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“It makes me excited as one citizen of the nation, too, more than for usual elections,” she said. Going into the election, the Liberal Democrats still commanded the highest level of support, with just over 31 percent of voters endorsing the party in a poll by NHK, the public broadcaster. The Constitutional Democrats received support from less than 10 percent of voters surveyed. Seven disparate opposition parties came together to form a government, but it collapsed within just 11 months. In 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan won in a landslide victory as voters sought to punish the Liberal Democrats for failing to resuscitate the moribund economy.

Persons: ”, Masako Tanaka, Ishiba, “, — Organizations: Liberal Democratic, Constitutional Democrats, Nihon, Liberal Democrats, NHK, Democratic Party of Japan Locations: Tokyo

☆ Why 7-Eleven Is a National Treasure in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-24 | by ( Kiuko Notoya | River Akira Davis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In Japan, convenience stores are celebrated. Millions flock to the stores daily to pick up food, send packages and pay bills. Japan’s largest konbini chain, 7-Eleven, is also its most famous. It is understandable that a rival company wants in on the action. This week, Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese company that operates 7-Eleven, said it had received an unsolicited takeover proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard, a convenience store giant in Canada.

Persons: Anthony Bourdain, ”, Alimentation Organizations: Holdings Locations: Japan, Canada

☆ Japan Needs Foreign Workers. It’s Just Not Sure It Wants Them to Stay.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-05 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Ngu Thazin wanted to leave her war-torn country for a better future. Yet she gladly took a job in Japan changing diapers and bathing residents at a nursing home in a midsize city. “And I want to send my family money.”Japan desperately needs people like Ms. Thazin to fill jobs left open by a declining and aging population. The number of foreign workers has quadrupled since 2007, to more than two million, in a country of 125 million people. Many of these workers escaped low wages, political repression or armed conflict in their home countries.

Persons: Ngu Thazin, ”, Thazin Locations: Japan, Myanmar, midsize, “, ” Japan

Will These Sensational Skateboarding Tricks Win Japan Olympic Gold? Tokyo Olympics results If scored with the new format Total ATHLETE ATHLETE Total Yuto Horigome Japan Kelvin Hoefler Brazil Kelvin Hoefler Brazil Jagger Eaton U.S. Yuto Horigome Japan Jagger Eaton U.S. Tokyo Olympics results Yuto Horigome Kelvin Hoefler Jagger Eaton Japan Brazil U.S. NYJAH HUSTON UNITED STATES Yuto Horigome JAPAN Rome 2022 5 START Huston landed 13 tricks while Horigome only did 7. NYJAH HUSTON UNITED STATES Yuto Horigome JAPAN Rome 2022 Huston landed 13 tricks while Horigome only did 7. NYJAH HUSTON UNITED STATES Yuto Horigome JAPAN Rome 2022 5 START Huston landed 13 tricks while Horigome only did 7.

☆ Is This Vibrant Democracy in Japan, or Has the Circus Come to Town?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-06 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When voters in Tokyo cast their ballot for governor of the world’s largest city on Sunday, they will be spoiled for choice. One who styles himself “the Joker” has proposed legalizing marijuana and says polygamy can address the nation’s declining birthrate. Another is a pro wrestler who hides his face on camera and vows to use artificial intelligence to complete governmental tasks. But in fact, the race is profoundly status quo and the incumbent is projected to win a third term. The proliferation of candidates reflects fatigue with politics as usual, and many of them are unserious attention seekers, creating a farcical, circuslike atmosphere and putting real change further out of reach.

Persons: ” Locations: Tokyo

Japan scrapped every regulation requiring the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes this week, catching up with the times 13 years after the country’s producers manufactured their last units. The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a ubiquitous part of computing. In the 1990s, along with the cassette tape, it was thrown into the dustbin of outdated tech. While renowned for its consumer electronics giants, robots and some of the world’s fastest broadband networks, the country has also been wedded to floppy disks and other old technologies like fax machines and cash. Japan began moving away from the 1900s storage devices, magnetic disks encased in plastic, just two years ago, when Taro Kono, the country’s digital minister, declared a “war on floppy disks.”

Persons: Taro Kono Locations: Japan

☆ Can Japan’s First Same-Sex Dating Reality Show Change Hearts and Minds?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-30 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Japan is the only country among the world’s wealthiest democracies that has not legalized same-sex unions. Few celebrities are openly gay. But now, Netflix is introducing the country’s first same-sex dating reality series. In Japan, the handful of openly gay and transgender performers who regularly appear on television are typically flamboyant, effeminate comic foils who are shoehorned into exaggerated stereotypes. With “The Boyfriend,” Dai Ota, the executive producer, said he wanted to “portray same-sex relationships as they really are.”

Persons: Dai Ota, ” Organizations: Netflix Locations: Japan, Tokyo, Terrace

☆ Japan Makes It Very Hard to Be Sterilized. These Women Demand Change.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ms. Tatsuta, now a 24-year-old model in Tokyo, recoiled at the assumption that she would someday give birth. As her body began to develop feminine traits, Ms. Tatsuta took to extreme diet and exercise to forestall the changes. “To be seen as a uterus that can give birth before being seen as a person, I did not like this,” she said. Yet in Japan, women who seek sterilization procedures like tubal ligation or hysterectomies must meet conditions that are among the most onerous in the world. That makes such surgeries difficult to obtain for many women, and all but impossible for single, childless women like Ms. Tatsuta.

Persons: Hisui Tatsuta, Tatsuta, ” Locations: Tokyo, recoiled, Japan, Tatsuta

☆ Japan Runs on Vending Machines. It’s About to Break Millions of Them.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( Kiuko Notoya | John Yoon | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It was updated on July 3 when Japan introduced the new yen notes. The vending machine at Hiroshi Nishitani’s Tokyo ramen restaurant has been reliable for a decade. The food is served within minutes once the customer delivers the order to the pair of cooks at the counter. Japan has introduced a new set of bank notes, something it does every 20 years or so to thwart counterfeiters. The machine, already too old to accept recent coin designs, won’t accept the new bills, Mr. Nishitani said.

Persons: Hiroshi, counterfeiters, won’t, Nishitani Locations: Japan

☆ Toyota and Other Japanese Carmakers Say They Mishandled Safety Tests
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( River Davis | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and other top Japanese automakers said on Monday that internal investigations found they had mishandled vehicle testing on dozens of models over the past decade. Toyota said it failed to gather proper data when doing pedestrian and occupant safety tests for three models, including its popular Yaris Cross sports-utility vehicle. Honda and Mazda Motor said they had identified problems related to the testing of several models, too. Mazda said it would suspend sales of two Japan models. The testing problems revealed Monday by Toyota, Honda and Mazda were conducted in Japan to meet the Japanese government’s certification standards.

Organizations: Toyota, Honda Motor, Honda, Mazda Locations: Japan

☆ A Show That Makes Young Japanese Pine for the ‘Inappropriate’ 1980s
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The younger generation in Japan has frequently called out their elders for their casual sexism, excessive work expectations and unwillingness to give up power. But a surprise television hit has people talking about whether the oldsters might have gotten a few things right, especially as some in Japan — like their counterparts in the United States and Europe — question the heightened sensitivities associated with “wokeness.”The show, “Extremely Inappropriate!,” features a foul-talking, crotchety physical education teacher and widowed father who boards a public bus in 1986 Japan and finds himself whisked to 2024. He leaves an era when it was perfectly acceptable to spank students with baseball bats, smoke on public transit and treat women like second-class citizens. Landing in the present, he discovers a country transformed by cellphones, social media and a workplace environment where managers obsessively monitor employees for signs of harassment.

Persons: “ Locations: Japan, United States, Europe

Known then as Masako Owada, she worked long hours and had a rising career as a trade negotiator. Much has changed for Japan’s Foreign Ministry — and, in some ways, for Japanese women more broadly — in the ensuing three decades. Since 2020, women have comprised nearly half of each entering class of diplomats, and many women continue their careers after they marry. For years, Japan has promoted women in the workplace to aid its sputtering economy. But many women still struggle to balance their careers with domestic obligations.

Persons: Masako Owada, Crown Prince —, — Naruhito, Japan’s Foreign Ministry — Organizations: Crown, Japan’s Foreign Ministry, Private Locations: Japan

☆ Japan’s New Royal Instagram Page Forgoes Flash for Formality
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Kiuko Notoya | Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Anyone expecting the Japanese royal family’s new Instagram account to generate memes or showcase a new side of the world’s oldest continuous monarchy should lower their expectations. Just some royals politely posing for pictures in their usual, formal way. The new Instagram page for Japan’s Imperial Household Agency — its first on any social media platform — posted its first image early Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, it had uploaded 19 more and collected nearly half a million followers. The page mostly shows Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and sometimes their daughter, Princess Aiko, standing up, sitting down or bowing at formal events over the past three months.

Persons: Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako, Princess Aiko Organizations: Imperial Household Agency —, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum Locations: Tokyo, Kenya, Brunei

☆ ‘Oppenheimer’ Hits Nuclear-Scarred Japan, 8 Months After U.S. Premiere
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-01 | by ( Motoko Rich | Kiuko Notoya | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Watching “Oppenheimer,” the Oscar-winning biopic about the father of the atomic bomb that opened in Japan on Friday, Kako Okuno was stunned by a scene in which scientists celebrated the explosion over Hiroshima with thunderous foot stomping and the waving of American flags. Seeing the jubilant faces “really shocked me,” said Ms. Okuno, 22, a nursery school teacher who grew up in Hiroshima and has worked as a peace and environmental activist. Eight months after Christopher Nolan’s film became a box office hit in the United States, “Oppenheimer” is now confronting Japanese audiences with the flip-side American perspective on the most scarring events of Japan’s history. The movie follows the breakthrough discoveries of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his team before the United States struck Japan with the first salvo of the nuclear age. It won seven Academy Awards last month, including for best picture.

Persons: “ Oppenheimer, ”, Kako Okuno, “, Okuno, Christopher Nolan’s, “ Oppenheimer ”, Robert Oppenheimer Locations: Japan, Hiroshima, United States

The population continues to shrink, with births last year plunging to a nadir. The country’s politics appear frozen as one party holds a virtual lock on power no matter how scandal-tainted and unpopular it becomes. This is Japan, where all bad news is relative. There are few signs of the societal discord you might expect in a place with trend lines like Japan’s, such as accumulating garbage, potholes or picket lines. That equanimity reflects a no-need-to-rock-the-boat mind-set: “Shouganai” — “it can’t be helped” — is something of a national refrain.

Persons: ” Locations: Japan

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