Japan

Well, she pulled it off. Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi took the bold gamble of calling a general election after just two months in office but has been rewarded with a landslide victory. Over the weekend, her Liberal Democratic party’s coalition with the JIP (Japan Innovation party) easily secured two-thirds of the 465 seats in the lower house needed to push through most bills even if the upper chamber, where Takaichi does not have a majority, tries to stop her. The contrast between her position and that of the beleaguered Sir Keir Starmer, whom she met just over a week ago in Tokyo, could hardly be starker. One is enjoying

If Keir Starmer’s trip to China seemed unfathomable, then his follow-on visit to Tokyo today is even more mysterious. ‘Why on earth is he here?’ the Japanese are asking (those that have noticed he is here that is). There doesn’t seem to be any pressing business for the Prime Minister to discuss with his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi right now. If it is just a courtesy call, then it’s rather a discourteous one since the timing, for her, is terrible. Wags here are calling the visit a ‘boondoggle’, claiming Starmer just wants to enjoy the cheap shopping Takaichi faces a make or break snap-election on 8 February. She is seeking

Christmas is for the Japanese, rather miserably, a regular working day. This might easily not have been the case. The Japanese were once on the verge of adopting the Christian faith at every strata of society, from peasant to ruler. The English Reformation had a surprisingly significant role in ensuring this didn’t come to pass. By the eighteenth century, organised Christianity had disappeared from public life When St Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549, Christianity was entirely unknown there. Within half a century, it had become the fastest-growing religion in the country’s history. By the early seventeenth century, contemporary missionary estimates placed the number of Japanese converts at over

If you want to make a Japanese high school teacher break out in a cold sweat and suffer heart palpitations, just whisper the word ‘monpa’ in their ear. For ‘monpa’ or ‘monster parents’, the bane of a Japanese educator’s life, are serial complainers notorious for their persistence, aggression, unreasonableness and irrationality. They have become such a problem that the city government has decided to take cation. There is nothing uniquely Japanese about overprotective, unrealistically ambitious or just plain pushy parents (‘helicopter parents’ are the US version) but Japanese monpa are in a league of their own. Monpa are characterised by a tendency to demand repeated lengthy meetings with teachers over

Sumo is the featured attraction at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend in a rare foray for the ancient sport outside of its spiritual home of Japan. The five-day tournament started on Wednesday and features 40 rikishi (wrestlers) (about six-tonnes’ worth) squaring off in a specially constructed dohyo (ring). Reinforced chairs and upgraded toilets have been installed for the exclusive use of the 28-stone ‘naked ambassadors’ (as they are being called here in Japan). Like test cricket, sumo wrestling is set apart and sustained by its antiquity It has been a huge success so far. Tickets sold out long ago but can be picked up for hundreds of pounds on

In a scenario out of a horror film, or Werner Herzog documentary perhaps, Japan is experiencing a spate of bear attacks, including a series of fatalities. Over the last few years, the number of encounters, attacks and deaths have all surged. This year alone, since April, 200 people have been attacked and six killed. The ongoing grisliness is threatening to seriously impact tourism in certain areas. Most attacks are in the northern island of Hokkaido, known as ‘Japan’s last frontier’ Some of the stories are the stuff of nightmares, such as when an 81-year-old woman in Iwate was mauled to death inside her own home in July – or the

Could Japan be about to run out of beer? Or at least of one of its favourite brands Asahi, whose ‘Super Dry’ is the number one best seller in this nation of hop heads? This is the alarming and looming prospect in the country after a cyber attack on Asahi forced the company to close its production facilities. There are rumours of only a few days’ supply left in the convenience stores and izakayas (Japanese style pubs). If true, and if Asahi can’t solve the problem quickly, panic buying is a distinct possibility in a country with a per capita consumption of 34.5 litres a year. Then, with no indication

‘It is a difficult situation and we have to take it very humbly and seriously’. This was the typically understated and solemnly delivered verdict of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after his party and their coalition partners lost their majority in the Upper House elections on Sunday. It is the kind of wording used by Japanese doctors to inform patients that their illness is terminal (they never tell you directly). Ishiba insists he will stay on as PM, but long-term, he is probably doomed. Ishiba’s party, the Liberal Democrats (LDP), and their partners Komeito, needed fifty seats in yesterday’s election to hang on to a majority, but managed only 47.

Soil samples from Fukushima, the prefecture where Japan’s Dai-Ichi Nuclear reactor exploded in 2011 sending plumes of radioactive material into the sky, will be transported to the garden of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba to serve as flower beds. Far from horticultural, the real purpose is to reassure the Japanese people that Fukushima is now safe and to allow the government to get on with the colossal task of moving the mountains of top soil now stocked in the prefecture around Japan to be used for agriculture and as building materials. The Fukushima nuclear ‘disaster’ would perhaps be better named the ‘almost disaster’ The government are resorting to this stunt –

‘National crisis’ was how Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba described the fallout from President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs in a speech on Friday. That was strong language from the normally measured Ishiba, but was borne out by the bloodbath in the Nikkei stock exchange over the last few days of trading. Stock markets around the world have been battered, but Japan’s has been one of the worst. It plunged 2,600 points to close down a whopping 8 per cent today, the third largest fall on record. Amongst the worst casualties were the Mizuho Financial Group, whose shares fell 10.6 per cent, and Mitsubishi, whose stock plunged by 10.2 per cent.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Business Secretary Jonathon Reynolds are in Tokyo for ‘2+2’ (two ministers for the price of one) talks with their Japanese counterparts. The sessions are expected to be at least superficially productive, with hopeful talk of enhanced cooperation on security and strengthened economic ties (particularly on AI). Apparently, details of a new trade and defence deal, including plans to develop a new industrial strategy partnership between the 4th and 6th biggest economies in the world, will be announced, along with some hot air about an offshore wind project. There is something faintly desperate in the idea that the UK can be of much help to Japan