National Topics

Film depicts Okinawans' fight against Ospreys

by Mika Kurokawa

“The Targeted Village,” a documentary on the fight by Okinawa residents against the deployment of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft at the Futenma air base, is showing in Tokyo theaters. Released Saturday, the 91-minute film is based on an award-winning TV program produced by Chie Mikami for an Okinawa station ...

Rallies dent business in Koreatown

Aug 4, 2013

Rallies dent business in Koreatown

by Daisuke Sato

Ultranationalist rallies targeted at residents and businesses in the capital’s Koreatown district have cast a dark shadow over the once-thriving area. Sales at a Korean restaurant in the area, just east of Shin-Okubo Station on the JR Yamanote Line, have already been halved, said ...

Jul 17, 2013

OECD urges Japan to raise female employment

Japan should work to increase employment opportunities for women as it’s working-age population dwindles, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reiterated. In the Employment Outlook 2013 report released Tuesday, the OECD said the average jobless rate among its 34 member nations stood at ...

Jul 10, 2013

Empowerment key in lifting birthrate: U.N.

Japan needs to empower females in the workplace and promote male participation in child-rearing in order to address its falling birthrate, the head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said. “If they (women), for instance, leave to go and have a baby, they ...

Jul 9, 2013

Japan suffered 14,192 suicides from January to June

The number of suicides across the nation from January to June fell slightly to 14,192, the National Police Agency said in a preliminary report Tuesday. The figure was 102 fewer than in the first half of 2012, when the annual number of suicides fell ...

Jul 6, 2013

METI to set up forum on nuclear waste disposal

A working group from an industry ministry panel has decided to set up a forum for discussing issues related to the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The new forum will be composed of Cabinet ministers and local government leaders, according to the plan revealed ...

Jun 29, 2013

Anti-Korean group's plea to use public facility nixed

Yamagata Prefecture has turned down a request from anti-Korean activists to use a public building for a meeting. The prefectural government said it “made the decision from a comprehensive standpoint based on administrative requirements for the facility and (the group) was not turned down ...

Jun 25, 2013

20% of young fathers put in 60-hour weeks

Nearly 20 percent of male employees in their 30s work more than 60 hours a week, making it difficult for them to participate in raising children, a 2013 government white paper on dealing with the low birthrate shows.