JAPAN: Ishida and Trump Meeting & more – 20th Feb 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 20th of February twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Kicking off this edition, news organization Kyodo News released a survey on Sunday the 16th that found that fifty percent of respondents approved of the recent summit between Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, and Donald Trump, the US president.

The survey, conducted over two days, collected responses from 1,063 people using randomly selected phone numbers and found that Ishiba’s cabinet approval rating rose to almost forty percent from thirty-six percent in January. This was mainly because he showed good diplomacy skills in his meeting with Trump and avoided making Japan a target of the tariffs that Trump has been imposing on other countries.

Of course, part of the positive reaction might have been because many didn’t have high expectations of Ishiba to begin with. When he was first elected by the Liberal Democratic Party, many thought he was sloppy and not very smart, but their opinion improved on seeing how well he handled his first big meeting with Trump.

That wasn’t the only survey this past week. Asahi Shimbun, another news organization, carried out a survey last weekend to find out whether people support a dual-surname system that will allow married couples to have different last names. Currently, in order to get married in Japan, one part of the married couple must change their last name to match their spouse’s. Most often in Japan, the woman will change her last name, but the reverse can happen as well. However, in recent years, many argue that a person shouldn’t have to change their surname just to get married.

Asahi’s survey found that sixty-three percent of voters support allowing married couples to have different surnames, more than double the twenty-nine percent who support the current one-name system. Support is strongest among voters aged eighteen to twenty-nine: eighty percent were in favor of a dual-surname system.

It won’t be surprising if the dual system gets implemented, because Japan’s family registration system arguably just went through an even bigger change. On Monday the 17th, the government announced that starting in May, people from Taiwan will be able to list Taiwan, instead of China, as their place of origin on family registration certificates.

This is basically Japan’s government acknowledging Taiwan as an independent country. China did not like this, as they consider Taiwan one of its provinces. Beijing warned Japan to act cautiously, calling the Taiwan issue an internal matter.

Anyone who previously registered as from China will be allowed to update their records. Palestine will also be recognized as a place of origin in family registries.

Unfortunately, people are facing discrimination in another area. Masaaki Yoshii, a lawyer in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, is challenging Japanese courts' refusal to appoint foreign-national lawyers as conciliation commissioners, even in cases where there is no legal reason to disqualify them.

Yoshii first realized this was an issue in two thousand three when a South Korean lawyer was denied a commissioner role. Yoshii faced similar discrimination because of his Taiwanese nationality. He argues that conciliation commissioners assist in dispute resolution, not in wielding state authority, but courts still say that the commissioner needs to be a Japanese citizen. Yoshii said that since Japan’s foreign population is growing, the policy needs to change.

In a quick update to a story from previous shows, the court sentenced the man who threw a pipe bomb at Fumio Kishida, the former prime minister, in twenty twenty-three, to ten years in prison. This may have been disappointing news to some, as there were a few people on Twitter who said that he deserved the death penalty. One user pointed out that not only did he design the bomb to cause as much damage as possible, but that he was carrying a knife.

However, getting the death penalty for a failed attempt at a crime, even if the intention is to kill, is unlikely.

Meanwhile, Thai authorities rescued a sixteen-year-old Japanese boy who had been forced to work at a scam base in Myanmar. Authorities returned him to his home in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, on Sunday the 16th.

In November, the boy met someone online who promised to get him a job overseas. He left in December for Myanmar, where the Chinese fraud group lured him and held him captive. The group told him that he couldn’t leave unless he earned one million yen, which is 6,600 dollars, scamming Japanese nationals.

Earlier this month, the boy managed to contact his family using a messaging app. The family contacted the Japanese embassy in Thailand, leading to his rescue.

In environmental news, a briefing on Sunday the 16th in Kibi-Chuo, Okayama Prefecture, western Japan, revealed there were high blood concentrations of polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in residents who drank contaminated tap water. PFASs are sometimes called forever chemicals, because they take a long time to break down, and they are harmful to humans.

The contamination likely came from bags of activated carbon stored in a material yard. The town’s officials have already gotten rid of the bags, but many of the residents are, understandably, still concerned. Tests conducted in late twenty twenty-three found PFAS levels of 156 nanograms per milliliter in affected residents, which is way more than the US guideline of twenty nanograms.

The town will offer free health checkups for some residents, but they also seem to be dismissing a lot of people’s concerns, which only upsets residents more.

Officials are testing another area, too. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Japan on Tuesday the 18th. It’s his fifth visit to the country, but his first to Fukushima’s contaminated soil storage sites in eastern Japan.

For his trip, he will check out the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a meltdown in twenty eleven after a tsunami and is currently being decommissioned. After the disaster, authorities removed thirteen million cubic meters (or forty-two million cubic feet) of contaminated soil and stored it. About three-quarters have low radioactivity, so if officials test it and it’s safe, they plan to recycle it for various construction projects. They plan to dispose of the remaining soil by twenty forty-five.

Grossi will also oversee seawater and fish sampling to ensure transparency in wastewater releases, which China and Russia have criticized.

Also in Fukushima, on Tuesday the 18th, three people—a manager and two employees at a hotel in the Takayu Onsen area—died while doing maintenance work for the hot springs. Authorities said they found a lot of toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide in the area, so it is likely that the three hotel workers died of gas poisoning.

Tragically, that wasn’t the only death this past week. That same day, a US man died while skiing in Kitakami City, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan. He had been skiing with two other people in a no-entry zone when they got caught in an avalanche. The other two fortunately survived.

The no-entry zone had been roped off because it was unsafe for skiing, with signs telling people to stay away.

Speaking of snow, the Meteorological Agency said that mountains and areas along the Sea of Japan would be experiencing heavy snow this week. On Thursday the 20th, officials measured almost five meters or sixteen feet of snow piled up in the Hakkoda Mountains in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan. Officials warned that people in these areas should be careful when shoveling snow as it could trigger an avalanche.

To end on a lighter note, the annual Mito Plum Festival, held at Kairakuen Park in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, began earlier this month and will continue until the 20th of March. It is one of Eastern Japan’s largest festivals, lasting several weeks and featuring cultural events, tea ceremonies, traditional performances, and evening illuminations. Visitors also get to see the park’s 3,000 plum trees in bloom.

For pictures of the plum blossom trees and events from past years, check out the official plum festival website. Link in the show notes!

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

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Mata Ne!