Japanese debate how foreigners should refer to them
Japanese debate how foreigners should refer to themA chrysanthemum by any other name would smell as sweet THE WORLD calls the leader of China Xi Jinping. His North Korean counterpart is known as Kim Jong Un. The man who led North Vietnam to independence is almost always dubbed Ho Chi Minh. In all three instances, the surname comes first, and then the given names, as is customary in China, Korea an
Toshiba admits to a ruinous overpayment for an American nuclear firm
Toshiba admits to a ruinous overpayment for an American nuclear firmIts share price plunged by 40% in three days as investors worried about its financial viability THE probe in 2015 into one of Japan’s largest-ever accounting scandals, at Toshiba, an electronics and nuclear-power conglomerate that has been the epitome of the country’s engineering prowess, concluded that number-fiddling at the firm
The strong dollar has given Abenomics another chance
The strong dollar has given Abenomics another chanceBut a bottleneck of corporate timidity remains a big problem JAPAN’S prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was the first foreign leader to meet Donald Trump after his improbable election victory. The photographs show him smiling almost as broadly as the new president-elect. But not even Mr Abe could have guessed how much he would have to smile about.
Master plan
LAST year Japan lowered the voting age from 20 to 18. But Minami, a high-schooler from Tokyo, does not plan to vote in an election for the upper house of the Diet, or parliament, on July 10th. Like many Japanese, she finds politics dull. The upcoming election will probably not change their views. The government, led by Shinzo Abe, is likely to trounce the floundering opposition. Mr Abe’s poll rati
No entry
No entryAs the world’s refugee problem grows, Japan pulls up the drawbridge AROUND 9m people have fled their homes in Syria. Over 3m have taken refuge in neighbouring countries. But thousands more have fanned out across the world, some to as far away as Japan. There, they have found the drawbridge up. The world’s third-largest economy has yet to grant asylum to a single Syrian. The treatment meted
Undigested history
Undigested historyWhether as victim or as aggressor, the country finds it hard to face up to the past MANY asleep in Tokyo did not hear the rumble of the American B-29 bombers. By the time his father shook him awake, Katsumoto Saotome’s neighbourhood in Tokyo’s lower town was in flames. Canals were no escape, for the jellied paraffin in the bombs turned water into fire. Once it stuck to you, he sa
Showdown
THE protesters mounting an all-night vigil outside Camp Schwab, an American military base on the main island of the southern prefecture of Okinawa, are hardly wild-eyed radicals. Former civil servants, schoolteachers and professors are among those attempting to block trucks bringing supplies for the construction of a vast new facility in and near the camp, to be used by American marines. Riot poli
Still fighting
Still fightingIn Asia memories of the second world war still bring more recrimination than reconciliation AS WARS fade from living memory, time should heal the emotional scars. In Asia, however, it seems only to deepen wounds left by the second world war. The 70th anniversary this year of the conflict’s end is likely to attract more attention than even the 50th or 60th. That would seem to offer a
Mission impossible
THE stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant is the world’s most complex and costly industrial clean-up. The first three of Fukushima Dai-ichi’s six reactors melted down in March 2011 and the fourth was damaged. TEPCO’s early guess was that decommissioning would take 30-40 years. That is certainly optimistic. Engineers are grappling with problems with little precedent. Akira Ono, the plant manage
Grinding on
NEARLY four years after north-eastern Japan’s huge earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown on March 11th 2011, more than 170,000 people are still stuck in temporary housing along the ravaged coast. One of them is Sumiko Yoshida, a woman in her 70s who lives with her husband in cramped, mouldy quarters in Rikuzentakata, a fishing port that was washed away by the tsunami. More than 1,750 people die
Abe agonistes
MORE than most countries, Japan has long wished to remain divorced from the world’s worries, which seldom reach its shores (the last terrorist attack, in 1995, was home-grown). So the news that Islamic State (IS) had murdered a second Japanese hostage, Kenji Goto, brought anguish to many. It also shone a light on the foreign-policy ambitions of the prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Mr Goto, a noted war
Sand storm
A TOUR of the Middle East by Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, was knocked sideways by the news on January 20th that Islamic State (IS), the extreme jihadist group in Iraq and Syria, threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless Japan quickly pays a ransom of $200m. The sum demanded is equal to an amount Mr Abe had committed days before in Egypt to give to countries battling IS. As The Economi
The Abe habit
The Abe habitShinzo Abe wins again, but what will he do with his mandate? THE general election on December 14th cost ¥63 billion (over $500m), and came just two years after the previous one. So many Japanese could not see the point of it that only 52.7% of voters went to the polls—a post-war low. Yet for Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, the decision to call the election seems vindicated. Even thoug
Abe’s demons
JAPAN’S imperious newspapers rarely issue apologies; two in six months is unheard of. In August, the liberal Asahi Shimbun admitted running stories based on discredited testimony by a former Japanese soldier who said he had corralled Korean women into wartime military brothels. Last week, the Asahi’s conservative archrival, Yomiuri Shimbun, said sorry to its 10m readers for using the term “sex sla
Moment of reckoning
Moment of reckoningShinzo Abe’s expected victory in next week’s snap election will leave him no excuse for further backsliding on structural reform THERE is little doubt that Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, sees himself as a leader with an historic mission. In an interview with The Economist, he recalled the revolutionaries from his home prefecture of Yamaguchi who in the 1860s overthrew the o
Abe’s last chance
Abe’s last chanceJapan desperately needs economic reform; Shinzo Abe still offers the best chance of that TWO years ago Shinzo Abe ran for office vowing to end Japan’s long economic malaise by banishing deflation and smashing the old habits that impeded growth. He promised to make a country suffering a collapse in confidence once again stand tall. Mr Abe won the election in a landslide, yet barely
To the district born
THERE is a saying in Japan that a monkey that falls from a tree is still a monkey, but a member of parliament who falls is a nobody. Apart from some opportunities in a tiny lobbying industry, there are few prospects for cast-aside politicians. So an approaching snap election on December 14th is sparking anxiety in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)—except, that is, among a swelling class of politi
Same race, same horse
Same race, same horseShinzo Abe has called a snap poll to consolidate power; voters should give him one more chance WHEN Shinzo Abe made the case, in late 2012, that he was the man to save the economy and revive Japan, voters handed him a landslide general-election win. This week, just two years on, the prime minister dissolved the Diet’s lower house and declared a snap election for December 14th.
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Get the party started
Right turn: Japan’s cabinet