Tag - whistleblowers

 
Menu
Search
 
June 06, 2025
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

WHISTLEBLOWERS

A fine of up to ¥30 million will be imposed on companies that dismiss or take disciplinary action against whistleblowers under the revised law.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 5, 2025
Japan enacts bill to penalize revenge against whistleblowers
Under the revised law, individuals who discipline whistleblowers will be subject to a prison term of up to six months or a fine of up to ¥300,000.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito speaks to the press following the opening of the prefectural assembly's June regular session on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 3, 2025
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito to take 50% pay cut over info leak
The leak concerned the personal information of a former prefectural government employee who distributed a document alleging harassment by the governor.
The third-party committee, chaired by Ryoji Kudo, announced the results of the investigative report at the Hyogo Prefectural Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
May 27, 2025
Hyogo governor likely behind whistleblower info leak, says panel
Saito told the third-party panel that he thinks he was informed of the whistleblower's personal information but did not issue any instructions on how to handle it.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito bows during a news conference at the Hyogo prefectural government building in Kobe on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 26, 2025
Hyogo governor apologizes over harassment but denies breaking whistleblower law
Motohiko Saito denied the illegality of the actions to identify the whistleblower, saying that they were appropriate.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito (center) during the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly's plenary session on Wednesday in Kobe
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2025
Efforts to identify whistleblower against Hyogo governor likely illegal, panel says
The report found the governor's rebukes of prefectural officials to be "largely true" and called on him to "fulfill his accountability."
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito, accused of workplace bullying, testifies to an investigative panel in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 9, 2024
Nippon Ishin calls on Hyogo governor to resign over bullying claims
Nippon Ishin’s move is expected to be a politically fatal blow for Motohiko Saito, as he had the party’s support when he was elected as an independent.
Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito attends a session of a panel investigating allegations of workplace harassment against him, in Kobe on Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2024
Hyogo governor disputes legal protections for harassment whistleblower
Motohiko Saito said that he didn’t believe it was a problem to allow an investigation into the creator of a document making allegations against him.
Akiteru Nogawa, head of the Kagoshima Prefectural Police Department, speaks at a Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly committee in the city of Kagoshima on June 11.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 21, 2024
Kagoshima police whistleblower charged with confidentiality breach
Kagoshima police department has been hit by a series of scandals this year, including three cases in which police officers have been arrested.
An employee at Otsuka Foods has filed a damages suit against the company with the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 14, 2024
Otsuka Foods whistleblower sues company for work-related depression
The man has claimed he suffered from depression after being reassigned and given little work following a report over the company's alleged wrongdoing.
The official whistleblower protection system is not well-known among workers in Japan, a survey finds.
JAPAN
May 14, 2024
Less than 40% of Japan's employees know about whistleblower protection system
The survey showed a tendency for larger companies to have more employees familiar with the system.
Lukasz Krupski, a service technician for Tesla in Norway who says he was fired after expressing safety concerns, in Drammen, Norway, on Nov. 6
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 15, 2023
Man vs. Musk: A whistleblower creates headaches for Tesla
An employee who was fired after expressing safety concerns leaked personnel records and sensitive data about driver-assistance software.
"Football Leaks" whistleblower Rui Pinto had been extradited to Portugal following his January 2019 arrest by Hungarian police in Budapest.
SOCCER
Sep 12, 2023
Portuguese court convicts 'Football Leaks' hacker
The biggest information leak in sports history sparked criminal investigations in Belgium, Britain, France, Spain and Switzerland.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2023
Without whistleblowers, the West is lost
The biggest threat to Western democracies is not transparency, it is the nihilism and self-indulgence that have come to characterize politics.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 8, 2022
How corporate chiefs dodge lawsuits over sexual abuse and deadly products
Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction landed him in prison. Allegations of serial sexual abuse cost him his career and his movie studio. His company went bankrupt and later settled legal claims by about 50 women.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 3, 2021
Enron's cast of characters: Where they are 20 years after the fall
Here's a look at some of the prominent players in the scandal — both fallen executives and those who investigated them — and where they are now.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 30, 2021
Fear and reprisals: How Nissan crushed its Ghosn probe whistleblower
The firm's former top lawyer says he endured retaliation, demotions and surveillance of his family after questioning the integrity of the investigation.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Sep 28, 2020
Beijing unveils protections for health emergency whistleblowers
China's capital Beijing will protect whistleblowers who disclose information about public health emergencies, it said on Sunday, part of the country's efforts to fix some of the systemic faults that hindered its initial response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 3, 2019
Hacking dirty government secrets is no crime
The 'crime' of which Julian Assange stands accused pales next to the wrongdoing he helped to expose. Whistleblowers should never be prosecuted.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 17, 2019
Examining Carlos Ghosn and Japan's system of 'hostage justice'
As the Carlos Ghosn saga continues to unfold, domestic and international attention continues to mount on what many are calling a "hostage justice" system.
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2019
Give teeth to the law protecting whistleblowers
The whistleblower protection law can't serve its purpose unless it features penalties for employers that seek to punish employees who report wrongdoing.
Japan’s fertility rate hits record low despite government push
The total number of births dropped to about 686,000, marking the first time the figure has fallen below 700,000, according to a health ministry release on Wednesday.
Japan eyes tougher rules for foreign residents and tax hike for tourists
A tax-free shop in Kyoto in April 2024. Last week, members of a Liberal Democratic Party study group drafted a proposal seeking to scrap the country's tax-free shopping system altogether.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
Is Japan ready to say goodbye to tax-free shopping?
Arrows lead to the tax-free counter at a branch of discount retailer Don Quijote in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
Detail of Takashi Murakami, “Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP” (2023-25)
Japan’s prison reform focuses on rehabilitation
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki speaks to reporters in Tokyo on Friday. Suzuki said preparations for the changes that will focus more on rehabilitation are being actively made at each correctional facility.
Six months into 2025, J-pop is having a full-on identity crisis (and a great time)
The year so far is only proving that Mrs. Green Apple is the biggest band in Japan. Their success also seems to be hinting at a change in the musical landscape more broadly.
Nintendo’s Switch 2 console is finally here
The Switch 2 is Nintendo's first new gaming console in eight years.
Hakuho’s departure highlights worrying sumo trend
Former <i>yokozuna</i> Hakuho performs a ring-entering ceremony at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in February 2020.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027
Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER