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April 28, 2024
 

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THE ZEIT GIST

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 14, 2010
Mail-order buyer, be aware
In retrospect, I didn't really need a new baseball cap. But this one, advertised by the publisher of a nationally circulated magazine, had a humorous logo in Japanese that tickled my fancy, making it — like much of the merchandise sold via mail order — a novelty item not sold in stores.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 7, 2010
Abuse rife within trainee system, say NGOs
In October 1999, 19 Chinese trainees came to the Takefu city office pleading for help. In their first year in Japan as interns, the women had been promised ¥50,000 a month, but scraped by on ¥10,000. The next year, as technical trainees, they should have received ¥115,000 a month. After health insurance, pension, rent, forced "savings" and administrative fees for the staffing agency in China were deducted, what they got was ¥15,000. The women walked for five hours from their workshop in the mountains of Fukui Prefecture to talk with the director of their placement organization at his home. Instead of receiving answers, they were turned away with harsh words — and even blows.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 30, 2010
Justice not served in navy abuse case
This summer, a U.S. Navy doctor, Lt. Cmdr. Anthony L. Velasquez, 48, walked free after serving seven days in the brig at the Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture. He had admitted to two counts each of wrongful sexual contact and conduct unbecoming an officer. He had, however, gotten off lightly, with a two-year prison sentence, $28,000 fine and forfeiture of all pay and allowances suspended for a year in a deal struck with naval authorities. Twenty-nine further charges were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 23, 2010
Performance art's expatriate players push the envelope
Exotic dancing. Nonsensical poetry. Harsh electronic noise. Doughnuts. These are just some of the manifold sights and sounds you'll find on the bill at Paint Your Teeth, a bimonthly performance art event in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 16, 2010
Justice sought after allergy trauma
One day in May, 7-year-old Kaiya Lucente was cleaning her classroom after lunch when she began coughing, her face puffed up and she found it difficult to breathe. Her eyes turned red, and scarlet blotches started to appear on her face. She had had these frightening symptoms before after accidentally ingesting peanuts and knew that her severe allergic reaction then meant she must never touch them again.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010
Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak
This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 2, 2010
Small schools offer hope amid eikaiwa slump
The collapse of the Geos eikaiwa (English conversation school) chain earlier this year came as a cruel blow to an industry still struggling to restore its credibility years after Nova's high-profile implosion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 26, 2010
Foreigners victims, perpetrators of sekuhara
When "Tracy," an American then in her late 20s, started her career in Japan as a JET instructor at a high school in Kagoshima nearly 20 years ago, nothing in her training could have prepared her for what she witnessed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 19, 2010
Gaba teachers challenge 'contractor' status
Long accustomed to being ignored, being forgotten proved too much to take for unionized teachers at Gaba language school. On Oct. 4, the General Union registered an official complaint and request for an investigation with the Ministry of Finance's Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 5, 2010
Decade-long wait takes toll on asylum seeker
Most foreigners in Japan know the horror of waiting for a residency permit or visa. A few hours in the queue at the Shinagawa immigration office can feel like a lifetime.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 28, 2010
Behind the facade of family law
Last in a two-part series In mid-April, 12-year-old Michiko Watanabe, as she was now being called, found herself in a precarious situation. Earlier, her mother had clearly let her child know that she would no longer consider herself Michiko's mother if Michiko ever attempted to return to her father. In fact, her mother said that she would never even speak to her again in such a case.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 21, 2010
Battling a broken system
First in a two-part series In July, Tokyo's family court granted me, an American, physical custody (kangoken) of my 13-year-old daughter exactly 120 days after she was abducted by my Japanese wife, a lifelong public servant employed as a teacher at a state school in Tokyo. This just may be the first time that Japan's family court has awarded a foreign father custody of a Japanese child after a successful abduction by the child's Japanese mother.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 14, 2010
Web series taps comedy, drama of eikaiwa
Teaching English is hilarious! At least, it is now: A new Web TV show starting Thursday will attempt to show the lighter side of eikaiwa, as Japan newbie Tom Kellerman (Jonathan Sherr) finds his feet in the world of "English Teachers."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 7, 2010
U.S. Navy 'Friendship Festival' draws line at the French
Could it be that the Friendship Day festivals held at the U.S. Navy Negishi Housing Base are not as friendly as the name suggests?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 31, 2010
Fingerprint all Japanese, for safety's sake
If you're a noncitizen and have entered or re-entered Japan in the last couple of years, you've undoubtedly been invited to participate in the wonderful, fun-filled world of biometrics. It's safe to say that many of you felt as though you were being treated like criminals — not to mention the humiliation of being discriminated against, knowing that your Japanese companions could quickly walk through immigration without having to endure the same indignities.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 24, 2010
Wartime labor redress efforts at key juncture
Sixty-five years since the end of World War II, and one year since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power, redress campaigns for forced labor in wartime Japan are bearing promising fruit and entering a decisive phase.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 17, 2010
Appeals to culture, tradition ignore the historical facts
In the upcoming Australian general election, there is one issue that the major parties unanimously agree on: opposition to Japanese whaling. Voters are overwhelmingly antagonistic to whaling and Australian politicians have demonstrated an increasing willingness to listen to public opinion.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 17, 2010
Racist undercurrents taint whaling rhetoric
Sea Shepherd's Web site describes him as "the first New Zealander to be taken as a prisoner of war from the Southern Ocean to Japan," and there is no doubting Peter Bethune's popularity in this country. His trial in Tokyo earlier this year for interfering with Japan's annual whale hunt dominated New Zealand media, and direct action at sea connects with long-standing cultural currents to do with whales and whaling.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 3, 2010
Dying to work: Japan Inc.'s foreign trainees
"The Industrial Trainees and Technical Interns program often fuels demand for exploitative cheap labor under conditions that constitute violations of the right to physical and mental health, physical integrity, freedom of expression and movement of foreign trainees and interns, and that in some cases may well amount to slavery. This program should be discontinued and replaced by an employment program."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 27, 2010
Ex-students don't want JET grounded
Since 1987, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program has brought young Westerners — often straight out of college — to Japan to teach English at high schools. But now, Japan's massive public debt and the need to cut costs have put JET in the spotlight.
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

Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo
Leading Japan’s sustainability from Tokyo

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