In this issue

Justin McCurry

The recent LDP leadership election has highlighted longstanding flaws in political journalism among Japanese newspapers and broadcasters. That is the damning conclusion of this month’s cover stories by Karyn Nishimura and Koichi Nakano. Having just watched reporters applaud the departing Yoshihide Suga, I’m inclined to agree with their thesis. Elsewhere in the October issue, several contributors pay tribute to the publisher David Jack, a much-loved giant of the Kansai foreign community, who died last month. Suvendrini Kakuchi outlines the struggle members of Japan’s small Afghan community face in bringing home relatives from Kabul following the Taliban takeover, and Ilgin Yorulmaz examines the growing campaign to change Japan’s abortion law, which in many cases requires women to seek the consent of the man involved before they can proceed with a termination. There can’t be many regular members who have not had to write about Carlos Ghosn in recent years. We are fortunate to be able to run an extract from Collision Course, an exhaustive account of the saga by Hans Greimel and William Sposato, along with a review of their recent Book Break appearance by veteran auto industry writer Roger Schreffler.