Category Archives: Media

Media watch: Zainichi Koreans often had it harder in Korea than they had it in Japan

Posted on June 24, 2026 by philipbrasor

We’ve often written about the discrimination that Japan-born-and-resident “zainichi” Koreans have to put up with in Japan, but as it turns out, they also face a certain amount of discrimination in Korea, too. A June 14 story in the Asahi … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, June 15, 1995

Posted on June 13, 2026 by philipbrasor

Here is a column I wrote about the late Ai Iijima back in 1995 for the Japan Times, which is not available online. At the time, Iijima was at the height of her popularity as a TV personality in Japan. … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Lawyer bashed for trying to prevent refugees from being bashed bashes back

Posted on May 27, 2026 by philipbrasor

On May 20 Saitama District Court began hearing a defamation lawsuit brought by a lawyer named Kim Yeong-gong against someone he says directed “hate speech” at him in a blog post in 2024. Kim is demanding ¥7.2 million in damages. … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Local government disappears elderly man for reasons it can’t credibly explain

Posted on April 29, 2026 by philipbrasor

Last month, the government adopted a bill in the Diet to overhaul the adult guardianship system, which allows family courts to appoint guardians for elderly people whose cognitive functions have diminished to the point that they cannot be expected to … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Electric buses bought for Expo almost dead on arrival

Posted on March 8, 2026 by philipbrasor

By pretty much every metric last year’s Osaka Expo was a success, an outcome that surprised a lot of people given the problems leading up to it. However, there was one problem that remains unsolved even six months after the … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Government keeps its distance from Japanese language learning for foreigners

Posted on February 9, 2026 by philipbrasor

In Japan, compulsory education stops after junior high school, and though the vast majority of Japanese people now graduate from high school, it wasn’t always that way. Up until about 1980, many young people pursued full-time employment right after finishing … Continue reading →

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Media watch: LDP still haunted by the ghost of religions past

Posted on January 5, 2026 by philipbrasor

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party continues to be plagued by associations with the former Unification Church (UC), which, of course, was the main source of the resentments that allegedly led a man to assassinate former LDP president and prime minister … Continue reading →

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Media watch: The grift that keeps on ticking

Posted on January 2, 2026 by philipbrasor

According to psychologist Abraham Maslow, human behavior is motivated by a “hierarchy of needs” that start at the bottom with physiological needs and then proceeds up in pyramid fashion to “esteem” and “self-actualization,” meaning psychological needs that must be met … Continue reading →

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The Passion of Shiori Ito

Posted on December 16, 2025 by philipbrasor

I first saw Shiori Ito’s documentary, Black Box Diaries, about her struggle to bring the man who raped her to some kind of justice, in Oct. 2024 at the Busan International Film Festival. At the opening night reception, the American … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Welfare recipients have to choose between benefits and cars

Posted on October 27, 2025 by philipbrasor

In June the Supreme Court ruled that government cuts to welfare carried out between 2013 and 2015 were unlawful in a decision that undermined much of the welfare ministry’s rationale for how it determines benefits. The court ruled in favor … Continue reading →

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