Search - discrimination-in-japan

 
 
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 13, 2013

Beate Sirota Gordon: An American to whom Japan remains indebted

Beate Sirota Gordon passed away on Dec. 30. She was 89.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2012

Shedding light on problems with Japan's psychiatric care

MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN JAPAN, edited by Ruth Taplin and Sandra J. Lawman. Routledge, 2012, 148 pp., $155 (hardcover) This collection of seven chapters makes for grim reading because it details the miserable state of mental health care in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 4, 2012

Toot your own horn — don't let the modesty scam keep you down

As per this column's title, this month's topic was chosen, well, "just because" it's been on my mind.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2012

Reforming Japan's universities

Media reports say Japan's education bureaucrats are considering allowing students with "stellar" academic records to graduate from high school before they turn 18. In other words, the required three-year stint at high school might be cut to two.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 27, 2012

Japan has a role to play in environment and rights issues in Belize

"The United Nations' largest-ever conference, billed as a historic opportunity to create a greener future, appears to be going up in smoke."
Reader Mail
May 24, 2012

Tattoo bias shows Japan's colors

Regarding the May 18 article "Osaka's Hashimoto puts municipal workers' tattoos into the limelight": I am quite disappointed in Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's decision to "out" municipal workers who have tattoos and to suggest that they should find employment in other fields.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2012

A tour de Japan

Japan on Foot, by Mary King.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 29, 2012

Konami staffer's victory not a game-changer

There is no shortage of laws in Japan stating that working women should be given the same employment protection and rights as their male counterparts.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 17, 2011

Shining a light on Korean sorrow in Japan

INTO THE LIGHT: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 226 pp. $22 (paper) The eight stories in this anthology span nearly 60 years, from 1939, when Korea was a resentful and mutinous Japanese colony, to 1997, when South Korea was...
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2010

Secret to work-life balance vital for Japan

While the phrase "work-life balance" has gained some currency in Japan recently, there is still a long way to go before people here can find the right mix between careers and personal life, due in part to cultural stereotypes about gender roles, participants at an international symposium in Tokyo said...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2010

Japan good on HIV globally but not at home: U.N. exec

The head of the U.N. effort to deal with HIV and AIDS praises Japan for its commitment to the global battle against the pandemic but says domestic organizations need more support in raising awareness here.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 6, 2010

Japan's hostile hosteling industry

As you may know, Japan has no national civil or criminal legislation outlawing and punishing racial discrimination, meaning businesses with "Japanese only" signs aren't doing anything illegal.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
May 4, 2010

Last gasps of Japan's dying demagogues

Tally ho! The hunt is on for "fake Japanese" in Japanese politics.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 15, 2010

Why do English teachers have to be native speakers?

In Japan, non-native English-language instructors from South Asian countries are challenging cultural stereotypes and putting a new face on the industry. And it hasn't been any easy task.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 14, 2010

Today's complex society in Japan spawns a new 'foreigner complex'

Among the many Japanese words and phrases that have fallen by the wayside of late and become shigo (obsolete), gaijin komupurekkusu (foreigner complex) is certainly among the least missed.
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2010

Big mistake to write off Japan

In response to Hiroaki Inui's Jan. 14 letter, "Japan too fossilized to change," I admit there are a lot of things that need to be done to make Japan a better place to live, but if Inui (of Atlanta) is suggesting that America is the answer, he could not be more wrong. I currently live in New York City...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 30, 2009

Need to know those buzzwords to follow Japan's big hit products

Of all the jobs I've held in Japan, by far the most challenging was the four years I spent during the baburu keizai (バブル経済, bubble economy) as a trend watcher for a market-research company.
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2009

A lighthearted dig at real 'dorks'

I am certainly not among those wishing to silence our friend Debito Arudou. I sincerely hope that he continues his mission of exposing discrimination in Japan, as his articles are a reliable source of amusement, and sometimes hilarity.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 25, 2008

An Obama for Japan: Yes, we can?

On the long, unwinding railroad, on the sixth day — the day that, according to Christian texts, God created Man — a great dissatisfaction seeped into me as I continued to bask in the pride of seeing the majority of my fellow Americans transcend race in the selection of the next president of the United...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 23, 2008

Craftsmanship and nationalism

'Utility" is conventionally held up as what separates crafts from art. But what practical purpose is served by the stained-glass panel by Christopher Whall, "Saint Agnes" (1901-10) in "Life and Art: Arts and Crafts from Morris to Mingei" at The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto? In truth, the Arts...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 5, 2008

Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'

Gaijin. It seems we hear the word every day. For some, it's merely harmless shorthand for "gaikokujin" (foreigner). Even Wikipedia (that online wall for intellectual graffiti artists) had a section on "political correctness" that claimed illiterate and oversensitive Westerners had misunderstood the Japanese...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 8, 2008

Japan's last frontier took time to tame, cultivate image

Hokkaido, where the Group of Eight summit is taking place in Toyako, is known for its hot springs, ski resorts, seafood and magnificent scenery.
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2008

Japan's salary gap

White Day was celebrated March 14, but along with giving cookies and chocolates, men might have done better to give women the one-third of their salaries they are missing. According to new data, Japanese women are paid 33 percent less than men. A recent report on average salary gaps from the International...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 22, 2008

Japan's hot springs part of social, geologic, historic fabric

Japan is dotted with mineral-rich natural "onsen" hot springs, both indoors and outside, many offering a warming dip amid a frozen setting.
JAPAN
Dec 25, 2007

Japan's first ICC judge takes aim at 'culture of impunity'

governed by the rule of law," she said in a recent interview. Saiga, a career diplomat, has served as ambassador in charge of human rights and a member of the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2007

What is the most important issue facing foreigners in Japan right now?

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 20, 2007

Watching them watching us

A s many non-Japanese are well aware, today is "G Day," or "F Day," or whatever cute name you'd like to assign to it: The day that the government begins fingerprinting virtually all foreigners — or "gaijin," or more appropriately "gaikokujin" — entering Japan. And those of us who will be subjected...
Reader Mail
Nov 15, 2007

Is terrorism that contagious?

Is terrorism that contagious?1111111111

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