Demining diplomacy: to counter China’s Cambodia sway, Japan touts landmine clearance
Analysts say the timely proposal aims to cement Tokyo’s influence in the region as the Southeast Asian nation undergoes a generational leadership transition.
Julian Ryall in asian news
Legislating LOLs: Japanese prefecture passes law asking residents to laugh daily
The local government in Japan’s Yamagata prefecture has just passed an ordinance calling on residents to laugh at least once every day to promote better physical and mental health, although the new law has gone down like a bad joke in some quarters.
2 Japan airlines issue guidelines to tackle customer harassment as complaints surge
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have united to draw up guidelines on travellers’ behaviour, in a bid to stamp out the increasing problem of “customer harassment” faced by the two carriers and other local companies.
Victims of Japan’s ‘chikan’ train gropers feel ‘shame for speaking out’. Is society to blame?
More than 10 per cent of young Japanese have experienced sexual groping on trains and other public settings, according to a study by the Cabinet Office, with around 3.4 per cent of 36,000 people interviewed saying they had been molested more than 11 times.
Japan to build hospital ships to boost disaster response in coastal areas: ‘a huge help’
Japan is planning to construct hospital ships that will be able to respond quickly to natural disasters in coastal areas, with one medical expert who volunteered in the aftermath of the January 1 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula saying such vessels would have been a “huge help”.
Japan military hiring hit by low birth rate, pay as many reluctant to give up ‘good life’
The Self-Defence Forces managed to hire only 9,959 people in the financial year 2023, just over 50 per cent of their target and a record low for personnel joining the three branches of the armed forces.
In Japan’s Okinawa, outrage mounts over government silence on sex crimes involving US troops
Protests have erupted across Okinawa following revelations that the Japanese government withheld information about US troops’ sexual assaults on local women, with residents expressing outrage and demanding greater accountability from Tokyo.
Japan, US activists condemn secret transfer of nuclear waste to uranium mill near tribal lands
The Grand Canyon Trust, a conservation group headquartered in Flagstaff, Arizona, announced on June 11 that newly discovered documents had shown that Energy Fuels Inc had imported the waste from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), arriving on January 16.