Intro: I love elections. It’s not just that they are the quickest and most effective way for people to select their representatives. It’s also that elections are a fascinating reflection of h...
SNA: A fundamental issue for any country is knowing who lives there, and this is generally measured by a national census every ten years. Censuses are serious things. They should accurately r...
Excerpt: “Overtourism” has become a trendy word to describe Japan attractions (e.g., Shibuya Scramble, Hachiko, Ginza, Kyoto, Senso-ji, Mount Fuji) being overrun by tourists. But in Japan t...
Table of Contents: 1) Robert Whiting on “Slaughter in Saitama adds to list of foreigners murdered in Japan, shines light on social issue”, on the Bishop Family Murder Case, an underreported e...
Whiting: Tokyo was stunned in late December by the news of the brutal killing of longtime Japan resident William Bishop, a 69-year-old U.S. national, his 68-year-old wife Izumi Morita, and their ...
We've had plenty of reports in recent months of people being confrontational towards NJ (Resident and Tourist), or people who look like NJ, accusing them of all manner of cultural slights and fau...
SNA: It has been one of Japan’s worst-kept secrets. It has shattered lives and caused enormous international embarrassment to Japan’s reputation as a nation of laws. It has caused untold ...
Debito.org has been quiet on these developments until they actually came to fruition, and now that they have, it's time to cheer. Japan has finally gotten around to fixing one of its worst-kept...
Reuters: U.S. President Joe Biden included ally Japan along with rivals China and Russia in a list of countries he called "xenophobic” on Wednesday, in a speech at a campaign fundraising event ...
BIO: Jon Heese is becoming an old hand in Japanese politics, having served 13 years at various levels of government. He is presently one of five councilors representing Tsukuba (60 km NE of Tok...
On a personal note, it's been the busiest semester for me ever, teaching around 250 students and 19.5 college credits. Consequently, updating Debito.org has been slow since I've been devoting a...
CSM: A former swimming instructor from Egypt is helping revive the sleepy mountain town of Shonai, Japan. About 200 miles away, a Canadian polyglot is singing the praises of Tsukuba city. And Orz...
Intro: I teach Political Science at the university level. In my first lecture every semester, I try to convince skeptical students why they should bother studying Political Science at all. I ar...
Kyodo: "The number of foreign nationals residing in Japan hit a record high of over 3.4 million in 2023, government data has shown, with employment-related visas seeing significant growth amid th...
Table of Contents: 1) My SNA Visible Minorities 54: “Non-Japanese Residents claim political power” (Mar 31, 2024), where I argue the power of the vote matters whether you are a candidate or p...
Dr. Debito, I'm writing you because I'm experiencing a new type of discrimination by Rakuten Card. I've been a Rakuten Card owner since 2014, and it is the card I've hold the longest, making it t...
SNA: You might have heard the big news last month about Shiino Karolina, a Ukrainian-born Japanese citizen who won the title of Miss Japan. You have also heard earlier this month that she lost he...
Reuters: Three foreign-born residents of Japan filed a lawsuit on Monday against the national and local governments over alleged illegal questioning by police based on racial profiling. It is the...
I know I should be talking about the Miss Japan 2024 debate, but I'll get to it. Meanwhile, my latest SNA VM col 52 excerpt: Last month SNA (and this column) went on vacation for Christmas and Ne...
JT: Amid concerns over rapid depopulation, a private panel has proposed that Japan should aim to have a stable population of 80 million by 2100 in order to maintain economic growth. Last April, t...
JT: The Fukuoka District Court ruled Wednesday that Japan’s law that bans dual nationality is constitutional, rejecting an argument by a Japan-born plaintiff who lost her Japanese citizenship a...
Excerpt: Life is full of big emotions, many of them caused by you, others the product of your being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and some are just the cards you were dealt from birth and...
Opening: For this, my 50th column for SNA, I’d like to take the reader on a little nostalgia trip through a project I’ve been working on for a quarter century: "Japanese Only" signs. I�...
Here's the latest entry for the Rogues' Gallery of Exclusionary Establishments, where a bar in Okinawa refuses all "customers from overseas" (="Japanese Only") to enter the bar. The difference ...
Like it or not, Japan’s internationalization is happening. There are fewer Japanese and more foreigners than ever. In 2022, the population of Japanese citizens dropped below the 125 million...
Subtitle: Authoritarians are once again trying to racialize citizenship. In Asia, that’s quite normal. The problem is that conservative movements worldwide are similarly trying to shore up thei...
Looks like Japan's reputation for human rights abuses under its "Hostage Justice" criminal procedure is finally being recognized in legal circles overseas. Carlos Ghosn is no doubt having the las...
The point of this quick blog post is to demonstrate that once again, in its official population tallies, Japan will only count "Japanese nationals" as actual people living in Japan. Foreigners ...
Excerpt: SNA Editor Michael Penn is now doing SNA from the United States. Inspired by his big move, my previous column was about my leaving Japan in middle age, where I suggested readers decide w...
Table of Contents: 1) My SNA Visible Minorities 46: “Visible Minorities: Departing Japan at Middle Age” (May 15, 2023), where I make the case for deciding whether you're a "lifer" in Japan by...
Hi Blog. I want to tell you a bit about what's on my mind. I've been researching and commenting on Debito.org for nearly thirty years. I'm not tired of writing, but my writing here has become...
My latest column offers a frank assessment of living your life out in Japan as an immigrant. It of course can be done, but most of you will find that even after decades swimming against the curre...
My Debito.org post from yesterday has become a full-blown column at the Shingetsu News Agency. Here's the opening: SNA (Tokyo) — It’s the next stage of evolution in Japan’s variant of racia...
In a stunning decision, a Japanese court in Mie Prefecture has ruled that a foreigner... excuse me, a JAPANESE CITIZEN who naturalized from being a Zainichi Korean, may be denied membership to a ...
Kyodo: The government in the western Japan prefecture of Kagawa has called on local hotel operators to stop asking foreign residents for identification when they check in, local officials said Th...
My latest SNA VM column 44, which came out today, is an interview with Jon Heese (pronounced Hayes), a naturalized Canadian-Japanese and elected Tsukuba City Councillor of twelve years. A Caucasi...
Ivan Parker Hall, author of landmark book Cartels of the Mind: Japan’s Intellectual Closed Shop, died in Berlin on February 1, 2023, at age 90. Before I start writing another obituary, please l...
It is with great sadness that I heard this morning of the passing of an old friend, Ivan Hall, aged 90, scholar of Japan and the world, and author of "Cartels of the Mind" and "Bamboozled". Not...
SNA — News item: Cheered on by the United States for its “bold leadership,” last month “Japan unveiled a dramatic revamping of its security strategy and defense policy, including a plan t...
As regular Readers know, the second half of 2022 was particularly quiet for me as a blogger. Not as an author, of course, as I still put out my regular monthly Shingetsu News Agency "Visible Mi...
SNA excerpt: A long-term Non-Japanese resident friend, married with a Japanese husband and adult kids, recently told me about a new development in their relationship: Christmas was no longer to b...
First off, bravo the Japan team for its upset victory over Germany in their first match of the 2022 World Cup! It was a game where the Samurai Blue showed world-class skill against a lackluster t...
SNA (Tokyo) — This month Japan finally lifted its Covid restrictions and reopened its borders to tourists. Well, whoop-de-doo. For now, foreigners will no longer suffer entry caps, or go throug...
SNA: On the death of Queen Elizabeth II, let’s talk about monarchies. Why do they still exist, and should they still be allowed to exist? Monarchies are as old as civilization. Kings and heredi...
Just to let you know: My semester has started, and I have more classes than ever before (more than half of them new). So I'm quite busy: When I'm not giving lectures, I'm preparing those lect...
Debito is speaking at Amnesty International Japan on Sunday via Zoom. Details on posters within this blog entry.
SNA -- News Item: video footage surfaced in 2020 of a Vietnamese “trainee” being physically abused by Japanese co-workers at a construction company in Okayama Prefecture, resulting in injurie...
Table of Contents: REVISIONISM AND RECIDIVISM 1) Asahi: Okayama public prosecutors drop co-worker violence claim by Vietnamese “Trainee” despite video evidence. No wonder Japan’s violent bu...
GoEMON (from Asahi): Two years ago, a 41-year-old male Vietnamese technical trainee was abused by his four Japanese coworkers while working. The act was then discreetly recorded by another Vietna...
JT: “Bathhouses are a space where I can ground myself,” says Sam Holden, who first found solace in sentō when he was a graduate student in Tokyo. Holden, who labels himself an urban activist...