Search - discrimination-in-japan

 
 
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jul 19, 2014

Time for legislation to prevent spread of hate speech

On July 8, the Osaka High Court ruled that, yes, standing in front of a primary school while kids are in class, shouting through a megaphone that they and their parents are not human, and then vandalizing the school's property, is legal discrimination.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2014

Tanigaki vows internship revamp, foreign-friendly policies

Addressing the foreign press, Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki on Thursday reaffirmed his commitment to revamping the foreign trainee program, which critics say is rife with human rights violations.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 7, 2014

Foreign women also face 'maternity harassment'

Non-Japanese women discuss their experiences of mata-hara, or 'maternity harassment' — discrimination in the workplace against women who are pregnant, on child-care leave or have returned to work after giving birth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Jun 15, 2014

'Womenomics' push raises suspicions for lack of reality

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be a political hawk who believes Japan can once again become a macho state that can hold its own against regional threats, but as he looks for money and muscle he is turning to an unlikely source: women.
Reader Mail
Apr 30, 2014

Growing more women scientists

The April 16 AFP-JIJI article "Japan's scientists: just 14% female" must be frustrating for the Japanese government, but nowhere near as frustrating as it is for the women trying to mark their way in a field traditionally dominated by men.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 15, 2014

Olympics highlight the need for foreign blue-collar laborers

In a recent column, Tokyo Shimbun sportswriter Masaru Ogawa called on past and future Olympic athletes to come forward and talk about what he sees as the biggest problem facing the Tokyo 2020 Games: lack of construction workers. Next year, work on venues will start in earnest, but Japan is already burdened...
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2014

Press freedom ranking falters due to secrecy law

Freedom of the press in Japan deteriorated further this year thanks to the enactment of the controversial state secrets bill, Reporters Without Borders says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2013

Japanese couple's canvas alive with the art of love

Being an artist can be hard enough — but being part of an artist couple comes with a truckload of angst, as director Zachary Heinzerling demonstrates in his debut documentary feature "Cutie and the Boxer." This is about the life and times of artists Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko, who have been...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 22, 2013

Parliamentary democracy without a viable opposition

The lack of a viable opposition party is causing a serious crisis of democracy in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 5, 2013

Downtown comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto leans from TV to film

The Downtown comedy duo — comprising Hitoshi Matsumoto and Masatoshi Hamada — are sitting on a train speeding towards Narita Airport outside Tokyo. It's not like they're going anywhere, or doing anything, even — they're just sitting there and waiting for something to happen. "Something" in this...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2013

Art of national self-appraisal

Legislative activity in Moscow has been on the rise of late as Russia's parliament issues one new law after another — many of them antidemocratic and anti-American.
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2013

Something valuable to take away

I appreciate Chavez's article very much, as my hardships of being a foreigner in Japan were hardships I had never experienced in my home country, which then allowed me to put myself in the shoes of minorities elsewhere.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2013

Show a fashion statement on asylum seekers

Dismayed by Japan's low acceptance rate for asylum seekers, a student group organized a fashion show spotlighting ethnic clothes to raise awareness among their peers of the harsh reality facing the underprivileged worldwide.
Reader Mail
Apr 11, 2013

Targeting ethnic high schools

On March 31 about 6,000 people attended a meeting in Tokyo to demand that Korean high schools remain eligible for free tuition. In February, the Abe Cabinet revised the law to exclude ethnic Korean schools, chosen gakko, from the free-tuition provision for students, enacted in April 2010. Certain municipalities...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 24, 2013

Abortion controlled by the state

TV personalities, or tarento in the vernacular parlance, wage a never-ending battle against encroaching irrelevance. They impose on our consciousness, and one of the easiest ways to do that without offering a compelling skills set is to exploit personal circumstances that are none of our business. Last...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LABOR PAINS
Mar 19, 2013

Labor law reform raises rather than relieves workers' worries

A new specter hangs over Japan: the specter of insecure employment. The source of this insecurity is the August 2012 reform of the Labor Contract Act related to fixed-term employment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 17, 2013

Playing to the beat of the gods

TAIKO BOOM: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion, by Shawn Bender. University of California Press, 2012, 259?pp., $29.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 3, 2013

Japanese women strive to empower themselves

When it comes to gender equality, Japan has never failed to disappoint.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jan 22, 2013

Fixing the much-admired, reviled Constitution — by breaking it

With Shinzo Abe having called Japan's current Constitution "pathetic" (mittomonai) just a few days before taking charge of a government established under it, constitutional amendment seems likely to be on the agenda of his second go as prime minister. This should not surprise anyone, since "fixing" the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2013

Seoul may have female leader but Tokyo's is long way off: poll

South Korea recently elected its first female president, but it looks like it will still take some time before Japan follows suit and appoints a woman as prime minister, at least according to a recent survey by Tohoku University.

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