of grate thefts: 25 pieces in six cases in fiscal 2022, 40 grates on 25 occasions in fiscal 2023, and 23 in 11 cases as of the end of June this fiscal year. Without covers, vehicles and pedestrians are at risk of falling into the gutters, so measures to prevent theft were urgently needed.

Gov. Hideaki Omura appeared before 16 cosplayers from eight countries who were dressed as Naruto Uzumaki from the manga "Naruto," Ponyo from the animated film "Ponyo," Oscar from the manga "The Rose of Versailles," and other characters, with his hands spread out like airplane wings. The governor was dressed as Arale Norimaki from "Dr. Slump," which was created by famous manga artist Akira Toriyama, who passed away this spring.

Adding this to my 'images of midlife crises' folder.

Kishida said, “The situation [of Russo-Japanese relations] is very tough, but the government’s determination to resolve the issue of the four islands’ ownership and concluding a peace treaty is unshaken.”

He also said the resumption of the four-island exchange program, including letting islanders’ descendants visit their family graves, “is one of our top priorities,” and that he would continue to urge the Russian side to engage in the program.

Yeah, my money is on Russia never restarting this program until there is major structural change to the current regime in Moscow. Things are too far gone to allow goodwill programs like the former visitation scheme.

A veteran Japanese lawmaker known for advocating close ties with Russia is visiting Moscow for talks with senior government officials, a source close to him said Monday, in defiance of a government advisory against such trips.

Marking his second trip to the country since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Muneo Suzuki, a 76-year-old independent House of Councillors member, arrived in Russia on Sunday and is scheduled to return home on Thursday, according to the source.

His reasons for pushing Russian ties are not disclosed in the article.

The participants of this year's "Taiwan-Japan Exchange Summit," including more than 100 from the Taiwan side, adopted the "Tainan Declaration," calling for deeper cooperation between the two democracies to "ensure the safety of the Indo-Pacific region as well as freedom and peace in the world."

The declaration also expressed support for Taiwan's bid to join international entities such as the World Health Organization. Amid China's pressure, the island is generally barred from many institutions, particularly the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

Less than half of foreign workers and students in Japan's rural areas want to remain in their current region when seeking employment or changing jobs, according to the analysis, compiled by Global Power, an operator of the job search and recruitment site NINJA for highly skilled foreign workers and students.

The company analyzed data from its 42,000 registered users as of May, focusing on their current addresses and desired employment locations.

Among those whose current residence matches their desired employment location, Tokyo leads the way with 51.7%, followed by the prefectures of Fukuoka at 51.5%, Aichi at 49.6% and Osaka at 48.8%. In contrast, Shimane is the lowest at 9.4%, followed by Kochi at 15.4%, Tokushima at 15.9% and Kagawa at 16%.

People want to live where the opprotunities are and the lack of development in rural Japan means no way to improve your wellbeing.

Takahisa Sato was caught playing “Disney Tsum Tsum” on his smartphone under his desk during a preliminary assembly session in Ogawara, Miyagi Prefecture, on June 10. Local six-graders had been watching the session as part of their social studies class. Some of them wrote about Sato’s behavior in their essays following the visit.

While inappropriate, I wish this was the baseline of government corruption in Japan. Keeping LDP ministers occupied with Tsum Tsum is much more cost effective than countless funding scandals.

In 2020, the government released its first damage estimates for the Tokyo metropolitan area in the event of an eruption of Japan's highest peak, which straddles Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures west of Tokyo.

In the worst-case scenario, the accumulation of ash could reach 10 centimeters in the capital's Shinjuku Ward 15 days after the eruption starts.

We will need a lot of brooms.

Foreign residents are increasing in number in southwestern Japan's Kyushu region as well as in Yamaguchi and Okinawa prefectures at a rate exceeding the national average amid a labor shortage.

The trend emerged in the Vital Statistics released on July 24 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, based on basic resident register data as of Jan. 1, 2024. It comes as the population of Japanese nationals continues to dwindle in these areas.