Visible Minorities: Never Forget Japan’s Racist Covid Policies
This month Japan finally lifted its Covid restrictions and reopened its borders to tourists. Well, whoop-de-doo.
Category Archives: Column
Bread & Roses: A Lethal Gap in Japan’s Labor Laws
A 68-year-old woman died of a heart attack at her workplace, the home of a bed-ridden elderly resident, in 2015. She worked as a housekeeper and nurse. Immediately before her death, she had worked in the home on a nearly 24-hour basis for a full week straight.
Visible Minorities: Queen Elizabeth, Monarchies, and Progressivism
On the death of Queen Elizabeth II, let’s talk about monarchies. Why do they still exist, and should they still be allowed to exist?
Bread & Roses: The False Freedom of the Gig Economy
Many people glamorize gig jobs. Freelancing conjures images of being free from corporate shackles, free to be one’s true self and to work on one’s own terms. But it is a trap.
Visible Minorities: Reforming Japan’s Dickensian Foreign Trainee Program
News Item: video footage surfaced in 2020 of a Vietnamese “trainee” being physically abused by Japanese co-workers at a construction company in Okayama Prefecture, resulting in injuries including broken ribs and a broken tooth.
Bread & Roses: Shinzo Abe’s Assassin and the Lost Generation
In the weeks since Nara resident Tetsuya Yamagami used a homemade gun to shoot and kill former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in front of his city’s Kintetsu Yamatosaidaiji Station, the nation and the world have been grappling with the question of why the assassination occurred.
Visible Minorities: Abe’s Assassination and the Revenge of History
The assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has occasioned a lot of valuable, eye-opening discussions in the media, but few if any have focused upon how Abe’s death could be seen as a form of karmic payback–what happens when you ignore the lessons of history in the pursuit of raw political power.
Bread & Roses: Labor Rights Struggle of Seven-Eleven Store Owners
The Tokyo District Court has ruled that Seven-Eleven store owners have no collective bargaining rights.
Visible Minorities: Torture and Murder in Japan Detention Centers
News Headline: “Prosecutors drop case over death of detained Sri Lankan woman.”
Bread & Roses: Unfulfilled Promises on Equitable Employment
Many commentators portrayed Article 8 of the new Part Time and Fixed Term Employment Act as the point at which Japan finally recognized the principle of same work-same pay for regular and irregular workers. But one word threatens to undo its promise–“unreasonable.”
