Tokyo — The Pentagon is expected to announce that the U.S. will upgrade U.S. Forces Japan to a Joint Force Headquarters run by a three-star commander, a major step in U.S.-Japan plans to enhance their defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, alongside his Japanese counterpart, Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara, will announce the change in Tokyo on Sunday. However, defense officials who previewed the announcement to reporters said there are still some details that will take time to work out, like how many personnel it will involve and what infrastructure might be necessary.
The decision to make the upgrade came out of the Biden administration’s summit in April with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when the two said they would enhance their command and control systems, part of the two countries’ work to deter a growing threat from China.
According to a defense official, the change in U.S. Forces Japan will give it the primary responsibility of tasks that largely have been in Hawaii previously, like planning exercises and command operations. Shifting that responsibility to Japan would give the U.S. the opportunity to work more closely side-by-side with Japanese forces.
“We view this as a historic announcement with Japan among the strongest improvements to our military ties in seventy years,” the defense official said. “Bottom line is that this is a transformative change.”
This step is not intended to look like the U.S. Forces Korea, where the command structure of the South Koreans and U.S. forces are integrated. Instead, U.S. Forces Japan will work with Japan’s updated Joint Operations Command.
President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attend the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment Event at the G7 Summit at the Borgo Egnazia resort in Savelletri, Italy, on June 13, 2024.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Since the April summit in Washington, D.C., the Pentagon has been working on implementing the change, and officials say that Adm. Samuel Paparo, who started as the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in May 2024, led much of the planning for the proposal.
Defense officials say this announcement is just the beginning of the transition to actually making the change. There is still work to be done with working groups in Tokyo, as well as with Congress in the U.S. to flesh out what exactly this upgraded U.S. Forces Japan will look like.
That work will begin in earnest once Austin returns to the U.S. from his trip visiting first Japan and then the Philippines this week.
Depending on who you ask, the bones that have been sitting in a Tokyo repository for decades could be either leftovers from early 20th century anatomy classes, or the unburied and unidentified victims of one of the country’s most notorious war crimes.
A group of activists, historians and other experts who want the government to investigate links to wartime human germ warfare experiments met over the weekend to mark the 35th anniversary of their discovery and renew a call for an independent panel to examine the evidence.
Japan’s government has long avoided discussing wartime atrocities, including the sexual abuse of Asian women known as “comfort women” and Korean forced laborers at Japanese mines and factories, often on grounds of lack of documentary proof. Japan has apologized for its aggression in Asia, but since the 2010s it has been repeatedly criticized in South Korea and China for backpedaling.
Around a dozen skulls, many with cuts, and parts of other skeletons were unearthed on July 22, 1989, during construction of a Health Ministry research institute at the site of the wartime Army Medical School. The school’s close ties to a germ and biological warfare unit led many to suspect that they could be the remains of a dark history that the Japanese government has never officially acknowledged.
Headquartered in then-Japanese-controlled northeast China, Unit 731 and several related units injected prisoners of war with typhus, cholera and other diseases, according to historians and former unit members. They also say the unit performed unnecessary amputations and organ removals on living people to practice surgery and froze prisoners to death in endurance tests. Japan’s government has acknowledged only that Unit 731 existed.
A power shovel is used on Feb. 21, 2011 to dig the site of a former medical school in Tokyo linked to Unit 731, a germ and biological warfare outfit during the war.
Koji Sasahara / AP
Led by Gen. Shiro Ishii, Unit 731 researchers “used men and women as involuntary test subjects, causing them unspeakable pain and suffering as they were injected with germs, fed infected foods, and bitten by rodents and fleas,” according to the U.S. Naval Institute.
The institute said Unit 731 also produced devices to poison individuals with fountain pens and pointed walking sticks, as well as “techniques for clandestinely poisoning drinking wells.” The unit also developed a bomb “that could destroy vegetation in an area of 20 square miles” and experimented with artillery shells carrying gas and biological agents, the institute said.
Top Unit 731 officials were not tried in postwar tribunals as the U.S. sought to get ahold of chemical warfare data, historians say.
“Perhaps the most notorious was Gen. Ishii of Unit 731, who escaped postwar prosecution in exchange, apparently, for supplying the U.S. government with details of his gruesome human experiments,” historian Edward Drea wrote in an essay published by the U.S. Archives.
Lower-ranked officials were tried by Soviet tribunals. Some of the unit’s leaders became medical professors and pharmaceutical executives after the war.
“We just want to find the truth”
A previous Health Ministry investigation said the bones couldn’t be linked to the unit, and concluded that the remains were most likely from bodies used in medical education or brought back from war zones for analysis, in a 2001 report based on questioning 290 people associated with the school.
It acknowledged that some interviewees drew connections to Unit 731. One said he saw a head in a barrel shipped from Manchuria, northern China, where the unit was based. Two others noted hearing about specimens from the unit being stored in a school building, but had not actually seen them. Others denied the link, saying the specimens could include those from the prewar era.
A 1992 anthropological analysis found that the bones came from at least 62 and possibly more than 100 different bodies, mostly adults from parts of Asia outside Japan. The holes and cuts found on some skulls were made after death, it said, but did not find evidence linking the bones to Unit 731.
But activists say that the government could do more to uncover the truth, including publishing full accounts of its interviews and conducting DNA testing.
Kazuyuki Kawamura, a former Shinjuku district assembly member who has devoted most of his career to resolving the bone mystery, recently obtained 400 pages of research materials from the 2001 report using freedom of information requests, and says it shows that the government “tactfully excluded” key information from witness accounts.
The newly published material doesn’t contain a smoking gun, but it includes vivid descriptions – the man who described seeing a head in a barrel also described helping to handle it and then running off to vomit – and comments from several witnesses who suggested that more forensic investigation might show a link to Unit 731.
“Our goal is to identify the bones and send them back to their families,” said Kawamura. The bones are virtually the only proof of what happened, he says. “We just want to find the truth.”
Health Ministry official Atsushi Akiyama said that witness accounts had already been analyzed and factored into the 2001 report, and the government’s position remains unchanged. A key missing link is a documentary evidence, such as a label on a specimen container or official records, he said.
Documents, especially those involving Japan’s wartime atrocities, were carefully destroyed in the war’s closing days and finding new evidence for a proof would be difficult.
Akiyama added that a lack of information about the bones would make DNA analysis difficult.
Hideo Shimizu, who was sent to Unit 731 in April 1945 at age 14 as lab technician and joined the meeting online from his home in Nagano, said he remembers seeing heads and body parts in formalin jars stored in a specimen room in the unit’s main building. One that struck him most was a dissected belly with a fetus inside. He was told they were “maruta” – logs – a term used for prisoners chosen for experiments.
Days before Japan’s Aug. 15, 1945 surrender, Shimizu was ordered to collect bones of prisoners’ bodies burned in a pit. He was then given a pistol and a packet of cyanide to kill himself if he was caught on his journey back to Japan.
He was ordered never to tell anyone about his Unit 731 experience, never contact his colleagues, and never seek a government or medical job.
Shimizu said he cannot tell if any specimen he saw at the 731 could be among the Shinjuku bones by looking at their photos, but that what he saw in Harbin should never be repeated. When he sees his great-grandchildren, he said, they remind him of that fetus he saw and the lives lost.
“I want younger people to understand the tragedy of war,” he said.
Chuo Ward, Tokyo, Japan – February 23, 2018; Top luxury shopping streets with multi colored neon signs. Ginza avenues are lined with shops of expensive brands and restaurants in the heart of Tokyo. It is half past five p.m. on Friday. People flock to Ginza for shopping, dinner and drinking with their friends. Ginza became synonymous with major shopping districts in Japan.
Marco Ferrarin | Moment | Getty Images
SHANGHAI — Luxury brands are seeing a surge in sales in Japan, largely driven by purchases from Chinese travelers taking advantage of a weak yen, according to earnings results this month.
LVMH, Kering and Burberry all noted the uptick, despite weaker sales in China that weighed on overall results.
Japan sales for Kering-owned Yves Saint Laurent surged by 42% in the first half of the year “due to strong growth in the number of tourists visiting from China and Southeast Asia, who were attracted by the pricing differential arising from the favorable exchange rate,” the parent company said Wednesday of its second-largest brand.
For the first half of the year, luxury group LVMH this week reported “exceptional growth in Japan arising in particular from purchases made by Chinese travelers.”
The Chinese yuan has gained 6.9% against the yen so far this year after this month hitting its strongest level against the Japanese currency in at least 24 years, according to Wind Information data going back to 2000.
The yen has fallen to 38-year lows against the U.S. dollar as the interest rate differential between the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan remains wide.
Global visitors to Japan surged in the first half of the year, with South Korea accounting for the most travelers, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.
But visitors from mainland China by far grew the most, surging by 415% in the first half of the year to 3.1 million visitors, the data showed.
Trip.com told CNBC it has seen an increase in spending from Chinese travelers heading to Japan in recent months compared to the previous three months. The travel service reported more than 60% growth both in bookings made through their customized travel team, and in their global shopping service, which partners with luxury brands worldwide. Trip did not specify which months, citing forthcoming earnings which have historically been released in September.
On Chinese social media sites like Weibo and Xiao Hong Shu, users have shared tips on where to luxury shop in Japan.
One netizen urged fellow netizens to save money — by shopping in Japan. She lauded a shopping mall in Sapporo for being the “top” standard for shopping with a “pretty” Gucci store.
Affluent Chinese households’ interest in visiting Japan rose by 5 percentage points in May versus a survey done last year in September, according to a study by consulting firm Oliver Wyman. The income segment covers families in mainland China earning at least 30,000 yuan a month ($4,140, or about $50,000 a year).
The Oliver Wyman research found that across a variety of luxury products, prices in Japan were 10% to 30% cheaper than in mainland China.
That was a steeper discount than when compared with Hong Kong. For example, a Louis Vuitton Speedy Bandouliere 20 sold for 16,700 yuan in mainland China at the time of the Oliver Wyman study, with a 3% discount in Hong Kong — and a 19% cheaper price in Japan.
Malaysia offered a 10% discount and France a 27% discount, the report said.
It cited an unnamed luxury brand retailer director as saying that “In Asia, Japan has the most comprehensive product range (e.g. style, color, etc.) besides Hong Kong, across most luxury brands.”
About half of Chinese luxury spending took place abroad prior to the pandemic, but that has now halved to about 20% to 25%, according to Oliver Wyman.
Japan was the fourth-most popular destination for overseas luxury shopping, although Hong Kong remained by far the most popular site, followed by Macao and Singapore, the report showed, as of May.
“Globally, the Chinese customer group also declined but held up better than Mainland China as spend was diverted offshore,” Burberry said in its earnings release earlier this month. “Japan continued to grow, benefitting from strong tourism spend mainly from Chinese and near shore customers in Asia, whilst locals remained soft.”
Burberry’s mainland China sales fell by 21% in the latest quarter from a year ago, while those in Japan rose by 6%. An overall decline in global sales prompted the luxury brand to issue a profit warning and suspend its dividend, as well as replace its CEO.
In the three months ending March 30, Coach owner Tapestry saw Greater China sales, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, drop by 2%. But Japan sales rose by 2% during that time. The company has yet to schedule its next earnings release.
— CNBC’s Sonia Heng contributed reporting from Singapore.
Designed by Japanese architects Nikken and nestled in the forest, Pola Museum of Art achieves a full symbiosis between Hakone’s natural beauty and art. Pola Museum of Art
The Pola Museum of Art might not yet be as well-known an art destination in Japan as the art islands Naoshima and Teshima but nevertheless, this private museum up in the mountains—just a two-hour train ride from Tokyo—offers the perfect combination of art and nature. All it takes to get there is the Romancecar limited express train up to Hakone-Yumoto Station. From there, you’ll transfer to a little old-style train that will take you on a 40-minute ride through rustically beautiful scenery, all the way up to the town of Hakone, where a shuttle (or the regular bus) can transport you to the museum. It’s a bit of a hike, but I can assure you it’s worth the trek.
Designed by Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei, the Pola Museum of Art’s stunning glass and concrete architecture perfectly integrates with the surrounding landscape of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. A large installation by Welsh artist and sculptor Cerith Wyn Evans occupies the extensive transitional space between exterior and interior, where bronze sculptures welcome you, including some by Henry Moore. Inside, the museum is a treasure chest of some of the most iconic masterpieces of Impressionist art.
The museum’s collection of approximately 10,000 items was assembled over some 40 years by the late Tsuneshi Suzuki, the second-generation head of the Pola Corporation, who established the museum and opened it to the public in 2002. The current show, “From Impressionism to Richter,” pairs the work of German contemporary artists with Monet’s Nyphees and Moules, as well as some of the finest works by Renoir, Cézanne and Picasso plus two enigmatic portraits by Amedeo Modigliani.
A view of the museum’s striking architecture in conversation with Cerith Wyn Evans’s neon sculpture. Photo by Elisa Carollo
In this unique setting, the museum is currently presenting the largest survey of Philippe Parreno’s work in Japan in the thought-provoking exhibition, “Places and Spaces,” making the trip even more of a must.
Since the ’90s, the acclaimed French artist has been challenging and investigating cinema as a medium of narration, blurring the lines between fiction and reality, artificial and natural, and unveiling its mechanisms and dynamics. His works, as well as his exhibitions, often consist of an ever-changing open field, which exposes the viewer to different technological simulations aimed at suspending the sense and perception of reality.
At Pola Museum of Art, Parreno has created a large-scale theatrical set divided into distinctive chapters or rooms, where mysterious presences, voices, lights, darkness and hidden messages come together in a dramatic sequence. Transforming the museum space into a labyrinth of symbols, the exhibition immerses the visitor in experiences of both wonder and confusion, not knowing what will be next or if one is already involved as a performer.
The journey starts in one of his aquarium rooms, where the sense of reality and materiality is subverted by a series of mylar floating fish that make you feel like you are inside water. Slowly drifting, these colorful fishes evoke a sense of familiarity, a hint of melancholy and nostalgia for a childhood left behind. Notably, in this latest work from Parreno’s fish balloon series, the artist meticulously crafted each of the fish eyes that convey irrepressible curiosity and joy, as they seem to be lost in contemplation in an imaginary ocean of the outdoor forest.
Philippe Parreno, My Room Is Another Fish Bowl. Photo by Elisa Carollo
In the next room, in his well-known installation Marilyn (2012), the actress’s deep loneliness resonates in her voice (here is generated by an algorithm) and in her writing (here recreated by a robot). Meanwhile, the camera pans silently around her hotel suite at New York’s opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel, recording personal effects the diva left behind while trying to give her point of view. In this complex choreography and continuous interplay between fiction and reality, between artificial and automatic, the actress is continuously embodied and disembodied, resulting in what the artist has described as “a portrait of a ghost embodied in an image.” Questioning the power of the camera’s eye to shape our sense of reality while obscuring or emphasizing specific aspects in relation to what is shown or not shown, Parreno unveils the other side of the celebrity: there’s insecurity, fragility and deep discomfort lurking under the glamor and perfection shown on the screen.
The artifice behind this complex installation, and also the genius of the artist’s mind, is revealed downstairs in another room showcasing a series of rarely shown drawings created for three films: Marilyn, C.H.Z. and those currently in production (100 Questions, 50 Lies) along with a standalone drawing series, Lucioles.
Presented inside vitrines, these images dramatically appear and disappear with the interplay of light and darkness as some sudden epiphanies emerge from the subconscious. Parreno’s drawings are more like prophetic dreams. Made in preparation for the movies more than mental maps or storyboards, they appear as free annotations of symbols, situations and feelings. As precious witnesses to the inner workings of Parreno’s creative process, these seemingly random constellations of images envision sporadic moments then coming together in the flow of the cinematic life.
The following room is occupied by orange and uncannily shaped balloons floating but also hanging as parasites. They’re part of Speech Bubbles, a series that Philippe Parreno conceived around the end of the ‘90s as a mass of cartoonish 3D speech bubbles of different colors, trapped against and suspended in their noise, without a way to convey their messages. The first batch of Speech Bubbles was produced in 1997 for a labor union demonstration—participants were meant to write messages on them. Today, with their playful but somehow disturbing and invasive presence, they stand as a critique of the transient culture of online chatting and of the futility of a public debate becoming increasingly empty of solid arguments and positions, but they can also represent the suppressed, silent protestations of countless voiceless individuals
Parreno’s Balloons are accompanied here by an article published in 1975 by Italian writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Disappearance of the Fireflies,” in which he mourned the vanishing of fireflies due to rapidly worsening environmental pollution, drawing parallels to the decline in postwar Italy’s culture and inner wealth as a result of insensible consumerism and authoritarianism. Inspired by this famous text and the powerful poetic metaphors made by the writer, in 1993, Parreno created an installation featuring electric lights that imitated fireflies: turned on only at night and so never encountered by visitors during museum hours, they powerfully evoked this idea of rebirth and loss, of renewal and the fragility of the flame of hope, to stay alive also in dark and discouraging geopolitical times.
Philippe Parreno, Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange). Photo by Elisa Carollo
This experience of suspension between light and darkness, hope and despair, deception and simulation, continues in the next room, where a haunting robotic creature made of light bulbs stands, illuminating only intermittently. As an epiphanic presence emerging from the black void, it could be an angel from the hyper-technological age or a mermaid trapped in the relics of the electronic industry. A bench in the darkness invites you to sit in front of an LCD display that intricately replicates a future landscape imagined by generative A.I., the direction of light changing in alignment with the real-time position of the sun. On the other side, another luminous machine connected to numerous cables blinks in an organic yet irregular rhythm, as an alien creature that has been captured and imprisoned into a machine to study it.
All these tech-animated creatures in the room appear to have lives of their own, out of any functionality humans could have created them for. Still, everything in this sci-fi or post-human imaginative-yet-real space is carefully choreographed and manipulated by Parreno to deliver an uncannily nonsensical yet cohesive organic experience as if everything was in a code, in a language and rationale that goes beyond human comprehension.
Oscillating between chaos and order, between playful and unsettling and disorientating experiences, Parreno suspends any ordinary sense of reality, triggering a more conscious interrogation of what reality is once this is constantly integrated, shaped and manipulated by new everyday technologies, even beyond cinematic fiction.
In a moment when A.I. is supposed to “Ignite the Consciousness Revolution,” Philippe Parreno once again created an open field for a critical investigation of the complex interplay between technology, human experience, human cognition and the nature of reality itself. Repeatedly forcing the visitor into a series of experiences where boundaries between the virtual and physical world continuously blur, the artist proves to us how differentiating between “real” and “authentic” becomes more challenging if we don’t start to question what we perceive and what produced the data and input we absorbed.
Welcome to Reality Park echos eerily in the darkness of the last room, inviting us into an ambiguous unreality or possibly a portal to another reality. Parreno’s work appears as a “reality check,” unraveling the various potential levels of reality, many of which already seem to escape common understanding due to the intricate interplay between digital manipulation, A.I. and emerging technologies that have already infiltrated our daily lives.
As one exits Pola Museum of Art, out of this technological hyper-exposure, a nature trail leads one into the woods, where stunning works of contemporary art and sound art coexist with the very real landscape. In the forest’s silence, you can contemplate the gentle ripples in the water caused by the wind on Roni Horn’s cast glass Air Burial, listen to a music piece echoing softly across the trees and concentrate on your breath as you walk through the world and its beauty. Here, in this serene setting, perhaps, there’s still a chance to achieve a moment of higher consciousness out of our primordial human perception of the reality surrounding us.
Two Russian nationals pleaded guilty to their roles in ransomware attacks in the U.S., Asia, Europe and Africa for a notorious hacking gang known as LockBit.
Ruslan Magomedovich Astamirov and Mikhail Vasiliev admitted they helped to deploy the ransomware variant, which first appeared in 2020. It soon became one of the most destructive in the world, leading to attacks against more than 2,500 victims and ransom payments of at least $500 million, according to the Justice Department.
The men pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, where six people have been charged over LockBit attacks, including Dimitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, described by the US as the creator, developer and administrator of the group. US authorities are offering a reward of up to $10 million for his arrest.
Astamirov, 21, of the Chechen Republic, and Vasiliev, 34, of Bradford, Ontario, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit computer fraud and abuse.
LockBit is the name of a ransomware variant, a type of malicious code that locks up computers before hackers demand a ransom to unlock them. Hacking gangs are often known by the name of their ransomware variant. LockBit successfully deployed a ransomware-as-a-service model, in which “affiliates” lease the malicious code and do the actual hacking, in exchange for paying the the gang’s leaders a cut of their illegal proceeds. Astamirov and Vasiliev were affiliates, according to the Justice Department.
In recent years, the US and its allies have aggressively tried to curb ransomware attacks by sanctioning hackers or entities associated with them or disrupting the online infrastructure of cybercriminal gangs. But many hackers are located in places such as Russia, which provide them safe haven, making it difficult for Western law enforcement to arrest them.
In February, US and UK authorities announced they disrupted LockBit operations, arresting alleged members, seizing servers and cryptocurrency accounts, and recovering decryption keys to unlock hijacked data.
“We’ve dealt significant blows to destructive ransomware groups like LockBit, as we did earlier this year, seizing control of LockBit infrastructure and distributing decryption keys to their victims,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, in a statement.
Vasiliev deployed LockBit against at least 12 victims, including an educational facility in the UK and a school in Switzerland, the US said. He was arrested by Canadian authorities in November 2022 and extradited to the US in June.
Astamirov was arrested by the FBI last year. In May 2023, he agreed to an interview with FBI agents in Arizona, where they seized his electronic devices. He initially denied having anything to do with an email account through a Russian-based provider, but agents later found records related to it on his devices, according to the arrest complaint. Records showed that Astamirov used the email to “create multiple online accounts under names either fully or nearly identical to his own name,” the complaint said.
After August 2020, Astamirov executed cyberattacks on at least five victims, according to the FBI complaint. They included: businesses in France and West Palm Beach, Florida; a Tokyo firm, which refused to pay a ransom, leading the group to post stolen data on a “leak site” of extortion victims; a Virginia company that stopped an attack after 24,000 documents were stolen; and a Kenyan business that agreed to pay ransom after some of its stolen data was posted to the LockBit website.
Both are scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 8, 2025.
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Measuring about half the length of a Ford F-150, Kei trucks look almost like toys in comparison to your standard pickup truck. But for a car so tiny, you might be surprised at the massive following that they command.
Kei trucks, built to satisfy Japanese light automobile regulations and known as “keitora” (meaning “light truck”) in Japan, are vehicles that have been enjoying a surge in popularity in the automobile market. Sales of Kei trucks tripled in the last five years, with around 7,500 total imported just last year, according to data from Japan Used Motor Vehicle.
Meanwhile, auto experts see the Kei truck craze as a pushback against big trucks by cash-strapped Americans as the average pickup size and average price tag skyrocketed post-pandemic, according to data from Cars.com.
But the cult following of these mini trucks might be better measured by the ubiquity of online spaces that owners and enthusiasts have carved out for themselves.
Instagram page Kei Trucks Appreciation Society (@keitrucksas) sells Kei truck-themed merchandise from hoodies to stickers and posts memes for its more than 95,000 followers. On X, Kei truck fans share pictures of mini trucks they spot in the wild.
There is even a dedicated Reddit forum where over 23,000 members trade tips on truck maintenance and their experiences importing from Japan.
But also common are discussions on the ever-changing legality of Kei trucks by state.
While federal regulation allows the import of mini trucks so long as they are 25 years or older, state laws surrounding on-road use and registration are spotty.
Most states lack Kei-specific regulation entirely, and so far, only 19 states allow Kei trucks on public roads. In New York, where laws are stricter, they can’t be registered or titled.
But despite limitations, demand for Kei trucks continues to grow.
Here’s what makes them so popular.
Tiny but mighty
On the practical end, Kei trucks combine utility and affordability.
“People want the functionality of a truck, but they don’t want the size of it or to spend $60,000 on it,” said George Zotos, owner and CEO of Kei truck brokerage company OIWA.co.
Prices for the Ford F-150 Raptor, one of the line’s higher-power models, start at $78,440. And the high-end 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country starts at $68,495.
The new Ford 2024 F-150 Raptor makes its global reveal at the 2023 North American International Detroit Auto Show on September 12, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan. – Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
According to Zotos, the sticker price for Kei trucks sold in the can range anywhere from $500 to $6,000. Research by CNN shows that they can go for even more than that in good condition.
Tetsu Ichino, owner of Japanese grocery store Maruichi in Rockville, Maryland, told CNN that he bought his Kei truck for $5,000. Adding shipping and taxes, his total came to $8,100.
“I was able to buy it with my credit card. I’ve never bought a car with a credit card, so that was a first for me,” he said.
Ichino, a lifelong truck enthusiast, sold his full-size pickup Toyota Tundra in March because he didn’t use it often enough but later missed the utility it provided. He told CNN that while he originally planned to buy another similarly sized truck, he found himself caught up in the Kei truck hype.
The engine on Ichino’s 1998 Honda Acty is smaller than that of a motorcycle, but he says it’s still one of the most practical trucks out there. And in Maryland, where there are no Kei-specific rules, he mainly uses it for transporting supplies to his store.
“For the majority of what I do, I will be able to do with the Kei truck,” he said.
According to Andrew O’Bright, managing member of Japanese auto import company JDM Imports CT, most mini trucks have the same roughly 6-foot bed size as the F-150, Ford’s full-size pickup truck line known for its towing capacity and powerful engine.
“They have the utility of an F-150 while getting 30 to 50 miles to the gallon on top of cheaper insurance, cheaper gas,” he said. “Everything about them tells consumers this is the way to go.”
Novelty factor
But efficiency isn’t the Kei truck’s only point of appeal. Their unique, toy-like image also lends them a sense of novelty.
“It is hard to quantify other than people just have a fascination with this micro vehicle,” Zotos said.
He also points to the truck’s versatility as another reason why they appeal to such a wide demographic.
“We’re talking about people who are just turning 16 and getting their driver’s license,” he said. “I had another customer in Chicago who got a truck just to wrap it for advertising.”
The cuteness factor of the Kei truck has proved advantageous for Melissa Torre, founder of Philadelphia-based soap and skincare company Vellum Street.
As a small business owner, Torre is a regular at farmers markets where vendors are usually allotted a 10×10 space.
To avoid the hassle of carting her merchandise back and forth between the parking area and the market lot, she began looking into trucks she could operate her business out of. But the milk vans and box trucks she originally considered were much longer, and she would need to buy two spaces to set up shop.
Melissa Torre, founder of soap and skincare company Vellum Street, customized her 1996 Daihatsu Hijet to match her branding. – Melissa Torre/Vellum Street
In her research process, Torre came across Kei trucks, which run less than 11 feet in length.
“They would fit exactly in the allotted space that I had been using. It was just a perfect transition without having to increase my cost,” she said. “I get to just pull up and set right up in the back of my truck. So it’s made life a lot easier.”
She told CNN that she even spray-painted bubbles on her 1996 Daihatsu Hijet to match her company’s branding.
“People who may not have stopped before to talk to me at markets will stop and talk about the truck. It’s a driving billboard, but in a fun way,” she said. “Kids love it. Adults love it. People are always surprised that I actually drove it there.”
Smaller and simpler
But for all their popularity, auto experts don’t see Kei trucks becoming mainstream.
“It’d be hard to imagine,” said Mark Schirmer, director of corporate communications at Cox Automotive. He pointed to the failure of Mercedes’ Smart brand in the US but their success in Japan as an example of smaller vehicles performing better in countries with smaller roads. Smart cars, small vehicles built with only two seats and minimal trunk space by Mercedes-Benz, were introduced in 2008 but exited the U.S. market in 2019 due to weak sales.
“I think Americans are just used to space,” Schirmer added.
And non-profit organizations like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have been vocal about their opposition to on-road use of mini trucks, citing concerns about the safety of low-speed vehicles.
Still, he sees the popularity of more compact – if not quite small – truck models like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz as a sign of Americans’ appetite for a smaller truck segment.
Whereas the Ford F-150 offers 5.5-foot, 6.5-foot and 8-foot bed options, the Maverick is only available in a 4.5-foot bed. But sales numbers hit 40,420 through the first half of 2024, according to data from Ford. And data from Edmunds showed that Americans were trading in more midsize and large pickup trucks for compact trucks than vice versa.
Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of Insights, says climbing costs for trucks, coupled with high interest rates, are at the heart of this shifting preference toward smaller trucks.
“I think people have always liked the utility of trucks, but unfortunately, when they found out that they liked trucks 10 years ago, the price just started going through the roof,” he said. “With all the features and add-ons, you look at how much a truck has changed over the last 10 years, they’re nothing like what they used to be.”
Japan replaced the head of its navy and punished more than 200 defense officials after a string of scandals that include mishandling of classified information and overclaiming on pay.
The array of misconduct is some of most widespread revealed in the Japanese defense establishment in recent years and casts a shadow over Tokyo’s efforts to bolster its military to deal with rising challenges from China and North Korea.
“These problems have betrayed the public trust and are unacceptable,” Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said Friday in Tokyo, adding he would return one month of his salary to acknowledge his own responsibility. He pledged steps to prevent a recurrence.
The scandals included classified information on warship movements being made accessible to individuals without security clearance, as well as dozens of navy divers claiming hazard pay for duties they hadn’t actually performed, the ministry said. There were also cases of ministry officials verbally harassing subordinates, the ministry said.
Around 220 officials are being punished with penalties ranging from dismissals to formal reprimands, according to the ministry.
Japan’s navy, known as the Maritime Self-Defense Force, is at the center of many of the misconduct charges. Admiral Ryo Sakai, the MSDF chief of staff, said in a statement that he would step down on July 19 to take responsibility.
“Taking this opportunity, please accept my deepest apology for the disappointment caused,” he said in the statement posted to a ministry webpage.
The revelations may increase public reluctance to foot the bill for a rapid build-up in defense spending.
Japan is in the middle of lifting defense outlays to around 2% of gross domestic product from around 1% over five years through 2028. The government has put off a decision about how it will fund much of the additional spending for weapons like missiles and fighter jets, and polling shows public opposition to tax hikes to pay for extra defense spending.
In its annual defense white paper, released Friday, Japan said it had secured 42% of the ¥43.5 trillion ($273 billion) total needed to fund the planned defense build-up.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, speaking after attending a NATO summit meeting in Washington, said he had instructed Kihara to root out problems and strengthen leadership to recover public trust.
“Looking back on the NATO meeting, it’s clear that we are facing an extremely serious security environment. With that in mind, Japan can’t afford to have any lapses in our own security,” Kishida said.
The defense scandals add another headache for Kishida’s own prospects of staying in power. His support ratings are at historic lows over his handling of a separate political funding scandal and as households are battered by rising prices.
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Ryotaro Nakamaru, Mia Glass and Alastair Gale / Bloomberg
The investigative office of the Paris Appeals Court has rejected a request by the lawyers of French Culture Minister Rachida Dati for an end to prosecution procedures related to the Carlos Ghosn affair.
In charges dating back to 2021, Dati is under investigation for payments totalling $950k (€900K) that she is alleged to have received between 2010 and 2012 from a subsidiary of the French and Japanese Renault-Nissan automobile alliance, when it was under fallen automobile tycoon Ghosn’s leadership.
She is charged with “passive corruption by a person who at the time was holding an elective mandate” and “benefiting from abuse of power” related to allegations that she received the money in exchange for lobbying services at the European Parliament.
Dati, who is a lawyer by profession, was a Member of the European Parliament from 2010 to 2019. She has categorically denied the allegations.
The politician’s lawyers said they would appeal the decision.
“We’re advising Madame Dati to take up the case in the court of cassation because we believe the law is on our side,” Olivier Pardo and Olivier Bluche told press following the ruling.
“This decision does not have any bearing on Madame Dati’s innocence,” they added.
Ghosn – who now lives in Lebanon, having dramatically fled Japan in 2019 where he faced corruption charges related to his time at the head of Nissan – has denied any direct dealings with Dati, saying the fees she received were for legal work.
Dati, who was previously a spokesperson for centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy during his presidential campaign and was Justice Minister from 2007 to 2009 under his presidency, was appointed as French culture minister in January by centrist Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Her appointment took the French culture world by surprise and came just days after Attal had been catapulted into the role of prime minister by President Emmanuel Macron, in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at reinvigorating his flagging presidency.
Since taking on the role, Dati has fallen foul of the state broadcasting sector with her plans for a BBC-style merger of the different units encompassed by public networks France Télévisions and Radio France under one roof.
In the backdrop, her time in the role is coming to an end due to a snap election called by Macron. The far-right Rassemblement National party is currently on track to win the most seats in a second round of voting on July 7, in a development that will sweep the president’s centrist government from power.
She’s one of Japan’s best-loved creations, adorning some 50,000 products sold across 130 countries and earning billions of dollars for parent company, Sanrio. But it’s important to note what she’s not: Hello Kitty isn’t a cat, nor is she, in fact, Japanese. She is an anthropomorphic feline-like British girl born in the leafy suburbs of London, according to the official narrative. She stands as tall as five apples and weighs the equivalent of three. She likes baking cookies, though her favorite food is mama’s apple pie. Not having a mouth, she instead speaks from the heart, with a saccharine catchphrase: “You can never have too many friends!”
Making friends has never been a problem for Hello Kitty, for whom 2024 marks half a century as one of the world’s most recognizable cultural icons. Countless millions have grown up surrounded by Hello Kitty stickers, socks, and pillowcases, while celebrity fans include pop royalty Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga; Katie Perry even sports a Hello Kitty tattoo, while Avril Lavigne released a (widely panned) homage single titled Hello Kitty in 2013. Other admirers are more august; on Tuesday, King Charles and Queen Camilla hosted Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace, where the British head of state used his welcome speech to also “wish a very happy birthday to… Hello Kitty!”
The breadth and longevity of Hello Kitty’s fandom renders her one of history’s greatest marketing phenomena: a subject not just adored but pawed over and dissected by industry execs desperate to discover the secret sauce—the meow factor, if you will—behind her enduring appeal.“It’s very difficult to point out just one reason,” says Sanrio CEO Tomokuni Tsuji, grandson of founder Shintaro Tsuji, in his only foreign media interview to mark Hello Kitty’s 50th anniversary. “We’re amazed. To develop a character that sustains for 50 years is not an easy thing.”
It’s not hyperbole to say that Tsuji and Hello Kitty are practically family. Although 14 years younger than Hello Kitty, Tsuji remarkably shares her birthday, Nov. 1. It was on this day in 1974 that Sanrio designer Yuko Shimizu first sketched the adorable white bobcat with a red bow. The following year she appeared on her first product: a clear vinyl coin purse that retailed for 220 yen, or a little under a dollar at the time. That success soon mushroomed into an empire encompassing toys, games, animations and all manner of consumer gewgaws.
“Since I was born, I was surrounded not only by Hello Kitty but all of the Sanrio characters, so I literally grew up with them,” Tsuji says. “There was not a day when I didn’t see Hello Kitty.”
Sanrio—today worth $4.6 billion —was founded in 1960 originally as Yamanashi Silk Company. Two years later, Shintaro Tsuji diversified into selling rubber sandals and quickly noticed how a simple flower adornment made one product much more desirable than another. Sanrio expanded into a range of stationery and consumer trinkets that epitomized Japan’s budding kawaii, or “cute” subculture. “There’s nothing very special about the products,” confesses Tsuji. “It’s things that you might use in your daily lives, like a lunchbox or little pouches to store stuff. But it’s always surrounding you, close to you in your daily life. Therefore, they connect to your memories.”
A visitor poses for a selfie with a Hello Kitty figure, part of the 50th anniversary celebrations at Rio de Janeiro Bio Park in Brazil on May 29, 2024.Mauro Pimentel—AFP/Getty Images
Designers praise Hello Kitty’s abstract quality and simplicity, which has allowed Sanrio to retain its creative vision while adapting to changing trends and tastes. Although the broad contours of Hello Kitty—real name, “Kitty White”—retain a timeless simplicity, diehard fans monitor the glacial evolutions to her appearance. Each year, there could be a slight shift in the patina of her overalls, the occasional presence of stripes, the thickness (or sometimes absence) of her black outline. But certain characteristics are immutable: a red bow over her left ear, no mouth, and an ascetic, almost ethereal, expression.
Hello Kitty’s modernist abstraction and lack of facial features allow her to be interpreted in different ways by different people. No laughing, surprise, or tantrums. Her expressionless visage provides a blank canvas for the beholder to impart their own feelings; when you’re feeling silly, she doesn’t upbraid with an uber-cool pout; if upset, she doesn’t mock with fatuous grin. She is ever-present yet unobtrusive, projecting serenity but not judging. In 1996, Hello Kitty was pictured winking for the first time, and it’s a look that gained traction over the 2000s.
“That kind of ambiguity is really enhanced by the wink,” says Christine Yano, an anthropology professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and author of Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific. “You can have humor, you can have irony, you can have sexual innuendo. It’s a very clever and effective marketing strategy.”
Hello Kitty with Sanrio Chief Operating Officer Craig Takiguchi after throwing out the first pitch on Hello Kitty Bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium on August 3, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Jayne Kamin-Oncea—Getty Images
Tsuji says that Hello Kitty’s simplicity and lack of a specific narrative makes her a more versatile and relatable character than, say, Mickey Mouse. But there’s a lot of detail to lap up. Hello Kitty is the daughter of George and Mary White and lives in a two-story house in London. A perpetual third grader, she has a twin sister, Mimmy, and a pet cat, Charmmy Kitty, and a boyfriend, Dear Daniel, who also happens to be an actual cat (a fact immortalized in a 2022 Saturday Night Live sketch.)
I don’t believe Walt Disney ever revealed Mickey’s blood type, but we know Hello Kitty is Type A. The reason we know is that fortune-telling through blood types is a popular method of personality and compatibility testing across East Asia and especially in Japan, where it is known as ketsueki-gata and akin to horoscopes, resulting in most celebrities and even fictional characters disclosing this information alongside height and birthdate. (FYI, Hello Kitty is a Scorpio while Dear Daniel, born May 3, is a Taurus. It will never work!)
This blending of Japanese mores and European backstory isone of the many ways that Hello Kitty serves as a bridge between East and West. Tsuji says he doesn’t know why his grandfather chose to make her British—“Hello Kitty was born 50 years ago and I’m only 35!” he laughs—though prevailing wisdom is that Japanese products didn’t have a great reputation in the 1970s, whereas London fashion and design was deemed aspirational. In any case, the decision to obscure Hello Kitty’s true roots fostered some curious cultural traits. In fractious 1970s America, at a time when most Asian-Americans were trying their damndest to assimilate, Hello Kitty served as a secret cultural touching point. “It became a statement of identity for Asian-American girls,” says Joshua Paul Dale, a professor specializing in kawaii studies at Chuo University in Tokyo. “Because not many people knew Hello Kitty was from Japan, but they knew.”
Soon enough, Hello Kitty-mania led to several animated TV series for kids, as well as an exercise video, and two officially licensed theme parks, Harmonyland and Sanrio Puroland. And it wasn’t long before the product range had expanded beyond dolls, stickers, and milk flasks to adult-focused home appliances like televisions, toasters, computer equipment, and even cars.
At different times, Hello Kitty has had her own line of fine wines, diamond jewelry, MasterCard debit card, while Bank of America began offering Hello Kitty-themed checking accounts in 2009. Fender launched a Hello Kitty Stratocaster electric guitar; Taiwan’s EVA Airways even rolled out an Airbus A330-20 plastered in Hello Kitty livery. She became so mainstream that, in 2008, Hello Kitty was named Japan’s tourism ambassador to mainland China and Hong Kong. She’s also a UNICEF Children’s Ambassador and even launched White House bids in 2012 and 2016.
An Eva Air plane featuring Hello Kitty and Sanrio characters takes off from Beijing Capital International Airport on February 20, 2024. Chen Boyuan—VCG/Getty ImagesVCG via Getty Images—2024 VCG
Not all adult associations have been positive, though. In 2007, Thai police guilty of minor infractions—arriving late for shifts or parking in the wrong place—were forced to wear a Hello Kitty armband and a pair of linked hearts as punishment. Feminists equated Hello Kitty’s absence of a mouth with a lack of voice or agency and have chafed with the entire concept of kawaii, believing it perpetuates the infantilization of women and female submissiveness. It’s a contentious issue, given Japan ranked 118th among 146 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 gender gap report. Japanese society has long fetishized youth, and trends likekogal—dressing in schoolgirl uniforms—and evenLolita fashion are perfectly mainstream. Yet while outsiders may perceive these subcultures as submitting to male stereotypes, inside Japan it’s less clear-cut. “Adherents say they do not dress up for men, they do it for themselves,” says Dale. “So it is a hyper-feminine style, but it’s for women themselves, and actually Japanese men recognize that.”
In truth, the roots of kawaii go deeper still. There had been kawaii art since the 1603 to 1868 Edo period, when cute motifs in Japanese prints and paintings abounded, including cats acting like people and puppies caked in snow frolicking under trees. But kawaii got a boost in the early 20th century when education became universal, but girls were schooled separately. This enabled them to create their own world fueled by an explosion of popular girls’ magazines. While Mickey and Goofy were created by men and aimed at everyone, a hyper-cute culture proliferated in Japan specifically catering to young females. The kawaii phenomenon paused during the war years but stormed back in the 1970s, when a resurgent Japan experiencing a baby boom, combined with a cultural tradition of gift-giving, led to an upsurge in demand for cheap, pretty knick-knacks . “Sanrio was just really good at making designs that kids wanted, particularly girls,” says Dale. “That’s when that unique kawaii look got more solidified.”
What’s next for Sanrio is the big question. Since taking over as CEO in 2020, Tsuji has prioritized diversifying into other characters and refocusing from branding to entertainment. The existing 150-odd Sanrio stores in Japan and dozens more overseas have shifted from being where characters are bought to where they are experienced, cognizant that a large chunk of sales now take place online, where AI has been enlisted to help root out the abundance of cheap counterfeits. Whereas Hello Kitty was created in an artist’s studio, today Sanrio prioritizes fan input at the ground floor of character development, incorporating feedback on potential traits via its dedicated app prior to launch “Sanrio’s ultimate philosophy of ‘getting along together’ hasn’t changed,” says Tsuji. “However, the process will be different between myself and how my grandfather did it.”
More generally, Hello Kitty is taking a back seat as befits her age. Back in 2013, Hello Kitty accounted for 99% of Sanrio’s North American business; today, it’s 60% and just 30% worldwide. In the 2024 official ranking of Sanrio characters, Hello Kitty sits in lowly fifth place, with top dog—quite literally—Cinnamoroll, a white male puppy “born on a cloud in the faraway sky” with a curled up tail like its namesake pastry. There’s also a push into modern toys like reactive dolls as well as smartphone-based video games. “We see a drop in Hello Kitty because the other characters are growing,” says Tsuji. “But that doesn’t mean the Hello Kitty brand revenue itself is coming down.”
In fact, Sanrio just set a new record for revenue last year at $622 million, with operating profit of $161 million. Rather than rely just on Hello Kitty, Tsuji says the new impetus is for a diverse portfolio where even if one character’s popularity starts to decline, there are others to plug the gap. “We need to have a good balance,” he says. “It could be characters like Hello Kitty which last for a long time, or maybe suddenly emerging characters from some animation or game. We want to make sure there’s not peaks and troughs, but peak after peak.”
Will he ever produce another global phenomenon to rival a certain white cat-girl? Tsuji shrugs. “There’s no silver bullet, there’s no magic success,” he says. The key to creating characters, he reveals, is “you need to actually enjoy and experience the entertainment yourself. And you need to try to enjoy the challenge.” And no doubt make a few friends along the way.
Tokyo — Japan’s government is calling for stricter oversight of U.S. troops stationed in the country after a soldier was charged over the alleged sexual assault of a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Prosecutors in the southern island region charged the U.S. soldier in March, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Tuesday.
Local media said the 25-year-old man had been accused of assault, adding that he knew the girl was under 16, the age of consent in Japan.
The government expressed “regret” to U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel over the incident and called for stronger oversight of behavior by military personnel, Hayashi said.
Okinawa accounts for just 0.6% of Japan’s land mass but hosts about 70% of all the U.S. military bases and facilities in the country.
The U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is seen from Kakazutakadai Park in Ginowan, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, August 23, 2022.
PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty
A litany of base-related woes has long grieved Okinawans, from pollution and noise to helicopter crashes and COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to complaints that they bear the brunt of hosting troops.
The 1995 gang rape of a 12-year-old girl by three U.S. soldiers in Okinawa prompted widespread calls for a rethink of a 1960 pact that outlined the legal status of Japan-based U.S. military personnel.
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki voiced his “strong indignation” at the latest case.
“That something like this was done to a minor not only causes great fear to local residents living side-by-side with U.S. bases but tramples on the dignity of women,” he told reporters. “The excessive burden of hosting military bases is an everyday matter for us, and is intolerable.”
Participants speak against the construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa, in southern Japan, as they take part in a rally for peace on Constitution Day in Tokyo, May 3, 2024.
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP/Getty
Anti-base sentiment in Okinawa has been displayed in particular over a plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
While the central government wants to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa’s main island, many locals would prefer it be transferred elsewhere in the country. A nationwide poll by broadcaster NHK in 2022 found 80% of Japanese consider the current disproportionate distribution of U.S. forces “wrong” or “somewhat wrong.”
The latest point of test for U.S.-Japanese ties comes at a crucial time, with concern over nuclear-armed North Korea‘s ongoing weapons tests rising along with tension between Washington and China over Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance on Taiwan’s status and its territorial disputes with other nations.
TOKYO (Reuters) -China’s BYD launched its third electric vehicle in Japan, it said on Tuesday, a sedan that will be its most expensive model so far in a market where consumers have long favoured domestic brands.
The Shenzhen-based automaker said it had started taking orders for its flagship Seal EV in Japan from Tuesday, setting the suggested retail pricing for the rear-wheel-drive version of the vehicle in the country at 5.28 million yen ($33,111.75).
The model starts from 179,800 yuan ($24,759.70) in China.
The expansion of BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, in Japan could become a worry for domestic automakers, which are struggling in China against BYD and other Chinese EV brands.
The automaker has only rolled out battery-powered cars for the Japanese market, but not vehicles with other powertrain technology such as plug-in hybrids, in which it is a big player in China.
BYD’s sales in Japan have lost some momentum in April-June compared with last year, BYD Auto Japan president Atsuki Tofukuji said at a Seal launch event in Tokyo’s Shibuya district.
A big reduction in the Japanese government electric-vehicle subsidies the company’s models qualify for in the business year that started in April put a drag on sales, he told reporters.
The company will offer a rear-wheel-drive and an all-wheel-drive version in Japan that will both come with a 82.56 kilowatt per hour battery pack, the company said in a news release.
The rear-wheel-drive version has a cruising range of 640 km (398 miles), while the 6.05 million yen all-wheel-drive version can drive 575 km on a single charge.
BYD launched the Atto 3 and Dolphin EVs in Japan last year, selling about 2,500 since opening its first Japanese dealership in Yokohama in February 2023.
It said it plans to add at least one new model to its lineup in Japan each year.
($1 = 159.4600 yen)
($1 = 7.2618 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Gerry Doyle)
The birth rate in Japan is so low that its biggest city’s government is going to desperate measures to help couples find love.
The Tokyo metropolitan government’s latest out-of-the-box idea is to play Cupid by launching a dating app, and it has already allocated $1.28 million to debut it by the end of the summer, Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbunreported. Unlike other dating services, the government-sponsored project has strict measures in place to address a serious concern for people searching for love online: authenticity.
More than half of dating-app users said they had experienced someone misrepresenting their marital status or other parts of their profile, according to a 2021 study by Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., the outlet reported. In the U.S., Pew Research Center found that 63% of men under 50 said they had encountered a scammer on a dating app, while 44% of women across age groups said the same.
To avoid those pitfalls, the new government-sponsored app will force users to comply with thorough, even arguably onerous requirements, before they sign up. To start swiping right, users will have to verify their income, submit a government document to prove they are single, and sit for an interview with the company running the app. All of the information will be available to potential matches. The new platform is also not for casual daters; users will have to sign a statement declaring that they are looking for a partner to marry.
While it may not scream romance, Tokyo officials say the extensive prerequisites are necessary to avoid some of the problems users have faced with fake profiles on other apps.
“We hope that this app, with its association with the government, will provide a sense of security and encourage those who have been hesitant to use traditional apps to take the first step in their search for a partner,” a Tokyo official told The Asahi Shimbun.
Other dating apps exist in Japan, including U.S.-based platforms Tinder and Bumble, but Tokyo’s government hopes that its strict rules and disclosures can convince people who were hesitant about apps to give love a try. Although it may seem far-fetched, dating apps are popular in Japan and they often match couples up for marriage quickly. A 2023 study of just over 1,000 people by Japan’s biggest life insurance company found that a quarter of respondents who married within a year met their spouse on a dating app.
Japan’s birth rate fell to a record low of 1.20 in 2023, according to figures released Wednesday by Japan’s health ministry. A birth rate of 2.1 per woman is required to maintain a broadly stable population, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In Tokyo, the birth rate was even worse, falling to 0.99 for the first time Wednesday. The 86,347 children born in Tokyo in 2023 marked the lowest number of births since the end of World War II, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
Needless to say, Tokyo’s government is willing to try anything to bring love back.
“If there are many individuals interested in marriage but unable to find a partner; we want to provide support,” the Tokyo official told The Asahi Shimbun.
In “The Truman Show,” Jim Carrey’s character, Truman, learns that his entire life is a lie and that he is the subject of a reality TV show. Before the film even hit theaters, a similar real-life scenario was taking place in Japan: Nasubi, a 22-year-old aspiring comedian, became an unwitting participant on a twisted reality show. A new documentary explores the show and its impact. Michelle Miller reports.
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Hyatt Hotels and Kiraku have announced that the ATONA brand will open properties in Yufu, Yakushima, and Hakone. The ATONA brand was announced in 2022 under a joint venture between a Hyatt affiliate and Kiraku, a Japanese company dedicated to preserving valuable assets for future generations. The first ATONA ryokans are slated to open in 2026 across some of Japan’s top hot spring destinations.
Featuring modern design grounded in Japan’s rich cultural heritage and history, ATONA properties will typically have 30 to 50 guestrooms, and will feature restaurants with open kitchens and bars showcasing seasonal ingredients.
ATONA is the first brand in the Hyatt portfolio to originate from Japan. It promises travelers an authentic experience with contemporary comforts as they discover the quintessential charms of Japan.
Delighting tourists with a blend of authentic sushi cooking classes and interactive entertainment, Studio Sushi offers a whole new perspective on Japanese culture and heritage
TOKYO, May 17, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Japan has become a hotspot for international tourists, welcoming a record-breaking 3,081,600 visitors in March, as reported by the Japan National Tourism Organization. This figure surpasses the pre-pandemic numbers of March 2019 by 11.6%, setting a new historical high for the month.
A significant factor driving this tourism boom is the depreciation of the yen, with it recently hovering near 150 yen per dollar, marking the weakest yen in approximately 34 years. For tourists, this translates to an exceptional opportunity to enjoy Japan’s exquisite cuisine and heartfelt hospitality at an affordable price.
In response to the profound impact of COVID-19 on its tourism industry, Japan has been actively revitalizing its attractions. One of the standout additions is Studio Sushi, a sushi experience entertainment venue that opened its doors in May 2024. Studio Sushi emerged with the mission to educate visitors on the art of sushi and Japanese culinary culture while delivering a highly entertaining and unforgettable experience. The result is a bilingual and fully immersive sushi-making class combining a rich cultural experience with modern entertainment.
The innovative experience includes a hands-on session where participants learn the art of sushi-making from preparing sushi rice to making nigiri, sushi rolls, and chirashi-zushi.
However, what sets Studio Sushi apart is its emphasis on entertainment, a component often sidelined in traditional cooking classes. Each session incorporates exciting quizzes and challenges, enriching the overall educational experience, while also encouraging guests to laugh, relax, and learn in a fun and comfortable environment.
Studio Sushi goes a step further by offering participants the chance to step behind an upscale sushi counter and become a chef themselves. Guests are challenged to create one final masterpiece sushi under the watchful eye of their resident chef Baba Masato and present their creation to the restaurant, adding an exciting layer of authenticity to the experience.
Guests leave not only with the knowledge and ability to create their own sushi at home but also with several mementos, including a chef’s hat, access to exclusive instructional videos to recreate the magic at home, as well as immediate access to all of the photos and videos taken on the day.
Through the captivating blend of culture, cuisine, and competition, Studio Sushi is changing the face of tourism in Japan. Their innovative approach provides a unique perspective on Japanese heritage, leaving guests with memories, skills, laughs, and an enriched understanding of the gastronomic art that sushi truly is.
About Studio Sushi
Studio Sushi is an immersive entertainment facility in Tokyo, opened in May 2024, where you can learn, experience, and savor the art of sushi. Website: https://studio-sushi.com Location: 2-13-13 Orange Bldg Basement 1fl, Akasaka, Minato City, Tokyo, Japan 107-0052
For media inquiries or further information about Studio Sushi, please contact: info@studio-sushi.com
Five Hawaiian men who served in a unit of Japanese-language linguists during World War II were recognized with posthumous Purple Heart medals nearly 80 years after their plane crashed in the final days of the conflict.
The men – Joseph Kuwada, Haruyuki Ikemoto, Kazuyoshi Inouye, Wilfred Motokane, and Masaru Sogi – were among 31 killed when their C-46 transport plane hit a cliff while attempting to land in Okinawa, Japan on Aug. 13, 1945. Army records indicate only two of the 31 received Purple Heart medals, which are awarded to service members wounded or killed during action against an enemy.
Photos of Hawaii men posthumously awarded Purple Heart medals sit on a table at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Audrey McAvoy / AP
The Purple Heart is the nation’s oldest military medal, dating back to the time of George Washington. It has been awarded almost two million times.
Researchers in Hawaii and Minnesota recently discovered the omission, leading the Army to agree to issue medals to families of the 29 men who were never recognized. Researchers located families of the five from Hawaii, and now the Army is asking family members of the other 24 men to contact them so their loved ones can finally receive recognition.
“I don’t have words. I’m just overwhelmed,” Wilfred Ikemoto said as he choked up while speaking of the belated honor given to his older brother Haruyuki during a ceremony in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Friday.
“I’m just happy that he got recognized,” Ikemoto said.
The older Ikemoto was the fourth of 10 children and the first in his family to attend college when he enrolled at the University of Hawaii. He was a photographer and developed film in a makeshift darkroom in a bedroom at home.
“I remember him as probably the smartest and most talented in our family,” said Wilfred Ikemoto, who was 10 years old when his brother died.
On board the plane were 12 paratroopers with the 11th Airborne Division, five soldiers in a Counter-intelligence Detachment assigned to the paratroopers, 10 Japanese American linguists in the Military Intelligence Service and four crew members.
They had all flown up from the Philippines to spearhead the occupation of Japan after Tokyo’s surrender, said Daniel Matthews, who looked into the ill-fated flight while researching his father’s postwar service in the 11th Airborne.
Wilfred Ikemoto, right, whose older brother Haruyuki Ikemoto posthumously received a Purple Heart medal after being killed in World War II, thanks researcher Daniel Matthews in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Audrey McAvoy / AP
Matthews attributed the Army’s failure to recognize all 31 soldiers with medals to administrative oversight in the waning hours of the war. The U.S. had been preparing to invade Japan’s main islands, but it formulated alternative plans after receiving indications Japan was getting ready to surrender. Complicating matters further, there were four different units on the plane.
Wilfred Motokane Jr. said he had mixed feelings after he accepted his father’s medal.
“I’m very happy that we’re finally recognizing some people,” he said. “I think it took a long time for it to happen. That’s the one part that I don’t feel that good about, if you will.”
The Hawaii five were all part of the Military Intelligence Service or MIS, a U.S. Army unit made up of mostly Japanese Americans who interrogated prisoners, translated intercepted messages and traveled behind enemy lines to gather intelligence.
They five had been inducted in January 1944 after the MIS, desperate to get more recruits, sent a team to Hawaii to find more linguists, historian Mark Matsunaga said.
Altogether some 6,000 served with the Military Intelligence Service. But much of their work has remained relatively unknown because it was classified until the 1970s.
During the U.S. occupation of Japan, they served crucial roles as liaisons between American and Japanese officials and overseeing regional governments.
Members of the Sogi family hold a photo of Masaru Sogi and the Purple Heart medal posthumously awarded to him, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Friday, May 10, 2024.
Audrey McAvoy / AP
Retired Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, who recently stepped down as head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, presented the medals to the families during the ceremony on the banks of Pearl Harbor. Nakasone’s Hawaii-born father served in the MIS after the war, giving him a personal connection to the event.
“What these Military Intelligence Service soldiers brought to the occupation of Japan was an understanding of culture that could take what was the vanquished to work with the victor,” Nakasone said. “I’m very proud of all the MIS soldiers not only during combat, but also during the occupation.”
During his research, Matthews also located the niece of the senior officer aboard the plane, Capt. John H. Norton, of Marion, South Carolina. She will soon be presented the Purple Heart in honor of her uncle, a 1943 West Point graduate who led the counterintelligence team attached to the 11th Airborne Division.
He hopes the ceremony in Hawaii and the other in South Carolina will help other families pursue the Purple Hearts their loved ones earned with their service.
(TOKYO) — Loaves of bread have been taken off store shelves in Japan after the remains of “a small animal” believed to be a rat were found.
Production of the bread was halted at a Tokyo factory, with 104,000 packages being recalled, according to Pasco Shikishima Corp.
The company apologized and promised compensation.
“We will do our utmost to strengthen our quality controls so that this will never happen again. We ask for your understanding and your cooperation,” it said in a statement this week.
Japanese media reports said at least two people who bought the bread in Gunma Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, complained to the company about finding a rodent in the bread.
The bread had been sold in various areas, including Ibaraki, Niigata, Kanagawa, Fukushima, Aomori and Tokyo, according to Pasco.
The company, based in Nagoya city, central Japan, also makes rolls, bagels and muffins.
Japan boasts relatively high food safety standards. But the nation has been rocked by food woes recently, including 1,000 schoolchildren sickened by milk and two people who got sick after eating steak at a restaurant, both earlier this month.
Widespread food poisoning from a health supplement product broke out in March and killed five people.
Here’s a look at the International Atomic Energy Agency and nuclear power.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspects nuclear and related facilities under safeguard agreements. Most agreements are with countries that have committed to not possessing nuclear weapons. The IAEA is the verification authority to enforce the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
1942 – The world’s first nuclear chain reaction takes place in Chicago as part of the Manhattan Project, a US research program aimed at developing the first nuclear weapons.
July 16, 1945 – The United States conducts its first nuclear weapons test in New Mexico.
October 3, 1952 – The United Kingdom conducts its first nuclear weapons test.
December 8, 1953 – In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, President Dwight D. Eisenhower asks the world’s major powers to work together in developing peacetime uses of the atom. This is known as the Atoms for Peace program, and 40 countries participate. Also during this speech, Eisenhower proposes the creation of an international agency to monitor the spread of nuclear technology.
June 26, 1954 – In the Soviet Union, the first nuclear power plant is connected to an electricity grid to provide power to residences and businesses in a town near Moscow.
1957 – The IAEA is established to facilitate the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
1950’s – Brazil and Argentina begin research and development of nuclear reactors.
May 18, 1974 – India conducts its first nuclear weapons test.
March 28, 1979 – A partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant occurs in Middletown, Pennsylvania. It is determined that equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and human error led to the accident.
December 19, 2003 – Libya announces that it will dismantle its WMD program, in cooperation with the IAEA as well as the United States and the United Kingdom.
October 7, 2005 – The IAEA and ElBaradei are named the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
December 1, 2009 – Yukiya Amano replaces ElBaradei as director general of the IAEA.
March 11, 2011 – A 9.0 magnitude earthquake strikes near the coast of Honshu, Japan, creating a massive tsunami. The tsunami knocks out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s cooling systems. The cores of three of six reactors are damaged by overheating. Resulting hydrogen explosions blow apart the buildings surrounding two reactors.
May 30, 2011 – Germany announces it will abandon the use of all nuclear power by the year 2022. This repeals a 2010 plan to extend the life of the country’s nuclear reactors.
July 14, 2015 – After 20 months of negotiations, Iran reaches a comprehensive agreement (The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)), with the United States and other countries that is aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear program. In exchange for limits on its nuclear activities, Iran will get relief from sanctions while being allowed to continue its atomic program for peaceful purposes.
Blackbox is a global media service that brings Japanese startups and their ecosystems to the world. Commissioned by Shibuya City and operated by Queue, Inc., Blackbox is pleased to announce the participation of three new cities: Hokkaido, Yokohama, and Kobe.
TOKYO, April 24, 2024 (Newswire.com)
– Blackbox is a global media service that brings Japanese startups and their ecosystems to the world. Commissioned by Shibuya City and operated by Queue, Inc., Blackbox is pleased to announce the participation of three new cities: Hokkaido, Yokohama, and Kobe.
With the addition of these new regions Blackbox will further deepen its access to the Japanese startup scene.
Each of the participating municipalities will receive a new directory page to introduce their characteristics and strengths. Through this initiative, the appeal of Hokkaido, Shibuya, Yokohama, and Kobe will be communicated to the world.
Blackbox is an open and fair media outlet for the Japanese startup scene. Although there are public and private sector actions to create a startup ecosystem in Japan, and although each government is implementing a global strategy, not much is known about the activities related to startups in Japan on a global scale.
At Blackbox, we want to let as many people as possible know what is happening in Japan right now, and the opportunities and possibilities that exist for startups in Japan. We hope that by presenting startup news and stories we can raise awareness of startup-related movements in Japan as a whole, attracting founders, startups, and VCs from abroad.
◆Directory Information on the features and strengths of startup support in each city.
◆News News related to startups and market trends in Japan.
◆Insight Information on startups in Japan in op-ed articles.
◆Interviews Interviews with founders active in Japan.
◆Events Notification of startup-related business events.
Following reports of Japan-based MUFG picking up 20 per cent stake in HDB Financial Services, HDFC Bank without confirming plans to sell its stake, hinted that the proposal is being considered to meet listing requirements and the bank is exploring all options including the stake sale.
“Our investment in HDB Financial is a financial investment. We hold around 94.8 per cent stake. HDB is in the upper layer of NBFCs which means it needs to be listed by September 2025 under regulatory guidelines,” said HDFC Bank CFO Srinivasan Vaidyanathan.
“All possibilities will be evaluated to get to that end outcome, so we’ll have to be patient. There are several approaches to take there, and all possibilities are under evaluation,” he said in the bank’s earnings call.
The remaining 5 per cent shareholding in the company is by employees under an ESOP scheme.
MUFG is reportedly looking to acquire 20 per cent stake in HDFC Bank’s non-banking arm for around $2 billion, valuing the company at $9-12 billion, nearly five times the book value of HDB Financial. The transaction will be one of the largest deals in the NBFC sector.
In January 2024, Vaidyanathan had said that the bank is working to list the company and the preparatory work for the IPO would commence shortly.
HDB Financial‘s IPO will be the first public issue by the amalgamated entity following the merger of erstwhile HDFC with the HDFC Bank effective July 2023.
For FY23, HDB Financial reported total revenue from operations of ₹12,403 crore and profit after tax of ₹1,959 crore. The company primarily focuses on providing vehicle, small business, personal and gold, CV/CE and tractor loans and loans against property.
