辛坊治郎 ズーム そこまで言うか！【最新回のみ】currently outside the Japan top 100
2026年9月29日（火）辛坊治郎ズームそこまで言うか！
On the September 29, 2026 edition of Shinbo Jiro Zoom Soko Made Iuka (辛坊治郎 ズーム そこまで言うか！), host Shinbo Jiro (辛坊治郎) explained SpaceX's historic first successful orbital insertion of Starship by comparing the 120-meter rocket to the Ushiku Daibutsu statue in Ibaraki Prefecture. He also addressed the nationwide trend of fireworks festivals turning paid or being cancelled outright, and a listener grievance about table-side payment at family restaurants failing to award loyalty points.
What this episode answers
How large is SpaceX's Starship, and what did it achieve this time?
Starship stands 120 meters tall with a 9-meter diameter — the same height as the Ushiku Daibutsu — and on September 28 it became the first large spacecraft to successfully reach Earth orbit; the flight was planned for ten hours but returned in about three, and there were reportedly some issues with booster recovery.
How has the situation surrounding fireworks festivals changed from what it used to be?
Paid viewing areas have rapidly multiplied at fireworks festivals, blocking spots that were once free with advertising banners, while soaring launch costs have triggered a nationwide wave of festivals going paid-admission or cancelling entirely, making a free front-row view increasingly rare.
How should we think about the problem of table-side restaurant payment not awarding loyalty points?
Table-side payment helps ease register congestion, but because most venues do not award loyalty points for it, customers end up crowding the register anyway, defeating the purpose; Shinbo strongly agreed with a listener's view that points should be awarded for table-side payment if it saves staff effort.
What is the modern spy-like threat that the Japanese government's newly established Intelligence Expert Council is on guard against?
The greatest threat identified is the use of social media to manipulate public opinion and distort election results, thereby steering an opposing country's policies without moving its leadership — a vulnerability unique to democracies, where policy changes through elections rather than by influencing a single ruler.
What is the weather forecast for Radio Park on Sunday?
The typhoon is expected to pass east around Friday, and the Sunday Radio Park event is showing a clear-weather forecast with no impact anticipated.
Listeners Rallying for Radio Park
The show opened with a flood of listener emails about Radio Park, an event taking place this Sunday at Hibiya Park in Tokyo. Messages poured in from across the country: a listener traveling from Niigata on the first bullet train of the morning, a woman from Okayama who happened to be in Yokohama visiting her hospitalized son and planned to attend on the way, and a couple visiting Hibiya Park for the very first time. As the guest count climbed, Shinbo gleefully reported live — "That's 14 people secured!" Some listeners worried about an approaching typhoon, but weather information indicated the storm would track east around Friday, leaving Saturday and Sunday unaffected. The show's Zoom corner is scheduled to broadcast from the main stage starting at 11 a.m. Sunday, and Radiko's original channel will carry a live stream of the main-stage proceedings.
Fireworks Festivals Are Changing
A listener email about Mejiro Garden in the Mejiro neighborhood prompted Shinbo to reflect on the annual fireworks festival along the Arakawa River near his hometown of Hiragata. This year he stumbled upon it by chance and watched from a distance — only to find that the pedestrian spots along the riverbank that once offered free, unobstructed views had been completely blocked by paid viewing areas and advertising banners strung across the path. "The stretch of the embankment trail where you used to get the best view of all has been sealed off," he said, describing it as emblematic of a nationwide shift. Soaring costs for launching fireworks have driven festivals across Japan to either charge admission or cancel altogether, and Shinbo sounded the alarm: "Anyone still enjoying the same free festival they had last year is already in a pretty rare situation."
Table-Side Payment and the Points Problem
A listener shared an experience from Silver Week: after paying at the table at a family restaurant, they discovered no loyalty points had been applied to their account. The real reason the register lines had been so long, they realized, was that other customers were walking to the register specifically to earn points — entirely negating the congestion-relief purpose of table-side payment. The listener argued that if table-side payment saves staff effort, it should earn points just like any other method, and Shinbo agreed wholeheartedly, admitting he had been paying at the table without thinking about points — "a costly oversight," he called it. The segment also touched on a listener whose local supermarket had discontinued its point card in favor of a dedicated smartphone app, capturing the broader sense of disorientation that accompanies the accelerating shift to cashless and digital services.
SpaceX Starship Achieves First-Ever Orbital Insertion
Shinbo devoted considerable time to breaking down SpaceX's Starship milestone. The vehicle consists of the lower-stage booster "Super Heavy" and the upper-stage spacecraft "Starship," combining to a total height of 120 meters and a diameter of 9 meters. To make the scale tangible, Shinbo described it as "like the Ushiku Daibutsu in Ushiku City, Ibaraki Prefecture — all 120 meters of it — lifting off and flying through the sky." Launched on September 28 (local time) from a facility in Texas, Starship became the first large spacecraft to successfully enter Earth orbit. The mission was originally planned for ten hours of flight but returned in approximately three, and there were reportedly some complications with booster recovery. Shinbo nonetheless emphasized the sheer magnitude of the engineering achievement. SpaceX, driven by Elon Musk's ultimate goal of settling humans on Mars and aiming for a capacity of up to 100 passengers, has accumulated more than 600 launches of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket since that vehicle's first success in 2010. "I can't say the probability is zero that I'll live to see someone land on Mars," Shinbo said.
The Spy Threat Targeting Elections
With the Japanese government holding the inaugural meeting of its Intelligence Expert Council, Shinbo examined how the nature of espionage-style threats has fundamentally changed. Conventional threats centered on stealing corporate technology or military secrets, but he argued that the greatest threat facing modern democracies today is the manipulation of public opinion through social media to distort election outcomes. Unlike authoritarian states — where you need only influence a single ruler — democracies translate public sentiment directly into policy through elections, creating a structural vulnerability to foreign-driven information operations. Shinbo acknowledged some significance in the government's move to formulate and publish a national intelligence strategy, but insisted that the core challenge remains protecting the integrity of public discourse itself.
Takeaways
- SpaceX's Starship — at 120 meters tall, the same height as the Ushiku Daibutsu — achieved the first-ever successful orbital insertion by a large spacecraft on September 28, with a Mars colony carrying up to 100 people as its ultimate goal.
- Fireworks festivals across Japan are accelerating toward paid admission or outright cancellation as launch costs surge, and finding a free, unobstructed viewing spot is already becoming a rarity.
- The greatest threat to democratic nations is foreign use of social media to manipulate elections, and Japan's government has begun drafting a national intelligence strategy to address it.
This article is edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. It is not an official summary — please listen to the episode itself.