In Ogawa’s captivating latest (after The Memory Police), a Japanese woman looks back 30 years to 1972, the year she stayed with her aunt’s family in the coastal town of Ashiya, and reflects on ...

Ashiya, a wealthy coastal city of 94,000 located between Osaka and Kobe, picked a 26-year-old independent candidate as its mayor on Sunday. And in a nation where local politics is dominated by old ...