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Friday, August 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
ASIA: India, Flavour of the Season in Japan
Noriko Kobayashi, a yoga teacher, has seen her business boom this past year - a phenomenon which, she says, is the consequence of a new interest in Indian culture in Japan.JAPAN: Foster Parents in New Role as Population Slumps
A government plan to boost Japan's fledgling foster parent system as a means of stemming the population slide has revived the social debate on abortion and sex education for teenagers.DEATH PENALTY: Families of Death Row Prisoners Ostracized in Japan
Just a few days after his father's death sentence was upheld by the Tokyo High Court, the son of the Aum Supreme Truth cult founder filed a suit against his junior high school demanding compensation for refusing to allow him to attend school.JAPAN: In Solidarity Against Female Genital Mutilation
When Hiroko Hashizume, 66, first heard of female genital mutilation (FGM) in some Muslim countries in Africa, she was deeply shocked and, later, overwhelmed by a desire to do something to stop the cruel custom.RIGHTS-JAPAN: Disabling ‘Barrier-free’ Facilities for Profit
Revelations that a major hotel operator cheated on the law and scrapped 'barrier-free' facilities, meant for the disabled, has shocked the public but not Kyoko Mita, 53, whose son is afflicted with Downs Syndrome.JAPAN: No Home Away From Home for Refugees
Despite spending more than half his life in Japan, Min Maung Nyo, a Burmese national who first arrived in 1989 to study agriculture and never went back after the military junta took over, says he longs to return some day.INT’L WOMEN’S DAY: Hope for Maids in Japan
Lenny Tolentino, a Filipina activist who provides pastoral care for migrant women and children in Japan, says she wept tears of joy and relief when she read a new United Nations report on racism that calls for sweeping changes in the country.JAPAN: Wives Stash Cash to Freedom
Masami, 57, is waiting for the day when she can divorce her husband, a respected professor of medicine she married 32 years ago.JAPAN: Playing Bad Neighbour
Japan's sagging ties with its Asian neighbours plunged to a new low, this month, when foreign minister Taro Aso said Japanese pre-World War II colonisation of Taiwan resulted in a raising of education levels in that country.HEALTH: Japan’s Homeless Pose TB Threat
For the past two years Suzuko Yasue, a diminutive but energetic woman, has been walking the streets of Tokyo, talking to Japan's growing homeless community and distributing pamphlets on the dangers of tuberculosis (TB).HEALTH: Lessons in Japan’s Asbestosis Time Bomb
As a child, Yoshiharu Sawada, now 77 years old, would visit his mother at the local asbestos factory where she worked and wait till she finished her shift so they could walk home together.ENVIRONMENT: Sea Warming Hits Japan’s Fisheries
Japan, a voracious consumer of marine resources, is now discovering that the drastic depletion of its own fish stocks is linked to the loss of underwater seaweed colonies - caused, in turn, by rising sea temperatures.JAPAN: Arrest of ‘Horiemon’ Casts Shadow on Reforms
The arrest of Takafumi Horie, Japan’s iconic young entrepreneur and president of 'Livedoor’, the hugely successful web portal, has cast a shadow on the country's much touted reform package that pushes privatisation as the key to an economic comeback.POLITICS-JAPAN: Making Way for Empresses
Chieko Akaishi, a feminist, has mixed feelings about moves to amend the imperial succession law to allow princesses to ascend Japan's revered Chrysanthemum Throne.JAPAN: Wooing the US to Gain Security Council Seat
Brushing aside its failure to win a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) last year, Tokyo is betting on backing the United States and its policies as a means of achieving a goal viewed as key to playing a more active role in global affairs.HEALTH: ‘Surveillance Key to Tackling Bird Flu’
Surveillance and capacity building in countries hit by the avian flu virus have been identified as key to containing a potential pandemic, said experts at an international conference on the pestilence that ended here on Friday.JAPAN: Wooing Women as Birth Rates Drop
Gender equality has been a distant dream in Japan but a drastic national population decline is forcing the government to take steps to help women - if only to encourage them to have more children.CHALLENGES 2005-2006: Thaw Unlikely in Sino-Japanese Ties
Sino-Japanese relations, already cold, are expected to turn frostier in 2006 despite the rapidly growing economic ties between the two Asian majors that are jockeying for power and influence in the region, say analysts.JAPAN: Villagers Ready To Fight Gov’t Over New Dam
Despite winning a landmark court ruling, residents of Higashi-Omi, Shiga prefecture, 500 km west of Tokyo, brave heavy snow and freezing winds to attend meetings and devise strategies to protect their beloved Echigawa river from a planned dam.JAPAN: Citizen Cash Powering Windmills
Tired of waiting for the government to increase Japan's alternative energy supply, grassroots organisations have started raising money from individuals to generate wind power and are reporting positive results.JAPAN: Foreign Workers Wanted, Must Bear Xenophobia
Intrusive media reports on the case of a Peruvian worker, arrested a fortnight ago on suspicion of killing a seven-year-old girl, have exposed the vulnerability of foreign workers to Japan's famous xenophobia.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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