Kuchikomi
No room at the inn: Where will visitors to Tokyo stay next summer?
It's not only tickets to Olympic events that appear in short supply. According to a report on TBS Television (July 15), the city faces a serious shortage of overnight accommodations next summer. As evidence, it pointed out that people who have already obtained tickets to Olympic and Paralympic events are… Read
Japan's 'lost generation' facing bleak future
The number of the year, if there is such a thing – or at least the number of the current news cycle – is 20 million. Twenty million yen, the Financial Services Agency seemed to say in a report issued in June, is what an average elderly couple will need to… Read
'Stampeding' Uber Eats delivery staff come under criticism
Three years ago, the food delivery service Uber Eats commenced operations in Japan. Customers are happy about it because the service does not impose a minimum price on food orders. The restaurants supplying the foods like it because they can cut back on their number of in-house delivery staff and… Read
Foot-dragging on HIV prevention explains Japan's lack of progress in reducing new cases
A new medication for treatment of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was placed on sale in Japan from April. But the government has been slow to approve other effective methods for dealing with HIV that have achieved favorable results in foreign countries. To learn more about the current status of… Read
Elderly drivers – are you aware of the suffering that results when you cause an accident?
One December day in 2016, an 80-year-old man drove to his neighborhood supermarket in rural Saitama Prefecture. In the parking lot, thinking to brake to let a woman pass, he hit the accelerator instead. It was an early instance of the sort of accident that has been occurring lately with… Read
Spotlights to flicker off for good June 30 at Shinjuku's venerable DX strip theater
It was 39 years ago that gals in G-strings began bumping and grinding before male audiences at the DX theater in Shinjuku's raunchy Kabukicho district in Tokyo. Its history comes to an end on Sunday, and Ultra, a magazine-format Mook launched by Taiyo Tosho publishing earlier this year, was on… Read
VIPs at Osaka G20 to roost on opulent high-tech toilets
If you're headed for Osaka to take part in the G20 Summit scheduled for June 28 and 29, you'll be encountering strict security measures in the city's Suminoue Ward, especially around INTEX Osaka, venue of the conference. While the conference attendants ponder the world's economic fate, Weekly Playboy (July 1)… Read
Spousal abuse against husbands more common than it used to be
There’s more to domestic violence than kicks and blows. Experts distinguish three types, says Spa (June 25): physical, psychological and economic. Conventional wisdom sees the husband as perpetrator and the wife as victim. Increasingly, the magazine finds, it’s the opposite. Police statistics flesh out the tale. In 2014, nationwide, 181… Read
Philandering foreigners flock to frolic at fancy Flemish flophouse, magazine claims
Brugge (Bruges in French) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in Belgium's northwest. Its name is likely to have been derived from an Old Dutch word for "bridges," and according to Wikipedia, its canals have earned it the nickname "Venice of the North." Brugge is… Read
Does Kawasaki stabbing rampage signify start of lost generation's revenge against society?
The reaction was unpleasant but inevitable. What else can one say, after all, about a man who indiscriminately stabs children and adults at a school bus stop – killing two, wounding 16 – before taking his own life? “Die alone!” cried the horrified public – online, on air, and in… Read
