With the goal of uniting industry, technological innovation, and the environment, the 26th annual Grand Prize for the Global Environment Awards, sponsored by Fujisankei Communications Group (FCG), recognized enterprises and organizations for their work on global warming or conservation. The ceremony, attended by Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino, was held on April 10 […]
On March 22, the Imperial Household Agency announced that Toshinomiya Aiko-sama, the daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, had written an essay for Gakushuin Girls’ Junior High School memorial yearbook on the occasion of her graduation. Princess Aiko’s essay, titled “Praying for Peace in the World,” is reprinted below in full: […]
An anti-terror bill with stricter actus reus provisions than those for the crime of conspiracy has been submitted to the Diet. The bill, which would reform the sentencing requirements for organized crime, stipulates new crimes falling under the rubric of making preparations to carry out terrorist activities and similar activities. The government is hoping to […]
Defense Minister Tomomi Inada visited Yasukuni Shrine on December 29, 2016, and later answered questions from a group of reporters. A transcript of the discussion is below: Q: What did you write in the guest book? A: I made the following entry: “December 29, 2016, Defense Minister, Tomomi Inada” Q: What about […]
An unforeseen proxy war is escalating over world-famous author Haruki Murakami’s first new full-length novel in four years, Killing Commendatore (Kishidancho Goroshi). In the book, one of Murakami’s characters expresses his doubts about the number of victims of the Nanjing Incident in 1937 which occurred under the Japanese military’s occupation of China during the Fifteen-Year […]
The Sankei Shimbun has learned that earlier this week, a Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet and an American carrier strike force led by the nuclear-powered carrier USS Carl Vinson began joint operations in the East China Sea. It is rare for officials to confirm full-scale drills carried out jointly between U.S. carrier groups and Japanese Maritime […]
In order to counter the ever-worsening trend of childlessness in Japan, a survey is carried out by the Japan Family Planning Association each year which peels back the secrecy surrounding the “marital act.” The survey found that in 2016, 47.2 percent of married couples reported living in sexless marriages, fully 12 percentage points lower than […]
This article originally appeared in the Sankei Shimbun morning edition, September 4, 2012. A suspected case of an abduction carried out by North Korea was confirmed as fact at a summit between the leaders of Japan and North Korea in 2002. Sankei Shimbun had already reported the case 23 years earlier. On January […]
This article originally appeared in the Sankei Shimbun morning edition, September 3, 2012. All ages and dates are counted from that date. At a Japan-North Korea summit, then-Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il admitted to abducting Japanese people and asserted that five abductees were still alive. Of those, the Japanese side had been unsuccessfully tracking the […]
This article originally appeared in the Sankei Shimbun morning edition, September 2, 2012. All ages and dates are counted from that date. In 2004, North Korea handed over what it claimed were the remains of Megumi Yokota. By that time, nearly two years had passed since then-Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Il had admitted that Megumi […]
This article originally appeared in the Sankei Shimbun morning edition, September 1, 2012. All ages and dates are counted from that date. Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents as she was coming home after middle school badminton practice, is representative of North Korea’s abduction victims. If her case is brought to […]
This article originally appeared in the Sankei Shimbun morning edition, August 31, 2012. All ages and dates are counted from that date. “I regret to inform you…” That was how then-Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Shigeo Uemura began while speaking to Yokota Megumi’s father, Shigeru (79) and mother, Sakie (76), in a room at […]
