Tag - human-rights

 
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September 05, 2025
 

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HUMAN RIGHTS

U.S. President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. Trump has frozen U.S. aid to South Africa, citing a law in the country that he alleges allows land to be seized from white farmers, despite Johannesburg's denials.
WORLD
Feb 9, 2025
Trump freezes all South African assistance as standoff escalates
South Africa’s Foreign Ministry expressed "great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy,” in a statement Saturday.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks during a news conference at the Justice Ministry in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 7, 2025
Japan's retrial system to be reviewed after landmark acquittal
The system — so time-consuming that campaigners call it the "door that never opens" — has not been changed since 1949.
Only couples experiencing infertility would be eligible to access assisted reproductive technology, while those in de facto marriages and same-sex couples will be excluded.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 6, 2025
Assisted reproductive tech bill submitted to Upper House
The proposed legislation is aimed at guaranteeing the right of people born through the use of such technology to know their origins.
A video clip shows former lawyer Yamato Eguchi remaining silent during an interrogation by prosecutors.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 6, 2025
Tokyo High Court upholds compensation order over interrogation abuse
The Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court's ruling that the state must pay compensation to a former lawyer over the verbal abuse he suffered while he was interrogated.
The proportion of respondents who said that the surname debate was something they felt they had a personal stake in increased by 2.7 percentage points from the previous survey by the Cabinet Office in 2022.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
44% in Japan feel they might be affected by dual-surname debate
The possible introduction of a selective dual-surname system was one of the key issues in last year's election for the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Demonstrators take part in a protest against China to support the ethnic Uyghur community, in Istanbul in December 2022.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Feb 4, 2025
China eases travel curbs on Uyghurs but maintains 'severe' controls
Human Rights Watch says Uyghurs are rarely permitted to travel overseas with family members and often face interrogation on returning to China.
The International Criminal Court is pursuing arrest warrants for Taliban leaders accused of human rights abuses against Afghan women and girls, but legal and political obstacles complicate the process.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2025
The long road to justice for Afghan women
Afghan women and girls need every bit of global support they can get to push back against the Taliban’s unhinged misogyny.
The front page of The Japan Times on Feb. 21, 1925, carried news of clashes in the streets over the debate of extending voting rights to Japanese males over the age of 25.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Feb 1, 2025
Japan Times 1925: Tokyo factions ready to fight over manhood suffrage bill in Diet
Objections from the country's 1% came as Japan debated extending voting rights to all men over the age of 25.
Jumpei Yasuda in November 2018
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 31, 2025
Tokyo high court rules denying a passport to journalist is illegal
The journalist had applied for a passport in 2019, but the Foreign Ministry refused to issue one to him because Turkey had banned his entry.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Toshihiro Kitamura said measures against U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women "will show the government's position more clearly," in relation to the Imperial House Law.
JAPAN
Jan 30, 2025
Japan hits back at U.N. panel over imperial law review recommendation
The law allows only male descendants from the paternal line of the imperial family to become emperor.
Trump started his term on Jan. 20 by issuing an executive order "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism," which declared the government will only recognize two sexes — male and female.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 30, 2025
LGBTQ+ Americans in crisis as Trump rolls back rights
Nine organizations supporting LGBTQ+ people said they had a surge in use of their crisis services and calls to their helplines on Trump's first day in office.
Shilling poses for a picture at her home in California, Maryland, on Jan. 19.
WORLD
Jan 29, 2025
How transgender troops prepared to fight Trump's new policy
Transgender advocates say the lawsuit is the first shot in what they predict will be a long fight.
Defending the rights of transgender and nonbinary people isn’t only about waging legal battles. It’s about more persuasive arguments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 29, 2025
Trump can’t erase trans people with the stroke of his marker
There hasn’t been as much outrage as I had anticipated, but it makes sense. Most Americans, polls show, don’t personally know anyone who identifies as transgender.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends an ordinary session of parliament along with his Cabinet ministers on Friday. Ishiba has toned down his stance on legally allowing married couples to have separate surnames.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jan 28, 2025
Ishiba tones down stance on dual-surname debate
While previously being all in favor of a dual-surname system, the prime minister has recently suggested considering a "compromise" of legally expanding the use of maiden names.
A woman walks past a mural adorning a family clinic in Nairobi in 2017.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025
Trump 2.0 instills fear in African abortion activists
Trump has reinstated an anti-abortion pact that cuts off U.S. funds to foreign charities that provide or promote abortions.
Webcam model Tania Rios looks at a computer screen in Soacha, near Bogota, Colombia, on Dec. 17. Unhealthy rooms, shared sex toys, excessive shifts, clients with degrading requests and harassment — for years silenced, webcam models are denouncing the abuses they have suffered in Colombia, a mecca of this multimillion dollar business.
WORLD / Society
Jan 28, 2025
Colombian 'webcam models' denounce abuse in online sex industry
Despite their clients being thousands of kilometers away, many webcam sex workers say they have suffered physical and emotional mistreatment.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, Jr. salutes U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as he arrives at the Pentagon in Washington on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 28, 2025
Trump takes aim at DEI, COVID expulsions and transgender troops
Some of Trump's plans have been heavily criticized by advocacy groups, which say his actions would be illegal.
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, via videoconference on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2025
The Davos ‘vibe shift’ is no surprise
This year, Davos was different. Significant slices of corporate America have been divesting themselves of the world-saving ideals that Davos is built on.
The sign of Greenlandic representation in Copenhagen on Sunday
WORLD / Society
Jan 27, 2025
Adopted without consent, a Greenlander woman seeks justice
Kalanguak Absalonsen is one of four Greenlanders seeking compensation from Denmark for wrongful adoption. If the state refuses their request, they will take their case to court.
Anti-abortion demonstrators take part in the annual March for Life rally in Washington on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Jan 25, 2025
Trump targets abortion access at home and abroad
Trump revoked two executive orders signed by Joe Biden protecting abortion access.
Surrounded by Chinese bases, a tiny Philippine island stands firm
A Philippine Navy sailor looks at a China Coast Guard vessel just off the coast of Pag-asa Island in the disputed South China Sea last month.
Anger in Japan after Instagrammer drinks burial site offering
Foreign tourists visit a park near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in August.
Tamagotchi hatches 100 million shipments worldwide thanks to ’90s nostalgia
The latest version of Tamagotchi, called Tamagotchi Paradise, is awarded the best digital toy at Tokyo Toy Show on Aug. 28.
Tropical Storm Peipah forms off southwestern Japan
Tropical Storm Peipah, which formed off southeastern Japan, is expected to travel east off the Tokai area and the Kanto region.
What we know about the supplements scandal linked to Suntory’s ex-CEO
Takeshi Niinami, the former chairman and CEO of Suntory Holdings, at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.
Xi — joined by Kim and Putin — delivers stark warning at military parade
Chinese leader Xi Jinping walks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing on Wednesday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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