National / Social Issues Sep 14, 2021
A growing number of schools allow students to choose skirts or pants for their uniforms, while satchels for elementary school children free from gender-based colors are increasingly common.
National Oct 15, 2018
Faced with crop destruction, Chiba city fosters hunting and serving wild game as enterprise
The city of Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, has set up a "business school for hunting" that provides courses introducing people to the pursuit of game and encouraging them to consider it as a livelihood. The city has been battling destruction of its agricultural crops by wild ...
National Jul 24, 2018
India opens first training center for Japanese-language teachers
India's first training center for teachers of Japanese was officially opened Monday in the capital, New Delhi. The inauguration ceremony for the center, which is a joint project involving the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Japanese Embassy with the support of the Japan ...
National Jul 3, 2018
Classes resumed at an elementary school in the city of Toyama on Tuesday amid tight security, a week after a man killed a security guard who worked at the school and a police officer, with a knife and a gun, as well as firing ...
National Jun 25, 2018
Hundreds of Osaka residents were living in shelters Monday as the city and prefecture began to take account of the damage from last week’s violent rush-hour earthquake.
National / Social Issues Jun 21, 2018
School uniforms go unisex as Japanese schools seek better fit for LGBT students
by Megumi Iizuka
An emerging number of Japanese schools are introducing unisex uniforms or flexible uniform codes in an effort to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. School officials hope the move will ease the mental anguish of such students, who are usually required to wear gender-based ...
National | GENERATIONAL CHANGE Apr 9, 2018
In Kanagawa, homeless grow crops and confidence
by Magdalena Osumi
Kiyoko Ojima awoke to the problems of the needy while in elementary school, when she came across a TV documentary about trying to find solutions to starvation in Africa. "I wanted to help those who are starving by growing crops," she said of her passion ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Dec 31, 2017
Lessons about Japan's school catchment areas
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
A neighbor recently asked us to sign a petition requesting that the local education committee keep a certain elementary school open. Due to falling enrollment, students who attended the school would be transferred to a different one in the near future. Since the ...
Commentary / Japan Dec 29, 2017
It's time to bring Japanese schools into the 21st century
by Yumiko Murakami
Japan must develop an educational system that makes its citizens become more relevant to the globalized economy.