Tag - human-rights

 
Menu
Search
 
October 21, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

HUMAN RIGHTS

Foreign nationals applying for U.S. student and exchange visitor visas will now be asked to set their social media profiles to public so that they can be reviewed.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 19, 2025
U.S. orders social media vetting for student visa applicants
The move steps up measures to restrict foreign nationals’ entry to American campuses over national security concerns.
The Tokyo District Court has issued an order to the government to pay ¥1.2 million ($8,300) in damages to two overstayers who got sick while they were held at a detention center.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 18, 2025
Government ordered to compensate overstayers who got sick in detention
The Tokyo District Court held the government responsible over the deterioration of health of the two men — one Iranian, the other Turkish — at an immigration detention facility.
People shop at a covered market in Suva, Fiji, on Sept. 5.
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2025
Pacific Islands should boost women's participation in work, says World Bank
Six countries did not have paid parental leave, often forcing women to leave the labor force when they started families, a report said.
A Ukrainian mother sits with her children near a refugee center in Sumy, Ukraine, on June 12.
WORLD
Jun 17, 2025
Stay or go? Ukrainian visa programs in U.K. leave refugees in limbo
Many Ukrainians who came to Britain on special visas from 2022 are running out of time.
A woman weeps as she holds a poster of TikTok star Sana Yousaf during a protest to condemn violence against women, after Yousaf was killed for rejecting a man's proposal in Islamabad.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 16, 2025
'This is a culture': TikTok murder highlights Pakistan's unease with women online
TikTok is wildly popular in the nation, and women have found both audience and income. But as views have surged, so have efforts to police the platform.
Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbor on May 19. New raids show Hong Kong’s clampdown on dissent is still expanding.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 16, 2025
China security office flexes new power with Hong Kong probe
Raids have shown the clampdown on dissent is still expanding, five years after Chinese President Xi Jinping imposed a security law on the city.
A library on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, late last month
WORLD / Society
Jun 13, 2025
Foreign students scrub social media as U.S. expands visa vetting
Digital rights lawyers argue that the level of scrutiny that appears to be under consideration could set a dangerous precedent for digital surveillance in immigration processes.
In an annual gender gap report, Japan recorded its strongest gains in economic participation, where its score climbed to 61.3% from 56.8% in 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 12, 2025
Japan ranks 118th out of 148 countries in gender gap report
Japan's gender parity ranking was unchanged from a year ago and is still the lowest among Group of Seven countries.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Jun 5, 2025
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Prison labor is no longer mandatory, which allows more time for educational and rehabilitative programs aimed at reducing recidivism.
Security personnel keep watch near the portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong displayed on the Tiananmen Gate, in Beijing on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jun 4, 2025
We will never forget Tiananmen crackdown, Taiwan and U.S. say on 36th anniversary
The events are not publicly discussed in China and the anniversary is not officially marked.
Yasuhiko Morine (left), Esperanza Morine (center left), Lydia Morine (center right) and Naoaki Morine on the island of Linapacan in the western Philippines on May 25
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2025
Some descendants of Japanese in Philippines still without Japan nationality
As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the government is strengthening support for those seeking Japanese nationality based on their ancestry.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office on Feb. 27. U.S. conservatives may be unlikely defenders of free speech but their criticism of censorship in the U.K. and Europe raises real concerns about vague hate laws and curbs on liberty in the name of harmony. 
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2025
European kindness is threatening the foundations of free speech
Right-wing U.S. critics of U.K. and European censorship have a point.
The chief prosecutor of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam (center), speaks during a news conference in Dhaka on Sunday, the opening day of fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's trial for allegedly orchestrating a "systemic attack" to crush an uprising against her government.
WORLD / Politics
Jun 1, 2025
Bangladesh opens fugitive ex-PM's trial over protest killings
The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina's government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power.
A vehicle exits Shek Pik Prison after former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, Jimmy Sham, served a four-year, three-month sentence for conspiracy to commit subversion in a landmark national security case, in Hong Kong, on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2025
Second group of Hong Kong democrats freed after 4 years in jail
Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ+ activist Jimmy Sham, who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups.
A view of the construction site of BYD's electric vehicle factory at the Industrial Complex in the city of Camacari, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, on Jan. 9
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025
Brazil sues EV giant BYD over ‘slavery’ conditions at plant
Prosecutors said 220 Chinese workers were found in December in conditions "analogous to slavery” and described them as victims of human trafficking.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio buttons his jacket at the start of a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington on May 21.
WORLD / Politics
May 28, 2025
U.S. suspends student visa processing as Trump ramps up social media vetting
A U.S. diplomatic cable has ordered embassies and consulates not to allow "any additional student or exchange visa ... appointment capacity until further guidance is issued."
A Palestinian woman carries a toddler as she walks amid the destruction following Israeli strikes in Jabalia's Saftawi neighborhood in the northern Gaza on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2025
Nothing civilized about Netanyahu's war in Gaza
The continued razing of Palestinian enclave following the killing of Israel Embassy staffers will only perpetuate the cycle of violence.
Women visit a stand during the 23rd international gold and jewellery exhibition in Kuwait City on May 21.
WORLD
May 26, 2025
Stateless overnight: Kuwait strips tens of thousands of citizenship
The mass revocations have been cast as part of a reformist agenda spearheaded by Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Posters, flowers, and letters are placed at a memorial honoring victims of police violence in George Floyd Square in Minneapolis on May 18.
WORLD / Society
May 25, 2025
George Floyd's uncertain legacy is marked five years on
Americans on Sunday mark five years since George Floyd was killed by a U.S. police officer, as President Donald Trump backtracks on reforms designed to tackle racism.
Family members, friends and Minneapolis residents pay their respects at the memorial site where George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, by police officer Derek Chauvin, ahead of the fifth anniversary of Floyd’s death on Friday.
WORLD / Society
May 25, 2025
Did George Floyd protesters miss their moment for change?
Despite widespread revulsion at racism and police brutality, many turned away when BLM activists broadened their message to calling for the defunding of law enforcement.
Why I chose Japanese citizenship over permanent residency
Jon Heese (second left) takes part in a 2024 New Year's nihonshu barrel opening ceremony.
Path clears for Takaichi to become PM as LDP and JIP agree to form coalition
Liberal Democratic Party President Sanae Takaichi (right) reaches out to shake hands with Japan Innovation Party leader Hirofumi Yoshimura after signing a coalition deal Monday evening in Tokyo.
EV battery race heats up among Japanese automakers
Japanese EV production is focusing on batteries as automakers compete for the lightest, most durable models and the longest driving range.
LDP and Nippon Ishin no Kai to form coalition government, report says
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai have agreed to form a coalition, paving the way for the country's first female prime minister, Kyodo reports.
Suntory and Sapporo to halt gift beer sales after cyberattack against Asahi
Suntory will gradually suspend the sale of 13 beer sets for winter gifts, including a set of Chinese zodiac-themed cans of The Premium Malt's.
What does Jimbocho think of its unexpected ‘cool’ status?
Tokyo's Jimbocho neighborhood is a haven for book lovers, its rows of secondhand bookstores spilling over with printed materials.
What you need to see at this year's Tokyo film festival
Chloe Zhao’s "Hamnet"
New film explores how Japan and the U.S. found common ground through baseball
Masanori Murakami became the first MLB player from Japan when he made his debut with the Giants on Sept 1, 1964.
As they wrestle for power, Japan’s political parties must remember their base
Rengo's head Tomoko Yoshino speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Oct. 8.
Sumo is about to hit London and the West with a force previously unseen
Preparations advance on Monday for the Grand Sumo Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Podcast

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

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building
By Patrick St. Michel

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons
Maruhachi never sleeps in quest for better futons

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER