Note: I haven’t been able to translate all the extracts I chose by lack of time. I also found the articles rather difficult to read and quite long for most of them. I got discouraged more than once, not being able to understand the articles by simply reading them. Even after looking up words, some paragraphs remained obscure. Either I misunderstand grammatical patterns, either they hint at references I don’t know, or I just don’t understand what the author is trying to say. In any case, I still have a lot of work to do before I am able to read the news in Japanese… Topic 1: Abe’s resignation The biggest news of this month is of course Abe’s resignation as Prime Minister. Let’s first study articles of August 29th, the day following Abe announcing his resignation for health reasons. Yomiuri: 首相退陣表明　危機対処へ政治空白を避けよSankei: 首相の退陣表明　速やかに自民党総裁選を　「安倍政治」を発射台にせよMainichi: 安倍首相が辞任表明　行き詰まった末の幕引きAsahi: 最長政権　突然の幕へ　「安倍政治」の弊害　清算の時Tokyo: 首相退陣表明　「安倍政治」の転換こそ Useful vocabulary: 辞任 じにん resignation 持病 じびょう a chronic illness 潰瘍性大腸炎 かいようせいだいちょうえん Ulcerative colitis 退陣 たいじん resignation.Apparently, this word is mainly used for the military (decamp) or for the Prime …

I only had time for two topics this month: Korean court ruling on forced labour victims: aftermaths 75th anniversary of the end of WWII. News 1: Korean court ruling on forced labour victims: aftermaths This might not have been a breaking news in Japanese media, but this is one of the topics I am the most interested in, so we’ll start this month with the Korean Court ruling over the forced labourers issue. Along with the comfort women issue, the forced labourers issue remains a topic of tension between Japan and Korea. During the end of WWII, as Korea was under Japanese rule (1910-1945), a large number of Koreans were conscripted to participate in Japan’s war effort, either as soldiers or as workers in factories and mines. Many of them worked in very poor conditions. I saw the numbers of 670,000 labourers sent to Japan and 60,000 deaths, but I don’t have sources other than Wikipedia. If you are interested in this issue, you can watch the Korean film The Battleship Island, which is an …

This month’s topics are: Tokyo court rejects a damage lawsuit by a victim of the Eugenic Protection Law Yuriko Koike re-elected as Governor of Tokyo Coronavirus cases in US military bases in Okinawa Topic 1: Tokyo court rejects a damage lawsuit by a victim of the Eugenic Protection Law I first learned about the Eugenic Protection Law in Japan two years ago, when I was working on the news for my blog. I was very shocked to learn that 1- there had been such a law in Japan, 2- it was revoked only in 1996 (!) and 3- that victims were just beginning to get compensations. Established in 1948, the Eugenic Protection Law’s purpose was to prevent the birth of “inferior descendants”. Around 25,000 persons thought to have “hereditary” diseases that could lead to the birth of “inferior” children have been sterilised. Among them, around 16,500 people never gave their consent. Some were forcibly sterilised, others were deceived into having the surgery (many were in their teens when it happened). Several victims have said that …

The three topics I chose to study this month are: the George Floyd protests, the death of Shigeru Yokota and North Korea’s threats.

This month main topic is the revision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office Law.

The main topic of April was the State of Emergency declared by Abe on April 7th. We study 5 topics this month, 4 of which are related to the coronavirus and the state of emergency.

This month’s topic are Abe’s press conference on Coronavirus, the couple Kawai, the State of Emergency and the trial of Satoshi Uematsu.

Let’s compare what different newspapers say on the same topic!