SNA Covid Variant Handbook (Revised Edition)
Less than two weeks after the Shingetsu News Agency issued its SNA Covid Variant Handbook, the World Health Organization finally stepped up to plate and belatedly offered its own new nomenclature.
Monthly Archives: November 2021
APA Hotel Amenities Not Always Pleasant
Ahead of Donald Trump’s second visit to Japan in 2019, a Japanese hotelier invited the US president’s former chief strategist and senior advisor Steve Bannon to give a “special lecture” in Tokyo. That hotelier’s name is Toshio Motoya.
Chinese Debates on Japan’s New Foreign Minister
The appointment of moderate Yoshimasa Hayashi as Japanese foreign minister has elicited a good deal of discussion in the Chinese news media, with voices on both sides of the Taiwan Strait trying to interpret what it means for the region in an era of heightened tensions.
Visible Minorities: Japan’s Fast Breeder Reactor of Racism
Japan has a race problem. As I’ve catalogued for a quarter century, there are “Japanese Only” signs and rules on businesses nationwide. Refusing entry and service to all “foreigners” on sight, they exclude people who don’t “look Japanese.”
Toyota Lobbies Against Global Shift to Electric Vehicles
Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s largest automaker by production volume, is under fire from environmentalists and others who contend that it now possesses the very worst record among its global peers on responding to the climate crisis.
Red Tape Still Trips Up Foreign Students’ Entry to Japan
The government announced that it widened the door to foreign nationals’ entry to Japan starting from November 8 for short-term business travelers, foreign students, and technical interns, but byzantine regulations continue to signal that the welcome mat for foreigners is not yet out, and students in particular are feeling the brunt.
Bread & Roses: Squid Game Paints Capitalism in Deadly Red and Black
Over 140 million people in over ninety countries around the world have already watched Squid Game, making the Hwang Dong-hyuk creation the most-watched series in Netflix history.
