Kuchikomi
Olympics cancellation likely to sock populace with nasty tax surprise
Continuity. Con-ti-nu-i-ty. That's the five-syllable meme being brandished by new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. In other words, things are just going to keep sailing along smoothly, just as they were under the helm of his predecessor Shinzo Abe, without any nasty surprises in the nation's bodily politic. It's sort of… Read
More middle-aged men made homeless by coronavirus
“Daisuke Yoshida” sleeps in his car. “Masao Hishida” sleeps in parks. Both names are pseudonyms. Both men are victims, though not ill, of the coronavirus pandemic. Spa! (Sept 8-15) portrays them and others as swelling the ranks of the “corona homeless.” Yoshida, 38, and his wife owned a tourist guest… Read
Typhoons becoming bigger and nastier: Can Tokyo withstand the next big blow?
When it comes to destructive typhoons, the general agreement is that the worst in living memory occurred September 1959, when Typhoon No. 15 -- also referred to as Typhoon Vera and the Ise-wan Taifu -- struck the Chubu region. Packing ultra-low pressure of 895 hectopascals and maximum sustained winds of… Read
Noisy new Haneda flight patterns cause headaches for residents
Between the hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., about 44 flights per hour make low-level approaches to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo. While descending over Shinagawa Ward, their elevation drops below 300 meters, actually lower than the 332.9-meter height of Tokyo Tower. "With every noise increase of 3 decibels,… Read
Your home can be a prime source of coronavirus infection
The man’s wife is driving him crazy. He’s 57. Shukan Gendai (Aug 21-28) gives him the pseudonym Kento Toyojima. They’d always been a harmonious couple. Then COVID-19 came between them. “She’s terrified of getting infected,” Toyojima tells the magazine. “She checks up on every little thing I do.” He works… Read
In quest to go paperless (and save money), Mizuho to start charging for bank books
From the beginning of 2021, customers under the age of 70 who open new accounts in Mizuho Bank will be charged a service fee of 1,100 yen if they desire a bank book. "MUFG and Mitsui Sumitomo banks have already been making moves toward adoption of digital bank books," an… Read
What's on the minds of Japan's doctors regarding the coronavirus pandemic?
What's been going on with the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, Shukan Gendai (Aug 22-29) wants to know. Will a second wave be upon us soon, or are we still seeing the effects of the first wave? Or is all this wave stuff just a distraction from trying to comprehend an… Read
Young people losing interest in sex, but why?
This guy’s got it all – brains, looks, income. His sex life should be a breeze. In fact it is. It’s non-existent – just the way he wants it. That’s less unusual than you might think, says Spa! (Aug 25). Sex, once a major preoccupation among young people – often… Read
New crackdown on smoking spurs search for loopholes
From Apri1 1, a new "revised health promotion law" came into effect nationwide, which essentially banned indoor smoking at places serving foods and beverages. Concurrent to this, a Tokyo ordinance aimed at protecting people from secondary smoke went into effect, with stricter provisions than the national law. "The national law… Read
7 months into COVID-19, where are Japan's first newsmakers with respect to the epidemic
January 29, 2020 began like any other day. Before it ended it had changed Japan irretrievably. On that date the nation recorded its first infection of the virus soon to be known as COVID 19. Seven months into the world’s worst pandemic in over a century, Shukan Post (Aug 14-21)… Read
