Questions from the Great East Japan Earthquake The results of my decade-long research on the Great East Japan Earthquake[1] were published on March 11, 2024 as Ikeru Shisha no Shinsai Reiseiron—Saigai no fujori no tadanaka de (Living dead—A spirituality of earthquake disasters amid the absurdity of catastrophe) (Shinyosha). The concept proposed in that paper, “Study of Spirituality in Earthquake Disasters,” is something I happened upon while working on the issue of those who died in earthquake disasters. One of the reasons I recognized the concept could be that I had previously been a member of a cemetery research group. But more than that, the Great East Japan Earthquake prompted me to ask myself the urgent question of whether I needed to think about death and the dead from the perspective of people who were suffering from the loss of loved ones. It’s not as ... ... [Read more]

  Women, Peace and Security (WPS) is in the spotlight a quarter of a century after it was first proposed. This is because there is a growing recognition that understanding problems from women’s perspectives and promoting their resolution is the essence of conflict resolution. The author will explain WPS through the events in Thailand’s Deep South, where the author has been involved, and consider the significance of deepening WPS in the world and in Japan.   In September 2023, for the first time in 19 years, a female foreign minister was appointed in Japan: Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko. Since taking office, she has been proactive in promoting the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. She has spoken at bilateral foreign ministers’ meetings and international conferences on promoting the WPS agenda and strengthening cooperation on WPS. She has received high praise from UN agencies and ... ... [Read more]

  A cat-shaped robot, or a cat-imaged robot. It’s the one that recently started serving food in family restaurants. It has round eyes. If you stroke its head, it will happily close its eyes and say, “That tickles, meow.” It also says, “Thank you for your order, meow.” Just by walking by a table, children get excited and say, “How cute!” Apparently her official name is BellaBot. But don’t let its cuteness fool you. If you think about it rationally, it’s a robot carrying food made in a factory. Customers order on a tablet and pay with an automatic change machine. Written like that, doesn’t it seem a bit bland? Yamazaki Masakazu (1934–2020), playwright and critic, once said this about family restaurants: “The products offered are essentially factory-produced frozen foods, and what customers receive in the store is nothing but the atmosphere at the ... ... [Read more]

  Ohno Masako, Reporter, Tokyo Shimbun Political Department Even if parents do not consent On May 17, 2024, the revised Civil Code, which introduces joint custody after divorce, was passed and enacted in the Diet by a majority vote of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Komeito, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), and the Democratic Party for the People (DPP). Despite the fact that the sole custody system after divorce, which has been in place since 1947, is being revised for the first time and will significantly change the child-rearing environment, the deliberations of the opposition parties with the government took a total of 33 hours and 40 minutes in both the Lower House and the Upper House. It took a month and a half from the start of the actual deliberations to the passage of the bill. ... ... [Read more]

    The existence of the box, which had been handed down in the Reizei family, was known. It had never been opened since 1896 and had been passed down quietly in the family—I had just kept it out of respect without opening it. In 1980, an investigation of the entire Reizei family book collection began, and as the collection was examined step by step, in 2022 the box was opened for the first time in almost 130 years. Many valuable documents had already been found in earlier research work, and I thought that there would be nothing of great value in the box. Therefore, I was surprised when the team of scholars in charge of the investigation told me that a commentary on the Kokin Waka Shu, the Kenchu Mikkan, handwritten by Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241) had been found. The professors who discovered ... ... [Read more]