Keiji Hirano - The Japan Times

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Keiji Hirano

For Keiji Hirano's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

JAPAN

Jan 19, 2006

Media coverage of victims questioned

SAITAMA (Kyodo) Kenichi Ino has held a grudge against the media since it defamed his daughter, Shiori, who was stalked and killed by her former boyfriend and his accomplices in Saitama Prefecture in 1999.

JAPAN

Oct 13, 2005

Justice system flawed by presumed guilt

Japan's criminal justice system lacks a fundamental notion that is manifest in other parts of the democratized world: the presumption of innocence, according to human rights advocates.

JAPAN

Sep 21, 2005

Inmates facing gallows get a support fund

Assets left by the late mother of a man on death row have allowed opponents of capital punishment to expand their financial support for convicted criminals facing the gallows.

JAPAN

Jul 21, 2005

Emigrants await ruling in breach of promise suit

Some 1,300 Japanese citizens left for "a promised land" in the Caribbean almost 50 years ago, encouraged by a government-sponsored emigration program.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jul 21, 2005

Emigrants await ruling in breach of promise suit

Some 1,300 Japanese citizens left for "a promised land" in the Caribbean almost 50 years ago, encouraged by a government-sponsored emigration program.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jul 16, 2005

Japan's sexual slavery focus of museum

In a bid to keep wartime sexual violence against women in people's minds, female activists in Japan are set to open a museum in Tokyo to collect and display materials mainly about those who were forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army during the war.

JAPAN

Jun 10, 2005

Reporter who blew whistle on state shenanigans sues for redress

The Watergate scandal forced a U.S. president to resign and turned two journalists into national heroes, but a diplomatic scandal in Japan involving a secret pact with the United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa resulted in the convictions of the journalist who reported it and his "Deep Throat" source.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Apr 1, 2005

Rural elders give city med students advice

Each year some 150 medical and nursing students visit Dr. Tetsuro Irohira, 45, in this remote mountain village in Nagano Prefecture, hoping to learn more about becoming good practitioners.

JAPAN

Jan 29, 2005

'Freeters': free by name, nature

Although Japanese high school graduates might have a better chance of a landing job this year than in the recent past, many will choose to become "freeters" to avoid becoming cogs in the corporate system. The use of the term freeter has gained in currency during the recession. It is a combination of the English word "free" and the German word "arbeiter," meaning worker. The Japanese approximation of arbeiter -- "arubaito" -- means part-time, casual or temporary work.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Dec 11, 2004

Film depicts Japan's gender equality strife

A documentary film about an American woman's struggle to achieve gender equality in postwar Japan, sponsored and made by Japanese women, is set to be released next April.

JAPAN

Mar 24, 2004

Rice harvested by children to be donated to Cambodia

The U.N. World Food Program and a Japanese nongovernmental organization will ship to Cambodia 32 tons of rice harvested by children in Japan to help poor women and children in developing nations.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Mar 12, 2004

Ex-judge now doubts convictions' credibility

When asked by the media for comments ahead of controversial court rulings, Tokyo-based lawyer Kenzo Akiyama usually prepares two statements -- one for when the defendants lose and another for when they win.

JAPAN

Mar 5, 2004

Memory of feisty journalist, activist for women's rights to live on at center

The memory of Yayori Matsui, a journalist and women's rights activist who passed away at the end of 2002, will live on in a collection of her papers being established by the Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center in Tokyo.

JAPAN

Nov 27, 2003

Flag, anthem rules kill free-thought right: teachers

Miwako Sato, a public elementary school teacher in the western Tokyo suburb of Kunitachi, may file a lawsuit early next year over the use of the controversial national flag and anthem in schools.

JAPAN

Oct 18, 2003

Junta critic's 'Burma's Children' photo show portrays Myanmar plight

Munesuke Yamamoto's visa applications to Myanmar have repeatedly been rejected since the freelance photographer conducted an exclusive interview with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon in September 1998.

JAPAN

Sep 25, 2003

Ex-night school teacher still learns from students

For Yoshikazu Kenjo, those who attended his junior high evening classes were not only his students but also his teachers.

JAPAN

Sep 17, 2003

10% of public school students eligible for welfare

The prolonged economic slump has extended into the nation's classrooms, with around 1.15 million public elementary and junior high school students qualifying for financial aid in fiscal 2002.

JAPAN

Sep 3, 2003

Obscenity trial prompts freedom-of-speech outcry

Motonori Kishi was bemused when he was arrested in October on suspicion of distributing obscene material -- despite the fact that his firm's comic books feature uncensored scenes depicting sexual intercourse.

JAPAN

Jul 5, 2003

Plea of innocence from the grave

The man convicted of one of Japan's most shocking postwar crimes is insisting on his innocence from "beyond the grave."

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jun 7, 2003

Ainu teen's legacy reprinted to fete her 1903 birth

To celebrate the centennial of the birth of Yukie Chiri, an Ainu who was instrumental in putting her people's oral history on paper, a new edition of her famous story collection has been published.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

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

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

Vol. 35: Travel in time — and stay there

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