Quote of the Day
There is no Plan B for Japan other than the U.S. treaty wise and also as a physical presence, no other country can substitute the U.S. It is unthinkable.
Takuya Akiyama, Principal Deputy Director of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. U.S. military cooperation with Tokyo appears stable, and may even expand as the White House ramps up its standoff with Asia's increasingly assertive superpower, China. Read
Japan has economically prospered as older generations worked extremely hard after the war’s end. I am hoping to convey a sense of unity shared by Japanese society from that time to my fellow folks in Ukraine.
Mariia Bondarenko, a 22-year-old Ukrainian staffer with JSUS (Japanese Supports for Ukrainian Students), a coalition of Japanese language schools helping Ukrainians who came to Japan after Russia's invasion of their country. Read
This is the year we will aim for a complete revival of overseas travel.
Hiroyuki Takahashi, chairman of JTB Corp. To promote overseas travel, the Japan Association of Travel Agents has launched a campaign to subsidize some of the cost of getting a new passport. According to the Foreign Ministry, the number of passports issued has not returned to pre-pandemic levels and only about 17… Read
Spring is a season when changes in physical condition, such as autonomic nervous system disturbances, can easily occur. Furthermore, other people tend to be cheerful, which can potentially deepen the feelings of alienation and loneliness among those with no support.
Yoshinori Cho, director general of the National Institute of Mental Health at Japan's National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry. Nearly every year over the past 10 years, March has seen the most suicides, with numbers remaining high into April and May. Read
We need to explain how research connects to daily life and encourage people to think together with us.
Mikihito Tanaka, a professor at Waseda University in Tokyo, saying many in Japan believe scientists are working behind closed doors. Japan ranked low in a global survey on public trust in scientists, according to a study by an international research team published in a British scientific journal. Low evaluations for… Read
We are seeing an increase in consultations about psychological abuse. One of the factors is the increase in domestic violence in front of children, such as witnessing violence inflicted against one parent.
Junko Mihara, minister for policies related to children. Child guidance centers in Japan logged a record high 225,509 consultations about child abuse on record in fiscal 2023 Read
I’m concerned that young people who want to be politicians may hesitate to run for office, if no proper measures are taken to stop harassment on social media.
Satoko Murakami, 59, a member of the Kitakyushu Municipal Assembly, who experienced harassment on X, that she was a member of an extremist group. She also experienced other types of harassment, such as having underwear and daily necessities that she did not order sent to her office by cash on… Read
I’m sorry for damaging the city’s brand image.
Masao Miki, mayor of Suzuka City in Nagano Prefecture, apologizing for the city passing off grapes produced in Yamagata Prefecture as being grown locally to reward donors to its hometown tax program. Miki said the city had continued to accept donations even after officials learned that there had been falsification of… Read
Young people are not coming into the industry. Those in their 70s and 80s who will soon retire are supporting the elderly now.
The president of Carefriend Toshima which dispatches caregivers to the homes of elderly clients. The number of nursing care workers nationwide fell to 2.126 million in fiscal 2023, down by 28,000 from the previous year. There is also an increase in people in working-age generations having to leave their jobs… Read
Many hospitals focus on speed, which tends to lead to sloppy patient services. Failure to properly understand a patients’s pre-existing conditions or explain the risks of side effects could lead to serious medical accidents.
A senior health ministry official. In fiscal 2023, consumer affairs centers across Japan received 258 complaints about online medical consultations, about five times as many as in fiscal 2021. Read
