This week in Japan:
Ex-Prime Minister Taro Aso made another dumb comment, saying of the female Foreign Minister “She’s not pretty but she speaks with dignity (blah blah).”
Teachers on leave for mental illness hit a record high (6,500 in 2022-last year of the census).
Shigeyuki Kin, accused of attempted manslaughter, was arrested in Nagano. His face is one of the most publicized in Japan (you can see it on posters of public buildings and convenience stores). Last week Satoshi Kirishima (who killed people in a bombing) was arrested. The renewed attention to the posters led to the arrest of Kin. Pay attention to those posters boys and girls.
A new digital nomad visa has been unveiled. You only get 6 months and have to have an income of $68,000 (¥10,000,000).
What Does it Mean to be Japanese?
Japanese Twitter has been blowing up the past two weeks with accusations of racism, cultural approbation, and just general mud-slinging.
All around the question: Who is Japanese? Who belongs to Japan and who doesn’t?
One white woman on Twitter started a hug row by getting offended that people asked where she was from. She replied “Fukuoka” because that’s where she lives now but she’s not Japanese. Many jumped on her for blasting the kindness of many Japanese people who just used that question to break the ice. On the other hand, many non-white people in the US who would be asked the same thing—— “no, where are you really from?”——would set off as well right?
Carolina Shiino, born in the Ukraine and very white, but also a Japanese citizen now, won the Miss Japan contest.