• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Japan Subculture Research Center

A guide to the Japanese underworld, Japanese pop-culture, yakuza and everything dark under the sun.

Makoto Iwahashi & Jake Adelstein

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  • Another tragic case of death from overwork (過労死) highlights a culture of labor abuse. Reform is needed.

Another tragic case of death from overwork (過労死) highlights a culture of labor abuse. Reform is needed.

The father of two children, the karoshi victim, was hired as an engineer working at the company’s plant in his hometown of Oshu in 1989. After being assigned to sales…

Is Japan’s Press Partially Responsible For The Decline Of Press Freedom?

Government officials have shied away from holding press conferences in the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) to avoid being faced with tough questions. Instead, they prefer to have private…

Student Loan Defaults Increasing At Record Speed in Japan

今年から導入された給付型奨学金が創設されるまで、日本で「奨学金」と呼ばれているものは全て貸与型であり国際的には「教育ローン」に分類される借金です。家庭が貧困化し大学を卒業しても正社員に就けない人が増えていく中で、この「奨学金」を返済できない人が急増しています。返済困難になった若者や連帯保証人が、2015年度は16737人がブラックリストに載せられ、8713人が訴えられました。さらに、入手したJASSOの内部資料で、毎年600人~800人が自己破産していることが明らかになりました。

Japan’s Labor Ministry Names and Shames “Dark Companies” For Labor Abuse

Burakku kigyō (dark companies, exploitive enterprises) are probably the epitome of everything that’s wrong in Japan today. In 2013, it was among the top trending words of the year. They’re…