Japan

| JAPAN

In the Upper House elections scheduled for 20 July, the ultra-nationalist party founded by Kamiya Sohei is trailing just behind the Liberal Democrats in the polls, who are at risk of losing their majority. Anti-globalists, opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and immigration, and in favour of food self-sufficiency, its members accuse foreigners of impoverishing Japan. In recent years, support has grown especially among men between the ages of 30 and 50 who are disillusioned with traditional parties.


During a visit in August, India and Japan will ink the deal for the E10 series of high-speed trains. But investments in semiconductors and strategic cooperation are also on the agenda ahead of the Quad summit next fall.

| 23/06/2025
| JAPAN – INDIA
by Lisa Bongiovanni

Half of all these seats in the upper house will be renewed on 20 July, a crucial date for PM Ishiba after his Liberal Democratic Party failed to obtain an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament in last October's elections. For voters, the government’s response to rice prices will be crucial. This most iconic of grains has gained great importance in the country since the 1970s.

 

| 21/06/2025
| JAPAN
by Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan

In a message marking the anniversary of the end of World War II, the Bishops' Conference renews its call for a worldwide ban on nuclear weapons. Asking forgiveness for having tried to “show patriotism” in the imperial era, Catholic bishops criticize today's change of course in Tokyo with new missile units in Okinawa and Nansei: “The elderly tell us: we are preparing for war.”

| 20/06/2025
| JAPAN

The Catholic charity is the fourth recipient of the Human Dignity Award by Nanzan University, a Catholic institution. Caritas President Card Kikuchi, archbishop of Tokyo and a former student, collected the prize. In his address, the prelate mentioned Caritas’s missionary origins, and its transformation into a confederation of 162 national chapters, involved in ongoing emergencies, like Gaza, Ukraine and Myanmar. He noted that the organisation does “not act for the poor – we act with them". It is never a "stranger", but always "part of the community".

 

| 12/06/2025
| JAPAN

Vatican Museums Director Barbara Jatta and Auxiliary Bishop Andrea Lembo of Tokyo explained the symbol of hope lent by the Vatican to the world expo currently underway in Japan. The painting is on display for six months in a dedicated area inside the Italian Pavilion. For the prelate, “Caravaggio does not ask us to believe. He only asks us to look and try to recognise that that body could be ours”.

| 27/05/2025
| JAPAN – VATICAN
by Lisa Bongiovanni

Taku Etō resigned after saying that he personally had too much rice in a country where the price of the staple food has been steadily rising for several months, caused by greater consumption sparked by a tourism boom, and by regulated output. Rice is now a pawn in tariff negotiations with Washington.

| 21/05/2025
| JAPAN
Editor's choices
 
by Dario Salvi
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| 10/07/2025
| ISRAEL – PALESTINE
 
In the Upper House elections scheduled for 20 July, the ultra-nationalist party founded by Kamiya Sohei is trailing just behind the Liberal Democrats in the polls, who are at risk of losing their majority. Anti-globalists, opposed to LGBTQ+ rights and ...
| 10/07/2025
| JAPAN
 
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| CHINA
 
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| 07/07/2025
| ITALY
 
by Alessandra De Poli
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| INDIA
 
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| MYANMAR
 
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| 01/07/2025
| HONG KONG
 
by mons. Pierre Suon Hang Ly *
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| 29/06/2025
| ECCLESAI IN ASIA
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”