Why is Japan cautious about taking stance on alleged Uyghur human rights abuse by China?
March 17, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is seen at the prime minister s office on Dec. 21, 2020. (Mainichi/Kan Takeuchi) TOKYO While the U.S. government has officially deemed China s oppression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region a genocide, the Japanese government has taken a cautious stance toward making such a declaration. The question of whether the Chinese government s actions in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) fall under genocide the destruction of an ethnic or religious group through mass killings, moves to harm and prevent births of members and other such acts has been a major theme disputed in the international community. Why has Japan taken an ambiguous position on this topic?
Edging Toward Japan: A fantasy of Japan revealed in a lavish Japanese garden far away
March 16, 2021 (Mainichi Japan) By Damian Flanagan Passing through the thatched gateway, you enter another world: The torii of an old Shinto shrine sits serenely on an alluring island in a lake festooned with lotus leaves while a delicate arched bridge beckons. Across a stream, a winding path leads you past a stone lantern to a teahouse, while a covering of moss under a canopy of cypress trees gives a sense of transcendence and stillness. You have stumbled upon a corner of paradise, but this dream of Japan is not to be found in Japan itself. The astonishingly beautiful sight is in fact some 6,000 miles away, located in a corner of the north of England. This is the Japanese garden in the country house estate of Tatton Park.
Opinion: What is the cost of apologizing in Japanese politics? Not much, it seems
February 24, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
(Mainichi) I hear that Japan has a unique apology culture. For example, in North America and Europe, monetary recompense is considered important, but in Japan, it is the words of apology that are apparently important above all. This kind of culture may be changing in recent years, however. According to the results of a large-scale 2012 survey carried out by Japanese scholars and others on Asia including Japan and the West, people in every country covered were more likely to be forgiven if they paid some sort of cost in addition to offering words of apology.
Edging Toward Japan: The Zen-like insight of Raymond Carver
February 3, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
The Salisbury Cathedral in Britain (Photo by Damian Flanagan) By Damian Flanagan It s been many years since I read Raymond Carver s iconic short story, Cathedral (1981), so I thought I might reread it. The plot runs something like this: a wife announces to her husband, in some humdrum East Coast American town, that an old friend a middle-aged blind man who she used to work for is coming to stay. The blind man has over the years become her great confidant, someone with whom she exchanges her emotional problems and deepest feelings.
Japan s news media needs to bark more as gov t watchdog: former NYT bureau chief
January 18, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
Martin Fackler is seen standing on a street corner in Ebisu, Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, on Dec. 30, 2020. (Mainichi/Taro Fujii) TOKYO 2020 is over, and a new year has begun. With the government s performance in question following issues including the declaration of a state of emergency shortly after the New Year holidays, what role is the media playing in overseeing the administration s actions? The Mainichi Shimbun spoke with Martin Fackler, a journalist and former Tokyo bureau chief for the New York Times who boasts years of experience reporting in Japan and China, about his new book The Dogs That Didn t Bark: Media Control in Abe s Japan, published by Futabasha Publishers, to find out more about the relationship between Japan s government and its media.