Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 25, 2013
Tweak the Constitution now, think later?
by Colin P.A. Jones
Whether it happens or not depends heavily on the results of the upcoming House of Councilors elections, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly announced his intention to make amending the Constitution a campaign issue. Although his Liberal Democratic Party issued a comprehensive amendment ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 18, 2013
Chatting about Japan with Snowden, the NSA whistle-blower
by Christopher Johnson
Edward Snowden, the fugitive former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked secrets about America’s spying operations, often hung out online with foreigners in Japan who shared his interests in anime, video games, martial arts, the stock market and the expat lifestyle. Snowden, who ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 18, 2013
Democracy, interrupted: How local voices were silenced in Tokyo's first referendum
by Chris Burgess
On Sunday, May 26, something quite remarkable happened in Kodaira city, western Tokyo: Over 50,000 citizens voted in Tokyo’s very first local referendum (jūmin tōhyō) on the issue of whether a 50-year-old plan to construct a road should be reviewed or not. Unfortunately, the ...
Issues | LABOR PAINS Jun 18, 2013
Why workers can no longer wear their demands on their sleeves
by Hifumi Okunuki
Dear reader, where are you from? To what era do you belong? I was born in 1971 in Japan and grew up here, too, but I’ve never — in all my years visiting hotels, restaurants, shops or government offices — seen workers wearing vests, ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 11, 2013
Japan's Nigerians see symbol of change in masquerade
by Dreux Richard
Anyone wandering the back streets near Omiya Station at 7:20 a.m. on Sunday, June 2, might have passed a particular office building, unremarkable except for two African men standing on a 2nd floor balcony, rope in hand, lowering a car-sized Ugo (eagle) costume down ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 11, 2013
Hague Convention on child abduction may shape Japan's family law — or vice versa
by Colin P. A. Jones
Giant Hello Kitty-emblazoned kudos to Japan for finally signing the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. Now comes the hard part: actually making it work. Mistakenly identified by some press accounts as an accomplishment of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s accession is probably more ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 4, 2013
'Okinawa bacteria' toxic legacy crosses continents, spans generations
by Jon Mitchell
Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City houses one of Vietnam's busiest maternity clinics, but hidden in a quiet corner, far from the wards of proud new mothers, is a room stacked floor to ceiling with every parent's nightmare.
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Jun 4, 2013
As evidence of Agent Orange in Okinawa stacks up, U.S. sticks with blanket denial
by Jon Mitchell
In April 2011, these Community pages published the first accounts of sick U.S. veterans who believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa during the Vietnam War era.
Issues | JUST BE CAUSE Jun 4, 2013
By opening up the debate to the real experts, Hashimoto did history a favor
by Debito Arudou
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has been busy making headlines around the world with his controversial views on Japan’s wartime sex slaves (or “comfort women,” for those who like euphemisms with their history). Among other things, he claimed there is no evidence that the Japanese ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT May 28, 2013
As Japan reeled from disaster, three men went cycling
by Simon Scott
In 1977, British author and long-term Tokyo resident Alan Booth made a journey on foot from the northernmost point in Japan, Cape Soya, to Kyushu’s southernmost tip, Cape Sata. Booth’s account of that epic trek, “The Roads to Sata,” became one of the classic ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT May 28, 2013
Want more out of Japan but face doesn't fit? Be TOFITR
by Glenn Newman
I recently served as a “private sector representative” in a panel discussion before an audience of foreign graduate students at the University of Tokyo. Many of the students will soon be seeking employment in Japan; because I have spent 25 years living in or ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT May 21, 2013
Fear and incarceration, from Kampala to Nagoya
by Stephen Carr
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...