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Category Archives: Politics

Working Timeline of the Moritomo Gakuen Scandal

The Moritomo Gakuen school affair was the first of the major scandals that shook the government of Shinzo Abe beginning in February 2017. This a working timeline which the Shingetsu News Agency intends to fill out and update in the weeks and months ahead.

Debating Marijuana Laws in Japan

While some voices are calling on Japan to consider the legalization of marijuana use, the government is currently weighing legislation to tighten the criminalization approach, even as it contemplates the possibility of more complex policies.

Scrap the Immigration Crackdown Plan

Tozen Union joined other labor unions and rights groups in a sit-in Wednesday outside Japan’s Diet Building, as the House of Councillors deliberated a bill to get tough on refugees, migrants, and other foreigners.

Our Home Japan

The time has come for foreign residents in Japan to rid themselves of self-marginalizing patterns of thought and to begin to embrace the notion that they live in Japan, work to the benefit of this country, pay their taxes, and thus have a claim on a certain set of rights.

The Controversial FCCJ Magazine Art

The artwork above appeared in the cover of the April 2020 issue of the Number 1 Shimbun, the monthly magazine of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. Weeks after it first appeared, the Tokyo Olympic Organising Committee demanded that it be withdrawn from public circulation.

Misreporting, Bias, and Fake News

Defense Minister Taro Kono’s denunciation of NHK and the mainstream news media as “fake news” for reporting that his ministry had decided to give up the Araya Training Area in Akita city as host for an Aegis Ashore facility was a cynical ploy on his part, but it did highlight once again that many people misunderstand the news media in rather fundamental ways.