Japanese rice prices have continued to fall, even at the time of the poor harvest in autumn 2006. In particular, producer prices have dropped sharply. Since rice is Japan's staple food, such a steady decline in the prices of domestically grown rice is shaking the very foundations of Japan's agricult

Farmers’ use of crop seed could be made illegal following revision of Seeds Seedlings Act

The GPR-based U.S. force reorganization scheme is facing strong opposition in many places in the world. Exchanging more and more information among people affected by the US overseas presence will lay bare the anti-people nature of the U.S. plan with respect to its varied aspects, such as national so

In the early hours of February 27, 2004, Tokyo Metropolitan police officers raided the headquarters of the Tachikawa Jietai Kanshi Tento Mura (Tent Mura, or “Tent Village”), an antiwar watchdog organization located in the western Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa that has been engaged in monitoring the

After the economic collapse of the 1990's, there was a major imapct, not only on the thousands of workers who lost their jobs and found themselves homeless, but also on working patterns more generally. Lifetime employment system became rarer while reforms and labor law deregulation led to a massive

As thirty Suginami residents and their 500 supporters await the verdict of a court case against Hiroshi Yamada, their conservative mayor, they do not seem hopeful. This is Yoko Watanabe's first court case. As a former supervisor for after school care for children, she is particularly concerned that

On 8 November 2006, the National Diet enacted a law to partially modify the Japan International Cooperation Agency Law (JICA Law), paving the way for a restructuring of JICA. The bill amends the current JICA Law and prepares for a merger between JICA and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation

Japan’s ODA has changed drastically since 2001. These changes have been driven by the aftermath of “9/11” and the US-led “war on terror.”

Enactment of the LCAP as a First Step to the Constitutional Revision

The Law on Constitutional Amendment Procedures (refer to Saruta Sayo’s article, “Changing the procedures for constitutional amendment without giving the people a voice in the process”) was enacted in May 2007, and will be enforced in three years. Following decades of contention, the constituti

In Japan, there are gaijin problems or issues surrounding residing foreigners, including the Zainichi Koreans, or permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan, the overstaying foreign workers (decreasing in number each year from approximately 300 thousand in 1993 to 200 thousand in 2005), the nikkeiji

How many Japanese know about detention centers in Japan? How many Japanese know anything at all about the existence of immigrants in Japan? How many Japanese know the fact that merely requesting a landing permission for temporary refugee status at immigration centers at the airport can cause a perso