A Japanese lawyer told me: "To Westerners, marriage means 1+1=2. But in Japan it equals 1." This made perfect sense to me, but perhaps I should explain.
At the heart of the Sulejman Brkic case is the issue of what, in legal terms, the nature of his ...
My first Labor Pains column of the new fiscal year will look at the government’s recent proposal for bringing in ...
Otawara — yes, that’s spelled with a “t” — is one of those places few people know and most confuse with somewhere else (in this case with Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture). However, travel about 165 km north of Tokyo and you’ll find it, tucked away ...
Public libraries are important community resources across Japan, but while English is taught from fifth grade, those hoping to find a ready stash of English-language reading material may be disappointed.
Spring means the new school year has arrived in Japan, and for Assistant Language Teachers and non-Japanese English instructors it also signals a lot of changes. Some will find themselves in entirely new school assignments, while those staying put will welcome new classes of ...
Japan's new Basic Energy Plan sees nuclear power as an important base load energy source. But whatever "base load" means politically, the public is lulled — fooled — into a sense that, despite Fukushima, nuclear will remain a logistically viable long-term option.
While Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's controversial political antics have increasingly drawn criticism, little attention has been paid to how his leadership has prompted the most progressive reforms of English-language education in the nation.
Just seven years after first participating in the JET program in Osaka, Matthew Cook from Danville, Virginia, is making great strides as a pioneer of English-language education reform in Japan.
NHK President Katsuto Momii's move to force board members to submit undated resignations for him to hold over them while he submits no such letter to them is tantamount to a declaration of dictatorship at the public broadcaster.
If Japan's unwritten constitution is already so flexible, why are Abe and his party so bent on amending the written one?
With the weak economy resulting in fewer families coming to Japan, international schools here are exploring new ways to attract students. It’s a challenge that’s difficult enough for schools in the main urban centers, so spare a thought for those in smaller cities. Since ...
Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has granted compensation to another former service member for exposure to Agent Orange while stationed in Okinawa during the Vietnam War era, despite U.S. denials that the defoliant was ever present there.
