Japan is preparing for yet another national election. I feel slightly more concerned this time than I was during the previous election last summer. This time we are voting for the House of Representatives, and its electoral system is effectively designed for two-party politics, while Japan has already entered a multipolar era. Unlike Australia, we …
Continue reading Can Japan Escape Its Two-Party Electoral Trap?
This article follows “War on Misinformation Surrounding Japanese Academia (Update).” While the previous piece focused on concrete cases of false information, the underlying institutional patterns deserve closer examination. Given this pattern of misinformation by high-profile figures discussed in the previous post, I have formulated the following wish list in the context of the rising number of immigrants …
Continue reading The Need for Transparency and Religious Neutrality in Japanese Academia
Another small win against false information! 🎉🥳🎉 The Japan Fact-check Center (JFC) has informed me that they plan to correct their article and retract their fact-check decision that was circulated in July 2025 during the previous House of Councillors election. -> Corrected article by the JFC. For details, I will let JFC explain in their …
Continue reading War on Misinformation Surrounding Japanese Academia (Update)
The website is now live — more details coming soon!We (Stefan Ratschan, Jonathan Huerta y Munive, Andreea Costea, and I) are organising a new workshop, “AI, Proof and Verification (AIPV)”, co-located with FM 2026 in Tokyo this May.AIPV is intended as a forum for exchanging ideas, ideally with a hands-on and collaborative atmosphere rather than …
Continue reading AI, Proof and Verification (AIPV) is coming to Tokyo
I lived in Randwick for a few years in the 2010s. When I felt tired, sad, or stressed, I often went to the beaches in the evening to clear my mind. On sunny weekends, I enjoyed walking from Coogee to Bondi. I did not swim, but I watched beach life from a distance and enjoyed …
This TV news segment and Prof. Shunsuke Tanabe (田辺俊介) of Waseda University appear to have taken advantage of the Covid pandemic to promote the myth that the crime rates among Japanese and non-Japanese are the same. A Canadian media, called Japan Media Review, propagated this myth into the English language sphere. (https://youtu.be/6sQBcrjijj8?t=540) They managed to …
Continue reading Suspected Disinformation About Crimes by Foreigners in Japan
Japanese people have spoken. We now have the results from the Upper House election. I generally see the outcome positively not because any particular party or candidate won or lost, but because the results seem to reflect the nuanced sentiments of the public, rather than a radical or risky shift in power. The campaign period …
Continue reading Japan’s Immigration Shift and the Rise of “Far-Right” Party
🎉 Proof Summit 2025 — Completed! We're happy to share that Proof Summit 2025 wrapped up last week with nearly 30 participants packing the seminar room at NII. The event featured lively discussions across academia, industry, and the hobbyist community.🧠 Proof Summit is a Japanese semi-academic theorem proving event, revived this year after the long …
Note: This post meanders across topics — from linguistics to economic history to personal memory. It is neither a scholarly essay nor a comprehensive analysis. I’m not a historian, economist, sociologist, linguist, legal expert, or scholar of genocide studies. This is simply a personal reflection, shaped by lived experience, informal learning, and casual observation. If you …
A little while ago, I visited the Japanese garden in Prague. It features a kare-sansui (dry landscape garden), and apparently, in May, there’s also a bonsai exhibition organized by the Czech Bonsai Association. For signage, they used the symbol of a Shinto torii gate. ⛩️ I don’t know why a torii was chosen to represent …
United Reasoning 