Bread & Roses: Welfare in the Age of Climate Change
How would you feel if you didn’t have air conditioning in Japan’s current heat? Air conditioners are at issue in the nation’s welfare system.
All posts by Hifumi Okunuki
Bread & Roses: Did the Young Superstar Die from Overwork?
Haruma Miura, a popular 30-year-old actor, took his own life on July 18, 2020. Few Japanese hadn’t heard his name. He had starred in countless TV dramas, movies, and plays.
Bread & Roses: University Students in the Age of Corona
The work shutdown in the wake of the April 7, 2020, emergency declaration hit one group particularly hard: students working part-time gigs.
Bread & Roses: Workers of the World! Unite and Stay Home!
Today, we see the eight-hour workday as a social norm, albeit observed more in the breech. But workers shed blood and tears to bequeath this right to us.
Bread & Roses: Warm Meals to Tackle Poverty in Japan
When did poverty become normal? Conventional wisdom had it that poverty didn’t exist in Japan; that the miracle recovery during the country’s rapid growth period had given birth to a middle class of 100 million people.
Bread & Roses: How Nakasone Crushed Japan’s Labor Movement
Yasuhiro Nakasone, who served as prime minister from 1982 to 1987 and died this past November 29, broke the back of Japan’s labor movement.
Bread & Roses: Challenging Japan’s Rampant Housing Discrimination
Pets, music, foreigners. Do these words ring a bell? They might if you are a foreigner who has tried to rent an apartment in Japan. They’re known as the three big barriers in rental housing.
Bread & Roses: Tokyo Tribunal Turns Tables on Shane Language School
Tokyo General Union President Hifumi Okunuki outlines an important legal battle over paid leave and workers’ rights in Japan.
Bread & Roses: Is Your Attending Physician Working for Free?
Concern is growing over what is becoming of Japan’s healthcare environment, including the issues of medical interns’ death from overwork and being driven to suicide due to overwork.
