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July 12, 2026
 

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KANSAI

JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Aug 23, 2015
Top-heavy, nuke-clinging Kepco faces liberated electricity market
News that 7-Eleven stores in the Kansai region will trade Kansai Electric Power Co.’s electricity in favor of cheaper electricity from Tokyo Electric Power Co. has locals wondering if Kepco’s six-decade monopoly over Kansai’s electricity supply might be ending.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2015
To avoid raising eyebrows, entities swapping Kinki for Kansai
In an effort to increase recognition abroad as well as prevent smirks, giggles, or shocked stares from English speakers, more businesses and private organizations are dropping the regional name “Kinki” from their titles and replacing it with “Kansai.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jun 15, 2015
Hate speech may lack clear definition but Kansai trying to squelch it
More than two years after the anti-Korean group Zaitokukai made international headlines with racial slurs and threats of violence, local governments around Japan are making it far more difficult for any group attacking minorities to operate.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Feb 22, 2015
Kyoto’s tourism boom spells war for luxury hotel chains
Kyoto’s recent record-setting tourism boom has sparked a mini-“hotel war,” with some of the world’s best-known luxury inn chains opening branches in the ancient capital, as its international popularity as a travel destination spreads even further.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 21, 2015
Remembering and learning from the Kobe quake
Cooperation in disaster relief efforts have helped strengthen ties between Japan and the United States.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014
Hashimoto quits Ishin leadership
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto resigns as co-leader of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) to focus on local elections in the spring, a move likely to further weaken the party’s clout at the national level.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2014
Hashimoto to resign as co-leader of Ishin no To
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto reportedly plans to resign as co-leader of Ishin no To (Japan Innovation Party) to focus on local elections in the spring, a move likely to further weaken the party’s clout at the national level.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 22, 2014
Kaikoura and Taiji: a tale of two whaling towns
The success of a New Zealand whale-watching eco-tourist destination could hold lessons for the ailing Wakayama port tarred by association with the ‘Cove’ dolphin hunt.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Sep 20, 2014
Importance of China trade not lost on Kansai leaders
Judging by the frequent overheated rhetoric coming out of parts of the Japanese media, you’d think Japan and China were heading toward war.
BUSINESS / Economy
Sep 17, 2014
Osaka business chiefs warn Kuroda that yen is falling too far
Business leaders in the Kansai region have issued a warning to Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda that the yen’s slide to a six-year low is raising the cost of importing raw materials and fuel, which could spell trouble for the economy.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jul 27, 2014
Self-defense less collective at local level
After the Shiga gubernatorial election earlier this month, in which Taizo Mikazuki, the hand-picked successor to former Gov. Yukiko Kada, defeated the ruling coalition’s candidate, certain media agencies and pundits suggested that collective self-defense had no impact on the race.
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2014
Foreign maids the talk of Kansai zone
Discussions began in Osaka on Monday on a proposed special economic zone in the Kansai region that will include an experimental program to attract foreign maids to the region.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jun 14, 2014
Is ‘rational’ Toru Hashimoto acting irrationally?
Just how little influential political or intellectual opposition in Japan is there to fundamentally conservative politics and economic theories touting the wisdom of the corporate mentality? Well consider this: Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Osaka and co-founder of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration...
JAPAN
May 17, 2014
Why Kansai’s corporate captains are trumpeting TPP
Several years ago, at the Kansai Economic Seminar, an annual snoozefest of pompous platitudes and pretentious, paternalistic pontificating by the old men who run Kansai’s major corporations, one senior leader called for entering the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Apr 27, 2014
Atrophied Osaka changes mindset toward entrepreneurs
Japan’s young entrepreneurs flock to Tokyo because Kansai is too conservative or paranoid to embrace new thinking, but Osaka is working to change all that.
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jan 26, 2014
No plan best plan in Kansai nuclear disaster
Ten months after regional governments were required to submit nuclear disaster evacuation plans, a lack of central government guidance and local-level cooperation is generating concern that Kansai will be ill-prepared to respond if any of Fukui Prefecture’s 13 commercial reactors suffers a meltdown....
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 22, 2013
Osaka joins rush to attract foreign tourists
If you asked many Kansai-area foreigners, and not a few Tokyoites, to come up with a slogan to promote Osaka internationally, you might get a response along the lines of: “Osaka: When You Can’t Get a Hotel in Kyoto.”
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 22, 2013
Kyoto aims to be Muslim-friendly city
Kyoto, a city known worldwide as a major center for Buddhism and as the home of some of the country’s most famous Shinto shrines, is stepping up efforts to better welcome one particular group of foreign visitors: Muslims.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2013
Top pension fund urged to buy airport concessions
New Kansai International Airport Co. is seeking to attract the state-run retirement fund to a sale of two airport concessions that could raise as much as ¥1.2 trillion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Dec 6, 2013
Writer inducted into intricacies of country life shares her story
Home for Rebecca Otowa is a 350-year-old farmhouse nestled on the edge of a tiny village in Shiga Prefecture, where generations of her husband’s family have lived. It is a lifestyle she has grown to cherish since arriving in rural Kansai as a bride more than 30 years ago.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

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