Politics

Prime Minister Kishida asks for Suga to join the Cabinet to become “Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Special Missions”

The administration of Fumio Kishida is in a state of limbo. In less than a month, the Cabinet reshuffled three ministers, including Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa, Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi and Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Minoru Terada, and approval ratings for the Cabinet plummeted. Prime Minister Kishida, who won the upper house election in July, has been touted as enjoying a “golden three years” until the next lower house election, but the resignation domino has dramatically shifted the political situation. Encouraged opposition parties are targeting reconstruction minister Kenya Akiba, who has been criticized for his opaque handling of office expenses. Under tense circumstances, jaw-dropping information poured in. “Kishida...
Economy

The Asahi Shimbun’s sales fell below 4 million copies. The number of copies sold is said to be around 3 million.

As the trend away from newspapers accelerates, it has been revealed that the Asahi Shimbun’s morning newspaper sales finally fell below the 4 million mark in September. According to several sources close to the newspaper, the actual sales are estimated at around 3 million copies, excluding “forced sales,” which force dealers to buy more than the number of subscribers. According to an official of the newspaper, if the number of copies is reduced at the rate of 400,000 a year, it will be 0 in 7 to 8 years. No new source of revenue has yet been found to replace the ever-declining print newspapers, and time is running out. According...
Academic

University of Tokyo elite with coronavirus to repeat school year

At the University of Tokyo, a class III science student who missed class due to the novel coronavirus was today (August 19, 2022) sentenced to repeat the year. This is due to the “no” requirement of one credit. Surprised by the impossibility, he asked the teacher for help, but was given a penalty of “17 points,” as if to whip the dead. The students were not convinced, and as early as the 19th, they will file a petition with the Tokyo District Court to suspend the University of Tokyo’s decision to repeat the year. The student is Soudai Sugiura, 20, a second-year student at the University of Tokyo’s College of...
Politics

Asahi Shimbun to Cut 200 Jobs through shoulder tapping(Kata-Tataki). Generous lump-sum retirement allowance of up to 50 million yen/targeted at over 60% of all employees

The Asahi Shimbun Company notified its labor union on June 30 of its plan to recruit “more than 200” voluntary retirees from September to November for employees aged 45 or older. Following last year’s (111 applicants) voluntary retirement program, the company aims to realize a system of 3800 employees at the end of fiscal 2023 based on the current medium-term management plan. The company posted a net profit in fiscal 21 for the first time in two years, compared with the previous year, when it posted its biggest loss since its foundation. However, while the number of copies sold has been decreasing at a pace of 400,000 copies a year,...
Politics

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan is suspected of sexual harassment. He may be replaced before the upper house election.

May 23, 2022 In Japan, the end of the ordinary Diet session is less than a month away. Meanwhile, an unprecedented scandal broke out in Nagatacho. This is a sexual harassment scandal involving House of Representatives Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda. He is 78 years old. Hosoda has been making a lot of gaffes lately. He said that the annual expenses for House of Representatives members’ activities are 1 million yen a month, but he recognized that the amount was small, which provoked a backlash from the public, who are worried about their daily lives. Facta, a monthly magazine, reported the new allegations. That is sexual harassment. Hosoda’s actions, as well as...
Birthday

Thursday, December 8, 1921: Kazuki Sakamono, the legendary editor, was born

Thursday, December 8, 1921 Kazuki Sakamono, the legendary editor, was born in Asakura City, Fukuoka Prefecture. In 1943, he graduated early from the Department of Japanese Literature, Faculty of Law and Literature, Nihon University, and went to war as a student, and was assigned to the Tsushin-tai troop in Manchuria. After painstakingly returning from Manchuria in November 1945, he came to believe that the rest of his life was the rest of his life. Kazuki Sakamono used to publish small doujinshi in his hometown of Fukuoka, but in January 1947, he joined Kawase-Shobo and started his career as an editor. Masao Yonekawa, a scholar of Russian literature, is in charge...
Economy

Saturday, December 3 1921: Yoji Suhara, the president of Mitsubishi Pencil, was born.

1921 (Taisho 10) Saturday, December 3 Yoji Suhara, the future president of Mitsubishi Pencil, was born in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo. My father was Saburo Suhara, a factory manager at Yamato Pencil (later Mitsubishi Pencil). The pencil industry in Japan started in the early Meiji period. Two people exhibited pencils made in Japan at the First National Industrial Exhibition in 1877 (Meiji 10). One is Uhachiro Koike from Tokyo and the other is Gengo Hiwatari from Sendai. Sendai has a remarkable story. In 1855, a black ship arrived at Ishinomaki Port in the Sendai Domain with 15 people on board, including US Navy serviceman John M Brook. They gave him pencils,...
Art

Friday, December 2 1921: The painter Taniuchi Rokuro was born in Ebisu, Tokyo.

1921 (Taisho 10) Friday, December 2 The painter Taniuchi Rokuro was born in Ebisu, Tokyo. My father, Hisamatsu TANIUCHI, was from Kitaganitani Village (current Oyabe City), Toyama Prefecture, and worked as a dormitory keeper at a veterinary school. He was born as the sixth son, as Rokuro’s name suggests. Taniuchi Rokuro studied at Komazawa Jinjo Koto Elementary School (now Komazawa Elementary School in Setagaya Ward), but he was prone to getting sick, and from the time he was 6 ~ 7 years old, he was often confined to his sickbed because of his chronic asthma. Since I was in elementary school, my drawing grades have been top class. After graduating...
Social

Thursday, December 1 1921: Matsukiya Gofukuten, the first department store in central Aomori, opened.

1921 (Taisho 10) Thursday, December 1 Matsukiya Gofukuten, the first department store in central Aomori, opened. The founder was Isaburo KANNO. The capital was 1 million yen, which was huge at that time. Built at the intersection of Shinmachi and Yanagimachi, the three-story, 380 tsubo wooden department store has long been a popular landmark of Aomori City. It was forced to close during World War II, but was revived in 1951 as a three-story reinforced concrete store. In 1966, it was added to a four-story reinforced concrete building, and in 1970, it was added to a six-story building with an observation deck. In addition, we expanded to Mutsu City in...
Economy

Tuesday, November 29 1921: Nanyo Kohatsu Co., Ltd. was established on Saipan Island.

1921 (Taisho 10) Tuesday, November 29 Nanyo Kohatsu Co., Ltd. was established on Saipan Island, a mandated territory of Japan. The central figure was a businessman, Matsue Haruji. Matsue was 45 years old at that time. Haruji Matsue was born on January 15, 1876 as the second son of Hisahira Matsue, a former police officer of the Aizu Clan in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture. His older brother, who is four years older than him, is the chief of the Tokushima POW camp (later a major general of the Army), known as the main character of the movie “Balto no Rakuen”. In 1895, Haruji Matsue graduated from the former Aizu Junior...