Tag - community

 
 

COMMUNITY

Originally from Brisbane, Australia, Linda Joyce moved to rural Tochigi Prefecture in 2024 for a career shift from teaching to hospitality and sustainable tourism.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Sep 25, 2025
Linda Joyce: ‘We hope people recognize the benefits of exploring rural areas’
Former teacher Linda Joyce shifted careers to the tourism industry in 2024 and now works at a historic property in rural Tochigi Prefecture.
While some American taxpayers assume they are ineligible to participate in Japan’s tax-deferred savings schemes, certified public accountant Rick Gundlach says that this is no longer the case.
COMMUNITY / How-tos
Sep 24, 2025
Tax-advantaged investments no lost cause for U.S. residents of Japan
Many U.S. taxpayers believe they should steer clear of Japanese investment vehicles due to stateside regulations — but a Japan-based certified public accountant advises otherwise.
Police investigate an area around the scene where a woman was killed in a knife attack in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Sept. 1.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 23, 2025
Tokyo police rearrest South Korean man suspected of murdering ex-girlfriend on stalking charges
Police allege that the suspect, Park Yong-jun, repeatedly stalked the victim, Bang Ji-won, and trespassed into her home in the days leading to her killing.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Swastika Jajoo (fourth from right) began attending the daily radio calisthenics routine at Sendai’s Kitasanbancho Park and struck up unexpected friendships with a group of elderly residents.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Sep 15, 2025
Calisthenic companions bridge cultures and generations
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a doctoral student in Sendai found friendship in unexpected places.
A native of Saskatchewan, Canada, Jon Heese naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 2007 and embarked upon a career in local politics the following year.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 8, 2025
Canadian-born politician tackles Ibaraki’s issues big and small
After being elected to four terms in the Tsukuba Municipal Assembly, Jon Heese now serves as a prefectural assemblyman — and one of Ibaraki Prefecture’s biggest cheerleaders.
Police investigate an area around the scene where a woman was killed in a knife attack in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 2, 2025
Korean man arrested in Tokyo on suspicion of killing ex-girlfriend
Police had told the suspect to leave the country after the victim reached out for help, and they saw him go through a security check at Narita Airport days before her death.
Police investigate the scene where a woman was found bleeding on a street in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 1, 2025
Woman dies after possible knife attack in Setagaya
An emergency call was made just after 1:30 p.m. on Monday that the woman, a 40-year-old South Korean native, was bleeding on the ground.
Mariko Kamijo (left) interacts with users of her nursing care facility called Isshoen, in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, in July.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2025
Chinese-language care supports aging Japanese war orphans
Many Japanese war orphans left behind in China at the end of World War II and repatriated decades later struggle to adapt to nursing homes because of language barriers.
Jesse Kirkwood is part of a vibrant field of translators who have nurtured what might be called a “post-Murakami era of Japanese literature and translation,” one book at a time.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Aug 29, 2025
Jesse Kirkwood: ‘Languages are entire cultural universes with all sorts of baggage’
The Japanese-English literary translator reflects on catching the recent wave of “post-Murakami” fiction and how he balances reading for work versus pleasure.
In honor of his longstanding ties and contributions to Japan's business, legal and nonprofit communities, Carl J. Green was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in 2018.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 20, 2025
Carl J. Green, mentor to a generation of ‘Japan hands,’ dies at 85
A lawyer and scholar with deep ties to Tokyo’s business and legal communities, Green opened the Ford Foundation’s Tokyo office.
Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi lifts the trophy after the team defeated Liverpool to win the Community Shield in London on Sunday.
SOCCER
Aug 11, 2025
Crystal Palace upsets Premier League champion Liverpool to win Community Shield
Crystal Palace celebrated a win but saw midfielder Daichi Kamada leave with an injury.
Francisco Villarreal moved to Japan in 2014 to attend a teacher training program and has forged deep ties to the kindergarten in Tokyo's Asakusa district where he has worked since 2018.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 11, 2025
Kindred spirits, kindergarten connections: From Buenos Aires to east Tokyo
An Argentinian teacher finds echoes of his hometown in the working-class neighborhoods of eastern Tokyo.
Saga Prefectural Police officials speak during a news conference held in the city of Imari, Saga Prefecture, early Monday following the arrest of a Vietnamese man a day earlier on suspicion of murder.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 28, 2025
Vietnamese technical intern arrested over Saga murder
The 24-year-old man is suspected to have broken into a Japanese language teacher's house, where he allegedly robbed and killed her.
A pendant-shaped relay device suspected to have been used to cheat on the TOEIC English proficiency test, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Tuesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 22, 2025
Rice grain-sized earphone may have been used to cheat on TOEIC English test
The earphone, which was several millimeters in size, was designed to be removed from the ear using a magnetic stick.
Pham Thi Bich Hau (fifth from left) began translating and interpreting for the Vietnamese community in Japan in 2013, when she was working for a trainee management organization. She went on to found the Vietnam Women's Union in Japan, organizing activities like the Tet festival pictured here.
COMMUNITY / Issues / The Foreign Element
Jul 21, 2025
The mothers holding up Japan's Vietnamese community
Online support groups and in-person events are helping Vietnamese women from all walks of life manage motherhood abroad.
Mod's memoir “Things Become Other Things” chronicles his walking trips across the Kii Peninsula, surveying “a graceful end to a certain life cycle.”
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2025
Craig Mod's life in motion in a disappearing Japan
In “Things Become Other Things,” the longtime resident of Japan captures that grace that lingers in slowly vanishing countryside towns.
After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
COMMUNITY / Issues / Longform
Jul 14, 2025
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan
Remote work is reshaping how Indian professionals navigate life, family and identity in a post-pandemic Japan.
Australian singer Donna Burke in Tokyo on May 29. People comment on how familiar her voice is when footage of Burke performing shinkansen announcements go viral online.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 27, 2025
A trained star: The Australian singer who became the voice of the shinkansen
The “JR voice” has built a career that encompasses voice work for prominent game franchises including Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy.
Following domestic economic instability after the real estate market’s 2020 collapse, and global geopolitical uncertainty, wealthy Chinese have sought to establish bases in other countries, including Japan.
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2025
Japan among most attractive Asian nations for uber-wealthy
The standard of living, health care, and safety and security make Japan attractive to wealthy Chinese expatriates, with Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe their main destinations.
Police arrested two Nepalese men living in Tokyo for allegedly contacting a woman via social media pretending to be Shohei Ohtani and swindling money out of her.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 25, 2025
Nepalese men posing as Ohtani arrested over fraud charges
Two suspects, both living in Tokyo's Adachi Ward, are believed to have swindled ¥1 million from a woman in Tokyo in early to mid-November last year.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?