Search - discrimination-in-japan

 
 
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2010

Don't exclude 'Chosen' schools

The Diet is deliberating on a bill to make public high school tuition free and provide ¥120,000 yearly to those attending private schools or certified educational institutions. But Mr. Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of the North Korean abduction issue, aired the view in February that pro-North Korean...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2010

Kids at pro-North high schools fret tuition waiver snub

For Om Kwan Ja, excluding "chosen gakko" pro-Pyongyang schools from the government's tuition-waiver program would mean more than just having to shell out extra cash for her kids' education. It's a problem that touches on her family's identity, especially for her son, who is studying at Tokyo Korean Junior...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2010

Shinjuku gay enclave in decline but not on the surface

Nothing outside Tokyo's 24-Kaikan hotel hints at what goes on behind its gray concrete walls.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 17, 2009

Showbiz means to an end, not goal

Chuck Wilson, 63, is a fitness trainer. But he was — and arguably still is — far more famous as a funny foreigner who speaks in a defiantly casual and blunt manner to TV personality bigwigs.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 20, 2009

The forgotten DPJ promise on women's rights

In the weeks since the Democratic Party of Japan secured a majority in the Lower House, the new DPJ members of that institution have apparently been told to keep their mouths shut when they're around the media.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

Women lack confidence, ambition for Diet: experts

Although last month's election brought an unprecedented number of women into the Lower House, female lawmakers both at home and abroad are still subject to double standards and lack the ambition to take the stage in national politics, experts said at a recent symposium.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jul 7, 2009

Calderon case shows need for new mind-set

Dear Japanese lawmakers,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 14, 2009

Job firing launched labor activist on career

You may have seen him on TV, commenting on Nova teachers who lost their income and housing when the language school went bankrupt in November 2007. Or you may have seen him marching through Shibuya, leading a chant of "Tatakau zo! (We'll fight!)" and calling for solidarity and action among workers. Or...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Apr 14, 2009

'Sour Strawberries' spotlights plight of non-Japanese 'trainees'

The plight of foreign "trainees" in Japan, who often provide cheap labor at factories and in farm fields with no access to labor rights protection, is usually not something you discuss leisurely over a cup of coffee or a mug of beer. But people who showed up last month at Ben's Cafe in Tokyo had an opportunity...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 12, 2009

Nihon Rikagaku President Yasuhiro Oyama

Yasuhiro Oyama, 76, is the president of Nihon Rikagaku Industry, known not only for being the first chalk-maker to launch dustless chalk in Japan, but for the employees who make its products: 54 out of the company's 74 employees are mentally challenged, with 60 percent of them having an IQ lower than...
Reader Mail
Jan 25, 2009

Outrages of the bullhorn kind

It is difficult to effectively catalog the outrages that Gregory Clark's article has presented. First, he justifies the racist Japanese belief that non-Japanese will cause greater damage to apartments than Japanese tenants, and then condemns non-Japanese for living in "gaijin ghettoes." Apparently Clark...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 11, 2009

Asia University for Women: magic in the making

Perhaps it is only fitting in this time of dismal economic news that Bangladesh, a country known principally for natural disasters and human misery, provides an inspiring and uplifting story to relieve the gathering gloom.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 2, 2008

Hailing the tail end of Bush

Regarding Barack Obama's election as U.S. president, I welcome the groundswell of hope. It's about time. The past eight years have been, well, awkward for Americans overseas.
Reader Mail
Nov 6, 2008

Teacher can't swim in a pool

I studied at Oita University as an exchange student. One thing that was very disappointing about my stay was that I visited many onsens only to be turned away. I couldn't even swim in the local pool. Why? Because I have tattoos. After getting a grant from Japan's government to study in Japan, I was still...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2008

The fatal flaw in trying to impose a new interpretation on Article 9

The report of the "Panel on the Reconstruction of the National Security Legal Foundation," commonly known as the Yanai Report, argues that a reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution is necessary to permit Japan to participate in collective self-defense and collective security operations. Both...
Reader Mail
Aug 31, 2008

What does the government mean?

The news that the Japanese government is making "every conceivable effort" to eliminate racial discrimination makes me wonder -- as a foreigner who has lived in Japan for more than six years -- what the word "conceivable" means.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2008

Kawasaki's Filipinos form support base

KAWASAKI — When Rosemarie Salvio began taking care of children at the Fureai-kan public welfare facility in Kawasaki in 1997, Filipino mothers started showing up to talk with her.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 19, 2008

Readers respond: Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'?

The Community Page received a large number of responses to Debito Arudou's last Just Be Cause column on the use of the word "gaijin." Following is a selection of readers' views.
Reader Mail
Aug 10, 2008

Rising to India's energy demands

The Aug. 6 editorial, "Nonproliferation Spluttering," contains discrepancies with regard to India's civilian nuclear-use agreement with the United States. First, India has, since the inception of the Nonproliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, opposed discrimination against nonnuclear...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2008

Filipinos visit lawmakers in quest for citizenship

Sixteen Filipinos whose fathers or husbands were Japanese men who had moved to the Philippines before and during the war asked lawmakers Tuesday in Tokyo for help obtaining Japanese citizenship.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 24, 2008

Not everyone is celebrating the Ogasawara Islands' anniversary

It is one of Asia's earliest and oddest ethnic melting pots, with citizens boasting names like Savory, Webb, Gonzales and Chaplin. The first piece of Far East territory to fall under U.S. control, local landmarks include the Yankeetown, the Charlie Brown and the Church of St. George, and old-timers speak...
Japan Times
JAPAN / RETRACING ROUTES
Jun 19, 2008

'Nikkei' craft own unique ethnicity, samba to manga

Igor Inocima's face filled with contentment as he described the achievement of introducing the culture of manga to Brazil, where his grandparents emigrated to some 80 years ago.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2008

Reintroducing the Ainu

Both chambers of the Diet unanimously passed a resolution last week urging the government to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people. It says the fact that many Ainu people suffered discrimination and poverty during Japan's modernization should be taken seriously. Noting that the Ainu have their own...

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