Mere death needn't be a barrier to enjoying a nice cup of tea with the deceased
'Tick, tock, tick, tock," goes the clock of human life. Living with regrets is one of the hardest things to do. What if your dad died and you hadn't had that last cup of tea with him? Not much you can do about that ...
It's a strange world we're about to enter. If I were the organizing type I would set up a "Heian Society." In flowing robes and court caps, we would compose pun-laden poems simultaneously lamenting and celebrating the transience of life and beauty. Wine would flow, ...
Has another society of such superlatives ever existed at all?
The fascination of the Heian Period (794-1185) lies in the fact that in all world history there is nothing quite like it. It would be hard to imagine a culture more exclusive, more fastidiously refined, more smugly incurious about the unknown, more unwarlike, more ...
Two years ago, Michel Pomarede, a French journalist working for France Culture, a French national radio station, visited Japan for the first time. He came with the aim of making a mammoth, 17-hour program about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. ...
It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea. He was not hungry for loquats, and an afternoon downpour had cooled the June air. So, thinking of the unlimited, free miso shiru (miso soup) and green tea, he ducked into ...
Ah, tetrapods! They stand firm and upright year after year, from sunrise to sunrise, silent sentinels unmoved by summer's raging typhoons or winter's crashing ice floes. Not sure what to think of tetrapods? Not even sure what they are? Well, fear not, you're probably in the ...
Beauty beheld in huge concrete forms
Astonishingly, despite their unsightly impact on natural scenery, the Internet is full of geeks who appear to love tetrapods. (Whether referring generically to those concrete things piled up all along Japan's coasts, or to the products of Tokyo- and Osaka-based Fudo Tetra Corporation accorded a ...
'Tasty science' puts mystery on the menu
Fed up with foie gras; tired of truffles; and simply sick of sturgeons' eggs? If you're one of those gourmets who's gagging for a new and taste-transporting experience, Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo hotel may be the eatery of your dreams. Created ...
Pick a park. Get up early. Stay till late. In between you'll be amazed what goes on. "Truth is stranger than fiction" is a saying common to many cultures around the world. In Japan, there is also the expression that says "life is like a ...
Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art
For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself. The 61-year-old professor of international relations at ...
No stopping this whistler as she strikes a chord on world stage
The calm of an afternoon music class in a four-story building in Tokyo's central Yutenji district is ever so slightly disturbed by the noise of cars on the street outside. But the five students there appear entirely unconcerned as they keenly strain their ears ...
| 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 |
