Stories from and

Learn How to Protect Your Email Communication in Less Than 30 Minutes

  1 July 2014

Email Self-Defense, a beginner's guide to email encryption by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), was released in six new languages [fr, de, jp, ru, pt, tr] on June 30, 2014. More languages are underway. Even if you have nothing to hide, using encryption helps protect the privacy of people you communicate with, and makes life difficult for bulk...

VIRAL VIDEO: ‘But We're Speaking Japanese’

  25 May 2014

A video skit of a Japanese waitress serving a group of foreign-looking customers who speak Japanese has gone viral. The clip has resonated among many Japanese-speaking expats who occasionally experience how local Japanese communicate with foreigners based not on the language they are speaking but on how they look. Watch the...

Japan's Yu Terasawa Named ‘Information Hero’ by Reporters Without Borders

  14 May 2014

Reporters Without Borders, a France-based non-governmental organization that defends freedom of information and freedom of the press, has for the first time created a list of 100 Information Heroes. From Japan, Yu Terasawa was among them. He is an investigative journalist and has written books exposing police corruption.  Reporters Without Borders...

Japan's Citizen Media Meet at Mikawa Medifes 2014

  4 May 2014

Citizen media makers in Japan are gathering in the Mikawa region of Japan's Aichi prefecture this weekend for the 12th annual citizen media conference Mikawa Medifes 2014 [ja]. Dozens of sessions about civic media will be held at the Kariya City Cultural Center from May 3 to 5, 2014. Themed in...

Remote Hubs in Asia for NETmundial Internet Governance Meeting

Advox  8 April 2014

NETmundial, which will bring together people from a variety of backgrounds to discuss the principles of Internet governance, is set to be held in São Paulo on 23 and 24 April 2014. It will also have 33 remote hubs in 31 cities spread throughout 22 countries that will allow for...

Manga “1F” Takes You Inside Fukushima Nuclear Plant

  31 March 2014

A manga by artist going by the name Kazuto Tatsuta takes readers inside the crippled nuclear plant of Fukushima Dai-Ichi, or ichi efu (1F) – as insiders dubbed it – a place he himself worked in 2012, a decision he took in a period of financial struggle. The graphic novel...

Lies and Falsehoods Keep the World Go ‘Round in Japan

  17 March 2014

Twitter user @suzaks1 criticized [ja] the amount of lies and inaccuracies that are making Japanese headlines: ホテルの食材も北の国のレールも何処かの役場の書類もクラッシックの楽曲も国が誇るトップレベルの研究所や有名大学院で博士なるための論文も、みんな虚偽だらけ虚偽まみれ。それでも回っちゃってる変な国。原発だって爆発して当然だわ。国土汚染しても嘘の上塗りで皆を騙せられる便利な国。こえ~ — 須崎真一NoMyCar,NoNukes (@suzaks1) 2014, 3月 14 [Japan is a] country covered in lies: fake ingredients on the menu of top Japanese hotels, railway gauges fabricated in Hokkaido, major symphony music by a fraud composer, and...

Join IGF Japan to Discuss Internet Governance

  7 March 2014

IGF Japan, the Japanese chapter of the Internet Governance Forum, where people involved in web come together to discuss Internet governance challenges, will be held on March 14, 2014 at Aoyama Gakuin University. Sessions cover topics such as personal data and privacy, emerging generic top-level domains in Japan, and global online...

VIDEO: Fashion Resistance to Militarism

  7 March 2014

The “Fashion Resistance to Militarism” [ja], a fashion show organized by Asian Women’s Association, a non-profit women's right organization to call attention to the issue of violence against women, took place on December 1, 2013. The full video is now available here.

Art Arises From Snow-Covered Tokyo

  11 February 2014

The heaviest snowfall in 45 years hit Tokyo over the weekend. The unusual amount of snow triggered traffic accidents, killing 11 and injuring thousands, and travel was disrupted across the country. However, amid the cold and white, some used the snow to create beautiful, fun and sometimes strange artwork. RocketNews24...

Heavy Snowfall Brings Playtime to Tokyo

  9 February 2014

Heavy snowstorms hit Japan on Feb 8, 2014. Twenty seven centimeters of snow fell in central Tokyo, for the first time in 45 years. Moro Miya, a writer and a blogger who specializes in introducing Japanese culture to Chinese readers, collected the photos of snowmen and snow-animals that were posted...

Is Japan Alone? Survey on Dance Regulations and Clubbing

  3 February 2014

Fresh off writing a series of posts on dance club regulations in Japan for Tokyo's city life magazine Time Out, James Hadfield is taking a survey on clubbers around the world: In light of the ongoing controversy regarding clubbing in Japan, where clubs continue to be shut down and harassed...

‘AFTER 25 Conference': Tokyo and Berlin Discuss Creative Culture

  26 January 2014

As Berlin and Tokyo mark 20 years of friendship as sister cities, representatives of two creative industries, including Chairman of the Club Commission of Berlin Marc Wohlrabe and Takahiro Saito, a lawyer and member of Let's Dance, a consortium that fights against Japan's dance regulations, will come together for the AFTER 25 conference on...

Creating Japanese Food With Ingredients from Crete

  17 January 2014

Five prominent Japanese chefs and five of their Greek counterparts got together at a hotel in Crete on January 14, 2014 to create ten dishes representative of the respective origins using local products. At the culinary event dubbed “CRETE delicious” [el], Japanese chefs demonstrated how Cretan products can be incorporated...

Japan Scores Well on Internet Freedom Status Report

  17 January 2014

U.S. based watchdog organization Freedom House compiled a report on Freedom on the Net 2013 and included the report on Japan for the first time. Japan was evaluated as “Free”,  where the constitution protects all forms of speech and prohibits censorship, and Internet and digital media freedom are generally well established. For...