Karin Amamiya News Today

Highlights from the prestigious Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival have been made available online worldwide for a week only. Here’s a handful of landmark documentaries to look out for.

The current Asahi Shimbun Hanshin Bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, which was rebuilt in 2006 (Asahi Shimbun file photo) May 3 marks the 34th anniversary of a shooting incident at The Asahi Shimbuns Hanshin Bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, that left one reporter dead and another seriously injured. The statute of limitations in the case, and seven other related or similar terrorist incidents apparently perpetrated by a group with ultra-rightist leanings, expired in 2003. The Natio...

Non-regular workers sudden plunge into poverty exposes Japans toxic labor environment January 28, 2021 (Mainichi Japan) Yoshihide Suga, then a candidate for prime minister, is seen at a candidates debate for the Liberal Democratic Party Presidential Election at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyos Chiyoda Ward on Sept. 12, 2020. The board in his hand roughly translates to "Self-help, mutual assistance and public support. Then bonds. A complete change in regulations." (Mainichi/Kimi Takeuchi)...

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The idea of Japan introducing a universal basic income, recently floated by one of Prime Minister Yoshihide Sugas economic advisers,

Jan 9, 2021 In recent months, news organizations have reported that people are moving out of Tokyo into the suburbs and countryside, suggesting that some remote work situations are obviating the need to go into a place of employment in the city. What these stories often point out is that many people who live in Tokyo do so because of their jobs and, when given the opportunity, they will leave the capital to reside in a less crowded and, presumably, less expensive environment. The gover...

The idea has caught Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's eye at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is stirring worries about job security and social inequality.

Dec 12, 2020 In the early morning hours of Nov. 16, a 46-year-old man allegedly struck a 64-year-old woman sitting in a Tokyo bus shelter in the head with a bag of rocks, killing her. On Nov. 21, the man, accompanied by his mother, turned himself in to the police, who charged him with inflicting a fatal injury. The man said his intent was not to kill the woman, but rather to cause pain so that she would leave the bus shelter, where she often spent the night. The woman, identified as Mi...