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The consumption tax increase next April will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people's financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the impact of the hike, experts say.
Every parent is all too familiar with The Tantrum. The screaming, the flailing arms, the angry head butting — and the timing (normally in the most inconvenient public place possible).
International events undermine Japan's democracy. Shame on the International Olympic Committee for being a party to it.
Tucked away behind the main museums in Ueno, the Tokyo University Art Museum may not be on most people’s radar, but it is definitely one of the city’s top museums in terms of curatorial quality. Whenever I go there, I am always delighted by ...
Francisco Liriano showed up at PNC Park on Tuesday afternoon in a suit with his suitcase packed for a trip St. Louis. The message reverberated through the Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse. After 21 years away from the playoffs, it was time for the best story ...
Tomohiro Osaki is a staff writer in the Domestic News Division. A graduate of Sophia University in Tokyo, he likes to explore under-reported realities of Japanese youth, with a tendency toward the taboo.
For Tomohiro Osaki's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
A two-day exhibition showcasing an array of paintings by death-row inmates kicked off Saturday in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. Organized by Amnesty International, the display is an attempt to draw public attention to the veiled agony of prisoners awaiting execution and who the human rights ...
Hiroshi Igarashi remembers feeling like a dinosaur when he was released from prison in 2011 after nine years behind bars. He had no idea how to use IC cards and phones as train tickets. Even the self-serve “drink bar” system in restaurants struck him ...
People who live in Tokyo's Harumi seafront district are excited about hosting the Olympic Village when the games come to town in 2020, but the trick will be parleying the construction into a long-term boon.
Narita International Airport on Friday announced it will put new moving walkways into service on Sept. 27 to help travelers more quickly reach the departure and arrival concourses in an annex to Terminal 2. The only way to get to the building at present ...
The introduction of the lay judge system four years ago has only added to the stress placed on court interpreters, as they grapple with ever-worsening working conditions that have left them fatigued, ill-prepared and more error-prone, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations warns. “We ...
As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party forges ahead with its strategy of nurturing “internationally minded” talent to aid economic growth, the prospect that students’ scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) will be used as criteria for entering ...
A convicted murderer is hanged for robbing and gunning down the owner of a restaurant in Yokohama's Chinatown in May 2004.
Eight young foreigners shared their unique take on Japanese society and memories of a month-long visit to the country during a symposium Saturday in Tokyo. The gathering was the final event of a nearly one-month-long program called the Nihongo Summit co-organized by the nonprofit ...
Hayao Miyazaki, the retiring czar of Japanese animation, said Friday that while he will no longer be at the forefront of creating feature-length animated movies, he will be a “freed man” pursuing his own interests as long as he can. “I know I made ...
Legal experts said Wednesday’s landmark decision by the Supreme Court that the Civil Code provision denying full inheritance rights to heirs born out of wedlock is unconstitutional was welcome but late in coming. The fact that the justices reached the decision unanimously, they say, ...
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court declares unconstitutional the Civil Code clause that denies full inheritance rights to heirs born out of wedlock.
More than a year after its much-hyped introduction, a government-led initiative to lure “highly skilled” foreign professionals to Japan is making lackluster progress, with the number of those applying for visas under the new system much smaller than initially envisioned. Dismayed by the poor ...