Stories about Japan
Omicron prompts Japan to attempt “national isolation” once more
Following the identification of a new strain of COVID-19, the Japanese government briefly attempted to completely seal the country's air and sea borders.
Japan named ‘Fossil of the Day’ for ‘clean coal’ plans
Efforts by Japan to reduce carbon emissions over the next decade appear to be marginal at best.
Why can't Japan's opposition parties win?
Despite an all-out effort to coordinate campaign activities, opposition parties once again failed to gain traction with voters.
Quirky Japanese promo campaign launches new brand of rice, just in time for harvest season
The official Japan-wide launch of a new rice brand includes a quirky musical commercial, a social media photo contest, and feelings of anticipation for "new rice."
Athletes’ mental health is neglected in post-Olympic phase, new study finds
With the Olympic Games and the Paralympics both over, there have been concerns about what the fame and spotlight does to athletes post-Games.
What did Japanese people really think about the Olympics?
To gauge public sentiment following the end of the Olympics, Global Voices used the Twitter API to track the online conversation.
Puny opposition no threat to Japan's sickly government
Opposition parties comprising vocal anti-vaxxers and members making unsettlingly inappropriate comments do not appear robust enough to unseat an unpopular Japanese government in the October polls.
Japan's ‘Battleship Island’ hides history of wartime forced labor
"Very little of Japan's history of industrialization presented at their new UNESCO Heritage sites is true."
Belarusian sprinter sent home from Olympics by Belarusian officials says she will ask for asylum
24-year-old Krystsina Tsimanouskaya said she was not worried about being kicked off the national team, but was afraid she would be imprisoned once she arrived in Belarus.
Twitter Japan appears to suspend government critics
Twitter Japan typically provides no explanation for the bans, or why accounts are restored.
How ‘Yasuke’ offers a new perspective on the history and current relations of Africans in Japan
The revelation that an actual African Samurai did indeed exist has triggered important conversations about his origins and the experience of the African diaspora in Japan today.
Confronting ‘vaccine hostility’ in Japan
"Municipalities all over Japan have reported receiving death threats when announcing vaccination programs, particularly for teens and adolescents."
Japanese brown bear runs amok in Hokkaido island's largest city
The incident illustrates the increasing interactions between bears and humans in Japan.
Global Voices’ top stories on environmental destruction, as the planet just observed World Environment Day
Global Voices has covered environmental issues extensively, and one focus of our stories has been the way pollution, massive urbanization, development infrastructures, and human-caused accidents are destroying fragile ecosystems.
Resistance, rebellion, and rage: Japan's opposition to the Tokyo Olympics
As Japan continues to struggle with a new wave of COVID-19 infections, opposition to the upcoming Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games continues to build.
Netflix’s new series on Yasuke, the African samurai, is a new dawn for Black characters in animation
Rather than a biography of the African Samurai, the a six-part series takes the void of knowledge post-1582 as a starting point to a re-imagined alternate reality and fantastical story.
Tweeting to remember: Twitter account commemorates Japan's 1945 Battle of Okinawa
"On This Date During the Battle of Okinawa, 76 Years Ago" shares daily links to blog posts that describe the battle, typically from the point of view of citizens of...
Japan announces timeline to dilute, dump radioactive water from Fukushima plant
The decision to release the wastewater poses seriously implications for fishing communities along the Fukushima coastline.
In another blow for Japan's Summer Games, male chauvinist “Olympig” is forced to resign
Yet another setback for the 2020 Olympic games, already postponed a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and plagued with gaffes.
Prominent Harvard professor pilloried for peddling revisionist history about wartime ‘comfort women’
Historians familiar with wartime sexual slavery perpetrated by Japanese armed forces point out that the professor, J. Mark Ramseyer, has long championed historical revisionism.
About our Japan coverage
Nevin Thompson is our Japan editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
