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July 16, 2024
 

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David McNeill

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David McNeill
David McNeill is a Tokyo-based writer from Ireland. He writes for several international publications and teaches political science at Sophia University. His new co-authored book is "Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster."
JAPAN / Media
Dec 11, 2011
Tohoku ¥ for whales?
It was a comparatively minor entry in the annual, ritualized battle between pro- and anti-whalers. Japan's whaling fleet pulled out of Shimonoseki port near Nagasaki earlier this week on its way to another controversial four-month Antarctic cull. In the fine print of the 2011 departure, however, was...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2011
Justice stalled in brutal death of deportee
Abubakar Awudu Suraj had been in Japan for over two decades when immigration authorities detained him in May 2009. The Ghanaian was told in Yokohama of his deportation to Ghana at 9:15 a.m. on March 22 last year. Six hours later he was dead, allegedly after being excessively restrained by guards.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 19, 2011
Anti-whalers should just stop ...
Nearly a quarter of a century since Japan began its controversial "research whaling" cull off Antarctica, there was a major development this year in the annual contest of wills between whalers and conservationists.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2011
Fukushima village on way to becoming ghost town
Sleepy, idyllic and dangerously irradiated, the village of Iitate is preparing to evacuate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 10, 2011
After the deluge, universities face foreign exodus
Like thousands of foreigners, Tony Black recently made the agonizing decision to leave Japan, wife and baby child in tow. Unlike many, he has no concrete plans to return.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011
Fukushima No. 1's scary shadow
FUKUSHIMA — Tetsuo Sakuma has loaded his small pickup with all it can carry. There's not much of value: a television, some books, boxes of clothes, snatched in haste from a home he may never sleep in again.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2011
Despair engulfs Pakistani asylum seekers
In a ramshackle Yokohama house smelling of damp and rotting wood, Nasir Qadri and his family await their fate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 25, 2011
Waiting for the WikiLeak dam to break
Like a giant dose of salts to a bloated and constipated patient, "Cablegate" has scoured its way through the post-9/11 United States empire, exposing its internal workings to merciless scrutiny: In Iraq, U.S. forces and their Iraqi subordinates kill civilians and journalists while their commanders turn...
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
May 18, 2010
Sakurai: a very dapper demagogue
Makoto Sakurai brings to mind that old joke about the man in a pub who says "I'm not racist, but . . . "
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 9, 2010
Detainees allege abuse at Kansai holding center
The only way to see or speak to Moses Ssentamu is through a Plexiglas window at the West Japan Immigration Center in Ibaraki City, so there is no independent way to verify his claims of physical and psychological abuse. But if true, they raise serious concerns about Japan's treatment of visa overstayers...
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2010
Shinjuku gay enclave in decline but not on the surface
Nothing outside Tokyo's 24-Kaikan hotel hints at what goes on behind its gray concrete walls.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2010
Victim of Akihabara rampage reaches out to defendant
Until June 8, 2008, Hiroshi Yuasa led an ordinary life, one of thousands of taxi drivers who work Tokyo's streets. But just after noon on that rainy Sunday, as shoppers thronged the streets of Akihabara, he witnessed an event that changed everything.
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010
Chipping away at constitutional freedoms
Just as for the United States, the cost to Japan of the Iraq adventure has not been limited to the financial. A series of test cases against antiwar activists has dismayed lawyers and human-rights activists, who say the post-9/11 Japanese state is attacking constitutional freedoms.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010
'The wartime leaders of Japan were heroes'
General Toshio Tamogami, 61, was the chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force between March 2007 and November 2008 despite having a history of lobbing verbal missiles at "leftists," China and Japan's so-called war-renouncing Constitution. In 2008, he pulled these and other themes together in...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010
Secrets and lies
Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2009
Students give job-hunting system a big F
College students habitually complain about being overloaded with study. Not Shingo Hori though, who demands to be allowed to study more.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2009
Demographic crisis leaves universities in financial bind
The first day of the semester should be one of the year's busiest, but it is immediately clear at St. Thomas University that something is badly wrong.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2009
Speaking out about domestic violence
Just a year into her marriage, Emi Yoshida realized she might not survive it. Her violent, drug-addict husband had tried to strangle her, then beat her unconscious outside their Tokyo home. When she came to, he was threatening her with a knife.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2009
Ibaraki turns matchmaker to curb population decline
NAMEGATA, Ibaraki Pref. — With fat black clouds hanging ominously overhead, a sludgy field of sweet potatoes in rural Japan might not seem the best place for a date with the woman of your dreams.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
Amid same-sex marriage ban, LGBTQ couples opt for 'photo weddings'
A lesbian couple, consisting of a 35-year-old woman (left) and 40-year-old woman, cover their faces with bouquets as they pose for wedding photos in Yokohama on Nov. 1.
China and Russia conduct joint Pacific military patrol
The Russian corvette Gromkiy enters the Chinese port of Zhanjiang as part of a joint China-Russia naval exercise on Saturday.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.
She’s paying ¥1 million to help behind the scenes at the Paris Olympics
Mai Tarumi, who previously volunteered at the postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021, has a travel budget of ¥1 million for her trip to volunteer at the Paris Games.
How to tweak your diet when temperatures spike
Most people think of hydration as a strictly liquid-based concept, but eating foods with high water content is an essential part of making it through a Japanese summer unscathed.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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