Kuchikomi
As election day nears, magazine takes objective look at Japan's alleged 'foreigner problem'
With immigration-related matters taken up by many of Japan's political parties during the current campaign, the cover story in Newsweek Japan (Jan 27), titled "An in-depth look into the 'foreigner problem,'" was clearly timed to appear ahead of the upcoming Diet elections. Compared with other OECD member countries, Japan's foreign… Read
The anxiety of losing friends as one ages
Friendship: rare, difficult, beautiful, vague. What is it, exactly? It’s not family, not business partnership, not military alliance, nor political coalition. It’s closer than coexistence, more distant than love . It has no basis in law or biology. Similar outlooks on life can favor it – or stifle it. Ideological… Read
Mayor caught spending official time at love hotels with subordinate decisively re-elected
Early times called it sin, more recent times vice; our own time calls it nothing at all. Live and let live, we say. Two exceptions: celebrities and elected officials. On them the media spotlight glares. Their lives must be pure, exemplary. Let a politician or entertainer be caught in a… Read
'Towaman kids' - psychological problems associated with growing up in tower mansions
“Yui Aoyama” (a pseudonym) lives 31 stories above ground level in Tokyo, burnt out at 14. She was born to privilege. Her parents are rich, her schooling the best, supplemented with the best after-school jukus, after-school lessons in this accomplishment and that, everything going well, a rich and rewarding career… Read
AI might have its greatest negative impact in Japan's educational field
In the view of Shukan Post (Jan 30), generative AI will lead to Japan's undoing. While touching on such topics as data security and "deep fakes," the article expects AI will have its greatest negative impact in Japan's educational fields. Ask a question, and generative AI will almost instantly provide an answer… Read
Romance fraudsters always find someone to target
There are no moral depths so low we can’t sink into them. We all want love and we all want money. The strong prey on the weak, the amoral on the moral, the shrewd on the naïve, the dull, the mind-becloud. Conspicuous among the latter is the growing population of… Read
Magazine takes a stab at rotary sushi-nomics
There's a new player in Japan's kaiten sushi stakes. Sushi Matsu is a division of the Matsuya group, which also operates shops that specialize in gyudon (bowl of beef over rice) and tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets). Food industry analyst Takao Shigemori thinks Sushi Matsu has found the right niche and… Read
The 'Takaichi shock': China roared, Japan didn’t flinch
Words rock nations. National leaders use them carefully. They cannot be silent. There is no such thing as silent leadership. Not in politics. Which is why politicians have invented, as an alternative to spoken communication, spoken uncommunication. They are masters of spoken nothingness. Which is why, perhaps, democracy, which originally… Read
Japanese pundits expecting chaos from the U.S. in the year ahead
The year 2026 will be one of "great chaos," for both the world and Japan, predicts Shukan Post (Jan 16-23). The weekly magazine's special report features 14 separate sections, ranging from stock market predictions and activities of Japan's royal family to new trends in adult videos to rural bear attacks. Leading… Read
Soaring demand for plastic surgery in Japan; complaints also soaring
We are (seen from a certain point of view) a most unlovely species. We sweat, we excrete, we exchange body fluids we’d rather not see – we disgust ourselves. But we love ourselves. We love beauty. We long to be beautiful. We do what we can. We style our hair,… Read
