Today, July 1st, I began my new role as Opinion Editor at Nikkei Asia. While I know this position comes with its challenges, I am confident it will be incredibly rewarding, and I am eager to dive right in.
I am on the lookout to expand our pool of contributors, aiming to amplify
Director Eiji Uchida and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi spoke well about transgender issues in Japan, and I'm now keen to go and watch Midnight Swan.
内田監督と草薙さんはトランスジェンダーの問題についてうまく話して、ミッドナイトスワンを見に行きたくなった。
My colleague
@SugiuraEri
and I interviewed
@EijiUchidaFilm
, the director of
#MidnightSwan
, starring former SMAP star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. He offered some great insight into the lives of transgender people in Japan from his perspective as an outsider. 1/9
When Gov. Yuriko Koike took office in 2016 under the banner of making Tokyo the premier Asian financial hub again, the city was ranked as the world’s No. 5 financial center. Now the Japanese capital does not even make the top 20 anymore.
Abe's LDP gave out magnet stickers at its annual conference yesterday (Daily Shincho)
You can erase what you write on it (書いて消せる). Do they not realize the irony given the
#Moritomo
scandal that involves document doctoring?
The U.S. will establish a network of precision-strike missiles along the so-called first island chain as part of $27.4 billion in spending to be considered for the Indo-Pacific theater over the next six years, Nikkei has learned.
“For a long time, we have believed that the Olympics are something special,” Yamaguchi said. “From now on, we should think that Olympics are merely entertainment and business events.”
The southern Taiwan city of Kaohsiung has erected a statue of the late Shinzo Abe. His wife Akie was there for the unveiling.
Seems a little strange given that, as far as I know, there are no monuments yet in Japan to the former PM.
Some professional news: I’ve been promoted to become
@NikkeiAsia
‘s politics and economics news editor. Basically handling everything from New Zealand to Afghanistan with a dedicated team of colleagues and contributors scattered across Asia and the rest of the world.
In 2023, not a single Western entry made it to Apple Music's annual list of the top 100 streamed songs in Japan. Even with online streaming and CD sales combined, Western music that ranked in Billboard Japan's weekly Hot 100 chart accounted for a mere 0.3% in 2023, compared with
Former PM Abe says you are “anti-Japan” if you oppose holding the Olympics. By that logic, that’s a lot of Japanese people who don’t like their own country.
After Japan's "digital defeat" (the minister's words), this story asks all the right questions about Suga's ambitious plans for a digital ministry -- and the fights it will face with an entrenched bureaucracy.
A mere 252 tourists entered the country between June 10 and 30 under the new tour group scheme, according to preliminary figures from the Japan Tourism Agency
I know Japan is looking (rightly or wrongly) to attract more higher end (rich) tourists, but these big price hikes could deter some middle class foreigners from exploring the many great things this country has to offer. My mum used to love using this pass when she came regularly.
JR Pass prices are going up MASSIVELY in October 2023!
7-day ¥29,650 yen to ¥50,000
14 day ¥47250 yen to ¥80,000
21-day ¥60,450 yen to ¥100,000
Green Class
7-day ¥39,600 to ¥70,000 yen
14-day ¥64,120 to ¥110,000
21-day ¥83,990 to ¥140,000
>68% increase for the 7-day pass!
The LDP funding scandal is getting wild.
The party is said to be considering removing all ministers, vice ministers and parliamentary vice ministers who are in the Abe faction (the ruling party’s biggest grouping)
安倍派「政務三役」に全交代案浮上
I love Japan, but the archaic bureaucracy and unnecessary rules drive me crazy.
I’m trying to send money to a relative overseas. Bank tells me I need a My Number card (I have a number but no card).
I go to the ward office, they tell me it takes THREE MONTHS to send me a card.
Tough presser for Suga tonight. New state of emergency, average showing for the LDP in the Tokyo election, and now the Olympics likely to be without spectators.
China has announced 8 countermeasures in response to Pelosi's trip to Taiwan.
The last one of abandoning climate change cooperation with the U.S. is the most concerning.
A 🧵
1/ Japan has one of the world’s biggest debt-GDP ratios, and borrowing costs are rising.
But investors – and Tokyo – seem sanguine about any kind of debt crisis. I take a look here at how the world’s third-largest economy is staying afloat.
In 2016, Abe shot out of a pipe in Rio dressed as Super Mario at the closing ceremony.
In 2021, Abe won’t even be attending the opening ceremony of the Games he helped secure.
In 2000, Japan's economy was the second-largest in the world, at $4.96 trillion, which is larger than it is today.
Pretty amazing that (in dollar terms) Japan's economy hasn't grown over the past 23 years.
via
@NikkeiAsia
Male colleagues of the first woman to head Japan’s largest trade union association begged her to turn the job down because they believed her gender made her incapable of fighting corporate Japan for higher wages.
According to a senior member of the coalition, there is agreement that the Games, postponed a year, are doomed. The aim now is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date.
Often my 12-year-old son has no one to hang out with after school because most of his friends go to to juku.
The system is 1) rigged towards affluent families; 2) deprives kids of time just hanging out with mates; 3) probably why the birth rate is low
Japan will pay 44.2 million yen (about $420,000) in compensation in the event a person dies after taking the coronavirus vaccine.
Interesting approach. Other countries, such as Indonesia, are looking at fines for people who refuse vaccines.
#NewsDigest
"The Marcos family's return to the presidential palace in Manila is a window into a more disturbing world. It has laid bare pathologies that are rotting democracies in Asia and elsewhere from within."
Well crafted prose as always from
@Mikepeeljourno
Pelosi’s visit “was a turning point, when all Ukrainians started rooting for Taiwan," said Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun, a member of the pro-Taiwan caucus in Kyiv.
A welcome return to our pages by
@heguisen
So how will restaurants distinguish between foreign tourists and foreign residents? Will I have to show my residency card to get the normal price?
Japan restaurants explore charging foreign tourists more via
@NikkeiAsia
Here's
@imaruritokyo
and
@cheskareports
on Mori's press conference today. A lot of friction between the Tokyo 2020 chief and reporters, as he pulls the old trick of "retracting" his sexist comments.
Two takeaways from this long read on Abe’s death
- He was Japan’s Thatcher. Widely applauded overseas, but hugely divisive at home
- LDP factional politics remain hugely important in an essentially one-party state
"The accuracy of North Korea's missiles improved all at once," a Japanese security official said. "That wouldn't have been possible without Russia's help."
North Korea threat cannot be underestimated
Tokyo is heavily bound by its contract with the IOC, but a heavy-handed approach by the IOC could harm its reputation and deter cities coming forward as hosts in the future.
More to chew on here
So South Korea and Japan have similar vaccine rates and mask-wearing people. South Korea had a record number of cases today, and a total of only FIVE in Tokyo.
Can anyone give me the scientific rationale for this?
The situation in Indonesia has got so bad that the Japanese government today announced it will put on special planes for Japanese nationals who want to return home.
Despite having more daily infections, Indonesia’s population of 270 million population is just a fifth of India’s. Indonesia now has around 132 cases per million people, compared with India’s 26
The UN will launch an investigation later this into the sexual assaults by Johnny & Associates founder, the late Johnny Kitagawa.
This is above and beyond expectations
国連人権理事会がジャニーズ性加害調査へ(共同通信)
#Yahoo
ニュース
"I found myself crying a lot when I first read the screenplay," Kusanagi told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan. "I didn't know what my tears were for, but I felt there was beauty about these tears." 3/9
Another former Johnny's idol, Yasunobu Shiga of the group 忍者 (Ninja) tells Bunshun he was molested by Johnny Kitagawa 30-40 times.
Feels like the floodgates are opening
Interesting profile of Suga from the Nikkei archives. While he’s been Abe’s right-hand man for nearly eight years, the two couldn’t have more contrasting backgrounds.
Who is Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga?
Tough presser for Suga tonight. New state of emergency, average showing for the LDP in the Tokyo election, and now the Olympics likely to be without spectators.
Harsh words from the COVID advisory body to the Tokyo government.
Paraphrasing: Infections are spreading at an unprecedented rate and the situation is uncontrollable
「東京の感染拡大 制御不能な状況」東京都のモニタリング会議 | NHKニュース