Search - article

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LEARNING CURVE
Jul 20, 2016

Eiken broadens language tests to address criticisms

As the Eiken Foundation tries to meet the demands of a growing number of test-takers, what do students, parents and teachers make of the tests?
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jul 20, 2016

Readers' letters: Rote learning, vocab and Eiken's aims

Some readers' responses to last month's article by Hans Karlsson, 'Is the Eiken doing Japan's English learners more harm than good?'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 11, 2016

LDP-led ruling bloc, allies clear two-thirds majority hurdle in Upper House poll

The Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition scored a sweeping victory in the Upper House election Sunday that gave the Diet's pro-revision forces the two-thirds majority needed to initiate Japan's first constitutional referendum, final results showed Monday morning.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2016
Jul 6, 2016

A ruling bloc win in Sunday's poll puts Constitution in crosshairs

Keiko Hirai was surprised to see a letter addressed to her and her husband from the Self-Defense Forces, urging their 15-year-old son to enroll in a special high school run by the Ground Self-Defense Force after graduating from junior high.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DECISION 2016
Jul 6, 2016

Osaka Ishin struggling ahead of Sunday's Upper House poll

Just before the Upper House election campaign kicked off on June 22, Osaka Ishin no Kai leaders were plotting their schedules for the days leading up to Sunday's poll.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 2, 2016

On the campaign trail for the foreign right to vote

Permanent residents argue their tax contributions entitle them to a degree of representation at the ballot box. With the Upper House election just around the corner, we examine both sides of the debate.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 2, 2016

What are Shinzo Abe's real three arrows?

In his campaign for the upcoming Upper House elections, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pussyfooting around his plans to revise the Constitution. He is keeping his cards close to his chest because polls have shown that voters oppose constitutional change. Instead, Abe is calling on voters to keep the faith...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 26, 2016

'Same work, same pay' goal may spark a race to the bottom

Without details on how to bridge the chasm that divides irregular and regular workers, PM Abe's target is hot air.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 7, 2016

If formed, a Tokyo assembly committee could pry Masuzoe from governorship

Public calls for Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe to step down grow despite his apology a day earlier and a pledge to refund some of the ¥4.4 million he misspent.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 29, 2016

A-bombs taught U.S. how to justify attacks abroad

The nuclear attack on Hiroshima set in motion a sweeping, national generalization that if Americans do it, it is right.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 21, 2016

Wrath awaits Japanese women who shun their childbearing 'destiny'

Back in the 1990s, actor Tomoko Yamaguchi often appeared in trendy dramas — TV shows that portrayed the lives of middle-class people who, whether married or not, only worried about what to buy and who to love. Once she turned 35, Yamaguchi was no longer considered suitable for such roles, but trendy...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 30, 2016

Japan's meek media kowtows to the government

Last week I compared the Catholic Church in Boston and Japan's "nuclear village" of atomic-power advocates — two powerful institutions that stifled embarrassing revelations for some time. The Oscar-winning film "Spotlight" depicts the comeuppance of the church hierarchy after investigative reporters...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 2, 2016

Shincho gets back in tabloid battle with scoop on Ototake

When the weeklies go to war, nobody's safe.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 23, 2016

Sincerely, Little Nigeria: A reporter signs off

After five years of covering Japan's African community, a writer reflects on progress since 3/11 and speculates about the future.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 16, 2016

Osaka Ishin to campaign on local autonomy, free education in Upper House poll

Expanded local autonomy and free education until college are part of a series of proposals for constitutional revision that Osaka Ishin no Kai is finalizing in advance of this summer's Upper House election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Feb 29, 2016

'Landmark' ruling sent Japan's foreign residents back to welfare limbo

Widely misunderstood 2014 case reaffirmed the decades-old stopgap that means noncitizens can receive support but can't appeal if their application is rejected.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2016

Public access to government records

The principle of sovereignty resting with the people must be reinforced by improving public access to official documents.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 16, 2016

From sexual liberation to liberation from sex

Young people are forever shocking their elders, and elders, however shocking they themselves may have been to their own elders once upon a time, never fail to play their generation's perennial role of shocked onlookers to shocking youthful behavior of one sort or another.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 2, 2015

Life after work in Japan: tackling readers' pension questions

Among the questions that Japan Times readers send to the Lifelines column, a perennial topic is navigating the Japanese pension system. Here are some answers.
EDITORIALS
Nov 15, 2015

Protecting broadcasters' freedom

Freedom of the press is a pillar of democracy. The administration and the LDP should refrain from trying to control the media.
EDITORIALS
Nov 12, 2015

Supreme Court and marriage rules

Lwmakers should shed their outdated view and proceed to make necessary legal amendments to end the discrimination, injustice and inconveniences caused by two marriage-related articles in the Civil Code.
LIFE / Language / MORNING ENGLISH
Oct 5, 2015

Let's discuss 'idols' and marriage

Last week the media obsessed over the story about the 17-year-old girl who was sued by a talent agency for violating the terms of her contract, which stipulated that she could not be involved in any romantic relationships.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 19, 2015

Diet enacts security laws, marking Japan's departure from pacifism

Following boisterous confrontations in the Diet and more than three days of public protest, the Upper House finally enacted two divisive security laws early Saturday that will mark a significant departure from Japan's postwar pacifism.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Aug 29, 2015

Culture clash: Entertainers add weight to government protests

Judging from recent comments posted on Twitter and websites such as abe-no.net, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't appear to have endeared himself to a number of celebrities who hold plenty of sway over public opinion with regards to his moves to change the nation's Constitution.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 10, 2015

Japan's military that isn't: a short primer in self-defense doublespeak

Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, which renounces war, has been interpreted as permitting the maintenance and use of military force for self-defense, but this has led to some interesting linguistic gymnastics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Jul 15, 2015

The LDP's comic appeal for constitutional change falls flat

I hadn't planned on reading the Liberal Democratic Party's propaganda comic on constitutional change for the same reason I don't watch NHK, listen to AKB48 or use my underpants as an ashtray. Yet, as a piece of Japanese legal cultural history, perhaps it merits comment.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 28, 2015

Has striking in Japan become extinct?

"Strike." Dear reader, what do you think when you hear this word? What impression do you get? Do you see the blood, sweat and tears? Do you see an angry, vicious mob disturbing our civil society? I bet a majority of Japanese people under the age of 40 have neither a positive nor negative impression of...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 26, 2015

Economic challenges ahead

The Abe administration should be taking a much more aggressive approach to getting the economy on a growth track.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?