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 Setsuko Kamiya

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Setsuko Kamiya
Setsuko Kamiya is a staff writer and editor covering local news, including legal issues, and has been following the ongoing judicial reform. A 2005 Fulbright journalist grantee, she studied the American jury system in California.
For Setsuko Kamiya's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2014
Hirata trial highlights evolving court system
In the same courtroom where many of his fellow Aum Shinrikyo cult members were tried years before, Makoto Hirata was convicted and sentenced earlier this month.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2013
Lay judges get a peek at prison life
When lay judges hand down a prison term, many focus on the merits of the case itself and not about the life behind bars that awaits the guilty.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 30, 2013
Tsunami hero continuing disaster education efforts
Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, regional governments have been reviewing their disaster plans and enhancing preparations, from boosting buildings' quake resistance to increasing their stockpiles of emergency food and blankets for immediate use.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 2, 2013
Somali pirate trial lay judges felt global duty
The lay judges who sentenced two Somali pirates to 10 years in prison Friday said that while they had initial qualms about a case they considered foreign, they came to believe it was their duty as part of the international community to try the defendants.
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2013
Court hands Somali pirates 10-year term
The Tokyo District Court jails two Somali pirates for 10 years for trying to hijack an oil tanker operated by a Japanese company in the Indian Ocean in 2011.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2013
Schools to close but their songs go on
Music has played an important role in easing the pain of many people in the Tohoku region whose lives were affected by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 16, 2013
Somali pair admit trying to hijack ship
In the first case prosecuted under Japan's 2009 antipiracy law, two Somali men pleaded guilty Tuesday in Tokyo District Court to charges of boarding and attempting to hijack a Bahamas-registered tanker operated by a Japanese shipping company.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 14, 2012
Dismayed Tohoku faces first post-3/11 poll
A mere 15 minutes before Azuma Konno, a Democratic Party of Japan candidate running in Sunday's Lower House election, was set to make a stump speech in front of JR Sendai Station last Friday evening, a 7.4-magnitude quake struck deep off Miyagi's shore, flooding one coastal district with 1-meter-high tsunami.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 11, 2012
Some election campaign rules outdated, quirky
From Hokkaido to Okinawa Prefecture, 1,504 candidates are campaigning for the 480 seats up for grabs in Sunday's Lower House election.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 6, 2012
The undecided to play key role in poll
Terue Ishimura has yet to decide which party she will vote for in the Dec. 16 general election. But one thing is clear — she won't be supporting the ruling Democratic Party of Japan again.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2012
Double jeopardy practice scrutinized
Two recent high-profile exonerations have reignited calls by defense lawyers to require the full disclosure of evidence, and to let verdicts handed down by lay judges stand.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2012
Visa overstayers rally in Tokyo for residency permits
A group of foreign residents who have overstayed their visas rallied in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district Sunday to call on the government to grant them special residency permits to remain in Japan and avoid disrupting the lives of their long-settled family members.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2012
Ex-aides want to be off the hook like Ozawa
Three former aides to Ichiro Ozawa on Wednesday urged the Tokyo High Court to reverse their guilty verdicts over the political money scandal involving the former Democratic Party of Japan president, saying they had no motive to conduct any wrongdoing.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2012
Ozawa acquittal is upheld in appeal
Former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa did not conspire with former aides to falsify financial statements in his political funding management body Rikuzankai in 2004 and 2005, the Tokyo High Court ruled Monday, upholding his not-guilty verdict.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2012
Tokyo High Court finally exonerates Mainali
The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday exonerated Govinda Prasad Mainali, 46, of the 1997 robbery-murder of a 39-year-old Tokyo woman for which he had served 15 years of a life sentence before being freed and deported home to Nepal in June.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2012
Overseas Japanese museums' representatives share ideas in Yokohama
Museums dedicated to the history of Japanese emigrants are increasingly becoming important for their descendants to understand the history of their ancestors as they become integrated in the societies they live in, according to participants of a recent symposium in Yokohama.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2012
Antinuclear activists denied use of park
A protest march planned for this Sunday in Tokyo to call for the abolishment of nuclear power has been canceled due to the metropolitan government's rejection for the organizer to use Hibiya Park in Chiyoda Ward as a meeting point.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012
Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'
Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2012
Palestinian plight's Tohoku parallels
The civil war in Syria is not only affecting its civilians but also the Palestinian refugees living in exile there, and the situation is deteriorating, the head of a United Nations agency supporting the refugees said during a recent visit to Japan.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 27, 2012
Jury out on if inquest system lived up to role
The prolonged trial of former Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa marked the first time a Diet member has been tried after being subjected to mandatory indictment by a panel of ordinary citizens who received authorization to review a case prosecutors gave up on.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world