David McNeill - The Japan Times

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David McNeill

David McNeill is a Tokyo-based writer from Ireland. He writes for several international publications and teaches political science at Sophia University. His new co-authored book is "Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster."

For David McNeill's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Aug 4, 2009

Party offers a third way: happiness

As a historic general election looms on Aug. 30, Japan's long-suffering electorate faces a clear choice: vote for the conservative party that has virtually monopolized power since 1955, or opt for its more liberal but untested rival, which promises long-awaited reform. For those with a taste for the apocalyptic, however, there is always the Happiness Realization Party.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Jul 22, 2009

Lifer freed by a single smuggled hair strand

In the end, Toshikazu Sugaya may owe his freedom to a single strand of hair. As he languished in prison on a life sentence for a murder he did not commit, his lawyer told him there was only one way out: disprove the false DNA evidence that had put him inside.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jun 9, 2009

Rumpus on campus

Illegal arrests, forced expulsions, "kidnappings" by security police and beatings by hired thugs. No, it's not another dispatch from a violent banana republic. Those accusations come from the leafy back-streets of Ichigaya, Tokyo, home to a branch campus of the prestigious Hosei University.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

May 5, 2009

Mean streets feared under Tokyo's new safety law

Last month a group of activists called Dystopia Tokyo called a protest against what they described as a "Draconian" new city ordinance by conservative Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 14, 2009

'A battle for Japan's future'

Despite being Japan's most densely populated area, Warabi rarely causes a blip on the national media radar.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Mar 3, 2009

Rape victim fights for justice against U.S. military, Japan

Around the nondescript Tokyo suburb where she lives with her three children, Jane is a well-known face. Foreign in an area crowded with Japanese, she has taught English for years here among neighbors who greet her warmly on the street. Few know that her life is consumed by a fight against one of the world's most powerful military alliances, and a secret agreement that she says allows its crimes to go unpunished.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Feb 10, 2009

A young life in legal limbo

For years, Arlan and Sarah Calderon fretted over when to tell their daughter, Noriko, that she was different.

CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CLOSE-UP

Jan 4, 2009

Japan's 'Mr. Television'

Picture the world's busiest television presenter, and imagine yourself squinting through the glare of high-wattage celebrity, struggling to breathe in air perfumed with pampered showbiz egos.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP

Jan 4, 2009

Monta Mino: Japan's 'Mr. Television'

Picture the world's busiest television presenter, and imagine yourself squinting through the glare of high-wattage celebrity, struggling to breathe in air perfumed with pampered showbiz egos.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Dec 19, 2008

Singing the bluefin tuna blues

IKI, Nagasaki Pref. — On a gloomy day pregnant with rain and the weight of past expectations, Minoru Nakamura is welcomed back to port like a conquering hero.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Dec 9, 2008

'Tokyo Two' fight to clear names

Six months ago Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki were ordinary men looking after young families. But in June they were arrested by a large group of uniformed police, taken to a detention center in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, and held for 26 days.

JAPAN

Oct 11, 2008

1,500 fed-up Kyushu citizens sue to evict yakuza HQ

KURUME, Fukuoka Pref. — The yakuza's reputation for unpredictability and violence keeps journalists away, but a deadly turf war between two rival gangs in Kyushu has made the mob reluctant media fodder.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3

Aug 17, 2008

Akihito Ito: Keeper of the tales of a nuclear hell

Has George W. Bush ever heard of Akihito Ito? Dismayed at Pentagon plans to develop a new generation of "tactical" nuclear weapons — so-called mini-nukes — Ito sent Bush a gift: a box of CDs carrying the recorded voices of 284 atomic-bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan Times

Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR

Jul 2, 2008

Finding Papua war dead a vet's life

20th in a series

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Jun 24, 2008

Not everyone is celebrating the Ogasawara Islands' anniversary

It is one of Asia's earliest and oddest ethnic melting pots, with citizens boasting names like Savory, Webb, Gonzales and Chaplin. The first piece of Far East territory to fall under U.S. control, local landmarks include the Yankeetown, the Charlie Brown and the Church of St. George, and old-timers speak English but the cars carry Shinagawa license plates.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

May 20, 2008

Tachikawa Three claim ruling marks 'crisis for Japan and its democracy'

Prisoners of conscience, communists, antiwar activists, martyrs for Japan's tottering pacifist Constitution: Toshiyuki Obora, Nobuhiro Onishi and Sachimi Takada have been called many things since February 2004, and worse besides.

Japan Times

JAPAN

May 16, 2008

Sex slaves struggle to keep plight in focus

SEOUL — They're the dwindling survivors of a war crime who have fought 17 years for justice. Now amid a gathering revisionist movement in Japan, they live out their final days in the South Korean countryside with the worst fear of all: that the world will forget what happened to them.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 15, 2008

Method in the madness?

In November, Japan became only the second country in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting and photo-taking at all international entry points, as part of beefed-up "antiterrorism" measures by the Ministry of Justice.

Japan Times

COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST

Apr 8, 2008

Dancing with the devil over 'Yasukuni'

One of the great mysteries of life in Japan is the presence of the ultra-right. Loud, threatening and occasionally lethal, the shaven-headed patriots seem immune to police powers. "Why doesn't someone do something about those guys," is a fairly common response by the first-time foreign visitor. A strong clue to the answer to this mystery can be found in Li Ying's celebrated but beleaguered documentary, "Yasukuni."

LIFE

Jan 27, 2008

Citizens routinely denied legal rights

The contrasts between constitutional provisions for crime suspects in Japan and their actual treatment are stark, say critics of the system.

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

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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