JAPAN: Ukraine Support & more – 21st Aug 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 21st of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

During an international meeting on how to end the war in Russia, NATO’s Mark Rutte named Japan among about thirty nations that promised to help out Ukraine with security. However, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was unable to attend the meeting, told reporters from his office in Tokyo that while Japan will do its best to help, it would do so within its legal and capability limits. Ishiba pointed out that Japan’s constitution restricts overseas military action.

However, Ishiba praised US President Donald Trump’s peace efforts and said it was important to get the countries to call a cease-fire to prevent more suffering of innocent civilians.

That wasn’t the only international meeting. The ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development or TICAD began on Wednesday the 20th in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo. The event brought together African leaders, organizations, and businesses to talk about some of the challenges Africa is facing.

TICAD will continue for three days, ending on Friday the 22nd, and aims to focus on Africa’s economy, peace and stability, and society while empowering youth and women.

Before the conference started, about 100 young people from twenty-seven countries launched Youth TICAD twenty twenty-five, presenting proposals around expanding education and fostering Japan-Africa ties.

On Monday the 18th, a fire broke out in Osaka’s Minami District, killing two firefighters and injuring four others. Rescuers found the firefighters, aged fifty-five and twenty-two, on the sixth floor. They were later confirmed dead, marking the first firefighter deaths in Japan since July twenty twenty-three.

Three other firefighters and a woman were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The fire spread to a nearby building, damaging about 110 square meters or 330 square feet before firefighters managed to extinguish it — it took three hours, fifty-one fire engines, and a helicopter. Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire.

In imperial news, the Imperial Household Agency started sharing posts about the Akishino, Hitachi, Mikasa, and Takamado branches of the Imperial family on its official Instagram account starting on Monday the 18th. The account launched in April twenty twenty-three and now has over two million followers.

Until now, posts mainly highlighted the Emperor and Empress’s official duties, aiming to showcase their roles and personalities. Going forward, the agency plans to post about the Imperial family branches monthly, and will also include updates on Princess Aiko’s official activities.

On another note, a bright fireball lit up the night sky over western Japan on Tuesday the 19th, which had people on social media going wild with speculation. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the object, captured on a Kyodo News livestream of Sakurajima volcano around 11pm, was likely a meteorite. The flash lasted about four seconds, and people in the Kinki, Kyushu, and Shikoku regions in the south could see it. Experts called the event a rare, once-a-year sighting. Authorities reported no injuries or damage linked to the phenomenon.

Many online users joked that it was alien invaders and asked when our alien overlords would take charge.

If only all natural phenomena could be so harmless. Based on the results of a survey of 707 municipalities, Japan’s Cabinet Office recently said that at least 520,000 people, mostly elderly or disabled, would be asked to evacuate for a week if a Megathrust Earthquake Alert is issued for a potential Nankai Trough megaquake. This is even more than the 470,000 people who evacuated during the twenty eleven Great East Japan Earthquake.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the 20th, Cambodia flew twenty-nine Japanese nationals to Japan for attempted fraud. Cambodian authorities detained them in May at a scam base near the Thai border, where they allegedly tried to trick people in Japan into sending them money by posing as police officers over the phone.

The suspects ranged from under twenty years old to under sixty. Cambodian authorities believe they were working under about eight Chinese-speaking individuals.

Japanese police plan to analyze seized computers and smartphones to find out more about these overseas scam networks.

In business news, the Japanese company SoftBank Group said on Tuesday the 19th that it will invest two billion dollars in the tech company Intel, expanding its US semiconductor and technology investments. The move follows SoftBank’s participation in the 500 billion dollar AI-focused Stargate project with US tech leaders earlier this year.

SoftBank’s chairman said that semiconductors are important for pretty much all industries nowadays since so many companies rely on tech, and said that Intel holds a key role in US manufacturing.

However, it doesn’t seem like SoftBank’s investment decision was very popular, as shares for both SoftBank and Intel fell after the news.

Maybe Mitsubishi Corporation will have better luck. It plans to buy a thirty percent stake in the Copper World project in Arizona for 600 million dollars, partnering with Hudbay Minerals, a Canadian firm. Mining is expected to begin around twenty twenty-nine and produce up to 100,000 tons of copper annually.

Mitsubishi said it thought this would be a good investment due to AI-related power needs, the rising US demand driven by population growth, and because many companies are switching from fossil fuel to electric power, which needs copper wiring.

The deal follows the Trump administration’s recent fifty percent tariffs on copper products, aimed at boosting domestic production. The US is the world’s second-largest copper consumer, and Mitsubishi thinks buying into the Copper World project will be a good long-term strategy.

Meanwhile, Ministop, a popular convenience store chain, announced on Monday the 18th that it paused deli sales at 1,600 outlets after finding out some of its staff had been falsifying expiry dates on foods prepared in-store. The chain had already stopped selling rice balls and lunch boxes on the 9th of August, but after realizing the problem was bigger than they thought, they stopped selling other deli items on Monday the 18th. No one has reported any Ministop-related health issues. However, many were outraged that the chain likely ended up selling expired food.

Twenty-three stores in several prefectures falsified labels. Some cases could be innocent mistakes or poor training, such as putting on the expiry labels one to two hours late. However, for others, staff straight-up replaced labels on food that were already past their expiration dates with newer labels. Either way, it creates a potential health hazard.

Ministop apologized for the incident, but didn’t say exactly how they’re going to fix it.

Speaking of food incidents, McDonald’s Japan said on Wednesday the 20th that it will postpone its upcoming Happy Meal promotion featuring the One Piece Card Game, which was set to launch on the 29th of August, but didn’t give a new date.

This announcement follows an incident from earlier this month, which we covered in a previous show. Recall that many bought up Happy Meals for the Pokemon card promotion and ended up throwing away the food uneaten or reselling the cards for ridiculous prices. Like Pokemon, One Piece is insanely popular in Japan, so the fast food chain is likely worried about this happening again.

A lot of fans were surprised because McDonald’s hadn’t even officially announced that they were going to partner with One Piece. Many were understanding of the postponement and even said it was for the best, considering what happened with the Pokemon cards.

Closing this edition on a lighter note, Shinjo City in Yamagata Prefecture, northeastern Japan, will host its Shinjo Festival from Sunday the 24th to Tuesday the 26th. The Japanese government designated the Shinjo Festival, also known as Shinjo Matsuri, as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property for its 250-year-long history and its bombastic celebrations.

The main events are the parades on giant floats that travel all across the city, each depicting a different folk tale or story. The festival also hosts over 400 stalls selling everything from food and drinks to turtles.

You can reach the festival by taking a train to the Shinjo Station and simply walking outside to Abies Square, where much of the event will take place.

On the official website, you can check out some pictures from last year’s festival and find out more about what this year has in store. Link in the show notes!

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

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Mata Ne!