Japan needs to restructure the Self-Defense Forces, says National Institute for Defense Studies.

“With North Korea is developing its nuclear weapons, China continuously modernizing its military forces and the US plan to cut in its military budget while cracking down on international organized crime groups, Japan has to reorient its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in order to face the changes in its security environment,” says Professor Katahara. In its annual East Asia Strategic Review conducted over 2011 and published today, the NIDS reported that due to last year’s triple... Read More

A Light In The Dark Empire: The Man Who Fought TEPCO.

Katsunobu Onda, investigative journalist and author of "TEPCO: The Darkness of the Empire" and "The Last Will and Testament of A TEPCO Foreman" Katsunobu Onda is a writer and investigative journalist who has been chronicling the corporate malfeasance in Japan’s nuclear industry for over two decades and his book  Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO): The Darkness of the Empire 「東京電力・帝国の暗黒」which was published in November of 2007 was... Read More

The Journo Blues: A Song Inspired By Arianna Huffington

This month, I know two good journalists who lost their jobs when their prospective publications folded. Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily was one of them. It was making 6 million dollars a year but still not enough to stay in operation. In this same month, I got two requests to intern at the Japan Subculture Research Center. I’d love to have more writers but I have no budget to pay them. Well, maybe a cup of coffee or dinner. Whenever someone young (and I’m not young)... Read More

The Buddha Of Fukushima 1-Year Later (Post 3/11)

Last year, we told you the story of Naoto Matsumura, Tomioka City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan–the last man standing in  Fukushima’s Forbidden Zone. He will not leave;  he risks an early death because his defiance of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and the government is his life now. He is not crazy and he is not going. He remains there to remind people of the human costs of nuclear accidents. He is the King of The Forbidden Zone; its protector. He is the caretaker... Read More

Let's Convenience Store! The Musical: コンビニへ行こう！

By Amy Seaman, JSRC Senior Cross-over Pop-Culture Editor, Hair Coloring Expert  What’s not to like about a Japanese love song that is dedicated to konbini and the people who staff them, that consists of a handful of exchange students kanpai’ing and dancing in store aisles? If Yahoo! Japan’s video charts serve as any indication, absolutely nothing. Having been featured twice on the site’s main page and on various blogs, “Konbini Ikou”, which translates into “Let’s... Read More

Independent Commission on Nuclear Accident: Earthquake, TEPCO negligence, Myth of Safety Caused Meltdown

On March 1st, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, established in September 2011 by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, lead by Koichi Kitazawa, former president of Japan Science and Technology Agency, held a press conference on their recently issued report. The commission is a civilian project staffed by nuclear experts, investigative journalists, and experts in risk management. The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Committee... Read More

The Last Yakuza: A Life In The Japanese Underworld coming in 2014

Jake Adelstein’s 2nd book, a narrative non-fiction history of  post-war Japanese organized crime, The Last Yakuza: A Life In The Japanese World  is due to be published in 2014.  The book by focussing on one former yakuza boss and his associates, including the cops who arrested him, will follow the rise of the yakuza, their movement into the financial world, and the gradual disintegration of the professed code that let them be tolerated in Japanese society. Publisher’s... Read More

What caused Japan’s triple nuclear meltdown? One unprecedented committee may find the answers.

The first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake is approaching and the fall-out from the triple nuclear meltdown it created continues to plague the country. The spectre of of Fukushima and Japan’s corrupt, criminal and inept nuclear industry continues to cast a dark shadow over Japanese society. Recently a number of committees have been created to exorcise these ghosts, determine what really went wrong at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) run Fukushima Nuclear... Read More

Lingerie designer by day, yakuza by night: Shizukanaru Don (The Quiet Don)

By Gilles Poitras Screenshots courtesy of Michelle A. Hoyle Nitta Tatsuo’s Shizukanaru Don (静かなるドン), translated into English as The Quiet Don, began publication in November 1988 in the men’s manga magazine Shukan Manga Sunday (Weekly Manga Sunday) and, at nearly 100 tankobon, is still running. This is a tale of a tough young yakuza boss who is head of the largest organization in Kanto, and of a mild-mannered salaryman who works in the design department... Read More