A new approach to volunteering in Tohoku
When Angela Ortiz describes what it felt like to return to Aomori Prefecture five days after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, she uses words like "horror," ...
Robot rights: From Asimov to Tezuka
Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics" are fictional rules, so why do we keep looking to them for guidance? The closest thing to real-world robot law we could have more seems ...
At no point have I ever had to grapple with the decision to have my genitals surgically removed. Perhaps the same is true for you. While these may seem an ...
Every January, Just Be Cause takes a look at how things went for the non-Japanese residents of Japan (NJ) in the previous year. While not everything made this year's list — there were the false claims of "foreigner fraud" of the national health insurance system, ...
Waxing philosophical in English class with 'Thinking Experiments'
If you've ever taught English at a Japanese school, you'll likely be familiar with a certain kind of silence — pervasive and tinged with teenage ennui. Authors Alexander Dutson and James Hill want to recommend breaking the ice with philosophy. Their book, "Thinking Experiments," presents ...
Trying out a lesson on traditional notions of gender
I teach a class of 38 at Hamamatsu Higashi Senior High School in Shizuoka Prefecture, and earlier this month I tried out a gender-themed lesson from Alexander Dutson and James Hill's "Thinking Experiments." The class I teach emphasizes essay writing and comprises students who aim ...
How the last czar shaped Japan's courts
A botched assassination attempt in 1891 presents Japan's fledgling penal code with an existential dilemma.
A new law regarding foreign workers brings up old problems
Activists in the field bring up concerns with Japan's new approach to manual laborers from overseas.
Falling for furusato: The epicurean incentives behind a tax strategy that masks economic lunacy
A decade ago, the Japanese government launched a program that allows taxpayers to make "donations" to smaller cities and towns across the country, and then have those contributions deducted from national and municipal taxes. A Tokyo resident like myself, for example, can give ¥10,000 to ...
Carlos Ghosn's arrest is more about Japanese criminal justice than corporate governance
A 'hostage-based' criminal justice system, second arrests and trial by public all play a part in a case that the world is watching.
School rules in Japan offer harsh lessons in mindless assimilation
"You may not put more than three pencils in your pencil box/ If you wish to speak in class, raise your hand forward at a 70-degree angle/ No going to the toilet in groups/ You must finish using the toilet within seven minutes/ Use ...
Jail in Japan for cannabis in Canada? Possible but unlikely
Possession and receipt of marijuana are illegal for Japanese citizens even overseas, but don't expect urine checks at immigration.
