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April 28, 2024
 

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THE ZEIT GIST

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 15, 2011
Tokyo ordinance a potential contract-killer
A prediction: if Japan ever becomes a police state, it will come about not by national law but municipal ordinances. And the war on organized crime could be the engine that drives the process.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 8, 2011
'My children are my everything — the reason I'm alive'
On Bruce Gherbetti's right forearm, the names of his three lost children are permanently inscribed in a swirling script of dark blue tattoo ink.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2011
Justice stalled in brutal death of deportee
Abubakar Awudu Suraj had been in Japan for over two decades when immigration authorities detained him in May 2009. The Ghanaian was told in Yokohama of his deportation to Ghana at 9:15 a.m. on March 22 last year. Six hours later he was dead, allegedly after being excessively restrained by guards.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2011
Schizophrenic Constitution leaves foreigners' rights mired in confusion
Pop quiz: Who live in palatial homes in fashionable Tokyo neighborhoods but are subject to various forms of discrimination, have no family registry, can't vote and have limited constitutional rights?
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 25, 2011
Top Tokyo haunts: five scary spots
1) Sunshine 60 Build a massive shopping and entertainment complex in Ikebukuro (at one time the tallest building in Asia) on the very site where seven Japanese war criminals were executed and you are bound to piss off some ghosts. In fact, its construction was plagued by many incidents (injured workers, strange apparitions and so on). Even now people sometimes spot strange fireballs floating around.
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 25, 2011
Death, mystery and well-endowed tanuki: a tour of terrifying Tokyo
If supernatural beings are a form of energy strongly connected to violent death and tragic events of the past, then Japan is the perfect breeding place for such phenomena, says Lilly Fields, a "certified paranormal investigator" who has lived in Japan for more than 25 years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 18, 2011
Agent Orange revelations raise Futenma stakes
On Sept. 26, Nago City Council became the first municipality on Okinawa to adopt an official resolution calling for the governments of Japan and the United States to conduct an investigation into the spraying and storage of Agent Orange on the island.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 4, 2011
Left-behind dads take desperate measures
"In September of 2010, The Japan Times published a two-part series by a man under the pen name Richard Cory telling the extraordinary tale of his divorce and custody battles over his three children with his Japanese ex-wife . . . essentially custody by capture." — "Divorce and the Welfare of the Child in Japan," Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, June 2011
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 20, 2011
All Hands brings all sorts to Iwate to aid local recovery
Since April 11, around 770 volunteers from 30 countries have clocked up 42,000 hours cleaning up and repairing in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, with U.S.-based NGO All Hands. A partnership with Habitat for Humanity Japan has enabled All Hands to keep this seaside hamlet supplied with a steady influx of volunteers eager to help with the recovery effort following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 6, 2011
Kang family takes fight for justice to Tokyo
Sung Won, the father of Hoon "Scott" Kang, the Korean-American tourist who died in mysterious circumstances in Shinjuku last year, arrived in Tokyo this week to continue his fight to seek justice for his son.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 23, 2011
Peace Boat-Rolls Royce talks lay bare ethical minefield
Convinced the recovery in Tohoku will result in the birth of widespread corporate philanthropy in Japan, in the same way the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake prompted the proliferation of volunteerism, Peace Boat director Tatsuya Yoshioka spent a day in June shepherding a busload of businesspeople on a tour of Ishinomaki neighborhoods hit hardest by the March 11 tsunami. They'd travelled north from Tokyo for a weekend of volunteering under the auspices of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, many of whose members share a similar vision for importing corporate social responsibility (CSR) to Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 16, 2011
Volunteers feel for Tohoku, but their duties lie in Nepal
In the physiotherapy ward at Katmandu's Bir Hospital, a middle-aged woman lay in bed, her back strapped to a big mechanical device. Rukmini Roka, 56, who suffers from chronic backache, struggled to stretch her legs as required by the special therapy machine.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 9, 2011
Upcoming legal reforms: a plus for children or plus ca change?
Those focused on the government's stumbling efforts to protect the children of Fukushima from radioactive contamination may find this hard to believe, but Japanese family law just got more child-friendly — maybe. If Japan finally signs the Hague Convention on child abduction, as it appears it will, it could become even more so. There is a big "maybe" here too, so it remains to be seen whether these two steps taken by the Diet will steer the country away from its status as a black hole for parental abduction or leave it treading the same sorry path.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 2, 2011
Disaster brings out best in people, communities
"The Towering Inferno." "Deep Impact." "The Road." Hollywood's notion of how communities react to a disaster is unequivocal: People panic, societies collapse and enemies take advantage of the chaos to settle old scores.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 26, 2011
Living and loving The Alien from Nagoya
The year 1990 might not seem so long ago, but for many reasons, and in Japan especially, it was a completely different world. There was no Internet. There were no mobile telephones. There was hardly any way to get up-to-date English information on places beyond Tokyo and Osaka except by going there. Outside those metropolises, Westerners were far and few between.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 19, 2011
Japan's Nigerians pay price for prosperity
The Nigerian Union in Japan is the central civic organization for immigrants from Africa's most populous nation. It has foundered twice in 21 years and its current incarnation is less than a year old. Its mixed history is a reflection of the social and economic turmoil Japan's Nigerian community has endured over the past two decades.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 12, 2011
Foreign students back but numbers look likely to fall
They're back. Worries that foreign students would abandon Japan following the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and accompanying fiasco at Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant have proven to be largely unfounded.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 5, 2011
'English interface' could be key to Japan's revival
Japan is not No. 1. After 20 years of stagnation-punctuated decline, it should not be news to anyone that Ezra Vogel got it wrong in his 1979 best-seller, "Japan as Number One: Lessons for America." Yet, in their endless navel-gazing and wheel-spinning (which, sadly, continues even in the face of natural and nuclear disasters of historic proportions — exhibit No. 1 being the political class's recent solipsistic no-confidence motion), most of Japan's governmental elite continues to behave in the same "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" way they did when Japan was top dog. Politicians talk today about the need for far-reaching and innovative policies. But talk is cheap and action has been meager.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 21, 2011
Media grasp for words to sum up post-3/11 grit
The disaster was "divine retribution (tembatsu)," proclaimed Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara just days after the Tohoku earthquake. "The Japanese have become a selfish (gayoku) people. We need to use the tsunami to wash away this egoism."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 14, 2011
Fearing radiation, family quits Japan
The ripples from the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been felt across the globe, drawing offers of sympathy and support for Japan, provoking debates about nuclear power and its alternatives — even sparking complete rethinks of energy policy.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
In Japan, regional revitalization fails to halt population decline
Sakiyama elementary school in Tamba, Hyogo Prefecture, in March .Over the past decade, the government has directed efforts toward policies designed to give young people incentives to base themselves in rural areas.
Number of homeless in Japan hits record low
Homeless people sleep on the street in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward in August 2021.
Ukraine is far from doomed
When comparing Ukraine’s military situation in 2024 to Europe’s in 1941, Russia’s defeat seems entirely possible.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Tokyo's Koto Ward by-election a race unlike any other
Natsumi Sakai, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan’s candidate and one of four female candidates running in the by-election, touts her experience as a cancer survivor and midwife as having prepared her to tackle issues that women currently face.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

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

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability
Vol. 34: Tokyo, a vanguard city for sustainability

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