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JAPAN
Mar 11, 2019

Municipalities launch multilingual services for crises

The eighth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 is a good opportunity to learn disaster preparedness measures. Understanding how to obtain emergency information from reliable sources, such as local governments, is a good first step.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2017

Amended privacy protection law

Efforts must be made to ensure that tightened rules on the handling of personal data does not deter the disclosure or flow of necessary information in the name of privacy protection.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2002

Private data kept by all SDF arms

The Defense Agency on Monday said that it and each branch of the Self-Defense Forces have systematically collected data on individuals who made information-disclosure requests, contradicting a statement last week indicating the practice was isolated to the Maritime Self-Defense Force and carried out...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 19, 2021

Looking back on Japan’s secrets protection law

The operative assumption from critics of the secrets legislation was that the new law would restrict freedom of information and make the Japanese government increasingly opaque.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 13, 2019

Japan needs guidelines and infrastructure for multilingual support for foreign residents

It is high time that the national government formulated guidelines on what information it should disseminate in what languages.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2019

Tighten rules on data privacy

The entire process should be placed under some form of third-party oversight and no longer left entirely to the discretion of investigation authorities.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2016

'Big data' and privacy protection

The government has some hard choices to make when it comes to implementing changes in the law on privacy protection.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Sep 3, 2015

57 more Clinton email threads contain foreign government info

"Here's my personal email," Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote to U.S. special envoy George Mitchell on a summer Sunday in 2010 as he telephoned one European official after another in an effort to keep peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians on track.
EDITORIALS
Mar 31, 2015

Trading personal data

A proposed revision to the law on protecting personal information, already submitted to the Diet, would allow businesses that hold customer data to provide the information to third parties as long as the data is processed to prevent identification of the individuals. It is intended to facilitate the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2014

Worries about secrets law linger

As Japan's state secrets law finally takes effect a year after it was enacted, much of the concern that many people had about the legislation remains unaddressed.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2008

Handling info in the MSDF

The Yokohama District Court on Oct. 28 gave a suspended 2 1/2-year prison term to a lieutenant commander of the Maritime Self-Defense Force for passing information on the U.S.-developed Aegis weapons system to another lieutenant commander, an instructor at an MSDF school in Etajima, Hiroshima Prefecture....
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2007

'Secrets' with a public interest

The Self-Defense Forces' investigation of an SDF member in connection with a news report of an accident in a Chinese Navy submarine in 2005 raises concerns regarding people's right to know and the freedom of the press. It could lead to limits on basic rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution....
EDITORIALS
Aug 5, 2005

Safeguards for a DNA database

The National Police Agency has been implementing a phased plan to construct a database of DNA patterns of suspects and convicted criminals to facilitate criminal investigations. DNA patterns, also called DNA fingerprints, can identify individuals almost as accurately as real fingerprints. A 2002 Interpol...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 5, 2003

Weathernews finds silver lining in abnormal global patterns

Many countries witnessed abnormal weather this past summer, from devastating heat waves in Europe to economy-chilling cold weather in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2003

Net sidesteps ban on leaking personal info

After police took a junior high school student into custody earlier this month in the July 1 slaying of a 4-year-old boy in Nagasaki, a raft of information appeared on the Internet about the 12-year-old suspect -- in the face of a general ban on the media divulging data on minors involved in crimes....
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2003

Defense Agency collated secret data on recruits for its ranks from 1966

The Defense Agency admitted Tuesday it has collected personal information -- including data normally not available to the public -- on teenagers eligible for recruitment into the Self-Defense Forces.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2002

In defense of privacy

The Defense Agency is at the center of a privacy scandal. An information officer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force is said to have prepared a sensitive list of personal data, with defamatory footnotes, about people who had requested information from the agency under the Freedom of Information Law. The...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2001

Disclosure law struggling to live up to its name

A landmark information disclosure law has failed to live up to its promise of increasing the transparency of the nation's scandal-tinged bureaucracy, citizens' groups claim.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jun 27, 2023

Value of informational health coming into focus in Japan

Some experts have warned that an 'unbalanced diet' of information will erode people's ability to assess accurately the authenticity of information spread on social media platforms.
A survey showed that 47.7% of respondents exposed to examples of false and misleading information were likely to consider such information to be true or probably true.
JAPAN / Society
May 14, 2025

Misinformation still fools many, Japan survey reveals

Of respondents who were exposed to false information, 25.5% also said they have spread the information to their families or on social media.
Members of a group working for the reconstruction of the Machinomachi district of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, attend training for the opening of a temporary disaster broadcasting station, in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, on May 16.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 4, 2025

Quake-hit residents eyeing reconstruction through power of radio

A group of people, mainly residents of Wajima's Machinomachi district, are preparing to open a full scale emergency broadcasting FM radio station in mid-June.
Commuters in Tokyo in March. Japanese women are paid on average around 67% the salaries of men, according to a report based on around 2,000 firms’ financial statements, compiled by advisory firm Willis Towers Watson and others this month.
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2023

Investors see need for more gender pay data in Japan

Some firms have disclosed pay gaps according to different job levels, but most are revealing the minimum amount of information necessary.
An office of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in San Francisco. The firm recently assured corporate partners that their data would not be used to train the chatbot further.
BUSINESS
Aug 12, 2023

ChatGPT fever spreads to U.S. workplace, sounding alarm for some

Some 28% of respondents to an online poll on artificial intelligence said they regularly use ChatGPT at work.
Chinese national flags fly over Tiananmen Square along with other red flags ahead of the fifth plenary session of the First Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12.
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 16, 2023

China is hiding more and more data from the rest of the world

China’s abrupt decision to pause releasing data on its soaring youth jobless rate this week was the latest sign the Asian giant is increasingly restricting sensitive information - especially when it’s unflattering to the nation’s faltering economy.
People visit Semicon China, a trade fair for semiconductor technology, in Shanghai in 2021
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2023

China quietly hires overseas chip talent as U.S. tightens curbs

The revamped recruitment drive is said to offer perks including home-purchase subsidies and typical signing bonuses of $420,000 to $700,000.
China's push to obtain hard power and "meta-power" has seen it lean heavily on its science and technology sectors.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Sep 28, 2023

China looks to science and technology in its push for more power

Further power could give Beijing the ability to restrict other nations by structuring or restructuring systems, rules or frameworks.
China's COSCO Shipping Ports is the world’s largest shipping company and port terminal operator.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2023

China’s port investments and risks to national security

The gray area between domestic and foreign jurisdictions and private and state-owned enterprises should be cause for concern.
U.S. President Joe Biden (left), Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia (center left), Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan (center right) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India (right) participate in a Quad Leaders' meeting on May 20 in Hiroshima.
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 5, 2023

U.S. deepening intelligence links across Asia to counter China

Washington has developed a set of separate but overlapping partnerships including with the "Quad” grouping of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Oct 6, 2023

Cram school teacher arrests ignite child safety debate

Two cram school teachers in Tokyo were arrested for allegedly taking photos of a female student's underwear and sharing them on a group chat.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji