In February this year, Wishma Sandamali wrote a letter pleading for help when she thought she lay dying.
The Sri Lankan woman had arrived in Japan as a student in 2017, but was detained as an overstayer at the Nagoya...
There is little that Nahoko Takato has not seen or experienced. Seeking a change from her work operating a karaoke bar in her hometown of Chitose, Hokkaido, she left in 2000 to work with hospice patients in India, Thailand...
Ryota Kuriyama couldn’t care less about winning or losing, let alone athletic competition. But he does believe in fair play, in recognizing effort, in people. However, the blind musician and acupuncture instructor from Yokohama City came to understand the...
The pandemic has pushed women even further to the margins in Japan, exposing the systemic discrimination, as well as the lack of appropriate public services, especially for struggling women.
Labour Union fights for change for Japanese Public Health Care Workers
Sachie Akasugi (not her real name) is beyond exhausted. A worker at a public health center in Osaka, Akasugi and her colleagues are part of Japan’s first line of...
Long before the culture of the Ainu people took root in the lands of northern Japan during the 12th-13th century, tiny deities known as korpokkur who lived inside pits underneath butterbur plant leaves would emerge in times of difficulty...
In response to the prolonged stress that the pandemic has placed on women, a group of lawyers, union organizers and other professionals such as nurses and psychiatric counselors, all themselves women, offered a free consultation session in Tokyo on...
It was on a basketball court that Nahed* finally knew she was safe.
“A few days after coming to Japan, I wanted to play basketball,” she says. “It was 11:30pm and there were two courts. Five or six guys were...
This article has not yet been translated into English
Miki Dezaki scored a legal victory for truth and for freedom of expression in a Japanese court, so why is it being ignored?
In June 2019, Miki Dezaki found himself defending his hit documentary Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort...