It has been one of Japan’s worst-kept secrets. It has shattered lives and caused enormous international embarrassment to Japan’s reputation as a nation of laws. It has caused untold misery to countless children and families worldwide. And among all the G7 “developed” nations, it only happens like this in Japan.
The recent crash of a US Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft off the southern coast has once again highlighted Japan’s enduring lack of control over its own territories, even 78 years after the Pacific War.
It’s the next stage of evolution in Japan’s variant of racial discrimination: a naturalized Japanese citizen was last year denied membership at a golf course—explicitly for being a former foreigner.
The Kishida government has declared that all Japan taxpayers have a “responsibility” to support its policy of dramatically increasing military expenditures, accepting the premise that Japan’s neighbors are likely to launch an armed attack unless deterred from doing so. This marks the effective end of “New Capitalism.”
China’s “debt trap diplomacy” has been widely denounced by both the West and Japan, and it formed an underpinning theme for the latest edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VIII). However, the fact of the matter is that G7 countries, not China, are the largest holders of African debt.
The Japanese government is separating my children from me for no good reason, and I maintain that this is a violation of our human rights.
The appointment of moderate Yoshimasa Hayashi as Japanese foreign minister has elicited a good deal of discussion in the Chinese news media, with voices on both sides of the Taiwan Strait trying to interpret what it means for the region in an era of heightened tensions.
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.
The government’s new Covid self-quarantine policies are providing yet another opportunity to demonstrate that the lives, livelihoods, and investments of foreigners don’t really count in Japan.
The Covid-19 crisis became a dominating issue for the world, and Japan is no exception. This is a timeline of the events so far.
