Tag - the-zeit-gist

 
Menu
Search
 
May 14, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

THE ZEIT GIST

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 18, 2008
Prejudice among obstacles facing non-Japanese tenants
With a falling population, a shrinking tax base and a shortage of carers for its increasing number of elderly, calls are growing for Japan to allow in a large influx of foreign workers to plug the gap. The question is: When they come, will they be able to find a place to stay?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 11, 2008
Nova refugees: Where are they now?
'All the schools are closed.'
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 28, 2008
WWII forced labor issue dogs Aso, Japanese firms
After evading the issue for more than two years, Taro Aso conceded to foreign reporters on the eve of becoming prime minister that Allied POWs worked at his family's coal mine in Kyushu during World War II.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 21, 2008
Access all areas: camping trip offers no-holds-barred insight into disability
It is the early hours of the morning and I'm sat out in the open air. My eyes are closed and my hand is clutched tightly around a car of lukewarm beer. Frankly, I'm feeling a little disorientated.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 30, 2008
Berlitz strike grows despite naysayers
As union representative for Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto), let me set the record straight.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 23, 2008
Readers get last word on 'gaijin' tag
The Community Page received another large batch of e-mails in response to Debito Arudou's followup Sept. 2 (Sept. 3 in some areas) Just Be Cause column on the use of the word "gaijin." Following is a selection of the responses.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 9, 2008
Tackling the 'Zainichi' experience
Sitting across from best-selling New York author Min Jin Lee in a Tokyo expat cafe, I can't help thinking that the heroine of her debut novel "Free Food For Millionaires" is the one sipping ice tea and talking sex. Like Lee, protagonist Casey Han is unusually tall, refined in speech, and deeply interested in hat-making.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 2, 2008
Soft power is key to Japan reshaping its identity abroad
In February this year, a Japanese university student scribbled her name and that of her college on the walls of Florence's Duomo. The following month, the university received complaints from Japanese travelers embarrassed to find Japanese graffiti on a World Heritage Site. In June, after another Japanese traveler put pictures of the graffiti on his blog, the media picked up the story. The resulting furor eventually saw the girl return to Italy at her own expense to offer a tearful apology.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 26, 2008
Coming out of the shadows
"We judge that it will be best for the child that the (parent) pray from the shadows for his healthy upbringing. If worried about the child, ask about him through others, secretly watch him from behind a wall, and be satisfied with what is heard about the way he is growing up. Acting in accordance with emotion, even if based on love, will cause the child misfortune. Suppressing emotions for the sake of one's child — that is the true love of a (parent) toward a child.'
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.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 12, 2008
Custody battles: an unfair fight
"Sport at its best obliterates divisions between peoples, such as ostentatious flag-waving and exaggerated national sentiment." New York Times senior writer Howard W. French — who has covered China for the past five years, was Tokyo bureau chief from 1999 to 2003, and has lived overseas for all but 3 1/2 years since 1979 — made this astute observation last month after staying up most of the night in Shanghai to watch the remarkable five-set Wimbledon final between Spain's Rafael Nadal and Switzerland's Roger Federer.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 5, 2008
Schools aim to cultivate returnee students' 'second culture'
Yuki, 7, zooms around the school lounge in her neon T-shirt, hugging teachers, gesturing wildly, making jokes and chattering away in perfect English. Yuki is Japanese and learned English when her family lived in Los Angeles for two years. She is affectionate and expressive, or at least she is on Saturdays when she attends Kikokushijo Academy, a school for returnee children. But after her day at K.A., when she sets foot on the Tokyo subway, Yuki's demeanor changes. Her shoulders hunch inward and she becomes reserved and shy, whispering occasionally in English and constantly monitoring the people around her. Even at seven years old, she knows how to alter her behavior to fit into Japanese society.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 29, 2008
Navigating the 'keigo' minefield
You've probably heard of blunders by Japanese businessmen in English, such as translating "hitotsu yoroshiku" as "one, please" instead of "I look forward to working with you." Less known, but no less common, are the slip-ups foreigners make in Japanese, especially when using that dreaded form of honorifics known as "keigo."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 22, 2008
Whaling: the meat of the matter
Whales are magnificent creatures I have always dreamt of seeing in the flesh. However, tucking into a slab of whale steak at a restaurant in Tokyo was not what I had in mind. Nevertheless, this was a close encounter with one of the world's largest mammals that I felt I could not duck out of: If I was going to better understand all the fuss about whale consumption and Japan's "research whaling," I thought I'd better do some of my own "research eating."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 15, 2008
Human rights — strictly personal, strictly Japanese?
Go figure. Just a few weeks after I wrote about how Japanese courts try to avoid doing anything dramatic, on June 4 the Supreme Court ruled that a section of the Nationality Law was unconstitutional. Such rulings being so rare, I steeled myself for a big helping of highfalutin' Japanese legalese and read the opinion (which is available on the Supreme Court Web site).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 8, 2008
Beware the foreigner as guinea pig
Anywhere in the world, noncitizens have fewer legal rights than citizens. Japan's Supreme Court would agree: On June 2, in a landmark case granting citizenship to Japanese children of unmarried Philippines mothers, judges ruled that Japanese citizenship is necessary "for the protection of basic human rights."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 1, 2008
Society's role in Kato's crime
'The clicking sound of my cell phone echoes emptily in my room. . . . If only I had a girlfriend, I wouldn't have to live so miserably.'
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 English but the cars carry Shinagawa license plates.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2008
Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global
In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed 9/11 to happen, or played some role in the destruction wrought that day. Besides Meacher, few politicians have publicly questioned America's official 9/11 narrative — until Diet member Yukihisa Fujita.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 10, 2008
Where did all the babies go?
Last Wednesday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced that Japan's total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of babies born to women during their reproductive years — rose slightly to 1.34 for 2007, even though about 3,000 fewer children were born last year than in 2006. Two years ago the TFR was at 1.26, a postwar low, and last year this country experienced a natural population decline for the first time since 1899, when data-gathering in this area began. If fertility remains constant at these levels — and projections for the next 50 years have it doing just that — the population of each successive generation will fall at a rate of approximately 40 percent.
Three men rearrested over brokering of overseas prostitution
A woman speaks of her experience of being sent to Macau by an overseas prostitution broker during an interview in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on April 8.
Money stolen via online transfers up fivefold in Tokyo
Special fraud cases in Tokyo in which stolen money was sent via online banking services grew some fivefold from the previous year in 2023.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
In first month of operations, ride-hailing services used more than taxis in Tokyo
As of last Sunday, ride-hailing services, which use personal vehicles to offer paid rides, had been used a total of 12,628 times in five areas.
Tech giants start to treat Southeast Asia like the next big thing
Attendees arrive for Microsoft's event on AI technologies in Jakarta on April 30.
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.
Japan's logistics firms seek partnerships to cope with driver shortage
Japan Post CEO Tetsuya Senda (right) and his Seino Transportation counterpart Satoshi Takahashi announce their companies' agreement on joint long-haul truck operations, in Tokyo on Thursday.
How the discovery of a giant sword in Nara offers clues into ancient Japan
Archaeologists say a 1,600-year-old wooden coffin at the Tomio Maruyama tumulus in the city of Nara was kept in good condition probably because it was protected by a layer of clay and copper ions that had seeped out of the mirrors that were buried together.
Unlike 10 years ago, Japan's new security bill sparks little debate
The Lower House starts discussing a security clearance bill on April 19 in Tokyo.
Japan’s tween skateboarders get head start on preparations for 2028 Olympics
Ibuki Matsumoto competes at an event in Osaka on April 21.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan
By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view
Cultural properties:A Fujiya Hotel insider’s view

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER