“Womanhood in Japan” is a new column that rounds up Japanese news related to women’s daily experiences of sexism here and considers what we can do to increase the pace of change. Preferential treatment of men in Japan Unsurprising results from a...
Read Kimiko Hirata’s assessment of Japan’s energy system in this companion article: Climate campaigner Kimiko Hirata on how to change Japan’s energy system. Despite the success of Kimiko Hirata’s efforts as part of the climate action NGO Kiko...
Kimiko Hirata is an inspiring figure as a climate campaigner in Japan. In face of the rigid inertia of the Japanese government to implement effective and immediate climate-positive action, she is pushing the nation forward. Her work includes...
A newly opened zero-waste supermarket in Kyoto aims to bring packaging-free shopping not just to Japan’s ancient capital, but to the entire country. Interest from customers and other retailers is pushing the company’s expansion plans along faster...
For more than one thousand years, Kyoto has held Japan’s biggest festival, the Gion Festival. In a regular year, throughout July, more than one million people crowd into downtown Kyoto City to experience the street stalls, the towering wooden...
Japan still has a long way to go to create a welcome space for gender minorities in both sport and society. But the young generation is improving awareness, according to the guest speaker of the online discussion “LGBTQ+ and Women in Sports in...
One year ago, when Justin Giffin won an emergency temporary custody order in divorce proceedings in the Kyoto Family Court, officials there confided in him that such a decision was so rare that they weren’t sure how to execute it, he says. Giffin...
In early February, when the head of the Tokyo Olympics Games organizing committee said that women talk too much in meetings, his comments justifiably drew the ire of the world. But the ensuing debate opened ears to suppressed voices and has...
What would you do if you saw a man upskirt someone on an escalator, or drop a pill into his date’s drink while she went to the toilet? If your answer is “nothing,” then you are in agreement with the majority of Japanese people...
Shiori Onuki is working on a life plan—actually, on more than 136,000 of them. That’s roughly how many people regularly watch her YouTube channel on sex education, which she started with the aim of giving Japanese youth the information they...