My thanks to Monocle's Tyler Brûlé and Fiona Wilson for inviting me to join an on-air conversation about Sanae Takaichi's chances of becoming prime minister, the end of the Osaka Expo and my upcoming book on Fukushima.
monocle.com/player/?uuid...
The Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsmax and others said their journalists would not agree to the Defense Department’s new restrictions on news gathering ahead of a Tuesday deadline.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/b...
東日本大震災から14年 当時の「子供」にいま、甲状腺がんが増えている
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/b50...
#福島原発事故
The story does seem to position Takaichi as a Trump-like figure battling arrogant media elites. With the Diet vote coming up to choose the next prime minister, maybe someone wants to help her steal some of the Sanseito's populist rightwing thunder?
Here's an odd article in the Japan media about a Jiji Press cameraman being punished for threatening to lower Takaichi's approval rating. If true, the cameraman clearly spoke out of turn for claiming influence he didn't actually have, but why is this a news item at all?
www.47news.jp/13268995.html
時事通信のカメラマンに世論を動かす力がある訳ないので、この事をニュースにしたのはなぜだろう。高市さんがエリートメディアと戦っている姿を見せるためなのではないでしょうか？
Most countries on the BBC list aren't top-tier travel destinations, which suggests overtourism may be another turn-off.
Rising costs may be another; Tokyo isn't the bargain it used to be, and a recovery by the yen could make it overly expensive again (as it was not too long ago). Real estate prices in particular are up, which local media blame on investment by rich Chinese seeking to park wealth offshore.
The BBC has published the top ten countries for expats, and Japan didn't make the cut despite the increased number of foreign residents here. I'm guessing the language barrier is one reason for the omission.
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
The AI boom is reviving San Francisco. One new event is robot fight nights.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/t...
Senator Cruz calls Trump administration's use of FCC threats against TV media "dangerous as hell."
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
In fact, when Abe visited Trump Tower in late 2016, in addition to presenting a gold-plated golf club, he is said to have impressed Trump by asking: I defeated the Asahi, when will you do the same to the NY Times?
It took Trump eight years to try.
The lawsuit against the NY Times takes another page from Abe's media playbook. In 2014, the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's liberal daily, capitulated to pressure by disbanding an investigative news department and retracting a scoop. Trump seeks to tame the NYT in more American fashion by filing a lawsuit.
A key part of the pressure campaign was threats by Takaichi Sanae (currently candidate for prime minister) to revoke broadcasting licenses of networks seen as biased against Abe. Now, Trump is doing similar, intimdating networks with threats to revoke FCC licenses: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09....
In 2014 and 2015, Abe and his backers successfully brought Japan's major media to heel, pushing back against critical coverage. A watershed moment came when major TV networks removed newscasters and commentators. Here's a story that I wrote at the time: www.nytimes.com/2015/04/27/w....
Steve Bannon used to talk about Abe Shinzo being a precursor to Trump, and the removal of Jimmy Kimmel and threats about revoking FCC licenses are an example of where he was right.
Eighty years after Japan surrendered to end World War Two, only some 800 of its war veterans are still alive. I interviewed six of the last surviving soldiers and sailors of the Emperor's military. Here are their stories:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/w...
He won zero seats in the last election, so an AI chatbot leading an illusory political party seems oddly appropriate.
From the archives of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan:
Imperial Japanese Navy pilot Lt. Zenji Abe, who participated in the attack on Pearl Harbor, speaking in 1994 and 2005 about his experiences during the attack and the war.
youtu.be/x-t5tOJlHB4
7-Eleven's Japanese-American CEO wants to spend $13 billion to bring Japanese convenience store-level food to stores in the U.S.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/b...
Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba to announce his resign today, NHK reports. He will hold a press conference at 6:00 pm Japan time at which he is also expected to announce an LDP internal election to pick his replacement.
The stories often involve supernatural visitations, including the play we saw, called Tamakazura, about a beautiful woman who returns as a tormented ghost.
I visited the Japanese island of Sado, where locals perform Noh, an ancient and otherworldly theater form. Once the preferred entertainment of the samurai, Noh survives today in specialized theaters -- and on Sado, a small island with one-third of Japan's Noh stages.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/w...
I mentioned the three prefecture study in the article. They tested 4,500 people and found one positive, at which point they quit. The result was statistically meaningless.
Without a comparative study, it's tough to know if the cancers rates found in Fukushima are high or just normal. It amazes me that authorities would leave so important a question unresolved. But then again, they've never fully revealed what happened in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, either.
Thanks for the replies. Yes, there's been no comparative study to tellus if the cancer rates in Fukushima and high or normal. It amazes me that the authorities would leave something so important so vague and unresolved. But they never told us what happened in the nuclear plant, either.
Was an unusually high number of thyroid cancers detected in Fukushima due to the 2011 nuclear accident, or over screening as many doctors say? Japan hasn't conducted a comparative study to find a definitive answer.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/w...
Here's a story on China stirring up nationalism with propaganda movies that promote hatred of Japan -- while deflecting attention away from the country's own weak economy and other more contemporary failings.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/w...
Japan's justice minister wants to prepare for a future in which 10% of the population is immigrants. That's about three times the current ratio.
www.47news.jp/13079769.html
A podcast on the rise of Sanseito and changes in Japan. Check it out.
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
