Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Oct 10, 2018
Japan demonstrates how too many rules can ruin governance
Culture of over-regulation helps explain the country's persistent problem with data falsification.
Colin P.A. Jones
For Colin P.A. Jones's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Sep 5, 2018
Dog tale bites judge: His tweets muzzled, Japan's 'Judge White Briefs' faces his own trial
Disciplinary hearings for outspoken jurist over a dog-dumping story can only damage Japan's judiciary.
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Aug 5, 2018
The Kanpo: Where everything in Japan goes to happen (officially)
Read all about it in the government's daily gazette, from laws and notices of naughtiness to deaths and even poetry.
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Jul 1, 2018
Japan on just 10 judges a day costs a pretty penny
With over 1,000 courts but less than 4,000 judges, somehow 3.5 million cases get cleared every year.
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Jun 3, 2018
Left-behind dad's last resort: Impeach Japan's Supreme Court judges
Dogged father in Hague Convention case shines a light on a check-and-balance on the judiciary that barely functions.
Commentary / World Jun 1, 2018
Keeping parents and children together is basic common sense
Punishing migrant children for the sins of their parents is both stupid and contrary to fundamental American ideals.
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND May 13, 2018
When 'Japanese only' rules were OK, and other odd Supreme Court cases
Did that headline grab you? I hope so, because how else are we supposed to get you to read an article about Japanese Supreme Court cases?
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Apr 1, 2018
Japan's Supreme Court orders a child be sent home in a Hague parental abduction case. Maybe.
Defanged habeas corpus grew some teeth in last month's Nagoya international custody ruling, but the problem of toothless enforcement remains.
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Mar 11, 2018
Schools plus rules equals Japan minus two
Having experienced schools around the world, why do Colin P.A. Jones' daughters rank Japan's bottom of the class?
Issues | LAW OF THE LAND Feb 7, 2018
A year in the (short) life of Japan's Cabinet
Early each year, Law of the Land likes to reflect on what one of Japan's three branches of government did the previous one. This time we'll look at the surprisingly durable Shinzo Abe habitat known as the Cabinet. First, lawyerly foreplay: definitions. What is the ...