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 ZEIT GIST Sep 18, 2012
It's past midnight but child-abduction treaty promise is not yet a pumpkin
by Colin P. A. Jones
Despite much promise and a flurry of activity, it didn’t happen: Japan failed to ratify the Hague Convention on international child abduction and pass the extensive piece of accompanying domestic legislation the government felt was necessary in order for it to do so. Both ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Sep 11, 2012
18 months on, 'stayjin' in Tokyo, Iwaki tell a tale of two cities
by Patrick Budmar
While the media both in Japan and overseas reported on a perceived exodus of foreigners in the immediate aftermath of the March 11, 2011, disasters in Tohoku, the reality is that very few actually left for good. As was highlighted in our July 3 ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Sep 4, 2012
With Berlitz beaten but not bowed, union fights on
by Patrick Budmar
Before instructors became embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Berlitz Japan, there was a time when the English language school chain’s robust image made it a top choice among foreign job-seekers. In particular, it was the company’s good reputation over competing language chains ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Sep 4, 2012
Our mixed-race children deserve better than this, so why bother with Japan?
by Colin P. A. Jones
When it comes to parceling out rights, Japanese law makes a very clear distinction: What you get depends upon whether you are a Japanese citizen or not. Sort of. As discussed in a previous column, non-Japanese residents do not have the right to vote, ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Aug 21, 2012
Do your research to avoid medical surprises in Japan
by Richard Solomon
Understanding how Japanese medical practice differs from that in your home country can be crucial to avoiding unwelcome surprises next time you or a loved one find yourselves in need of treatment at a local clinic or hospital. Without pre-planning, for instance, an expectant ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Aug 14, 2012
Yokosuka rape victim takes fight for justice to U.S. courts
by Simon Scott
Australian Catherine Jane Fisher, who was raped by a U.S. Navy sailor in Yokosuka in 2002, has now taken her case for compensation all the way to the U.S. courts. A civil judgment by a Tokyo court in 2004 ordered Bloke T. Deans to ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Aug 7, 2012
Poisons in the Pacific: Guam, Okinawa and Agent Orange
by Jon Mitchell
The day after 19-year-old Sgt. Leroy Foster arrived on Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base, one of America’s largest Pacific military installations, in 1968, he was assigned to what his superior officers called “vegetation control duties.” “I mixed diesel fuel with Agent Orange then I ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Aug 7, 2012
25,000 barrels of Agent Orange kept on Okinawa, U.S. Army document says
by Jon Mitchell
During the Vietnam War, 25,000 barrels of Agent Orange were stored on Okinawa, according to a recently uncovered U.S. Army report. The barrels, thought to contain over 5.2 million liters of the toxic defoliant, had been brought to Okinawa from Vietnam before apparently being ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Jul 24, 2012
How I learned to stop worrying and embrace the atom
by Michael Radcliffe
Like millions of other people in Japan, I watched the events of March 2011 unfurl with shock and trepidation. The massive earthquake, the terrible tsunami and then what seemed to be a dreadful nuclear disaster. Yet now I wonder at my naivety, because the ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Jul 17, 2012
Urbanites urged to head up, not down, to survive tsunami
by Richard Solomon
Sitting across from me at a Naka-Meguro pizzeria, Riccardo Tossani pulled out his iPhone to check his Spyglass app. He glanced out the window to survey the adjacent taller buildings, ignoring the cherry blossoms that were in full bloom. “The only safe way to ...
Profile | THE ZEIT GIST Jul 17, 2012
Refugee groups slam Japan's struggling resettlement plan
by Gianni Simone
Much fanfare greeted the arrival at Narita in September 2010 of the first Burmese refugees to take advantage of Japan’s decision to join the U.N.’s third-country resettlement program. Japan was the first Asian country to join the program, it was emphasized, under which the ...
Issues | THE ZEIT GIST Jul 10, 2012
Japan's battered men suffer abuse in silence
by Michael Hassett
As in many surveys, numbers and percentages are abundant. But for me, it was that little 3.4 at the bottom of page 21 that stood out more than any other: 3.4 percent of married men in Japan say that their spouses have forced them ...