JAPAN: Pressuring the Prime Minister & more – 31st July 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 31st of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

On Tuesday the 29th, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, said it will soon hold a formal joint plenary meeting of its parliamentary members to pressure Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, into resigning after the party lost the majority in the recent election. They had a similar meeting just on Monday the 28th telling him to step down, but Ishiba said he would stay since the US tariffs still needed to be dealt with.

Some LDP members are collecting signatures to hold Ishiba accountable for his failures as a leader. However, even though Ishiba is stubbornly insisting on staying put, the LDP secretary general hinted that he, at least, would resign by the end of August.

Online criticism against Ishiba has been very heavy, calling him out of touch and saying his weak leadership is the reason why so many voters are drifting to nationalist groups like Sanseito.

In international news, the Trump administration recently released details of a trade deal with Japan. According to the agreement, Japan will increase US rice imports by seventy-five percent, invest 550 billion dollars in key US industries, and buy US defense equipment. The investment will support sectors like energy, semiconductors, and shipbuilding, with the U.S. retaining ninety percent of the profits.

In exchange, tariffs on Japan will be fifteen percent instead of the previously proposed twenty-five percent.

In more international news, the Foreign Ministry released a travel advisory over the weekend for Japanese citizens to avoid all travel near the Thai-Cambodia border in light of the warfare that started up there last week. The conflict has already resulted in over thirty deaths and displaced more than 110,000 people. Currently, there are around 450 Japanese nationals in the affected areas.

Even though the two countries called for a ceasefire on Monday the 28th, the situation is still uncertain since they are still talking things out.

Speaking of uncertainties, the Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning on Wednesday the 30th for prefectures on the Pacific Ocean side of Japan’s coast after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake occurred off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Twenty-two prefectures saw high waves, with the highest being one point three meters or four feet in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan, followed by ninety centimeters or three feet in Sendai Port, Miyage Prefecture, also in the north.

The warning disrupted rail, road, and air transport, with businesses and beaches temporarily closed along the coast. However, the Meteorological Agency lifted the advisory on Thursday the 31st. No one reported any major damages, just a few people who fell or got a bit hurt while evacuating.

On another note, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday the 30th that Japan's rice demand reached seven million tons so far this year, which is 380,000 more tons than the ministry predicted in twenty twenty-four. This marks the third consecutive year of rice demand exceeding supply.

For now, there is no rice shortage, but the lack of supply is driving up prices. Hopefully, it won’t turn into a shortage like there was last year, when rice shelves in grocery stores were completely empty for a month.

The ministry said that supply issues have been caused mainly by heat damage, pests, and increased tourism.

The government released 360,000 tons of rice from stockpiles to meet demand and plans to boost production.

In business news, a Health Ministry survey found that forty percent of eligible men in fiscal twenty twenty-four took childcare leave, up ten percent from the previous year and marking twelve years in a row of more men choosing to take childcare leave. However, smaller companies showed lower participation rates.

Women's childcare leave rate was eighty-six percent, but this rate has been roughly the same since twenty twelve. The Health Ministry plans to improve workplace support and encourage longer leave durations to meet employee needs better.

On the imperial front, the Imperial Household Agency announced on Tuesday the 29th that Prince Hisahito, son of Crown Prince Akishino, will mark his coming-of-age on the 6th of September, his nineteenth birthday. This will be the first such ceremony for a male Imperial Family member in forty years.

He will receive a crown, participate in rituals at the Imperial Palace, and be granted the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. In the days following the ceremony, he will also visit former emperors’ mausoleums and have a luncheon with dignitaries, including the prime minister.

Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 people from sixty-two countries at the World Expo in Osaka set a new Guinness World Record for the largest Bon dance. Held during Osaka week, participants wore yukata and ethnic costumes, dancing to the expo's theme song for ten minutes. The event broke the previous twenty seventeen record in Yao City by over 1,000 participants and also set a record for the most nationalities in a Bon dance.

While attendees and many who watched videos of the dance online enjoyed the experience, some had a problem with there being any kind of celebratory atmosphere at all, saying that it was disrespectful to hold such a dance only a week away from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, which will take place on the 6th of August, in honor of those lost in the nuclear bombing in World War II. A few even said that people should be boycotting the expo instead of trying to beat world records as many of the construction workers who built pavilions have not yet been paid.

That wasn’t the only record being broken. A new animated film, Infinity Castle – Part One: Akaza Returns, based on the manga Demon Slayer, earned almost thirteen billion yen, which is eighty-seven million dollars, in just ten days, breaking Japanese box office records. It sold over nine million tickets and set a new three-day opening record with five and a half billion yen, about thirty-seven million dollars, surpassing the numbers of the previous twenty twenty Demon Slayer film.

The movies closely follow the plot of the hit manga series, which tells the story of a boy who fights demons trying to cure his demon-transformed sister.

Tamba in Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, also broke a record: the highest temperature recorded in Japan. On Wednesday the 30th, it hit forty-one point two degrees Celsius, or just over 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

The previous record took place in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, in August twenty twenty and was forty-one point one degrees Celsius, or just under 106 degrees Fahrenheit. That means the new record is only a tiny bit higher than the previous one, but it is more evidence that climate change is slowly cranking the heat up.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Agency has warned of strong winds, high waves, heavy rain, and potential landslides in Tokyo and eastern Japan as Typhoon Number Nine gets close to the Izu island chain south of Tokyo, likely striking on Friday the 1st of August. The Kanto region in eastern Japan will likely experience 120 millimeters or five inches of rain and high waves through Saturday the 2nd of August.

Closing this edition with some sports news, Kotoshoho, a twenty-five-year-old from Chiba Prefecture, eastern Japan, won his first Emperor’s Cup at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, becoming the event’s first champion since its move to its new location in Kita Ward, Nagoya, central Japan. He has something of a Cinderella story (but for sumo wrestlers), rising through many hardships and turning setbacks into reasons to keep going.

For his victory parade, he asked Kotozakura, a friend and fellow sumo wrestler who supported him, to sit next to him in the parade car as he held the championship flag.

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

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Mata Ne!