Search - discrimination-in-japan

 
 
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 2, 2022

Unification Church and the LDP: A scandal or a witch hunt?

Japan performs a balancing act with political parties and how closely they should be allowed to work with religious groups.
Japan Times
PARALYMPICS
Sep 4, 2021

Disabled Japanese are often invisible. Will Paralympics bring lasting light?

Tokyo improved its infrastructure before the Games, but activists wonder how long the focus will continue in a country with a long history of excluding people with disabilities.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2021

Organizers scramble to replace Tokyo Games composer after resignation

The scandal over the musician's admission of having bullied and assaulted people with disabilities is the latest in a long line to have beset the troubled Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 23, 2021

‘Indian Migrants in Tokyo’ sheds light on an overlooked community

There are currently around 40,000 Indians living in Japan and their stories, similar to minority groups in other countries, are often ignored or pushed aside. This lack of public awareness and representation can lead to cultural misunderstanding, or worse, discrimination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Oct 19, 2020

A transgender woman caught in the system finds help from the community

Dealing with immigration can be daunting at the best of times, but when you're a member of a minority community it can be harmful for your health.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 2, 2020

Lotte reliever Jay Jackson inspired by demonstrations for racial equality around globe

As is the case for many Black Americans, the push for equality is both familiar and personal for Jackson, a 32-year-old South Carolina native.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2019

Candidates with disabilities hope to lay foundation for inclusive Diet in Upper House election

On a recent Wednesday morning, Rie Saito wasn't giving a lengthy, energetic speech about her campaign pledges through a loudspeaker, unlike most of her competitors on the stump.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 11, 2019

At the University of Tokyo, there is power in a union

Japan still has the right to organize, and unions are good both for members and management.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jan 22, 2019

The Todai Riots: 1968-69

A photographer who documented the occupation of the University of Tokyo from inside the barricades half a century ago remembers the final days of resistance
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 29, 2018

Stop worrying about the age of adulthood

Media apprehension about lowering the legal age of majority has been wildly overblown.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2017

Rainbow Reel film festival celebrates the struggles and the victories of the LGBTQ community

You officially become an adult at the age of 20 in Japan, but you don't really start feeling it until your mid-20s. That's when the pressures of work and marriage start kicking in, making it as good a time as any to re-evaluate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 22, 2017

Cut paper artist Teri Suzanne: 'a pair of scissors is the superhero of utensils'

U.S. educator on how scissors can be used as a fine motor tool to help children develop creativity and coordination skills.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 23, 2017

In case you missed them: a year of responses to Community stories, part 1

The first in a series of selections of unpublished letters about Community stories from the year just passed.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 28, 2016

Understanding anti-base sentiment in Okinawa

The recent murder of a 20-year-old Okinawan woman by a civilian employee of the U.S. Kadena Air Base on Okinawa has inflamed local antipathy toward the U.S. military's presence. Sadly, this horrific crime fits into a larger pattern of sexual violence that has become all too familiar to Okinawans and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2015

Sound waves: the music of Okinawa

How is it possible that a people who have experienced poverty, famine and discrimination, outlasted efforts at cultural annihilation and suffered the indignities of occupation can manage to celebrate life in song and dance with a passion and joy that belies everyday reality?
JAPAN / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Jan 25, 2015

Kansai spearheads campaign against hate speech

On Feb. 24, 2013, Osaka's Tsuruhashi district, home to one of Japan's largest concentrations of ethnic Koreans and in recent years a major tourist destination, was the scene of a shocking incident.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 6, 2014

Hot-air Abe can't campaign on 'womenomics'

For a guy with a two-thirds majority in the Diet, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has accomplished remarkably little since 2012.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2014

Perilous spirit of the times

A gap has emerged between Japanese and foreign media in their appraisal of Japan's political scene. Some overseas media are growing skeptical that Japan is indeed a champion of freedom and democracy.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2014

'Japanese Only' sign sparks bigotry debate

For nearly two decades, Shunji Usui has been a fixture at Urawa Red Diamonds matches at Saitama Stadium in the suburbs of Tokyo, a face in the crowd among the most avid — and sometimes rabid — fans of any Japanese soccer club.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 9, 2013

Pan-Asian dreams: The Greater East Asia Conference

Seventy years ago, on Nov. 5 and Nov. 6, 1943, Japan hosted a meeting of Asian leaders in Tokyo, hub of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere — the name it gave its wartime empire under the guise of Pan-Asian liberation.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 19, 2013

Abe ought to show a red card to hate speech now

Last week I ended this column by noting that Myanmar (also known as Burma) can ill afford bigotry and intolerance. Neither can Japan. The outpouring here of hate speech targeting ethnic Korean residents is a disturbing development even if it is not representative. And certainly, it is encouraging that...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
Reader Mail
Jun 9, 2013

Conditions for a global education

I read with interest Masaaki Kameda's May 29 article, "Education panel touts more global approach." Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's exhortation that Japanese universities establish super-global universities by recruiting faculty staff from overseas, establishing partnerships with overseas universities and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
May 21, 2013

Precedent backs (nearly) equal pay for equal work

In 2012, Japan had 51.73 million workers, of which 33.3 million were regular employees, or seishain, according to the latest survey by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Contingent, or nonpermanent, workers (including part-timers, haken dispatch and shokutaku semiregular employees) numbered 18.43 million, over 35.5 percent of the workforce.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 28, 2013

New prenatal test in high demand but limited to risk cases

Testing will begin in Japan on a new, noninvasive prenatal test to check for chromosomal abnormalities, but it will be limited to pregnant women deemed at risk of having babies with Down syndrome or other disorders.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 5, 2013

Down syndrome blood test draws interest and ire

Last summer, news that Japan was getting ready to introduce a new type of prenatal examination that requires only a simple blood test to detect whether a fetus has Down syndrome made headlines. News reports suggested hospitals were ready to start using the test in September.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 28, 2013

Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims

Japan has a new hara. No, the nice couple down the hall didn't just have a baby; according to recent news, yet another form of harassment is supposedly becoming a social problem.

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