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 Tokyo confirmed their radiation doses. On that day, March 18, 2011, the world watched on...
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.”
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.
Japan's retirees offer solution to labor shortage conundrum
For Eiji and Kumiko Ishikawa, the working day starts as early as 5 a.m. Having loaded the requisite equipment into their van, they set off for their first job of the day,...
Vulnerable young gay men lured into "legal" Tokyo sex industry
At a glance, First Dash is just a regular Tokyo bar. Customers laugh and drink, their animated chatter competing with the monotonous beat of techno thumping through speakers hovering somewhere...