Kiroku Hanai - The Japan Times

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Kiroku Hanai

For Kiroku Hanai's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

COMMENTARY

Sep 25, 2000

Weak unions, weak economy

The collapse of the department store operator Sogo Co. came as a shock to Japan's recovering economy. Even more shocking are reports that the company's union leader has been fired for disrupting "order" in the organization.

COMMENTARY

Aug 29, 2000

Japan sits out antismoking campaign

While attending the 11th World Conference on Tobacco or Health from Aug. 7 in Chicago, I was very impressed by the enthusiasm of participants seeking tighter controls on smoking. The first conference, hosted by the American Cancer Society, was held in New York in 1967. The latest conference was hosted by the same society and supported by the American Medical Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. About 4,500 people took part in the conference, up from 2,500 at the Beijing conference in 1997 and the 400 who attended the first conference, as antismoking campaigns have spread worldwide.

COMMENTARY

Jul 25, 2000

Media credibility is at risk

Two recent incidents have revealed the cozy relationship between government and the media in Japan. One is the appointment of a former Yomiuri Shimbun chief editorialist as a member of the National Public Safety Commission. The other is the fact that a member of the Cabinet press club wrote a memo for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori advising him on how to dodge sensitive questions at a press conference. Whether Mori actually read the memo is anybody's guess.

COMMENTARY

Jun 26, 2000

English is not the answer

Earlier this year, the Forum on 21st Century Japan, a private panel to the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, proposed a national debate on whether English should be used in Japan as a second official language. That proposal has added fuel to the long-standing discussions on English education in this country.

COMMENTARY

May 30, 2000

A losing fight against smoking

Amid global moves to tighten controls on smoking, the Health and Welfare Ministry, nongovernnmental organizations and other groups will hold various events in Japan to mark World No Tobacco Day on May 31.

COMMENTARY

Apr 24, 2000

Help Japan: take time off

Japan's unemployment rate remains disturbingly high, as companies step up job-cutting efforts and bankruptcies increase. Although there are signs that the economy is recovering, there are no indications that the serious job shortage is easing. The Federation of Employers Associations, in recent negotiations with major labor unions on annual wage hikes, proposed a work-sharing program to create more jobs.

COMMENTARY

Mar 24, 2000

Police resisting vital reform

The Japanese police have long enjoyed a high reputation both at home and abroad, due partly to their efficiency in apprehending criminals. Today, however, the Japanese police system is suffering from a breakdown of ethics, caused in part by its insular nature.

COMMENTARY

Feb 28, 2000

Venture, not adventure

New stock markets for venture businesses are emerging in Japan. Last November, the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened "Mothers" (an acronym for "market for high-growth and emerging stocks"). This June, the U.S. National Association of Securities Dealers, Japan's Softbank Corp. and the Osaka Securities Exchange will jointly establish Nasdaq Japan at the OSE.

COMMENTARY

Jan 24, 2000

Common sense up in flames

Shizuka Kamei, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, recently proposed a raise in the tobacco tax in the fiscal 2000 government budget. The proposal, however, was quickly quashed due to opposition in the LDP and by Japan Tobacco Inc., the nation's only cigarette manufacturer. Smokers and nonsmokers alike were dumbfounded by the political farce.

COMMENTARY

Nov 24, 1999

Japan's Middle East role

In January 1996, I was dispatched by the Japanese government to observe the election of the Palestine Council and the president of the Palestinian Authority. Because Palestine was still under Israeli occupation, it was not a sovereign state: Sending international observers to such a region was unprecedented. It grew out of common interests shared by the Palestinians, who hoped to make the elections a step toward their independence, and by European countries and the United States, as well as Japan, who sought to support them.

COMMENTARY

May 5, 1999

Hold off on U.S.-style layoffs

Japan's big businesses once had a reputation for not firing workers even in hard times. Not anymore. Now major corporations are going full blast to restructure, with older workers bearing the brunt of the austerity drive. The lifetime employment system, once touted as a symbol of corporate Japan, is now in danger of collapse. So is the seniority-based wage system that forms the other main pillar of Japan's employment system. Now an increasing number of companies are introducing a merit-based annual pay system and are trying to cancel automatic annual wage hikes that have been taken for granted for decades.

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[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

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By Stephen Mansfield

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