In a letter home to Portuguese brethren, Jesuit missionary Pedro de Alcacova writes of singing a Mass to Japanese believers in 1552: "Our voices weren't good," he recalls, "still the Christian believers rejoiced." It was Christmas Eve in Yamaguchi, and the patience, if not faith, ...
Family debate: same-sex parents?
With LGBT relationships starting to be recognized by authorities, questions are now being asked about whether such couples should have children.
Washed up? Tokyo's iconic communal bath houses face an uncertain future
Walking around Tokyo, you may have noticed a number of tall, narrow chimneys rising above the skyline every so often. Such stacks are a good indication that you've stumbled across a sento, or communal bath house. Long-time residents, however, will perhaps have noted that such ...
Emoji: The evolution of emoticons
The ideograms that were once eyed with skepticism have transformed into a universally accepted part of daily communication.
Sakai city launches English website to boost specialty knife exports
Sakai city's Industrial Promotion Center (IPC) has launched an English-language website selling nearly 200 types of specialty steel cooking knives from the region amid growing interest in the signature product. The site includes videos of traditional forging and grinding processes to craft the blades, along ...
Call to arms: Hunters dwindle as animal numbers explode
Asians who crossed land bridges into today's Ryukyu Islands more than 30,000 years ago encountered plenty of game. In addition to deer and boar, they hunted elephant and steppe bison until the larger mammals were hunted to extinction in Japan about 17,000 years ago. Meanwhile, ...
Smoke signals: Can Tokyo ever go smoke-free?
Japan has long held a reputation of being something of a paradise for smokers. Tobacco is, at least by Western standards, relatively cheap and people can still light up in many of the country's restaurants and bars. In fact, before the turn of the ...
Home away from home: the plight of refugees in Japan
On a cold winter's day in December, an African man sits in a meeting room at the Japan Association for Refugees, a nonprofit organization in Tokyo. The man, whose name and country of origin have been withheld to protect his identity from those who ...
Tokyo Station at 100: all change
“Tokyo Station is not just a station, it is a symbol of Japan. It has always been a part of progress in rail technology but it’s much more important than that. It is a landmark that represents Japan."
Hot in the city: scorching Kumagaya
Exploring new ways of dealing with the heat from a city in Saitama that certainly knows a thing or two about keeping cool
Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing
The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and ...
Downtown comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto leans from TV to film
The Downtown comedy duo — comprising Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada — are sitting on a train speeding towards Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It's not like they're going anywhere, or doing anything, even — they're just sitting there and waiting for something to happen. ...
| Party Name | Total (pre-election seats) |
Electoral districts | Proportional representation |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | 316 (198) | 249 | 67 | |
| JIP | 36 (34) | 20 | 16 | |
| CRA | 49 (172) | 7 | 42 | |
| DPP | 28 (27) | 8 | 20 | |
| Sanseito | 15 (2) | 0 | 15 | |
| Mirai | 11 (0) | 0 | 11 | |
| JCP | 4 (8) | 0 | 4 | |
| Reiwa | 1 (8) | 0 | 1 | |
| Tax Cuts | 1 (5) | 1 | 0 | |
| CPJ | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | |
| SDP | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | |
| Minor parties | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | |
| Independents | 4 (10) | 4 | 0 |
