JAPAN: China’s Gray-Zone Tactics & more – 4th Sep 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 4th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Chinese coast guard ships have been hanging around the Senkaku Islands, which are in the most southwestern part of Japan near Okinawa Prefecture, for a record 286 days straight. This has made a lot of Okinawan fishermen and Japanese authorities nervous over fears that China might be planning something, though analysts say it’s likely gray-zone tactics meant to assert dominance without open conflict.

Previously, China’s boats left the islands during typhoons, but now they are much bigger and stronger and have stayed even through storms. They even had a helicopter go through Japanese airspace in May.

Japan’s Coast Guard reports China’s fleet of 1,000-ton-class ships has quadrupled since twenty twelve.

On the political front, Yuichiro Tamaki, the leader of the Democratic Party for the People or DPFP, says he wants his party to be more independent and distance itself from both ruling and opposition parties. After the DPFP won seventeen seats in the recent Upper House election, Tamaki started calling for policy-by-policy negotiations, arguing Japan has entered a multiparty era.

The DPFP now has a similar number of seats to the Constitutional Democratic Party, which has twenty-two seats, and wants to build its own strength rather than rely on unions or electoral cooperation.

However, Tamaki’s remarks received criticism because they might make unity against the ruling party more complicated.

In business news, Kawasaki Heavy Industries recently told the Defense Ministry that it may have uncovered misconduct in its fuel efficiency testing of submarine engines made before twenty twenty-one for the Maritime Self-Defense Force. Last year, after decades-long data falsification came to light, the company established a third-party committee to investigate the matter. The committee uncovered the misconduct in June, but it took Kawasaki two months to report the issue to the Defense Ministry.

The company says submarine operations and safety are unaffected and pledged to strengthen compliance and governance to regain trust.

In more business news, Takeshi Niinami, the chairman of the company Suntory Holdings, resigned on Monday the 1st of September after a police search linked him to the purchase of a possibly illegal substance that was most likely marijuana. Suntory accepted the resignation, saying that the company leaders should obey the law.

This caused a stir online, but not for the reasons you might think. Back when news broke out that the Johnny’s and Associates founder was a pedophile, Niinami said that anyone who hired the agency’s actors or singers was condoning child abuse. People criticized Niinami at the time, saying that it would be punishing the victims.

Now that news about Niinami using an illegal substance has come out, many have joked that they should boycott Suntory products, or that Suntory should change its name the same way that Johnny’s had to, suggesting names like the Juice Factory. However, some defended Niinami, saying sexual assault and marijuana use are not the same.

Meanwhile, in eastern Japan, Kanagawa police admitted major failures in handling a stalking case that ended with the murder of Asahi Okazaki, a twenty-year-old woman whose body was found under her ex-boyfriend’s floorboards months after she went missing.

Okazaki and her family repeatedly went to the police to report the ex-boyfriend’s behavior, but officers dismissed their concerns. An investigative report said the police had three main faults: first, they didn’t properly investigate the stalking claims when Okazaki first reported them; second, they had poor communication between local stations; and third, they lacked urgency despite the seriousness of the allegations.

Over forty officers will be punished. Police pledged reforms, including new leadership posts, better interdepartmental cooperation, and improved training. The prefectural police chief and local station leaders also formally apologized to Okazaki’s family.

In an update to a story from previous shows, newspaper Asahi Shimbun conducted a survey with 100 major firms and found that eighty-seven have implemented or are planning ways to counter customer harassment. Some of these methods include putting body cameras on staff, altering name tags, and banning abusive customers altogether.

Ever since the government said it would implement laws by twenty twenty-six requiring anti-customer harassment protections, almost all of the surveyed firms have been introducing training, consultation desks, and support systems to make sure employees can work without worrying about customer harassment.

In another update to a story from previous shows, Nippon Steel withdrew its lawsuit against Cleveland-Cliffs, its CEO, and a US steelworkers’ union leader on Thursday the 4th over its fourteen billion dollar buyout of United States Steel. Nippon Steel had first started the lawsuit because of former President Biden’s order blocking the deal on national security grounds, which President Trump later modified with conditions.

Though Nippon Steel didn’t give any big statement when it withdrew the lawsuit, it’s likely that, now that Nippon Steel has officially acquired US Steel, the company decided the lawsuit was not worth it.

In other news, Keisei Electric Railway plans to launch new express trains linking Narita Airport and Tokyo Skytree by fiscal twenty twenty-eight. The new direct service will take only thirty minutes, cutting the current travel time by ten minutes and getting rid of the need to transfer trains, which will make things much easier, especially for travelers from abroad who may not understand Japan’s train system very well.

The project will likely cost forty billion yen, which is 270 million dollars. Skytree is one of Tokyo’s most popular attractions, and the railway company hopes to meet the increase in tourism as more international travelers visit Japan.

Taiwan plans to fully lift import restrictions on Japanese food products. The country imposed them after the twenty eleven Fukushima nuclear accident. Lifting these restrictions would end requirements for radiation inspection reports and certificates of origin on foods from affected prefectures.

Taiwan’s health ministry said over 260,000 food inspections since twenty eleven showed all samples met safety standards, with radiation risks deemed negligible. Taiwan gradually eased restrictions in recent years, while Japan has pushed for full removal.

Speaking of restrictions, Yamanashi Prefecture officials can now refuse entry to hikers with improper gear, such as wearing sandals instead of proper shoes, on Mt. Fuji’s Yoshida Trail in central Japan to prevent injuries.

Despite previous regulations, many—especially foreign tourists—attempted climbs in unsafe attire. The revised ordinance gives officials and Fuji Rangers authority to turn away lightly equipped hikers. Since the 1st of July, officials have told over 800 people to buy proper gear, with most complying.

The summit’s harsh conditions, often near or below freezing, make safety equipment essential. Officials say it’s important to be cautious. Last year, twelve climbers got stranded on the Yoshida Trail.

Up north, a well-known brown bear nicknamed Iwaobetsu’s Mom killed a hiker on Mount Rausu in Hokkaido in northern Japan. The eleven-year-old bear was accustomed to humans, and because it had plenty of food, most locals thought she was harmless and were shocked by the news. However, the bear had recently been aggressive toward hikers despite bear spray. Authorities have since culled the bear and her two cubs.

Experts warned that giving wild bears nicknames fosters dangerous familiarity and undermines safety. With over 590 bear sightings in twenty twenty-five, the Shiretoko Nature Foundation said stricter safety measures are needed.

Bears aren’t the only animals humans should be cautious of. The Nara Deer Preservation Foundation reported a record-high number of deer in Nara Park at nearly 1,500, marking four years in a row of population growth. Unfortunately, injuries to visitors also went up, with 159 cases in fiscal twenty twenty-four, most involving foreign tourists.

Authorities said the incidents mostly happened because tourists touched or teased the deer while feeding them crackers sold nearby. To address the matter, the prefectural government is issuing warnings in multiple languages reminding visitors that the deer, though accustomed to humans, are still wild animals, and they shouldn’t be treated carelessly.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

We want to make this update better. Any ideas? Suggestions? Send them out to info@rorshok.com

Mata Ne!