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November 21, 2024
 

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Jon Mitchell

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Jon Mitchell
Jon Mitchell writes about human rights issues on Okinawa. In 2015, he received the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan Freedom of the Press Award for Lifetime Achievement for his investigations into U.S. military contamination on Okinawa and other base-related problems.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 3, 2014
Japan inked: Should the country reclaim its tattoo culture?
Tattooing is the most misunderstood form of art in contemporary Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 3, 2014
Japan's solitary ode to ink
Exhibits on display at the Yokohama Tattoo Museum suggest the goverment's view of body ink is out of touch with reality
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 19, 2014
Cannabis: the fabric of Japan
As counterculture groups around the world celebrate annual April 20 marijuana festivals, we examine the country's historical and cultural links to the much-maligned weed.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 19, 2014
Cannabis: the healing of the nation
Every summer in Hokkaido and northern Honshu, platoons of police and public servants scour the countryside for cannabis.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2014
ASIJ admits honored teacher sexually abused students
The American School in Japan reveals that teacher Jack Moyer, a renowned marine biologist, sexually abused students while employed by the institution between 1963 and 2000.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014
U.S. military report suggests cover-up over toxic pollution in Okinawa
Perhaps the most serious concern raised in the internal U.S. military report is the fear that PCB contamination at Kadena — if made public — would prompt demands for widespread tests on other U.S. bases.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 17, 2014
Ailing U.S. veteran wins payout over Agent Orange exposure in Okinawa
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has granted compensation to another former service member for exposure to Agent Orange while stationed in Okinawa during the Vietnam War era, despite U.S. denials that the defoliant was ever present there.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 3, 2014
Loved abroad, hated at home: The art of Japanese tattooing
The perception gap between international views of irezumi and those of Japanese people dates back more than 150 years, to when foreigners first laid eyes on Japanese tattoos. Since that time, however, Japanese tattooists have influenced their foreign counterparts in remarkable ways — and sometimes vice-versa.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 3, 2014
Tokyo: What's the story behind your tattoo?
Some foreign residents spill the stories behind their ink.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2014
Fears widen over Kadena toxins
Just days after the commander of U.S. Kadena Air Base, near the city of Okinawa, promised parents their children's schools were safe from dioxin contamination, a further 50 chemical barrels have been unearthed from adjacent land and a retired U.S. Air Force major has come forward with claims the school...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2014
Kadena moms demand truth
Six months ago, dangerous levels of dioxin were discovered near two U.S. Department of Defense schools on Okinawa Island — but only now are many service members based there learning the full extent of the contamination.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2013
Pollution rife on Okinawa's U.S.-returned base land
When the last U.S. service members moved out of the Nishi-Futenma housing area at Camp Foster, in 2006, the land was slated to return to civilian use as part of ongoing attempts by Tokyo and Washington to reduce the military burden in Okinawa — host to more than 70 percent of American bases in Japan....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 11, 2013
Okinawa: the junk heap of the Pacific
Over the past seven decades, Okinawa's sea, land and air have been contaminated with a cocktail of toxins by the U.S. military that have poisoned Okinawan civilians and U.S. troops alike.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2013
Oliver Stone warmed to Okinawans, fired up base foes
On Aug. 13, a dozen anti-base demonstrators scuffled with police outside the gates of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa, as marines watched from behind the fence cracking jokes and laughing.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2013
Okinawa dump site may be proof of Agent Orange: experts
The recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former U.S. military land in the city of Okinawa could be posing the same level of risks to local residents as dioxin hot spots in Vietnam where the American military stored toxic defoliants during the 1960s and 1970s, according to two leading Agent Orange...
JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2013
A drop in the ocean: the sea-dumping of chemical weapons in Okinawa
Accounts by U.S. veterans in the accompanying feature of tons of chemical weapons being dumped off Okinawa in autumn 1969 are the first time such revelations have been made public — but in fact they tally entirely with the Pentagon's standard operating procedures at that time.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2013
Exclusive: Red Hat's lethal Okinawa smokescreen
In July 1969, a leak of chemical weapons on Okinawa sickened more than 20 U.S. soldiers and laid bare one of the Pentagon's biggest Cold War secrets: the storage of toxic munitions outside of continental United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 4, 2013
'Okinawa bacteria' toxic legacy crosses continents, spans generations
Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City houses one of Vietnam's busiest maternity clinics, but hidden in a quiet corner, far from the wards of proud new mothers, is a room stacked floor to ceiling with every parent's nightmare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 4, 2013
As evidence of Agent Orange in Okinawa stacks up, U.S. sticks with blanket denial
In April 2011, these Community pages published the first accounts of sick U.S. veterans who believe their illnesses were caused by exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa during the Vietnam War era.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 28, 2013
281_Anti Nuke's anger at authority is at a critical mass
More than two years after the triple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, hundreds of thousands of residents of the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu remain displaced, the power station teeters on the brink of further disaster and large swaths of northern Japan are so irradiated...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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