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Dan O'keeffe
For Dan O'keeffe's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 26, 2013
If corporal punishment works, where are all the champions?
In the final scenes of Aaron Sorkin's powerfully written film "A Few Good Men," one of the U.S. Marines on trial for the murder of a fellow serviceman is bewildered as to why he has not been cleared of all charges after his commanding officer admits ordering the attack. "We did nothing wrong," cries Pvt. Downey, to which his older, wiser co-accused penitently replies, "Yeah, we did." The realization of guilt by Lance Cpl. Dawson neatly encapsulates the film's central theme: that bullying and the use of physical punishment to discipline innocent people, or to teach them a lesson, is never justified, regardless of the motive.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 16, 2009
'Discontinuous minds' block progress on discrimination
On the final day of the Golden Week holiday this year, I found myself face to face with a young Japanese man who had let himself into my apartment, presumably with the intention of robbing the place. The intruder, who was standing in my living room looking around, fled when disturbed. A chase ensued, which ended with the intruder being apprehended and turned over to the police.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 6, 2009
Otaru ruling beats 'mob rule'
Paul de Vries' treatise on group accountability in Japanese society ("Back to the baths: Otaru revisited," Zeit Gist, Dec. 2) offered a new take on the now familiar story of the court case between Japan's naturalized enfant terrible, Debito Arudou, and the managers of the Yunohana public bath in Otaru, Hokkaido. De Vries presented a "thin edge of the wedge" argument for the ultimate unraveling of Japanese society if certain groups are no longer allowed to practice overt discrimination in the name of making Japan "cohesive and safe."

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world