Latest news with #Kumamoto
Japan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Japan eyes locations for deploying longer-range standoff missiles
Japan is still considering deployment locations for its longer-range standoff missiles, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday, with the weapons planned to be stationed by the end of next March. 'Regarding the upgraded ground-launched Type-12 anti-ship missiles, we plan to deploy them starting in fiscal 2025,' Nakatani told a news conference. 'However, the specific deployment locations are still under consideration and have not yet been decided.' Nakatani's remarks come after local media, citing unidentified government sources, reported that his ministry is finalizing a plan to deploy the missiles to the Ground Self-Defense Force's Camp Kengun in Kumamoto Prefecture. The move, intended to boost Japan's deterrence capabilities, would come as the Chinese military ramps up its training near Japan's far-flung islands near Taiwan and continues to exercise even further from China's periphery and well into the Pacific Ocean. The upgraded Type-12 missiles have a range of about 1,000 kilometers, putting Shanghai and much of the East China Sea — including the waters northeast of Taiwan — within striking distance. Nearly all of nuclear-armed North Korea would also fall within range. Nakatani said the Defense Ministry 'will continue to work toward building up Japan's standoff defense capabilities more quickly, amid the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II.' Japan's 2022 National Security Strategy paved the way for the ostensibly pacifist country to acquire a controversial 'counterstrike capability.' The government has long viewed the capability as constitutional so long as three conditions for the use of force are met: that an armed attack has occurred or is imminent; that there is no other way to halt an attack; and that the use of force is limited to the minimum necessary. One option for this capability is to employ standoff missiles that allow it to attack from outside an enemy's range. However, critics say the deployment sites would effectively turn them into retaliatory targets for enemies. Asked Tuesday if the government will explain the plans to local residents prior to deployment, Nakatani said that it 'will make adjustments as necessary.'
Japan Times
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘Rainy Blue': Behind-the-scenes drama tarnishes an intriguing debut
'You never know when it will end,' says 17-year-old Aoi (Asuna Yanagi), as she explains to her homeroom teacher why she's been skipping class to stream classic films at home. 'What's going to end?' her interlocutor asks. 'The streaming period,' she replies, 'and my life.' There's a similar sense of urgency driving 'Rainy Blue' — which, in addition to starring in, Yanagi also wrote, edited and directed. In the production notes, she recalls her determination to make a movie while she was still a teenager. The end result is a rare thing: an adolescent coming-of-age tale whose creator, a high-school student at the time it was filmed, is part of the cohort being depicted. This semi-autobiographical story of cinematic obsession was partially shot at Yanagi's own school in Kumamoto Prefecture. It's also the alma mater of Chishu Ryu, the famed actor best remembered for his work with Yasujiro Ozu. Aoi first encounters the pair's films unwillingly, when she gets ordered to attend a screening at a local cinema as punishment for a transgression at school. Pretty soon she's hooked, becoming a regular moviegoer and the most avid (and only) member of her school's film club. While rummaging through the club room, she finds a battered script titled 'Rainy Blue,' which inspires her to start writing a screenplay of her own. It's certainly more appealing than having to think about life after graduation — a topic that's repeatedly foisted on her by the aforementioned teacher (Ami Chong) and her father (Kenzo Ryu, Chishu's grandson). Cinema offers an escape, as does Aoi's overactive imagination. She starts stalking her classmates in search of creative inspiration, gets a job cleaning the temple where Chishu Ryu was born and befriends an improbably mature student who dresses like he just stepped out of an Ozu film (played by indie filmmaker Hirobumi Watanabe). As Aoi totes her laptop to an assortment of scenic locations, often dressed as a fortune teller (don't ask), it becomes increasingly clear that what we're watching shouldn't be taken at face value. However, it's hard to say how much of it is really taking place inside her head, or how it overlaps with the mysterious script she found at school. The film's (admittedly lovely) denouement leaves a lot of threads dangling. 'Rainy Blue' is an enjoyably scrappy debut, but its release has been overshadowed by a public spat between the film's production committee and some key staff, including Watanabe (who also played a significant behind-the-scenes role). The details of the dispute — which involves claims of copyright infringement and defamation on one side, and allegations of harassment against Watanabe on the other — are too complicated to go into here, though they leave a sour aftertaste. A sequence in which Watanabe plays a cantankerous movie director lands differently, knowing that Yanagi has accused her collaborator of being a bully. The revelation that Watanabe had edited a much longer, 150-minute cut of 'Rainy Blue,' which he claims was crudely reassembled for the theatrical release, also left me wondering about what got chopped. Maybe there's a version of the film that unites its cinephile fantasies, comic digressions and adolescent yearning into a more cohesive whole. The puckish energy and heartfelt emotions of 'Rainy Blue' only get it so far. I just hope that Yanagi's evident love of movies has survived her experience of making one.
Japan Times
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Voter turnout reaches 58.52% in Japan's Upper House poll
Voter turnout in Sunday's election for Japan's House of Councilors stood at 58.52% as of 2:30 a.m. on Monday, up from 52.05% in the previous Upper House election in 2022, according to a tally. The number of people who cast their ballots under the early voting system ahead of the election came in at 26,181,865, a record high for any national poll in the country, accounting for 25.12% of all eligible voters, according to the internal affairs ministry. The figure was up by 6,568,390 voters from the previous Upper House election in 2022. The increase apparently came since the election was scheduled for the second day of a three-day weekend. The number of early voters rose in all 47 prefectures, with Miyazaki logging the biggest increase, of 49.43%. Kumamoto followed, with a climb of 44.59%, and Kochi, with 43.31%.
Japan Times
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Japan Times
Record 26.2 million people vote early in Upper House poll
The number of people who cast their ballots under the early voting system ahead of Sunday's election for the House of Councilors came in at 26,181,865, a record high for any national poll in the country, the internal affairs ministry said. The figure, which was up by 6,568,390 voters from the previous Upper House election in 2022, accounted for 25.12% of all eligible voters. The increase in early voting apparently came since the election was scheduled for the second day of a three-day weekend. The number of early voters rose in all 47 prefectures, with Miyazaki logging the biggest increase at 49.43%. Kumamoto followed, with a climb of 44.59%, and Kochi with 43.31%. Sunday's voter turnout stood at 22.42% as of 4 p.m., down 0.57 percentage points from the 2022 election.
NHK
17-07-2025
- Business
- NHK
TSMC posts record sales, profit for 2nd quarter
The world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has posted record sales and net income for the three months through June. The sixth straight quarter of increases came on the back of robust demand for chips used in artificial intelligence. TSMC announced on Thursday that revenue rose 38.6 percent from a year earlier to 933.7 billion New Taiwan dollars, or about 31.7 billion dollars, for the second quarter. Net profit soared 60.7 percent year-on-year to 398.2 billion New Taiwan dollars, or about 13.5 billion dollars. TSMC says demand for advanced semiconductors for AI and other technologies will continue to be strong for the next three months through September. Chief Executive Officer C.C. Wei noted that the construction of a second semiconductor plant in the Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto is scheduled to start later this year, subject to the readiness of the local infrastructure.
