Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎) after winning theTokyo Governor’s Election on Sunday After eight years in the limelight as the governor of Tokyo it seems that 74 year old Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎) has once again been successful in winning the hearts of the Tokyo tomin (都民, citizens). Despite the fact that 73% of Tokyo’s registered voting population [...]

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Today, through our contact page, a reader (of course we will keep anonymity at their request) sent us some interesting trivia that was just too juicy for him (or her) to keep to him(or her)self. After some research, and a call to a friend on the inside to verify the claim, it proved far too [...]

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Despite being the founding member of the stippy.com diving club, I have a confession to make: I’m a complete and absolute “resort diver.” Although in my younger, delinquent days I was silly enough to wander into the miso soup-esque waters of Izu, I now exclusively dive in tropical waters where it’s even warm in the [...]

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Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office on Sept 26th and less than 2 months later, on Friday November 17th, an education reform bill reforming the Fundamental Law of Education was cleared by the Lower House and has now progressed to the Upper House. This bill is backed by Shinzo’s government raising the fears of liberals [...]

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Mr. Koji Omi, the new Finance Minister of Japan in the Abe government, judging first from the fact that he’s not a graduate of the University of Tokyo, that has heretofore supplied Japan with the bureaucrats that begat the deflation of the late ’90s and early ’00s, we might have a good thing. From his [...]

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Mr. Shinzo Abe turns out to be a surprisingly interesting guy a very brief review of his history turns up that Mr. Abe is from a very long line of very successful and very well connected Japanese politicians. His grandfather, on his mother’s side, was Mr. Nobusuke Kishi, who served during the Second World War [...]

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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi a week ago paid homage to Japan’s World War II dead at the Yasukuni Shrine, drawing South Korea’s and China’s condemnation, which was heightened by the date of his visit – the anniversary of Japan’s surrender. Despite repeated protests from Beijing and Seoul, Koizumi kept a promise to make a sixth [...]

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