Search - discrimination-in-japan

 
 
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2016

Getting more women in the Diet

Systemic change is needed to increase female representation in Japan's political sphere.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
May 9, 2016

Let's discuss leadership workshops for female Japanese students

The U.S. Embassy will hold workshops for female Japanese junior high and high school students on leadership and speaking up, in a bid to promote gender equality.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 6, 2016

Bullying of LGBT students at 'epidemic' levels in Japan: Human Rights Watch

The bullying of sexual minorities is reaching “epidemic” levels in Japan because of a lack of effective policies and training, Human Rights Watch says in a report.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 2, 2016

Japan's inescapable 'comfort women' problem

Tokyo and Seoul may believe they have resolved the "comfort women" problem after signing a joint agreement in December, but it's wishful thinking and confronts mounting evidence that this diplomatic deceit is already unraveling and falls short of the grand gesture needed to restore dignity to these victims...
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 31, 2016

'I became temporarily blind, deaf and paralyzed'

Michi Kobi's acting career reflected the way the U.S.-Japanese relations changed over the years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Mar 20, 2016

Playwright brings voices of America's enslaved to the Tokyo stage

Follow-up show to an upcoming Huck Finn musical grapples with how to strike a balance between relating the true horror of slavery and telling the whole story.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 19, 2016

Japan's Justice Ministry proposes scrapping six-month ban on women remarrying following divorce

In a landmark policy shift, the ministry says it will seek the abolishment of a six-month ban on women remarrying after divorce.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2016

Japan's epic samurai dramas are in a tight spot

Japanese can roughly be split into two camps: those equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of history and those who have only a vague idea of who the samurai were or that a Shogun once lived in what is now the Imperial Palace. The history geeks on one side and those who couldn't care less on the other....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 31, 2015

Why Abe's 'womenomics' program isn't working

There is a contradiction between the demands of 'womenomics' and Abe's call for women to have more babies.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 25, 2015

The scourge of conformism besetting Japanese society

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold the law requiring married couples to use the same surname is rooted in a society that stifles those outside the norm.
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2015

Online survey targets problems faced by foreign workers in Japan

A team of international students is conducting an online survey to collect input from foreign workers in Japan and urge changes in tradition-bound Japanese companies, the group said Monday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 17, 2015

'The Limits of Okinawa' dissects capitalism and identities on Japan's far-flung islands

It was not until the tail end of the 19th century that Okinawa formally became part of Japan and Okinawans have long felt distinct from the rest of Japan. Sentiments of neglect and abandonment from Tokyo — and, by extension, Japan — still rage to this day. Historically, Okinawa was its own kingdom,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 2, 2015

Tokyo craft store meets demand for LGBT rainbow goods hard to find in Japan

At first glance, Nijiiro Komachi (Rainbow Beauty) looks like any craft shop, with colorful handmade earrings, necklaces, illustrated postcards and metal badges adorning the shelves and walls. The store in Tokyo's Kichijoji district, however, has a unique mission: to support sexual minorities in Japan....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 30, 2015

Nation's political culture stands at major crossroads

Will Japan be dragged down by egocentric anti-intellectualism and suspension of judgment, or will a new civic culture turn the nation into a more mature democracy?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jun 21, 2015

One year in, issues and inspiration are still driving Black Eye

Last week's killings in Charleston show that ignorance and fear over race are still driving people to violent extremes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 2, 2015

An alliance of hope must include Okinawans

The disproportionate presence of American forces on Okinawa is at least in part the continuation of Tokyo's low regard for the island and its people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 20, 2015

YouTuber Ken Tanaka tweaks the nose of our obsession with identity

The best way to talk to (and about) the entertainer and artist Ken Tanaka is to discuss his YouTube videos, of which there are many, and which vary wildly in terms of popularity, production and themes. But first, some biography:
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2015

Unified elections help diversify representation in Tokyo

Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidates lose three of five key mayoral races in the final wave of unified elections as voter turnout sinks to another record low.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 20, 2015

Gay marriage push in Japan faces constitutional barrier

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has fought to alter the Constitution on matters of security, is less eager to oppose its principles when it comes to same-sex marriage.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Feb 18, 2015

Time to shut down this modern-day minstrel show

If Fuji TV airs the modern-day minstrel show it has planned for next month, it will shine a national spotlight on Japan's extreme ignorance about issues of race and discrimination.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2015

Author Sono calls for racial segregation in op-ed piece

A prominent author and former government adviser calls for Japan to adopt a system to force immigrants to live separately from Japanese in zones based on race.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 9, 2015

Injuries to Okinawa anti-base protesters 'laughable,' says U.S. military spokesman

In an email, a top marine official likens protesters hurt in demonstrations to diving soccer players.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 3, 2014

Asylum seekers in Japan get a helping hand from nonprofit group

An increasing number of asylum seekers — including sexual minorities and fathers living apart from their families — are looking to Japan as a place to seek refugee status. But such individuals often find the national immigration system, and the local population, unwilling to embrace them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 29, 2014

Working mothers: pioneering the way forward

We talk to five working mothers in an attempt to discover how some women are able to have a career and a family

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past