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.
Voices | HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO Aug 26, 2013
Denials of defoliant at former U.S. base site in Okinawa fly in the face of science
The inescapable fact is that the U.S. military, on Kadena Air Base, disposed of materials in drums containing 2,4,5-T , a wartime defoliant, and TCDD, the most toxic component of the dioxin family, known to be associated with the manufacture of such herbicides.
Social Issues Aug 12, 2013
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 ...
Issues | THE FOREIGN ELEMENT Aug 5, 2013
SOFA: an unequal treaty that trumps the Constitution?
by Colin P.A. Jones
The prime minister's dogged focus on amending the American-tainted Constitution might reflect an uncomfortable unspoken truth — that it may be easier to change the Constitution than revise another document of potentially greater importance: the Status of Forces Agreement between Japan and the United ...
Editorial May 18, 2013
Alleviate Okinawa's burden
Forty-one years after Okinawa reverted from U.S. administration to Japan, Okinawans are not happy about the U.S. military presence or Japan-China territorial tensions.
How-tos | LIFELINES Jan 29, 2013
Leave restricted drugs at home
CT has a prescription for Adderall (methamphetamine), which is illegal in Japan, and has recently been hired to work on a U.S. base here. “My plan as of now is to leave my meds at home and try to get a new prescription once ...