Pandemic Exacerbates Japan’s Runaway Worker Crisis
The Covid pandemic has led many foreign workers to desert their places of employment in Japan, and some of them have become runaway workers and even illegal overstayers.
Tag Archives: Covid
The Decline of the Soft Power Nation
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.
Visible Minorities: Human Rights Top Ten for 2021
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.
Voices of Japan’s Stranded
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.
Bread & Roses: Pandemic Drives Women into “Nighttime Work”
On November 16, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced the disciplinary dismissal of a 28-year-old school nurse for moonlighting as a sex worker for more than a year.
SNA Covid Variant Handbook (Revised Edition)
Less than two weeks after the Shingetsu News Agency issued its SNA Covid Variant Handbook, the World Health Organization finally stepped up to plate and belatedly offered its own new nomenclature.
Red Tape Still Trips Up Foreign Students’ Entry to Japan
The government announced that it widened the door to foreign nationals’ entry to Japan starting from November 8 for short-term business travelers, foreign students, and technical interns, but byzantine regulations continue to signal that the welcome mat for foreigners is not yet out, and students in particular are feeling the brunt.
Japan Travel Ban Still Putting Lives on Hold
Despite the drastic decrease of new Covid cases in recent weeks and more than two-thirds of the population having become fully vaccinated, the Japanese government has still given no explanation why it is continuing to refuse to let international students and some foreign workers back into the country.
Visible Minorities: The Bright Side of Japan’s “Culture of No”
Surprise! Debito Arudou admires something about Japan! It’s time for a little “gaman” during the pandemic era.
Better to Die by the Gun in Myanmar
Amidst political chaos, military violence, and a lethal pandemic, some Myanmarese are lining up in the thousands to go out of their homes, onto the streets, and to risk their lives.
