The Covid pandemic has gradually unleashed political and social forces in Japan that have lifted its underlying xenophobia to the surface, and thus transformed its culture from one of attraction into one of repulsion for many of its previous admirers.
Since 2008, I have always devoted my end-year columns to counting down the Top Ten human rights issues as they pertain to Non-Japanese residents of Japan. This year I’m moving this feature to the Shingetsu News Agency.
Public housing is problematic in many cities where the private housing market cannot serve low-income communities properly, but Japan has done much better than many others with its Urban Renaissance Agency.
Japan’s decision to exclude most foreigners, including many foreign residents, from entering or reentering the national borders during the Covid pandemic has had a human and reputational cost which the mainstream media has tended to either ignore or to downplay.
Major social media companies are increasingly strangling independent news media with subtle shadow banning practices which threaten free speech and the flow of information vital to maintain democratic systems of government.
Ahead of Donald Trump’s second visit to Japan in 2019, a Japanese hotelier invited the US president’s former chief strategist and senior advisor Steve Bannon to give a “special lecture” in Tokyo. That hotelier’s name is Toshio Motoya.
Japan has a race problem. As I’ve catalogued for a quarter century, there are “Japanese Only” signs and rules on businesses nationwide. Refusing entry and service to all “foreigners” on sight, they exclude people who don’t “look Japanese.”
Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s largest automaker by production volume, is under fire from environmentalists and others who contend that it now possesses the very worst record among its global peers on responding to the climate crisis.
Over 140 million people in over ninety countries around the world have already watched Squid Game, making the Hwang Dong-hyuk creation the most-watched series in Netflix history.
Surprise! Debito Arudou admires something about Japan! It’s time for a little “gaman” during the pandemic era.
