Tag - womens-issues

 
 

WOMEN'S ISSUES

Buddhist devotees worship in heavy rain in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 5, 2023.
WORLD / Society
Feb 15, 2024
Domestic violence is cost of climate change for Sri Lanka women
Sri Lanka is among the countries most affected by extreme weather events as it grapples with the aftermath of a huge financial collapse in 2022.
Elementary, junior high and high school girls represented 76 different sumo clubs from across the nation on Sunday at the Dream Girls Cup, with the tournament also given a slight international flavor by the inclusion of one athlete from the United States and one from Brazil.
SUMO / INSIDE SUMO
Feb 15, 2024
All-time great Hakuho hopes to help girls realize their sumo dreams
The inaugural Dream Girls Cup saw 76 sumo clubs from across the nation gather in Tokyo for an event that Hakuho hopes will spur big dreams.
Keidanren chairman Masakazu Tokura
JAPAN / Society
Feb 14, 2024
Business lobby chief shows support for separate surnames for spouses
Masakazu Tokura of Keidanren expressed bewilderment at why the issue "has been left hanging for so long."
Naomi Osaka speaks during a news conference at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Jan. 12.
TENNIS
Feb 11, 2024
Naomi Osaka explains why she’s investing in women’s sports
Osaka, one of the world's most marketable athletes, plans to stay involved in the world of sports even after her tennis career ends.
Reiko Fuchigami is set to become the first female head of any of Japan's three judicial bodies of lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 10, 2024
Japan's top bar association elects first female chief
The result will make Reiko Fuchigami the first woman to lead any of the country's three judicial bodies of lawyers, prosecutors and judges.
Shiki Nakayama at a snow-covered baseball field in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, last month. Nakayama grew up watching her older brother’s exploits on the diamond and first picked up a bat and ball in elementary school.
BASEBALL
Feb 9, 2024
Meet the Gen Zer in Japan who is forging a path for girls in baseball
For 16-year-old Shiki Nakayama, it's no big deal that she's the only girl on her high school baseball team.
England's Jess Carter in action with Spain's Salma Paralluelo during the Women's World Cup final in Sydney in August 2023
SPORTS
Feb 8, 2024
Women's sports draw record viewership in U.K. in 2023, research shows
The FIFA Women's World Cup final, which England lost 1-0 to Spain, was 2023's most-watched women's sports event on TV with 38.4 million viewing hours.
Japan is the only country with a law requiring married couples to adopt the same surname. In 95% of cases, it is women who take their husband's name.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 7, 2024
The land where single surnames are the only option
The business lobby recently joined calls for Japan to accept separate surnames after marriage. What, then, is standing in the way of change? Politics.
Women workers demand equal pay during a protest in Melbourne.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2024
Asia is fighting off the diversity backlash
Gender equality is at a crossroads amid a corporate backlash that is threatening progress in in workplace diversity.
Shoko Kawata stumps in the city of Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture, last year.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 6, 2024
Japan's youngest female city mayor is focused on women's empowerment
The election of Shoko Kawata, 33, was unexpected — but was a welcome change for some.
People sort relief supplies, including sanitary napkins, diapers and baby formula, in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sunday, over a month after a New Year's Day quake hit the area.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 5, 2024
Emergency maternity and baby supplies lacking in parts of Japan
The study showed that while 82.5% of municipalities stocked sanitary napkins, only 11.9% kept underwear for women.
Former Prime Minister Taro Aso speaks during a forum in Taipei in August.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 2, 2024
Ex-PM Aso retracts sexist remarks against top diplomat
In a speech on Sunday, Aso described Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa as an "obasan."
Foreign Minister Yōko Kamikawa will likely face some institutional challenges in achieving quick and meaningful progress in advancing the United Nation's Women, Peace and Security initiative.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 2, 2024
Japan unveils task force for gender-inclusive security issues
U.N. mandate spurs Japan into action with new task force aimed at enhancing women's roles in global conflict resolution.
Mitsuko Tottori (right), incoming president of Japan Airlines, and Yuji Akasaka, outgoing president, during a news conference in Tokyo on Jan. 17
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 31, 2024
Japan opens door to more women directors, but managers still rare
Women account for only 13.4% of directors and executive officers at the 1,836 firms listed on the TSE's Prime market, and of these 13% are internal hires.
Taro Aso, vice president of the Liberal Democratic Party, makes a speech in Ashiya, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 30, 2024
Japan foreign minister brushes off controversial remarks by Taro Aso
Yoko Kamikawa appeared unfazed after Aso called her an old lady and said she's "not that good looking.”
Taylor Swift attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Jan. 7.
CULTURE / Music
Jan 27, 2024
Outrage over deepfake porn images of Taylor Swift
One image of the U.S. megastar was seen 47 million times on X, the former Twitter, before it was removed Thursday.
New research estimates that nearly 65,000 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states that imposed total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2024
Post-Roe America’s national shame: 65,000 forced pregnancies
New data has been filling in the picture of what access to reproductive health care looks like in the U.S. And the image forming is increasingly grim.
Anindya Shabrina Prasetiyo (center), a Labour Party legislative candidate in the upcoming general election, attends a rally on Jan. 19 in front of City Hall in Surabaya. Indonesia's presidential and legislative elections next month will see more than 200 million people eligible to vote, with slightly more than half of them women according to the country's election commission, yet with much fewer women representing them.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 25, 2024
Indonesian women hope election breaks them into boys' club
More than 200 million people are eligible to vote in the Feb. 14 election, yet only a handful of women represent them in parliament.
Tanaka takes part in a signing ceremony for the Japan-Uruguay Investment Agreement with Uruguay's Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Porto in 2015.
BUSINESS / WOMEN AT WORK
Jan 23, 2024
Why positivity is an asset in a career of PR and diplomacy
Keiko Tanaka went from an office at Nissan to the ambassador's residence in Uruguay.
Jiho Yoshimizu (right), representative of a support group for Vietnamese trainees in Japan, listens to a Vietnamese trainee seen in the monitors speaking online in October about her experience of having been instructed by an intermediary organization to undergo contraceptive treatment.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 22, 2024
Vietnamese trainees in Japan pressured to have contraceptive treatment
In many cases, intermediary organizations advised Vietnamese trainees that they would be sent home if they got pregnant.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals