The Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring surgery to remove a person’s reproductive capabilities to register a gender change was unconstitutional, but it upheld a requirement, at least temporarily, for transgender people to undergo surgery that alters the physical appearance of genitals.
Although there have been calls for immigration reform following the death of Sri Lankan national Wishma Sandamali in a detention center, the actual prospects for improvement in Japan’s controversial refugee and immigration system are not particularly bright.
The Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau opened its Facebook page with a cute koala mascot at the same time that its refusal to provide medical treatment to a Sri Lankan detainee cost her life.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the last half of May 2020.
Since Shinzo Abe stormed back into power in December 2012, he and his Liberal Democratic Party have been able to count upon Japanese millennials as a steady and reliable support base. But the Liberal Democratic Party espouses stances on a variety of issues which run directly counter to millennials’ interests, hopes and beliefs.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported in the second half of July 2019.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on November 15, 2018.
Whenever we go to cover a Japanese political party event, it is usually the case that we are the only non-Japanese in the room. You had to figure that the leadership race of the venerable but now largely insignificant Social Democratic Party (SDP) would be another one of those and, of course, it was. But, really, there were only a couple of dozen Japanese reporters there too.
There’s one thing that all of Japan’s significant, existing opposition parties seem to agree upon; and that’s that none of them have any hope of overthrowing Liberal Democratic Party rule on their own in the presumed double elections of July 2016. They must combine their forces in some new manner in order to present a credible alternative that people might actually vote for.
