Philip Brasor - The Japan Times

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 20, 2019

Citizen campaigns seek to increase voter turnout in Upper House election

Thanks to Japan's fairness guidelines, NHK offers free air time to all political parties participating in national and regional elections, a service that earlier this month resulted in the leader of the Party to Protect Citizens From NHK, which advocates the elimination of NHK's mandatory viewing fees,...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 13, 2019

Asylum-seekers in Japan are stuck in bureaucratic limbo

At the end of June, a Nigerian man in his 40s died at an immigration detention center in Nagasaki. According to a support group, the man had been on a hunger strike to protest his lengthy confinement, which had continued for more than three years. The detention center has yet to reveal the cause of his...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jul 6, 2019

Japan faces an uphill battle to reduce plastic consumption

Anyone following recent coverage of the worldwide plastic waste crisis may note a contradiction in the reporting on Japan's place in the discussion. On the one hand, Japan boasts a very high plastic recycling rate owing to local governments' sorting rules, which are some of the strictest in the world....

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 29, 2019

Japanese politics finds ways to target youth

The Liberal Democratic Party's campaigns to encourage younger generations to take an interest in politics stirs media criticism.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 22, 2019

2020 Tokyo Olympics puts spotlight on animal welfare

The International Olympic Committee sets procurement standards for materials used in conjunction with the games. One of these standards is sustainability, which was first established for the 2012 London Olympics. In terms of meals supplied to athletes and others, ingredients must be produced and harvested...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 15, 2019

Combating an unfounded fear of Japan's recluses

Although the term "hikikomori," which describes people who shun social contact and seek extreme degrees of isolation, has been in common use for several decades, it has taken on a more sinister cast recently as the media has come to view it as a social problem. In the wake of two incidents that have...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 8, 2019

Documentary juxtaposes both sides of contentious debate on 'comfort women'

On May 30, three people held a news conference in Tokyo to speak out against a documentary titled "Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue," which focuses on the rhetorical battle over the women who sexually serviced Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. The participants...

JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING

Jun 7, 2019

Japan facing increased pressure to hike minimum wage, but business leaders give mixed response

Last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy recommended that the government draw up detailed measures to bring the nationwide average minimum wage up to ¥1,000 per hour as soon as possible.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Jun 1, 2019

Lawmaker Hodaka Maruyama's 'war' gaffe puts spotlight on disputed isles

Diet lawmaker Hodaka Maruyama was kicked out of opposition party Nippon Ishin no Kai last month over remarks he made during an exchange excursion to one of the Russian-controlled islands off the coast of Hokkaido that Japan claims as its own. Other opposition parties have demanded he resign and the ruling...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 25, 2019

News outlets debate the ethics behind prenatal testing

Last month, the Diet enacted legislation to pay ¥3.2 million to each person who was sterilized as part of the Eugenic Protection Law passed in 1948. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has also said he will apologize to the roughly 25,000 victims on behalf of the state. Many of them feel the amount of money is...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 18, 2019

TBS drama misses an opportunity to shine a light on genuine workplace issues

The most common gripe I hear from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the fluid meaning of "quitting time." The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are,...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 11, 2019

JR Hokkaido confronts the harsh realities of financing rail lines in depopulated areas

Privatization of public enterprises is a core tenet of neoliberalism, and probably the most representative domestic development in this regard was the privatization of Japanese National Railways (JNR) in 1987. The resulting rail companies, distinguished primarily by region, have demonstrated differing...

JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING

May 9, 2019

Cracks forming in Japan's premium-based universal health care system

One of the issues U.S. voters say they care the most about right now is health care. America is almost alone in the developed world in not providing its citizens with universal medical care.

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

May 4, 2019

Talking trash: The sport of collecting as much waste as possible

Thanks to Netflix, many are familiar with Japanese clutter-buster Marie Kondo and her soothing remedies for the melancholy brought on by conspicuous consumption. Kondo is already a superstar in Japan, where closet sizes barely keep up with snowballing affluence, but she wasn't the first in her field,...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Apr 27, 2019

Keeping up appearances in the workplace in Japan

Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Inc., which employs about 17,000 people, announced earlier this month it would allow office workers to come to work in jeans and sneakers. Factory workers in the company will still be required to wear uniforms and sales staff will still be expected to don business suits as per...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Apr 20, 2019

NHK docudrama reveals telephone scam tactics

Thai police last month raided a residence in Pattaya where an alleged telephone swindling operation was taking place. They discovered 15 Japanese nationals suspected of calling retired people in Japan and fooling them into purchasing electronic money. Japanese police say they will arrest the suspects...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Apr 13, 2019

Japan's news outlets toe the line over Aegis Ashore anti-missile system

On March 21, a female student at the Akita University of Art in Araya Okawamachi, Akita Prefecture, was slated to give a valedictory speech at the college's graduation ceremony. According to the Asahi Shimbun on March 31, the unnamed woman wanted to talk partly about the proposed installation of an Aegis...

JAPAN / YEN FOR LIVING

Apr 12, 2019

Is a lack of money behind Japan's drought of local political candidates?

In an Asahi Shimbun editorial published March 30, a week before nationwide elections were held for prefectural and municipal assemblies on April 7, the newspaper fretted about the state of local politics.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 10, 2019

Morgan Fisher and all the (not so) young dudes of Mott the Hoople join forces again

In early March, 35 people gathered on the first floor of a two-story house in Tokyo to listen to the British keyboard player Morgan Fisher reminisce about his days with 1970s rock act Mott the Hoople. This month, Fisher is joining a reunion of the band for brief tours of the U.S. and U.K. Since 1985...

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX

Apr 6, 2019

Japan's outgoing Emperor has made the role his own

Among the hundreds of recent articles about the impending end of the Heisei Era was one Asahi Shimbun opinion piece by Yukiya Chikashige, who has covered the Imperial family for the past 30 years. He wrote that women's weekly magazines invented the modern image of the Emperor and Empress starting in...

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