· March, 2007

Stories about Japan from March, 2007

Japan: Abolition of Nationality Clause

  29 March 2007

Debito reports that Joetsu City will abolish Nationality Clause in limiting foreigner for holding administrative positions (kanrishoku) in the Japanese civil service.

Japan: Apology Problem

  27 March 2007

Did or didn't Abe apologize for Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves? Oftenover from Japundit comments on the news about Prime Minister Abe's recent apology on sex slaves issue.

Korea and Japan: Sex Trade

  27 March 2007

Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole reports that: There are currently an estimated 40,000-60,000 Koreans illegally residing in Japan. Of these, 30,000 are believed to be working in the sex trade. And the number of Korean men in Japanese host-bar is increasing rapidly.

East Asia: History Round up

  26 March 2007

Jonathan Dresner from Frog in a Well has written a history round up on issues such as comfort woman, Nanjing massarce, textbook, etc.

Korea and Japan: National Flowers

  25 March 2007

Ampotan has a nice post discussing differences in symbolism of Japan and Korea's national flowers: cherry blossom or sakura (Japan) and the Rose of Sharon or mugunghwa (Korea).

Japan: Tokyo election and nationalism

  22 March 2007

James from Japan Probe blogs about the Tokyo governor candidates’ stand and debate on nationalism, in particular to the policy of coercing teachers to stand and sing the national anthem ‘Kimigayo’.

The Balkans, Japan: War Re-Enactment Games

  21 March 2007

Photos of a group of Japanese men clad in Croatian and Serbian military uniforms has caused a scandal in the Serbian blogosphere, Neretva River reports: “…these men were participating in a re-enactment of the recent wars in a ‘capture the flag’ style game which apparently had different scenarios, one apparently...

Japan: Hello Kitty product

  19 March 2007

Hello Kitty product from air purifier to condom? Paul Nicholls from Japundit clarified that the Kitty condom is a fake news.

Japan: Where are the Japanese comfort women?

  15 March 2007

Ampontan translates a post written by Kiyotani in response to the recent debate about Abe's claim that there was “no evidence” that the recruitment of “comfort women” had been “forcible in the narrow sense of the word”.: I really wonder why no one is talking about the Japanese comfort women....

Japan: self-injury

  12 March 2007

James blogs about a recent survey by Japan Health Ministry: 15% of Japanese women between the ages of 20 and 24 cut themselves.

Japan: salmon skin

  12 March 2007

Researchers from Hokkaido University have created artificial blood vessels using collagen derived from the skin of salmon – more from Pink Tentacle.

Japan: abortion law

  12 March 2007

Joe from Multantfrog discusses about the abortion law in Japan. Its origin is related to the Eugenic Protection Act, which is to prevent the birth of progeny which are undesirable from a eugenic standpoint, while protecting the life and health of mothers.

China and Japan: comfort woman

  9 March 2007

Granite Studio comments on Japan Prime Mininister Abe's recent comments on “comfort woman”: Is history, and especially history education, nothing more than rhetoric and tales in the service of national self-esteem?

Japan and China: changing name of Woman's Day

  8 March 2007

A member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference suggests to Change the name of Fu-nu's Day (婦女節) to Nu-xin's Day (女性節), following Japan's example. Zhaihua points out(zh) that such change is unnecessary, because Nu-xin according to traditional Chinese, is more discriminative than Fu-nu.