Whenever her dementia-afflicted husband went to bed, Reiko Ozawa would sigh in relief and sometimes wish he would never wake up.
That was because once he did, a living nightmare would await her, as her husband, Kunio, would tend to wander off, rant at her and even suffer hallucinations.
The approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet was down 4.3 points in a Kyodo News poll conducted after the government decided Tuesday to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.
In the telephone poll conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday, the approval rating stood at 47.8 percent, down from 52.1 percent in the June 21-22 survey and slipping below 50 percent for the first time since December.
The Abe administration’s reinterpretation of the war-renouncing Constitution to allow greater use of military force in defending other countries is one of the biggest changes ever to Japan’s postwar security policy.
The administration has given a range of examples as to how the Self-Defense Forces might used when related laws are updated later this year. They include scenarios in which troops might:
Life was relaxing and peaceful for Shigeru Suzuki until six years ago, when he realized that Hiroko, his wife of more than 30 years, was having problems doing simple chores.
The 77-year-old former employee of a major civil engineering firm recalls that, at first, he couldn’t understand why Hiroko couldn’t sort clothes as told. One day, he got irritated and snapped at her, pressing her to explain why she couldn’t just remember to put the clothes away. Hiroko then tearfully replied: “It’s not like I want to be forgetful.”
A 47-year-old politician quickly became an Internet phenomenon Wednesday after crying like a toddler as he tried to explain his profligate use of public funds.
Television talk shows carried looped footage of a press conference in which Ryutaro Nonomura wails and bangs his fists on the desk as tears stream down his face.
Food manufacturers are beginning to wake up to a nationwide rise in the popularity of granola, and are stepping up production of the oat-based snack in an attempt to create a new staple for Japanese breakfast tables.
“We want to entrench the popularity of granola to make it a new major revenue source,” said Akira Matsumoto, chairman and chief executive officer of major Japanese snack maker Calbee Inc.
The administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday authorized a reinterpretation of war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, allowing Japan for the first time since World War II to come to the aid of an ally under attack.
The authorization marks a landmark shift in the postwar defense posture, which has prevented the country from waging wars on foreign soil.
Hong Kong police arrested more than 500 people Wednesday after tens of thousands in the former British colony joined a massive march to push for democracy.
Anger at mainland China has never been greater after Beijing warned recently it holds the ultimate authority over the freewheeling capitalist enclave despite agreeing to a Basic Law that gave the city a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after British rule ended in 1997.
Japan is at a historic crossroads in amending its long-held pacifist defense posture, a move that it may never reverse. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet formally reinterpreted the war-renouncing Article 9 on Tuesday, reading the Constitution as permitting at least partial use of the right of collective self-defense.
Administration officials and New Komeito lawmakers defend the decision by saying Japan will only use the right under strict conditions.
The dollar moved narrowly around ¥101.50 in Tokyo trading Wednesday ahead of major economic events Thursday.
At 5 p.m., the dollar was quoted at ¥101.49-50, little changed from ¥101.50-52 at the same time Tuesday. The euro stood at $1.3670-3674, down from $1.3692-3692, and at ¥138.75-77, down from ¥138.99-139.00.
North Korea on Wednesday fired two short-range projectiles into waters off its east coast, South Korean officials said, on the eve of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s talks in Seoul expected to focus on the North’s nuclear weapons program.
The launches, the third in a week, were believed to be sending a message that the North is boosting its defenses and expressing its displeasure that Xi will become the first Chinese leader to visit rival South Korea before the North, analysts say.
A search is underway for two Japanese sisters who went missing on the Pacific island of Saipan after their rental car was not returned on time and they failed to board their scheduled flight home, police said Wednesday.
They said there is evidence that the two tourists, one of them 33 and the other in her late 20s, had an inflatable raft in their possession, and that the raft has not yet been accounted for.
Their Senate majority in peril, anxious Democrats have seized the Supreme Court decision that some companies need not provide birth control to women as fresh evidence of the Republicans’ “war on women” — an argument they hope will energize female voters who could decide the balance of power in Congress.
Republicans aggressively cheered the high court’s decision, but their leaders concede that their party must tread carefully. Even before Monday’s decision was announced, GOP operatives coached their candidates to cast the ruling as a victory for religious freedom and further evidence that the country’s health care law is deeply flawed.
米軍普天間飛行場（宜野湾市）の同県名護市辺野古への移設の是非が争点となるのは必至で、移設先の埋め立てを承認した現職・仲井真弘多ひろかず氏（７４）は、３０日の県議会で「早い時期に態度を決めたい」と述べ、３選出馬に向けて最終調整に入ったことを明らかにした。
仲井真氏は、県議会代表質問で知事選への対応を問われ、「多くの人々から次の選挙に向けて『頑張れ』との声援をいただいている。その趣旨を踏まえて、なるべく早い時期に与党と相談のうえ、態度を決めたい」と語った。安倍首相（自民党総裁）も３０日、首相官邸で河村建夫党選挙対策委員長と会談し、「どういう方が良いのか、しっかりと検討するように」と指示した。
The Tokyo District Court on Monday handed former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Naoko Kikuchi a five-year prison term for attempted murder in the 1995 Tokyo City Hall bombing but stopped short of finding her guilty on explosives charges due to lack of evidence.
The defendant “must have had some knowledge” of what she was doing while serving as an accomplice in the high-profile parcel bomb incident at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, the ruling said.
The pro-Pyongyang group Chongyron paid a deposit Monday to prevent for now the sale of its Tokyo headquarters building and land, sources said.
The ¥100 million deposit, filed with the Tokyo Legal Affairs Bureau, was a condition set by the Supreme Court for suspension of a permit allowing sale of the property to real estate developer Marunaka Holdings Co. for ¥2.21 billion.
JR East unveiled on Monday a new “resort train” that will allow passengers on the Yamagata Shinkansen Line to soothe their feet.
The carriage, which was shown to the media in the city of Yamagata, will make its debut July 19, allowing tourists to enjoy the landscape along the train line while soaking their feet in an “ashiyu,” or warm-water foot bath.
The Abe administration will press ahead with divisive plans to loosen restrictions on the Self-Defense Forces, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday, a day after a lone demonstrator set himself on fire in protest outside a busy Tokyo railway station.
Hundreds of people outside Shinjuku Station witnessed the man with a bullhorn on Sunday afternoon yelling opposition to the changes for about an hour while perched on a girder above a footbridge. He then poured flammable liquid on himself and lit it.
Mexican Javier Aguirre has agreed to become Japan’s new coach following the resignation of Alberto Zaccheroni after his side’s World Cup flop, local media reported on Monday.
The 55-year-old Aguirre, who led Mexico to the last 16 of the World Cup in 2002 and 2010, will reportedly pocket around $2.45 million a year — more than twice what his predecessor was on.
An unidentified man in a black suit tried to commit suicide by setting himself on fire in front of hundreds of people on a bridge near the south exit of JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon.
Police said the man, who appeared to be in his 60s, was seriously injured but is expected to survive. He was being treated at a nearby hospital, a police spokesman told The Japan Times later in the day.
