Tag Archives: politics

A Day at the Diet

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

Last week, my politics/economics class went on an outing to the National Diet Building, the home of the two houses of the Japanese legislature.  (We also went to the Imperial Palace, but that’s a story for another day.) As a … Continue reading →

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Anti-Nuclear Protest, Shibuya

Posted on September 10, 2011 by

There was a small anti-nuclear protest near my apartment in Shibuya tonight. I could hear the chanting about Fukushima, so I went out to take a look. The protest seemed to be in the “sound demo” format, where people play … Continue reading →

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Berkeley and Tokyo: Anti-Nuclear Parallels?

Posted on May 16, 2011 by

Given the recent events in Japan, many around the world have raised new (and old) concerns about nuclear energy and its risks, which has made me a little more thoughtful about those espousing these opinions closer to home. On my … Continue reading →

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The Indomitable Mrs. Kan

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

Anyone who follows Japanese politics knows that Prime Minister Naoto Kan hasn’t been having an easy time of it. Despite the fact the his party, the Democratic Party of Japan, was swept into power on a tide of great popularity … Continue reading →

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Troubling News from North Korea

Posted on November 23, 2010 by

Picture via the Associated Press and The New York Times As many of you know, North Korea fired a number of artillery shells at a South Korean island today. The reports are still coming in, but at least two South … Continue reading →

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More join the ranks of the missing!

Posted on August 10, 2010 by

Just a quick update on my previous post. While I earlier mentioned that Japanese officials estimated that there were about 75 people missing across Japan, it now appears that there are 105 centenarians unaccounted for in the city of Kobe alone. Yikes! … Continue reading →

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Japan’s Missing Centenarians

Posted on August 7, 2010 by

Photo: A Loving Japanese Couple in Old Age (1880s) by Okinawa Soba It appears that having the world’s second-largest number of centenarians (people over 100 years old) has its hazards. It all started in late July, when the mummified remains of … Continue reading →

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Election time!

Posted on July 10, 2010 by

It’s election time here in Japan. The official 17-day campaign period for the 2010 Upper House election began on June 24, and the actual election is scheduled to take place on July 11. The area of Kyoto where I live … Continue reading →

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East Timor president suggests Japan eat fruit, not whales

Posted on June 24, 2010 by

Simpsons Food Chain by =SpacePlatypus on deviantART I came across this article and couldn’t resist sharing it as a follow up to my previous post on the Japanese and the whaling issue. According to Kyodo News, East Timorese President Jose … Continue reading →

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The Japanese and the Whale

Posted on June 23, 2010 by

As some of you may be aware, for the last two days, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has been meeting in Morocco to try to reach a compromise between pro- and anti-whaling countries. Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, … Continue reading →

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