· November, 2010

Stories about Japan from November, 2010

Japan: Young voices against job-hunting system

  22 November 2010

Students who are obsessed with job hunting [en] and cannot find a job, young workers who had to give up on the job of their dreams because their hunt wasn't successful, graduate students who had to enroll in a master's to have a chance to be hired by companies who...

Japan: Kids perform traditional Kabuki drama

  22 November 2010

Photojournalist Buddhika Weerasinghe published on his blog a series of photos of kids performing Kabuki, a traditional Japanese form of theater. On occasion of the 10th anniversary of Maruoka Kid Kabuki, a group of elementary and junior school students performed Chushingura, the legendary 18th century tale of 47 ronin (or...

China: Sanyo workers in Shenzhen stage strike

  17 November 2010

China Labour Bulletin reports that more than a thousand workers at Sanyo Huaqiang Laser Electronics in Shenzhen’s Longhua district staged a one day strike last week over working conditions and a planned merger with a factory in another district in downtown Shenzhen.

Japan: In memory of a courageous prosecutor

  16 November 2010

Journalist and yakuza expert Jake Adelstein pays his last respects [en] to Toshiro Igari [ja], a prosecutor who was found dead in Manila (Philippines) in August. Igari-san was the author of many books [ja] on the organized crime and in the last months he was investigating the collusion of the...

Japan: I now pronounce you friend and friend

  12 November 2010

For those who take note of social categories a new one has been created: that of ‘marriage mates’. The tomo-fuhfu (where literally tomo means ‘mates or friends’ and fuhfu ‘married couple’) is the new term coined by writer Megumi Ushikubo to indicate those couples who have grown apart from each...

Japan: Snow crab season

  8 November 2010

Buddhika Weerasinghe published photos of the Snow Crab – or Echizen crab – season that just kicked off in Fukui Prefecture (about 300 km north of Tokyo).

Japan: Leaked video of collision with Chinese boat

  6 November 2010

What is believed to be the authentic footage of the collision between the Japanese patrol ship and a Chinese fishing boat has been leaked and uploaded onto Youtube [video, ja]. Several videos taken by the Japanese Coast Guard off the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands were made public showing what happened at...

Japan: Superficial media and misinformation

  6 November 2010

An anonymous blogger at NewzJapan.com harshly criticizes CNN's coverage of Japan. In the post titled Halloween in Japan and CNN’s Lack of Research [en] the blogger says to “be surprised and appalled” by the superficiality with which some of their articles treat the Japanese culture and customs.

Africa: Cinema Africa 2010 in Tokyo, Japan

  4 November 2010

Cinema Africa 2010 in Tokyo, Japan: “The Cinema Africa festival is here again! It will run from 13th to 25th November, co-sponsored by the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and in association with the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa.”

Korea:Japanese Pop Star's Asian Slanted-Eye Photo Controversy

  3 November 2010

Two members of Morning Musume, Japanese pop group made headlines in several Korean newspapers with photos of them slanting their eyes (photos from Korean blog),the same posture that got Miley Cyrus under fire for taunting people of Asian descent. In the original link(removed), one member wrote below the photo ‘this...