17％ of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Election Voters Consulted Social Media Before Casting Ballot; Percentage Was Equal to Those Who Referred to Newspapers
The most cited information source was official election bulletins, at 26%. News websites and news applications accounted for 14%, and 11% said their source was TV.
More than 20% of survey respondents aged 18 and 19, and the same proportion of those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, said they regarded social media as important. The proportion of those in their 50s who said this was not much lower.
Of those who regarded social media et al as an important information source, a plurality, at 24%, voted for regional political party the Path to Rebirth. Voters emphasizing social media also included many who voted for Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites first group) at 15% and the Democratic Party For the People at 13%, while those who voted for the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and Japanese Communist Party candidates accounted for less than 10% each.
During the election campaign, all political parties tried to make the most of social media and video-sharing sites, though voters who regard these things as important seem to have an existing slant.
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Yomiuri Shimbun
01-08-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Rapp-Hooper: Like-Minded Countries Show Resilience Despite U.S. Unpredictability; No More Important U.S. Ally Than Japan
The tariff measures of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have revealed that being a privileged U.S. security partner does not necessarily mean being a privileged economic partner, former Director for Indo-Pacific Strategy of the U.S. National Security Council Mira Rapp-Hooper said in a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. The following is excerpted from the interview, which was conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent Yuko Mukai. *** I'm very relieved that the United States and Japan were able to conclude a trade negotiation after intensive engagements over the last many months. Japan is a critical ally to the United States and a critical economic partner, and having trade issues remain an irritant would have placed downward pressure on the totality of the relationship. 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Part of what is being captured in that public opinion is, for allied countries, typically American security commitments and American economic commitments, openness to trade, have traveled together. So, part of what was demonstrated in the April 2nd tariffs was the fact that just because you are a privileged U.S. security partner did not mean you would be a privileged U.S. economic partner. The era that we knew as the post-Cold War era has come to an end, and we are at a moment of significant flux in which we don't exactly know how we will define the international order that is coming next. We are headed into a world that is much more multipolar. In that world, the United States is still extremely powerful, but it has competition when it comes to the exercise of its power on the global stage, and power is much more diffused than it has been in any time in recent memory. President Trump is playing the role of an accelerant, or an accelerator, on these trends towards multipolarity. Obviously, China is going to be extremely powerful. So too do we expect economies like India to keep growing at a significant rate. It is very hard to know after three more years of Donald Trump's presidency, where exactly this will all leave us. What is clear is that the United States is not going to be able to go back into the exact same leadership position that [it] has occupied during the post-Cold War period. It's going to need to adjust itself come 2029, once President Trump is no longer president, to a changed set of global circumstances. That certainly means finding a way to renew its relationships with key allies, because those are such an essential part of American power. And I think you even saw over the course of [former U.S.] President [Joe] Biden's four years, the challenges sort of piling up in ways that tested the United States' ability to do everything it wanted to do on the global stage. Just a year into the administration, Russia invaded Ukraine. 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Yomiuri Shimbun
29-07-2025
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Survey: 60% of Hidankyo Groups Have ‘Five or Fewer' Members Able to Speak about Their Experiences
A survey conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun has found that 60% of prefectural-level A-bomb survivors groups affiliated with Nihon Hidankyo (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) have five or fewer members capable of testifying about their experiences. One group reported having none at all, highlighting the urgent need to pass on the experiences of those who remain. Hidankyo once had a group for each prefecture, but 12 of these have already dissolved or suspended activities. The survey was conducted in May and June via face-to-face interviews, phone calls and written questionnaires, targeting the 35 remaining prefectural groups, and all groups responded. The only remaining groups with over 1,000 members are the ones in Hiroshima Prefecture (3,200 members), Tokyo (2,584 members) and Nagasaki Prefecture (1,500 members). Most groups now have a few dozen members. When asked how many members they had who were capable of testifying about their experiences as atomic bomb survivors, 22 prefectural organizations reported having five or fewer such members. The numbers are as follows: 14 prefectures, including Osaka and Kumamoto, reported two to five; seven prefectures, including Aomori, Kagawa and Oita, reported having one; and Toyama Prefecture reported none. This is attributable to factors such as the declining number of atomic bomb survivors and their aging. When asked whether they were considering dissolution or suspension of activities within the next five years, groups in four prefectures, including Osaka and Kochi, answered 'yes.' Among the 10 prefectural groups that said they didn't know, some also indicated that dissolution was a possibility.
Japan Today
26-07-2025
- Japan Today
Trump says Japan will invest $550 billion in US at his direction. It may not be a sure thing
A staff member distributes an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting that President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan on Tuesday, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Tokyo. The headline reads "U.S., a 15% tax on goods imported from Japan." (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) By JOSH BOAK and MARI YAMAGUCHI President Donald Trump is bragging that Japan has given him, as part of a new trade framework, $550 billion to invest in the United States. It's an astonishing figure, but still subject to negotiation and perhaps not the sure thing he's portraying. "Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit," Trump said Thursday. 'They put up, as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money.' He said 90% of any profits from the money invested would go to the U.S. even if Japan had put up the funds. 'It's not a loan or anything, it's a signing bonus,' the Republican president said, on the trade framework that lowered his threatened tariff from 25% to 15%, including on autos. A White House official said the terms are being negotiated and nothing has been formalized in writing. The official, who insisted on anonymity to detail the terms of the talks, suggested the goal was for the $550 billion fund to make investments at Trump's direction. The sum is significant: It would represent more than 10% of Japan's entire gross domestic product. The Japan External Trade Organization estimates that direct investment into the U.S. economy topped $780 billion in 2023. It is unclear the degree to which the $550 billion could represent new investment or flow into existing investment plans. What the trade framework announced Tuesday has achieved is a major talking point for the Trump administration. The president has claimed to have brought trillions of dollars in new investment into the U.S., though the impact of those commitments have yet to appear in the economic data for jobs, construction spending or manufacturing output. The framework also enabled Trump to say other countries are agreeing to have their goods taxed, even if some of the cost of those taxes are ultimately passed along to U.S. consumers. On the $550 billion, Japan's Cabinet Office said it involves the credit facility of state-affiliated financial institutions, such as Japan Bank for International Cooperation. Further details would be decided based on the progress of the investment deals. Japanese trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa, upon returning to Japan, did not discuss the terms of the $550 billion investment. Akazawa said he believes a written joint statement is necessary, at least on working levels, to avoid differences. He is not thinking about a legally binding trade pact. The U.S. apparently released its version of the deal while Japanese officials were on their return flight home. 'If we find differences of understanding, we may have to point them out and say 'that's not what we discussed,'' Akazawa said. The U.S. administration said the fund would be invested in critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, computer chips and shipbuilding, among other industries. It has said Japan will also buy 100 airplanes from Boeing and rice from U.S. farmers as part of the framework, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said would be evaluated every three months. 'And if the president is unhappy, then they will boomerang back to the 25% tariff rates, both on cars and the rest of their products. And I can tell you that I think at 25, especially in cars, the Japanese economy doesn't work,' Bessent told Fox News' 'The Ingraham Angle.' Akazawa denied that Bessent's quarterly review was part of the negotiations. 'In my past eight trips to the United States during which I held talks with the president and the ministers," Akazawa said. 'I have no recollection of discussing how we ensure the implementation of the latest agreement between Japan and the United States.' He said it would cause major disruptions to the economy and administrative processes if the rates first rise to 25% as scheduled on Aug. 1 and then drop to 15%. 'We definitely want to avoid that and I believe that is the understanding shared by the U.S. side,' he said. On buying U.S. rice, Japanese officials have said they have no plans to raise the current 770,000-ton 'minimum access' cap to import more from America. Agricultural Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan will decide whether to increase U.S. rice imports and that Japan is not committed to a fixed quota. Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, has suggested that the Japanese agreement is putting pressure on other countries such as South Korea to strike deals with the U.S. Trump, who is traveling in Scotland, plans to meet on Sundayv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss trade. 'Whatever Donald Trump wants to build, the Japanese will finance it for him,' Lutnick said Thursday on CNBC. 'Pretty amazing.' Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
