Tag - constitution

 
 

CONSTITUTION

COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 25, 2015
The scourge of conformism besetting Japanese society
The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law requiring married couples to use the same surname is rooted in a society that stifles those outside the norm.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2015
Forceful defense posture shift could lay Japan open to attack, LDP’s Seiko Noda warns
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s defense policy shift to allow the military to fight abroad for the first time since 1945 could be used by militants as an excuse to attack Japan, a ruling party lawmaker who hopes one day to succeed Abe said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 20, 2015
Gulf War trauma kicked off Japan’s retreat from pacifism in ‘91
As the first Gulf War raged in February 1991, Ground Self-Defense Force Maj. Nozomu Yoshitomi was supposed to be conducting war games with U.S. officers at a military facility in Tokyo. But the Americans appeared distracted, watching the conflict live on CNN. On another TV, local news showed Japanese...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2015
Abe’s tax compromise raises odds of twin summer polls
Abe may now be able to persuade his ally Komeito to agree to a snap Lower House election on the same day as an upper chamber poll.
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2015
Time to fix the vote-value disparity
Lawmakers have dallied long enough: Chastised again by the Supreme Court, it’s time they got down to business and resolved the disparity in vote values between districts.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 25, 2015
Japan and the war on terror
The Abe administration must not be allowed to use ‘the war on terror’ to enact sweeping security laws.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 21, 2015
Split clears a path for Constitution revisionists
The National Society to Create a Constitution for a Beautiful Japan met at the Budokan on Nov. 10 to listen to speakers advocate for a new national charter. One was Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who addressed the rally via a prerecorded video.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LAW OF THE LAND
Nov 16, 2015
And now for something completely unconstitutional
When did the Abe-verse become an alternate reality where past violations of the nation’s basic law can, with a straight face, be used to justify further violations of the same type?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 10, 2015
Thousands rally in Nippon Budokan Hall for constitutional change
Thousands of people packed Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo on Tuesday in support of revising the pacifist Constitution while pledging to collect 10 million signatures favoring their cause.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2015
Japanese pacifism is not the moral choice
Only in Japan is unilateral pacifism considered viable, but in a world of new threats a policy of sympathetic indifference is morally questionable.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2015
Gauging Abe’s ‘proactive contributions to peace’
While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has talked a good game about Japan playing a bigger international role, his track record so far shows little has changed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 27, 2015
Anticipating more muscular missions, MSDF launches new minesweeper
Amid the national debate over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s proactive security policy and newly enacted laws, a state-of-the-art minesweeper built for the Maritime Self-Defense Force was launched Tuesday in a ceremony in Yokohama.
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2015
Weapons development and exports
Japan is well on its way to become a weapons developer and exporter following a decision last year by the Abe administration to discard a long-standing arms export ban.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 16, 2015
Security legislation promises more than it can deliver
Japan’s new security legislation will do little to deter China or North Korea, and the SDF is not large or strong enough to turn the tides of war in international peacekeeping and possible U.S.-led war efforts.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 15, 2015
Couple sue over Japan’s six-month ban on remarriage for divorced women
The Shizuoka couple in their 20s filed a lawsuit Thursday over the rule for newly divorced women, calling it unconstitutional. They are seeking ¥3 million damages.
JAPAN
Oct 4, 2015
Article 9 sets an example for the world, Nobel contender says
The Japanese Constitution still sets an example for the world, despite a bid to circumvent its pacifist restraints, the head of a potential Nobel Peace Prize contender says.
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Oct 3, 2015
Unclear on the concept
What are all these people (in front of the Diet) protesting about?
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 29, 2015
Tough challenge awaits both ruling and opposition parties
The Liberal Democratic Party badly needs a course correction, but the lack of internal opposition to Shinzo Abe makes this nearly impossible.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 28, 2015
Where’s the justice? In Japan’s legal terminology, it’s almost nowhere to be seen
‘Where’s the justice?!” That’s the common refrain of people who lose in court. In Japan, the answer may be “nowhere,” at least as far as terminology goes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 28, 2015
China’s Japan-bashing: Is there any hope for goodwill?
As China regularly whips itself up into frenzy over Japan, it is easy to forget that the anti-Japanese sentiment is only a recent phenomenon.

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival