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World’s biggest pension fund hit by $52bn loss
Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has posted a loss of $52 billion for April to June, following the tumbling Tokyo stock market and the yen’s surge.
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Tokyo at sunset
Photograph by Sandro Bisaro.
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+35 +1
Tokyo Olympics medals will be made from recycled electronics
Organisers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics say the medals will be forged from recycled metal from old mobile phones and appliances donated by the public.
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+30 +1
Panasonic wants employees to relax, limits work days to 11 hours
Japan is notorious for its long working hours, which have been blamed for a national health crisis known as "karoshi" -- death from overwork. Panasonic hopes to curb this, instructing its 100,000-ish employees to work no later than 8 p.m. each day, reports Asahi Shimbun. This hour reduction still enables a 55-hour working week, but the directive from Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga also limited overtime to 80 hours a month.
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Wisteria Blooming
A visitor takes a selfie in front of blooming wisteria at Kameido-tenjin shrine during the annual wisteria festival in Tokyo, Japan.
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Contamination turns Tokyo’s new fish market into ‘white elephant’
Dangerous levels of chemicals in the soil and ground water mean that the market cannot open, leaving traders out of pocket and Tokyo’s governor with an intractable problem. Julian Ryall reports from the Japanese capital.
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Japan's doctors propose raising 'outdated' retirement age to 75
Doctors have come up with a novel idea to help Japan keep pace with its rapidly ageing population: raising the definition of senior citizen to those aged 75 years and older. A leading campaigner said the commonly accepted 65-year threshold is “terribly outdated” and needs to be lifted to take account of longer life expectancy and changing social attitudes to ageing.
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Japan's Princess Mako giving up royal status to marry commoner
Japanese Emperor Akihito's oldest grandchild, Princess Mako, says she is getting married to her university classmate who won her heart with bright smiles and sincerity. Mako and her fiancé Kei Komuro told a joint news conference Sunday their relationship started when Mako sat behind him at a campus meeting five years ago at Tokyo's International Christian University, where they graduated from.
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Japan says U.S. has assured it of nuclear deterrent protection
U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told his Japanese counterpart on Sunday that Washington is firmly committed to defending Japan, including with its nuclear deterrent, following North Korea’s latest nuclear test. McMaster made the assurance during a telephone call to Shotarou Taniuchi, the Director-General of the Japanese National Security Council, according to a government statement.
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Sweet Bitter Blues
Encounters in Tokyo. “It seems possible to argue that American blues offers a new solution to the Japanese, an idea they maybe hadn’t encountered before, hadn’t realized could work as a balm.” By Amanda Petrusich.
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US troops in Japan banned from drinking after fatal crash
US Forces in Japan banned all personnel from consuming alcohol after a drink-driving accident on the island of Okinawa where anti-base sentiment runs high. A US Marine crashed his vehicle into a mini-truck at an intersection on Sunday, killing the other driver, 61. The 21-year-old, whose breath test showed an alcohol level three times the legal limit, was arrested and charged with negligent driving resulting in death, police said.
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Facial recognition eyed for 2020 Tokyo Olympics
The organising committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and the Tokyo metropolitan government are planning to use a facial recognition system during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, sources said.
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Plyscraper city: Tokyo to build 350m tower made of wood
The $5.6bn cost of the 70-storey W350 Project is expected to be twice that of a conventional building
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Tokyo 2020 Olympics confirms use of rainforest timber in stadium build
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee has confirmed that 87% of the plywood panels used to build its new national stadium come from southeast Asian rainforests. But the timber cannot be traced back to its original source under the committees’s certification protocols, which have been censured by campaigners for a lack of due diligence.
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+17 +1
How Killer Rice Crippled Tokyo and the Japanese Navy
One stubborn doctor pioneered a cure.
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Municipalities try new ways to help Japan's recluses find their place in society
Municipalities across Japan are reaching out to the social recluses known as hikikomori to help them find their place in society without focusing solely on getting them back into the workforce. Japan has some 540,000 people aged 15 to 39 who, aside from taking care of small chores, cut themselves off from the outside world for six months or longer at a time, according to a 2016 government estimate.
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70-year-olds and above account for 20% of Japan's population for 1st time
Japanese people aged 70 and older account for more than 20 percent of the total population for the first time at 26.18 million, in further evidence of the country's rapidly aging society, according to government data. The data, released by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry ahead of Monday's Respect-for-the-Aged Day holiday, showed that as of Saturday people aged 70 or above account for 20.7 percent of the population, up from 19.9 percent the previous year.
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Tokyo Wants to End LGBT Discrimination by 2020 Olympics
Tokyo, and Japan in general, has been making major strides in making the city a more LGBT-inclusive place with various programs including housing, government programs, and even marriage in certain districts. Now, the city is hoping that the city will be free of LGBT discrimination by the 2020 Olympics with a new ordinance. The city’s government introduced the piece of legislation on September 19 that includes measures to end discrimination.
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One of the world's largest tombs is a keyhole-shaped forest
Shrouded in mystery, the gigantic Daisen Kofun mound in Japan is thought to hold the remains of a 5th century emperor.
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+22 +1
The underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods
An intricate system of dams, levees and tunnels defends the Japan’s capital. Will it be able to cope with climate change?
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