Labour

Tokyo has created one of the world’s best sewage-management systems but unions warn of the impact of market-driven capitalism and climate change.

Shibata Akari is one of a small number of female slaughterhouse workers in an industry steeped in discrimination and where workers were not even paid until the 1970s.

Someone in the Japanese government appears to have ordered an Osaka-based union to be destroyed. The Kan’nama story has triggered alarming constitutional questions – but little media attention.

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...

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The murder of an elderly homeless woman in Tokyo in November was another reminder of the vulnerability of people living on the streets, even in one of the world’s safest cities. Misako Obayashi, 64, was hit on the head, apparently with a bag of rocks, while sitting at a bus stop near Sasazuka Station in the early hours of Nov 16. Her alleged killer, Kazuhito Yoshida, 46, reportedly offered her money to move elsewhere and became enraged when she refused.  

When C.I. Desert landed at the Narita International Airport in 2018, he stepped into a new life. Young, educated, and multilingual, he fled home, family and a teaching career in Cameroon, which was rife with civil unrest. The reason for choosing Japan, he says, was simple: “In 2018, if you typed ‘10 safest countries in the world,’ you saw Japan.”

An interview with former firefighter: Yukio Takayama The high-pitched sound of the dosimeter echoed in the darkness, and hyper-rescue personnel who had been dispatched from...