@mrjeffu.bsky.social
PhD. Lecturer at Kanda University of International Studies. I research Japan's Politics/Nationalist Activism/History Disputes/Pop Culture. Shares/Likes ≠ endorsements. https://linktr.ee/jeffreyjhall
I appeared on Australia's ABC News today to talk about China's ban on Japanese seafood and a possible reduction of Chinese tourism to Japan:
"China bans seafood from Japan, calls on PM Takaichi to retract Taiwan remarks" www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2sr...
I sort of cheated by making a wandering Japanese noble starting out in Europe [probably impossible historically]. After a few generations my mercenary band got asked into joining a claimant faction for the Holy Roman Empire that made me the Emperor.
20.11.2025 11:22 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Yes: it is very fun!
20.11.2025 09:05 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The Lemonade Stand podcast interviewed me for their Japan episode!
We spoke about Prime Minister Takaichi, immigration, Sanseito, historical revisionism, territorial disputes, conspiracy theories, and a whole lot of other stuff!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0z...
Prime Minister Takaichi's new Justice Minister, Hiraguchi Hiroshi, reportedly spent over 8 million yen on "gasoline" from 2021 to 2023 - enough for his political support organization's cars to drive 34 trips around the Earth. www.news-postseven.com/archives/202...
07.11.2025 15:04 — 👍 24 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0This is a local election, so the deposit is less. Although he claims he earns the money from working part time jobs, I suspect he may have inherited wealth.
07.11.2025 14:40 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Goto Teruki, a Japanese perennial candidate who is known for his odd election speeches and posters, is running for Tokyo's Katsushika ward assembly.
He is wearing a penis costume on his election posters, and apparently police ordered him to censor them with a black marker.
@rmarcantuoni.bsky.social provides a summary of his recent research article on the far-right conspiracy party Sanseitō. Responding to the media's portrayal of the party as a catch-up moment for Japanese politics, he instead argues that its conspiracy ideology is a novel form of political action.
05.11.2025 14:12 — 👍 26 🔁 17 💬 0 📌 0A very informative article explaining the conspiracy theories and ideologies motivating Japan's new far-right party, Sanseitō, which made substantial seat gains in last July's upper house election. Thanks to @rmarcantuoni.bsky.social & @robfahey.net for writing this.
05.11.2025 18:25 — 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0My latest piece for Tokyo Review:
05.11.2025 16:03 — 👍 86 🔁 32 💬 2 📌 0
Viral on Twitter in Japan: Prime Minister Takaichi used to be TV presenter and gave a magazine interview in the 1990s in which she said Japanese men were too timid if they directly asked for consent from women.
She criticized men who ask “Can I kiss you?” instead of just taking decisive action.
I really do need to research the occult in Japanese subcultures at some point. H/T @mrjeffu.bsky.social
25.10.2025 18:59 — 👍 37 🔁 11 💬 3 📌 0I just find it impressive that he left his longtime HoC seat in 2021 and moved to the lower house in the hopes of doing just this, and now here he is in second place. Even if he doesn’t get it, I think he’s played his cards really well these past 4 years.
03.10.2025 12:13 — 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
NBC News interviewed me about tomorrow's LDP leadership vote, which will decide who will take over Japan's ruling party and become Prime Minister: www.nbcnews.com/world/japan/...
03.10.2025 10:52 — 👍 14 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0The overseas betting market doesn't appear to be reacting much to news that Hayashi might make it to the second round of the LDP leadership election.
Most still have confidence in Koizumi, who is at 82%.
FNN is basing these predictions on its own survey of nationwide party member votes. If it's accurate, things are looking difficult for Takaichi. I was not expecting Koizumi to be competitive in so many prefectures.
03.10.2025 07:07 — 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Japan's LDP race projections from FNN:
•Takaichi is leading in 17 prefectures
•Koizumi is leading in 15 prefectures
•6 prefectures are a toss up: Takaichi or Koizumi
•Hayashi is leading in 4 prefectures
•Hayashi might come in 2nd place due to lawmakers' votes
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a73...
CNN interviewed me for this piece about the LDP leadership election: "Japan’s ruling party is in crisis as voters swing to right-wing rivals. Can a new leader save it?" edition.cnn.com/2025/10/02/a...
03.10.2025 03:04 — 👍 17 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Today I spoke to Australia's ABC News about Saturday's LDP leadership race. Three candidates currently seem to have a chance at becoming Japan's next Prime Minister: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_rg...
02.10.2025 13:16 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Here is one example of a speech that the Emperor delivered at a UN conference in 2023. It's not just some empty keynote address - he speaks in detail for 20 minutes about Japan's history of water management. It's very impressive. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d3S...
27.09.2025 06:44 — 👍 17 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
A viral tweet with over 1.2 million views calls on Japanese nationalists to choose a side: Who is the one involved in a con job?
27.09.2025 06:32 — 👍 24 🔁 4 💬 4 📌 1Video - Emperor Naruhito of Japan and President Donald Trump on Climate Change:
Many Japanese netizens have noted that the Emperor strongly advocates action to address climate change, and has often spoken about it at UN conferences.
Quite a contrast from Trump's climate change denialism.
Here is a link to the paper, Kojima T, Oishi K, Matsubara Y, Uchiyama Y, Fukushima Y, et al. (2020) Correction: Cows painted with zebra-like striping can avoid biting fly attack. PLOS ONE 15(3): e0231183 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
19.09.2025 09:59 — 👍 186 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 0Video: a Japanese scientist was attacked by flies while giving the acceptance speech for his Ig Nobel Prize-winning research paper that proved painting Zebra-like stripes on cows led to a decrease in biting fly attacks.
19.09.2025 09:58 — 👍 1970 🔁 471 💬 17 📌 60
I spoke with Monocle Radio today about the LDP leadership race (my segment starts around the 33 minute mark) monocle.com/player/?uuid...
17.09.2025 14:19 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0It is my understanding that she is currently not working as a police officer.
I might be wrong, but I would guess that her time as an airport cop did not involve a lot of homicide investigations that required her to analyze the trajectory of bullets. [3/3]
In a YouTube live stream she showed a video clip on her phone and argued that a person standing behind Charlie Kirk was the shooter. The stream received over 279K views. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNZ-... [2/3]
16.09.2025 05:12 — 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
Japanese YouTuber Nagata Yuri is spreading conspiracy theories about the death of Charlie Kirk.
She became a famous as "the first Japanese woman to become an Los Angeles police officer" (she was an airport cop at LAX) & makes videos introducing the "truth" about world politics. [1/3]
A new poll asked Japanese their preference for the next leader of the LDP. Takaichi Sanae came in first with 29%.
However, it should be noted that when you isolate for LDP supporters, Koizumi Shinjiro beats her 33% to 28%. Non-party members do not vote in the election.
news.line.me/detail/oa-yo...
