Welcome to Black Tokyo!
Japanese universities look abroad in hopes of upping their sagging enrollments
Rie Yoshinaga had a wide range of colleges to choose from.
Globalization: Of the 6,000 students at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Kyushu, nearly half come from abroad, as does the faculty. Classes are taught both in English and Japanese. TOMOKO OTAKE PHOTOS
Having [...]
Could Europe be categorized as a U.S. Democratic Party “blue state” and Asia, a Republican Party “red state”?
American presidential elections provide a near perfect test to understand the difference between European and Asian worldviews, even if the two continents are far from united internally.
If you want America to lead by the power of example, you [...]
According to statistics released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, one out of every seven Japanese children under 17 lives in poverty.
Poverty has long been known to adversely effect children’s health and education, but there also are concerns now that growing up in poverty tends to lock children into a cycle of poverty [...]
OSAKA — With job signs stuck to their vans’ windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan’s largest day labor market here recently.
Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, had good jobs during Japan’s economic boom but now works sporadically.
By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled [...]
Do they care about English?
Blokhar writes: Well I must say it is very interesting and a sigh of relief to hear stories that I myself experience.
I also work in a JHS. I have been doing this for 4 years. Its sucks but it gets the bills paid and enough to have fun with my family.
Seriously, [...]
More on the Generic Eikaiwa. Man, talk about a racket. I actually feel sorry for the kids, parents, and especially, the native (Japanese) teachers. The junior high kids know that they’re getting into a scam and it takes a real intrepid hard-core teacher to cut through their cynicism. This is one of the reasons why the classes of [...]
Part 2: If you think the figurine above is shocking, read what Ato had to deal with at his new school:
“And so it begins…
I’ve been fortunate enough to spend the first two weeks of this semester at a school that’s been refurbished within the last couple years or so, which means the facilities are up [...]
