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![]() The Asahi ShimbunThe Asahi Shimbun |
Toshihiko Kawaguchi (1936-2015), an 8-dan pro shogi player, famously stated that only those who are meant to become Meijin (grand master) can win a...
It appears that the lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster have been taken so lightly. The government and a majority of the Diet are...
New facts related to the bill to revise the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, which is being considered by the Upper House, have cast...
“And Tango Makes Three” is an illustrated children’s book about two male penguins who fall in love. Based on a true story of two male birds...
Ten years have passed since a system was adopted to provide research academics with long-term job security by setting their employment periods at 10...
Ken-kun has many fans among visitors to Tokyo's Ueno Zoo. His round eyes are adorable and his magnificent swimming form is utterly mesmerizing. He is...
Damage to a pedestal inside the No. 1 reactor at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is more critical than previously believed,...
The cover of the final issue of the weekly Shukan Asahi magazine, which is hitting the stands today, humorously recaptures the periodical’s typical...
“Sukisukisukisuki.” When I opened a window at my house early one recent morning, I heard a bird singing. Surprised at the clearness of its...
An article published in the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine shows how Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s eldest son, Shotaro, invited his relatives late...
I have heard harsh criticism about the past failure of mainstream newspapers to report on suspicions that the late Johnny Kitagawa sexually abused...
The shooting and stabbing rampage that left four people dead in Nagano Prefecture is a rare and unusually ghastly crime. Clarifying the factors behind...
As one gets older, the Japanese word “furusato,” which translates as “hometown,” seems to start blending with one’s memory, permeating...
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said that the central bank's 2 percent inflation target “should not be changed easily" but hinted at the...
The outlook of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s “different dimension” policy support for childbearing and child-rearing is becoming murky. The...
“Konjaku Monogatarishu” (Anthology of Tales from the Past), written during the late Heian Period (794-1185), features many distinguished Buddhist...
Information breaches and data errors that have hit the My Number Card ID system seem to be a warning about the government’s single-minded rush to...
The so-called Murphy’s Law boils down to this maxim: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” This sardonic observation of U.S. society has...
A new phase of reconstruction has begun for communities affected by the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Mandatory orders to...
An old, venal politician went to court. On the day judgment was handed down, his attorney told him the verdict by phone: “As expected, justice has...
The meeting between the leaders of India and Ukraine on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima could change the course of relations...
The famous epitaph of the cenotaph for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima in the city’s Peace Memorial Park reads: “Rest in...
While recounting their experiences of the atomic bombing, many Hiroshima hibakusha start their narratives with what they remember of the blinding...
Japanese companies are showing strong earnings performances while stock prices continue rising. This is a welcome upturn in the economy, which...
How should the leader of a country at war look and act? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who made a surprise visit to Hiroshima on May 20,...
The leaders of the Group of Seven democracies need to humbly learn the gruesome history of the atomic bombings, search for ways to end a horrific war...
Where was the world’s first atomic bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945? This question popped into my head--and just wouldn’t go away--while I watched...
Upper House opposition lawmaker Mizuho Umemura made baseless and insulting remarks before the Diet about the death of a Sri Lankan detainee being...
“Ogusokumushi,” or the deep-sea giant isopod called Bathynomus doederleinii by its scientific name, is always a favorite among aquarium visitors....
Editor’s note: One of the major themes at the Group of Seven summit, to be held in Hiroshima from May 19, is working toward a world without nuclear...
The health ministry has approved an abortion pill developed by the British pharmaceutical company Linepharma, which has started selling the first pill...
In Japanese, the four cardinal directions are referred to as “east, west, south and north” in that order. In Chinese, as mah-jongg fans must be...
No city on Earth can measure up to Hiroshima when the purpose is to provide the most graphic testimony to a nuclear weapon’s capacity for human...
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on May 16 drafted its “LGBT bill” to promote understanding of sexual minorities. I imagined there would be...
Okinawa Prefecture on May 15 marked the 51st anniversary of its return to Japanese sovereignty, fearful it could again become the frontline in a war....
Penlight is the name of a petition group demanding that Johnny & Associates Inc. look into, and apologize for, a series of sexual assaults allegedly...
The remains of four Ainu indigenous people have recently been returned from Australian museums and are back in Japan for the first time in about a...
One day, feeling depressed after a prolonged hospital stay, Lucy found her mother sitting in a chair at the foot of her bed. “My Name is Lucy...
More than 8,000 foreign children of compulsory school age in Japan are apparently missing out on receiving a formal education. The figure was...
In Kotaro Isaka’s “Yoki na Gyangu ga Chikyu wo Mawasu” (A cheerful gang turns the earth), nobody is hurt when a team of three men and a woman...
Tokyo Electric Power Co. was exempted from fiscal 2022 payments of its contribution to victims of the Fukushima nuclear disaster because the electric...
Britain’s Princess Anne, 72, is the only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Four days after her mother’s death, Anne became the first female...
If the Self-Defense Forces and Japan Coast Guard (JCG) cannot cooperate effectively during a security crisis, neither can properly perform their...
By his own admission, Noppo-san had been terrible at craftwork and clumsy with his hands ever since he was a young boy. When trying to make a model...
It boggles the mind that an iron-fisted leader who is waging war against a neighboring country had the temerity to boast of thwarting a...
“Lebensborn,” or “The fountain of life” in German, was the name of Nazi Germany’s secret World War II project, the purpose of which was to...
Digital and tech ministers of the seven leading democratic powers recently met in Japan and adopted a declaration calling for “Responsible AI” as...
A light-hearted comment a high school girl uttered to her friend triggered a massive bank run in December 1973 that came to be known as the Toyokawa...
The legal status of COVID-19 will be downgraded on May 8 and be reclassified as a Class V contagious disease such as the seasonal flu under the...
It may be less difficult than you might think to become your polar opposite--from right to left or from black to white--psychologist Hayao Kawai...