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  • The jury is in: Japan’s new jury system is a farce.

The jury is in: Japan’s new jury system is a farce.

This news story slipped under my large nose in the last few days of earth-shaking quake related news. On March 30th (2011) the Tokyo High Court overturned the not-guilty verdict…

Nuclear Ginza: Japan's secret at-risk labor force and the Fukushima disaster

Back in 1995, the UK’s Channel 4 produced a 30-minute documentary on Japan’s nuclear industry and how they use disadvantaged people, including burakumin and other day laborers, to do manual…

Years of Disaster Drills Prevents Tsunami Deaths At Iwate Prefecture Junior High and Elementary Schools

Despite the fact that Unosumai Elementary School in Iwate-ken was engulfed by a tsunami (津波・tidal-wave), every one of the 350 students who were in the building at the time managed…

Tohoku disaster: How to help

As I’m sure everyone is aware, Japan was hit by a massive M8.8 earthquake off the coast of Sendai on March 11. As aftershocks still rock most of Honshu, the…

The Coast Guard Agent Who Tried To Rescue Japan: A Humble Hero

Mr. Masaharu Isshiki (一色正春元海上保安官), the former Coast Guard official who released a classified videotape of the Chinese boat incident on Youtube last December, held a press conference at the FCCJ…

First-ever arrest of Japanese national for making child porn abroad

Police made their first-ever arrest of a Japanese national for producing child pornography while overseas apprehending a 64-year-old man for taking nude photos of a 15-year-old girl while in the Philippines.…

Kyoto Prefecture to become the first to ban child pornography, while Japan's Ruling Party does nothing.

You read that right! Kyoto Prefecture announced plans to roll out a policy that will officially outlaw the possession and acquisition of child pornography, with plans to enact the regulations some time this…

Prosecutors demand jurors pull the trigger in shooting trial

Monday saw the opening of a trial against ex-yakuza boss, Takashi Kajiwara, who was accused of attempted murder in the March 2009 shooting of an acquaintance. The defence asserted during the hearing that…

Underage Japanese girls learning to sell themselves online

The plague of child porn has in recent years been facilitated by the spread Internet, writes the Yomiuri in an article sourcing our favorite Polaris Project pundit, Shihoko Fujiwara. “One…

Tokyo LGBT community and supporters protest Ishihara’s homophobic comments

By Mizue Watanabe★ Tokyo’s LGBT community and its supporters held a lecture event January 14 to address the homophobic statements made in early December by Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara. The…