Tag: Politics

A recruitment campaign ad fronted by a sweet-looking, innocent pop music idol? Only in Japan. "You and Peace" declares Haruka Shimazaki, the 20-year-old pop singer and member of idol group ...

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in the early summer, albeit on a weekend marked by many protests against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial collective self-defense law changes. But the ...

Your Party (Minna no To) member Ayaka Shiomura (35) was jeered yesterday in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly as she tried to introduce a motion for better government measures supporting infertile ...

There are two important foreign dignitaries in Japan right now. One is the President of the United States of America and the other is, well, Justin Bieber. The former is the reason why there ...

Despite the recent ruling on March 31st by the International Court of Justice that Japan must stop "scientific" whaling and the government's initial announcement that it would abide by the ruling, ...

The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum has demanded the removal of an artwork that criticizes the visits to Yasukuni Shrine by members of the Japanese government. The exhibition is now running, set to ...

Only a few weeks into her post as US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy has already waded into one of the most tricky of diplomatic areas. As such rows often do these days, it erupted over a ...

Today Morihiro Hosokawa finally confirmed expectations that he is running in the Tokyo gubernatorial elections in February. And in an interview with TV Tokyo he has promised if he wins to hold the ...

With the resignation of Naoki Inose last month over a financial scandal, the position of Tokyo Governor is about to become vacant. While some pondered whether right-winger octogenarian Shintaro ...

Another year, another packed calendar of trends. What were some of the main ones that caught our eye throughout the past twelve months? Olympics Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympic Games ...

AKB at the ASEAN summit... Did we think we'd see the day? It's come, also confirming that they (or their successors) will almost certainly be main stage at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games opening ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP government has succeeded in passing the immensely controversial new state secrets bill, in spite of a human chain around the Diet today, a wave of protests over the ...

Who are all the anti-nuclear power demonstrators? Emperor taboo-busting renegades like Taro Yamamoto? Just young hipsters or hardened veteran activists? No, there's plenty of ordinary folk who ...

Non-partisan Taro Yamamoto (38) has ignited a firestorm by handing a letter directly to the Emperor of Japan while he was carrying out official duties at a garden party hosted by the Imperial Couple ...

Studio Ghibli's latest film Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) has revealed yet another face to anime director Hayao Miyazaki, who reportedly was against the making of such film that he knew would be ...