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Anika Osaki Exum
For Anika Osaki Exum's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japanese model Dulmi, 24, was selected as one of eight models in Vogue Open Casting's class of 2023.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 3, 2024
Dulmi: The biracial model bringing change to modeling in Japan and beyond
In a still-rare recognition of the diversity that exists in Japan, the Osaka native was chosen for the 2023 class of Vogue's Open Casting initiative.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Dec 29, 2023
20 Questions: The best answers of 2023
Our interviewees this year gave a lot of advice for living a good life and paying attention to the things that matter most.
Global Indian International School (GIIS) Tokyo opened in 2006 with 60 students and has now grown to over 1,300, the majority of whom are Japanese.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 28, 2023
How Japan's international school landscape is evolving
With lower tuition than legacy international schools, new affordable facilities are catering to the growing communities of non-Japanese Asian communities.
Digital minister Taro Kono (second from right) and health minister Keizo Takemi hand out leaflets to promote the use of My Number cards as health insurance certificates at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 22, 2023
Japan to scrap health insurance cards from December next year
The government aims to streamline administration and improve health care services by integrating the function of the cards into My Number cards.
U.S. President Joe Biden hugs Brittany Alkonis, wife of Lt. Ridge Alkonis, on the day of the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in Washington on Feb. 7.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 15, 2023
U.S. Navy officer jailed in Japan transferred to U.S. custody
Lt. Ridge Alkonis has been serving a three-year prison term since being convicted of negligent driving over a fatal car crash.
The day after the Fukuoka District Court dismissed her lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of Japan's dual nationality law, Yuri Kondo, 76, was in high spirits as she drove to see family and friends.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 8, 2023
Japan-born U.S. national Yuri Kondo continues dual citizenship fight
The dismissal of her lawsuit over the dual nationality ban has implications for tens of thousands of people, and Kondo says she'll keep fighting for them.
Yuri Kondo (center), the plaintiff of a dual nationality case, speaks during a news conference Wednesday in the city of Fukuoka after the Fukuoka District Court handed down a ruling on her case.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 6, 2023
Fukuoka court rules ban on dual nationality is constitutional
The court rejected an argument by a Japan-born plaintiff, who lost her citizenship after naturalizing as an American, that the law undermines her rights.
Akihiko Tanaka (center) attends a meeting on the foreign technical trainee and skilled workers program at the Justice Ministry on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 30, 2023
Panel submits final report on Japan's foreign trainee program
After roughly a year of meetings, the cumulative report contains recommendations on a newly designed policy.
Akina Shu has visited around 50 countries as a speaker and ambassador on the digital nomad lifestyle since 2020.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Nov 27, 2023
Japan is enticing for digital nomads, but visa hurdles remain
While the country does not offer a digital nomad visa, the government is working on introducing one sometime in 2024.
Heavily destroyed buildings at the border between Israel and Gaza on Friday amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 17, 2023
Japanese Red Cross nurse speaks of resilience of colleagues in Gaza
While Sachiko Kawase evacuated to the south of Gaza and eventually to Egypt, several of her colleagues have stayed behind to provide emergency aid.
The scene after a car crashed into a barricade near the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo on Thursday
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2023
Man arrested after car crashes through barricade near Israel's Tokyo embassy
The driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested for alleged obstruction of official duties. Investigative sources said he is a member of a right-wing group.
Train service on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line will be partially suspended this weekend.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 15, 2023
Yamanote Line set for closures and reduced service Nov. 18 and 19
Train service on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line will be partially suspended this weekend as part of ongoing construction work at Shibuya Station.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency booth at the International Space Industry Exhibition in Tokyo in February
BUSINESS
Nov 13, 2023
Japan to create ¥1 trillion fund to develop outer space industry
The ¥1 trillion fund will be allocated over a 10-year period for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), as a new global space race heats up.
People wear lighter clothes in Tokyo on Saturday amid warm weather. On Tuesday, the capital marked a record high temperature for November.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 7, 2023
Tokyo rewrites November temperature record set 100 years ago
The mercury hit 27.5 degrees Celsius in the Japanese capital on Tuesday, topping the November 1923 mark of 27.3 C.
People walk past ginkgo trees in Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Gaien area in November 2022.
JAPAN / Explainer
Nov 6, 2023
What to know about the Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment plan
The project is controversial due to the potential felling of thousands of trees, loss of green space and threat to historic gingko trees.
Palestinians gather at the scene of a strike in a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.
JAPAN / Society
Nov 5, 2023
Japanese aid worker tells of her harrowing last days in Gaza
Maiko Shirane, a 36-year-old Tokyo native, says the violence she witnessed in Gaza is something "nobody should experience."
The Tokyo District Court
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 20, 2023
American man found not guilty over killing of wife at Tokyo courthouse
The ruling said the man couldn’t be held accountable because he was suffering from schizophrenia when he killed his wife in 2019.
Obtaining dual nationality and having it uniformly recognized by authorities in Japan is no simple matter.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 19, 2023
When Japan's dual nationality ban meets a legal gray zone
Lawyer Yuri Kondo decided to naturalize as an American citizen. What followed was a mix of ambiguity and the feeling of a loss of identity.
A government expert panel meeting on foreign technical trainee and skilled workers Wednesday at the Justice Ministry
JAPAN / Society
Oct 18, 2023
Japan panel compiles new system for foreign technical interns
The report clearly states that the new system is aimed at “securing and developing human resources in fields facing labor shortages.”
A fragment of a German cockroach found in Nara Prefecture
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 13, 2023
One of the world’s most common cockroaches may have origins in Japan
The discovery marks what could be the first evidence of the presence of the species during Japan’s Kofun Period.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores