JAPAN: Non-Recognition of a Palestine State & more – 18th Sep 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 18th of September twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

On Wednesday the 17th, newspaper Asahi Shimbun said that, according to an anonymous government source, Japan will not recognize a Palestinian state for now, reportedly to maintain ties with the US and avoid provoking Israel. This is different from countries like Britain, France, Canada, and Australia, which plan to support Palestine’s recognition at the UN.

While Takeshi Iwaya, the Foreign Minister, said Japan is still figuring things out, the Chief Cabinet Secretary said that Israel’s assault on Gaza was alarming and that humanitarian action is needed. The UN will hold a meeting about the matter next week in New York, but Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will likely skip it.

Online reaction has been mixed, with some supporting Japan’s stance, others saying that the country is just caving to the US. The whole issue also had many wondering if Japan could make a difference at all.

Speaking of the Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, a lawmaker and former minister of economic security, announced on Thursday the 18th that she will run in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership race to succeed Ishiba. Takaichi hopes to become Japan’s first female prime minister. According to recent surveys, she is one of the frontrunners alongside Shinjiro Koizumi, the Agriculture Minister,

Other candidates include Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Toshimitsu Motegi, the former Foreign Minister. Hayashi said he would make sure Japan’s wages went up while rejecting tax cuts, while Motegi said that he would focus on tariff talks with the US.

Takaichi is a favorite online, with many saying she seems like she would be a good leader, but her candidacy has also raised questions of whether Japan would be willing to elect a female leader.

In business news, the US began imposing a fifteen percent tariff on Japanese cars and auto parts on Tuesday the 16th, replacing the twenty-five percent tariff that Trump imposed in April. Even though this is much lower than before, it’s still quite a bit higher than it was under the previous US president, Joe Biden.

Many carmakers in Japan said that the tariffs will hurt profits and are exploring ways to stay competitive in the US market, which is a big player in the international auto industry.

Speaking of tariffs, some online are suggesting that Japan should put tariffs on matcha while global demand and prices both shoot up. Premium Japanese matcha prices are up seventy-five percent, with the price of lower grades rising thirty to fifty percent, mainly because of poor harvests in Japan, labor shortages in China, and US tariffs on imports from both countries.

People used to see China as a source of lower-quality matcha, but its production is getting much better and it’s gaining more buyers, including companies like Starbucks. Rising costs may push consumers toward alternatives like roast barley leaves or hojicha, though matcha has a strong place in rituals and is seen as a healthy drink option.

A lot of the matcha hype comes from social media, which raises questions about how long the fad will last, but quite a few still see it as an affordable luxury.

In other news, a moderate earthquake of magnitude five hit Suwanosejima, an island in southern Japan, on Wednesday the 17th. The Meteorological Agency detected thirty-four more earthquakes between then and Thursday the 18th, most of which were magnitude three or less, but they warned that there might be another magnitude five earthquake next week, and to be careful of falling rocks and landslides.

Japan and Brazil representatives met on Monday the 15th at the first Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Fuels in Osaka, western Japan. There, ministers from over thirty countries and international organizations discussed promoting biofuels, hydrogen, and other low-carbon options, saying that both public governments and private companies need to work together to spread the use of green energy.

One important topic was creating more sustainable fuels for vehicles, such as hybrids, and making individual plans for each country. Japan and Brazil, in particular, said they should set a goal to quadruple global annual use of sustainable fuels by twenty thirty-five.

The Osaka meeting’s outcomes will be presented at the UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil this November.

In an update to a story from a show from last year, prosecutors plan to indict Masanori Hirabaru for the December twenty twenty-four fatal stabbing of a fifteen-year-old girl at a McDonald’s in Kitakyushu, southern Japan. Police had Hirabaru undergo psychiatric evaluations, which found that although his mental problems influenced his actions, he was still able to at least partly tell right from wrong.

Hirabaru’s first evaluation ended in April and said that he had a mental disorder but did not say that he necessarily had no responsibility over his actions. This led to a second, five-month evaluation.

Hirabaru said that he stabbed the girl and her classmate, who was injured but survived, because he believed they laughed at him.

On Saturday the 13th, a crash on the Tohoku Expressway in Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, in eastern Japan, injured three people, including a two-year-old boy.

Police arrested a thirty-year-old Turkish national from the nearby Saitama Prefecture who caused the crash. The man had fled the scene of the accident before police arrived, but police caught him a few hours later. He admitted to driving without a license but said that he wasn’t trying to escape. He faces charges of unlicensed driving and failing to report the accident.

Next up, on Tuesday the 16th, the online retail company Rakuten had its first hearing against the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications to overturn a ban that would prevent local city governments from using third-party websites like Rakuten to pay hometown tax donations because they give point rewards for donations.

The company argued that the ministry was way overstepping with its ban, which Rakuten said was illegal. It said point rewards have been allowed for over ten years and that there’s never been a problem. However, the ministry’s lawyers said that the company had no place suing over restrictions they imposed on government-related taxes and donations, and that the only people who could sue were taxpayers and local governments.

Rakuten and other companies have already announced they will end point rewards to comply with the ban.

Over in western Japan, Hezumaryu, a former YouTuber elected to the Nara assembly in July, received a verbal caution on Thursday the 18th after insulting Gen Nakagawa, Nara City’s mayor, during a session last week.

On Friday the 12th, Hezumaryu brought up the issue of people hurting deer in Nara Park. The discussion got heated, and Hezumaryu shouted at Nakagawa and asked how dare he call himself the mayor.

The council issued him a warning. Hezumaryu later apologized to the mayor on Twitter and told reporters he would work to improve as a politician.

In entertainment news, the newest Demon Slayer movie, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Infinity Castle, started showing in the US and broke records for the biggest anime movie debut, earning seventy million dollars on its opening day and 132 million over the weekend.

To lighten things up, head over to Satsumasendai City in Kagoshima Prefecture, southern Japan, for a 400-year-old tug-of-war festival called the Great Tug-of-War, or Sendai Otsunahiki. It will take place on Monday the 22nd and involves thousands of men pulling a huge rope that may be as long as 400 meters or 1,300 feet and can weigh several tons. Locals will handweave the rope that morning, with anyone welcome to join the process, so its exact measurements won’t be known until the day of.

The festival is free to watch or join (whether making the rope or tugging it afterwards) and is a ten-minute walk from the JR Sendai Station.

Learn more from the official website, link in the show notes!

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

Don’t forget that we do many other updates. We’ve got country and non-country updates, including the Arctic, Ocean, and Multilateral shows.

Check the full list with the link in the show notes.

Mata Ne!