Discuss Japan has established the annex site “Japan and COVID-19” to document Japan’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The annex has been created in the spirit of international cooperation and for the benefit of future generations. The annex will provide easy access to articles about COVID-19 which have already appeared in Discuss Japan as well as new articles by experts in related fields. Articles in the annex will cover all matters pertaining to Japan and COVID-19, from local and national policy responses to international contributions and the feelings of ordinary people on the street. Updates from “Japan and COVID-19” will be issued regularly through our Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through our mailing list.... [Read more]

Intellectuals Concerned About “Tilt to the Right” The survey, to which 282 people including intellectuals and experts responded, asked people in Japan for their opinions on whether Japan is “tilting to the right” as some foreign media have suggested. The ratio of respondents who “feel Japan is ’tilting to the right”‘ as foreign media claim was 23.4%. However, when combining an answer that they do not think so as of now but it is possible later, which was given by 13.1%, nearly 40% of the respondents are concerned about Japan’s drift to the right. Also, 28.4% said Japan is “not tilting to the right but reactions of overseas media over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s comments and actions are understandable,” suggesting that they think it is inevitable that foreign media look the current situation like... [Read more]

What on earth is happening? Is Japan taking information security measures seriously?” This year, one after another of the networks of public organizations and corporations, including major heavy industries, have been at the receiving end of cyber attacks, resulting in disclosure of important information in some instances. The damage is gradually becoming clear as the investigations move forward, but in most cases, we cannot expect to understand the full particulars. In many of the attacks, the attackers penetrated protected computers that were only accessible to a limited number of people at the companies to steal information. A great variety of information was targeted including... [Read more]

Moderator: This summer, with calls to save energy and reduce electricity consumption, we are seeing the emergence of a movement to use greenery as a way to beat the heat, with “green curtains” becoming the focus of a great deal of attention, for example. Today we are going to hear from two experts about the future of the relationship between cities and greenery. We’ll start by asking your opinions on the current state of the kind of greenery that everyone is familiar with, such as roadside trees. FUJII Eijiro: Unfortunately for the last twenty years or so in Japan, there are more and more trees that have been terribly over-pruned. Even in parks there are a lot of trees that have been pruned unnecessarily. For trees such as Platanus Orientalis (plane trees), for example, if they are in parks then there is no need ... ... [Read more]

The recovery operations of the crippled The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, Inc. (TEPCO) are proceeding with difficulty. Meanwhile, debates over TEPCO’s future emerged together with those on reconsideration of nuclear power plants. Without question, it is necessary to seriously examine if nuclear energy is really suitable as the energy that fuels our lifestyles and our economy. However, the deliberations on power supply must distinguish between power sources, what is used to generate power, and the systems for delivering power to users. Following this unprecedented accident, the author will push further ahead with the emerging argument on separation between power generation and power transmission to propose constructing duplex power transmission and distribution networks that are radically different from conventional power systems in Japan.... [Read more]