Tag - local-government

 
 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

JAPAN
Dec 25, 2018
80% of state bodies fail to meet disabled employee target
The number of disabled employees at 35 of the 43 state institutions stood below the level required by law as of June 1 this year, the welfare ministry said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2018
Hokkaido ski resort town of Kutchan to enact Japan's first fixed-rate lodging tax
The town of Kutchan, located near Hokkaido's popular Niseko ski resort, plans to introduce a 2 percent lodging tax under an ordinance passed by the municipal assembly Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Dec 5, 2018
Local governments in Japan get creative in bid to secure child care workers
Local governments are desperately trying to recruit licensed child care workers in a bid to address an acute shortage in day care staff.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 10, 2018
Can five Little Japans defuse one big demographic time bomb?
What about if Japan split into a confederation of five semi-autonomous 'regions,' each delineated roughly by geography and population?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Sep 10, 2018
Let's discuss Noemi Inoue, Bolivia-born Tokyo councilor
Bolivian-born Noemi Inoue felt it was necessary to naturalize to feel fully integrated in Japanese society and to become the first non-Japan-born person to serve as a city councilor in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Aug 17, 2018
Municipalities try new ways to help Japan's recluses find their place in society
Municipalities across Japan are reaching out to the social recluses known as hikikomori to help them find their place in society without focusing solely on getting them back into the workforce.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2017
Japan plans to assign individual ID numbers for public health insurance
The health ministry plans to assign an identification number to each person covered by Japan's universal public health insurance system, officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 26, 2017
Finance Ministry proposes cuts in medical fees and reductions in cost of new drugs
The Finance Ministry on Wednesday proposed reducing the fees charged by medical institutions, to curb social security costs which have ballooned due to the country's rapidly aging population.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2017
Fukui Prefectural Assembly OKs restart of Oi reactors, leaving final decision to governor
The Fukui Prefectural Assembly on Thursday effectively gave the green light to restarting reactors 3 and 4 at the Oi nuclear power plant.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2017
The case of a small Kochi village
Owing to depopulation, small towns across Japan need to find new ways to maintain representative government.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 14, 2016
Supreme Court upholds Osaka city's tattoo check on workers as legal
The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that said the Osaka city office's 2012 probe into whether its workers had tattoos was legal, court officials said last week.
WORLD / Society
Aug 29, 2016
U.K. plan to make social housing tenants 'pay to stay' won't meet aim: report
Britain's "pay to stay" rule requiring social housing tenants to pay higher rents may leave local councils worse off, cause stress for families and fail to generate expected revenues for the central government, according to a report published Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2016
Lifting the lid on Japan's growing crowd of manhole cover spotters
Some tourists look around them but Hidetoshi Ishii prefers to look down.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 21, 2016
Lessons in history and bureaucracy lurk within Japan's geographical layer cake
Although in English we say Japan has 47 prefectures, Japanese uses four terms to express the same concept. And that's just for starters.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 21, 2015
Tokyo's Kita Ward adopts hearing and speaking aids to help legislators with disabilities
The Kita Ward Assembly, where deaf-mute Tokyo author Rie Saito was elected in the quadrennial unified elections in April, has become the first legislature in the nation to develop a system that allows lawmakers with hearing or speech impediments to participate in sessions in real time.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 27, 2015
Unified elections help diversify representation in Tokyo
Liberal Democratic Party-backed candidates lose three of five key mayoral races in the final wave of unified elections as voter turnout sinks to another record low.
EDITORIALS
Dec 22, 2014
A broader say in reactor restarts
As the Abe administration pushes to restart idled nuclear power plants that have cleared safety screening, the question of which local governments should also have a say in whether a plant may restart remains open.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Nov 12, 2014
Mayor blazes trail with radical child-friendly vision for local government
Every time I try to read or write about local government in Japan I get so easily distra— say, is that paint drying over there? You see the problem?!
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2014
Kagoshima assembly and governor green-light restart of Sendai reactors
The Sendai nuclear power plant is a step closer to becoming the first in Japan to resume generating electricity in the wake of the 2011 triple meltdown.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 29, 2014
Town hall meetings: Abandon logic, all ye who enter here
The first thing you want to do when you get to the meeting room, whether it be summer or winter, is open all the windows. This is because you'll have to throw all logic out the window. Open as many as possible, 'cause there's a lot of logic to heave.

Longform

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces