Labour
May Day Eve Celebration Honors Women’s Unsung Labor
May Day Eve for Women was organized to recognize and re-evaluate unpaid and underappreciated domestic and care work in and outside of their homes.
Labour
Mind the Gap
Japan’s gender gap is still wide and post-covid austerity threatens to make it worse. The defense of our most vulnerable communities, including women, is the greatest defense we can provide for our economies and citizens.
Labour
Dirty Fight
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.
Labour
A Cut Above the Rest:Shibata Akari
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.
Labour
Struggle against Union Busting, Police Oppression over Fair Wage
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.
Human Rights
Public health workers and COVID-19: Overworked and struggling to meet the demands
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...
Labour
Living and dying on the streets in Japan
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.
Human Rights
Refugees in Japan help give rural communities competitive edge
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.”
Labour
Fukushima the first time I felt life in danger
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...