| Mar 29 | High school texts bulk up with 12% more pages |
| The average number of pages in high school textbooks to be used from next spring will increase by 11.9 percent compared to those being used now, according to the results of textbook screenings released by the education ministry. The increase results from the government's new curriculum guidelines, which expand the amount of academic content students must learn while also eliminating a clause that restricted the teaching of higher-level material. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 29 | Guidelines eyed for non-obese people |
| The health ministry wants people suffering from hypertension and abnormal blood sugar levels to receive comprehensive health guidance even if they are not obese or do not have metabolic syndrome, according to an interim report released Wednesday. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which will ask business operators and municipal governments to provide the guidance, will maintain obesity standards of abdominal circumferences of 85 centimeters and over for men and 90 centimeters and over for women. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 29 | School textbooks feature 'hip' topics |
| From pop idol groups to Internet slang, high school textbook makers have tried to stir the interest of students by using topics familiar to them. Casual topics will be used more often in English textbooks to be used from next spring compared with the teaching material in other subjects. Some English textbooks will feature expressions useful for e-mails and blogs. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 28 | 36 foreign caregivers pass qualification exam |
 Thirty-six caregiver candidates from Indonesia and the Philippines passed the national care worker exam in January, becoming the first applicants to pass Japan's qualification exam among hundreds of recruits under economic partnership agreements, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Wednesday.
The pass rate was 37.9 percent, while that of Japanese applicants was 63.9 percent, the ministry said. A total of 94 Indonesians and one Filipino took the test. The 36 successful candidates can now stay in Japan indefinitely.
(Japan Times  ) |
| Mar 28 | Japan's new high school English texts to emphasize communication skills |
| Japan's new high school English textbooks will shift emphasis from reading and translation to mastering communication skills. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology unveiled the results of its 2011 academic year high school textbook screening on March 27, announcing that 50 new English textbooks have been approved. (Mainichi) |
| Mar 27 | Alison Nemoto: Still in the gloom |
| English teacher Alison Nemoto has lost her home and job but continues to live on the fringes of the exclusion zone in Fukushima. She has lived in a town near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant for more then 20 years, with her husband and three children. (papersky.jp) |
| Mar 27 | Foreign pass rate for national nurse exam triples |
 A total of 47 Indonesians and Filipinos passed the national nurse examination in February, nearly three times more than the previous year, the health ministry said Monday.
The pass rate was 11.3 percent, up about 7 points from last year, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
(Japan Times ) |
| Mar 27 | JET teacher outfoxes board |
| This story sounds exactly like what happened to me during my final year on JET (the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme), except my BOE (board of education) supervisor told me that I needed to pay ¥400,000 ($5,000) in shiken minzei -two years of residential tax - that I didn't owe. Before paying it, thank God I also fact checked my supervisor's numbers and talked to the teachers and principals at my schools to prevent her from screwing me over. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 26 | Some kanji characters are enough to make you feel sick |
| Overworked and stressed to the limit in this relentless recession, many Japanese are seeking ways to soothe their bodies and spirits, even if for just one blissful moment. The buzzword iyashi (癒し, soothing) is currently being used to promote an endless stream of relaxation products and services, including massages, weekend hot-spring getaways, jewelry, aroma therapy, even a gadget called an "iyashi wand." (Japan Times) |
| Mar 26 | Subsidy eyed to promote study abroad / 40 universities could receive 5-year grants |
| The education ministry plans to establish a new financial support system for universities encouraging students to study abroad, it has been learned. The ministry aims to promote the idea of studying abroad to Japanese students, who are often regarded as being introverted, to foster human resources who will be motivated to actively participate in the nation's domestic and international affairs. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 24 | Fukushima kids graduate under cloud |
| About 18,000 children graduated from public elementary schools in Fukushima Prefecture on Friday, where the nuclear crisis forced more than 6,200 elementary school pupils to evacuate. The ongoing radiation disaster overshadowed this year's ceremonies. Ten out of 495 schools in the prefecture couldn't hold ceremonies because they have been shut down by the crisis. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 24 | Osaka assembly passes ordinances to tighten control of teachers |
 The Osaka Prefectural Assembly passed a package of ordinances Friday designed to reinforce the governor's control over school education and toughen disciplinary action against incompetent teachers.
Under the ordinances crafted by the Osaka Restoration Association, led by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, the Osaka governor will set educational achievement targets in consultation with the prefectural board of education.
(Japan Times ) |
| Mar 23 | Lacking proper teachers, girls' schools struggle with martial arts classes |
| Private junior high schools for girls are teaching the proper ways to bow and other forms of etiquette to prepare for the mandatory introduction of martial arts programs at junior high schools. The students are not yet attacking each other. But they are grappling with the question of why they are being forced to learn martial arts. "It's in the curriculum guidelines, so there's nothing we can do about it," said a male instructor at a private junior high school in Aichi Prefecture. "But still, I don't feel comfortable with martial arts at a girls' school." (Asahi) |
| Mar 23 | Japan to lower exam barriers for foreign nurses |
| The Japanese government decided Friday to give foreign candidate nurses and caregivers extra test time at national qualification examinations starting next fiscal year and to attach Japanese syllabaries to all Chinese characters used in questions in consideration of the language hurdle. ''I hope to see to it that no one shall have to give up their desire to work in Japan as nurses and caregivers simply because of the language barrier,'' Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoko Komiyama told a news conference. (Mainichi) |
| Mar 23 | Fear of radiation creeping south |
| Lingering concerns about radiation a year into the Fukushima nuclear crisis have prompted people even as far away as the Tokyo area, some 100 to 250 km from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, to move away. Mamiko Joosten, who has lived for seven years in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, has now decided to move to Okinawa with her 6-year-old daughter out of fear of radiation, leaving her husband behind. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 22 | Junior high teacher fired for taking photos up girls' skirts |
| A junior high school instructor has been sacked after taking photos up the skirts of female students, authorities here have announced. The Kagawa Prefectural Board of Education dismissed the 23-year-old art instructor at a municipal junior high school here on March 19 for secretly snapping the shots using a smartphone. (Mainichi) |
| Mar 22 | Quake-hit Japanese universities move on |
| Among the universities damaged by the earthquake, by far the hardest hit was Tohoku University, one of the world's top engineering schools with more than 18,000 students spread over five campuses in the coastal city of Sendai. While the tsunami destroyed parts of the city a few kilometres from the coast, the waves did not reach the campuses. Off campus, three Tohoku students were killed and 14 injured, and the homes of 526 students were damaged or destroyed. (rsc.org) |
| Mar 21 | Japan's oldest wooden school closes due to dwindling pupil numbers |
| The last graduation ceremony at Japan's oldest wooden schoolhouse in use took place here on March 20, ending over a century of history as the school closes its doors due to a massive drop of students in recent years. Located in the city of Takahashi in Okayama Prefecture, the Fukiya Elementary School has a history of nearly 140 years. First opened in 1873 at a separate location in the prefecture, the school's current one-story buildings and main two-story building were completed in 1900 and 1909, respectively. (Mainichi) |
| Mar 21 | Numbers of young scientists declining in Japan |
| Junior researchers are being squeezed out of Japanese universities by government policies aimed at cutting costs. The claim, from the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP), the government's top advisory body on science, is raising concerns that the country's next generation of scientific leaders is under threat and that the trend may already be harming research productivity. (nature.com) |
| Mar 20 | Hyogo bans smoking at schools, hospitals |
 The Hyogo Prefecture Assembly passed a total ban Monday on smoking at schools and hospitals that takes effect on April 1, 2013.
Hyogo is the second prefecture to introduce such restrictions on smoking after Kanagawa imposed a similar ban in April 2010, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
Hyogo initially planned to extend the total ban to private establishments, including department stores, hotels and restaurants, but was forced to back down in the face of stiff opposition from local business groups.
(Japan Times ) |
| Mar 20 | Osaka to cease paying subsidies for Korean schools |
| Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said Monday the prefectural government will cease paying about 81 million yen in subsidies to eight Korean schools in the prefecture for fiscal 2011 ending this month. The decision followed the lack of confirmation that the schools have no relations with a North Korean-affiliated organization in Japan, a condition for the subsidies, prefectural government officials said. (Mainichi) |
| Mar 19 | Japan's teachers fund to start investing in REITs, hedge funds |
| Japan's Teachers' Mutual Aid Co- operative Society, which manages $8.4 billion on behalf of its members, plans to start investing in real estate investment trusts and hedge funds for the first time to diversify risk. The organization may allocate as much as 60 billion yen ($719 million) in J-REITs and hedge funds as early as September, said Toru Higuchi, a general manager of the organization's asset management department. Teachers' Mutual Aid will also invest in open-ended real estate funds and stocks that provide stable dividends, such as utility companies, he said. (Bloomberg) |
| Mar 19 | Third of Fukushima kids got first radiation lessons from disaster: poll |
| About a third of the 225 youngsters who were evacuated from around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant last March but still reside in the prefecture say the disaster made them aware of radiation dangers for the first time, a new survey says. According to the results of the survey, released Sunday, the youngsters were either 11 or 14 years old. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 19 | State-run universities remain popular in disaster-hit region |
| State-run universities in the disaster-hit Tohoku region remain popular among university applicants this year, but private universities in Fukushima Prefecture are having trouble attracting students due to radiation fears related to the prefecture's crippled nuclear power plant. Many students who survived the disaster have applied to universities in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, taking advantage of financial support provided by the universities. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 15 | Japan fails to settle university dispute |
| It has been a rough year for materials scientist Akihisa Inoue, the president of Tohoku University in Japan. Last March, an earthquake crippled his campus (see Nature 483,141-143; 2012). Since then, he has had to retract a series of papers because they contained text that had appeared in his previous publications, and has faced continuing calls for his resignation from the university, which he has rejected. His critics, mostly professors at his university, claim that some of his work cannot be replicated, and that there are irregularities in the data in some of his papers (see Nature 470, 446-447; 2011). (nature.com) |
| Mar 15 | Brushing up on your Japanese on a small screen |
| An upcoming trip to Japan recently motivated us to buff up our rusty Japanese. Though it wasn't our native language, we were far more fluent in it when we lived in Japan years ago. We decided to test mobile apps that help people improve their skill in a foreign language beyond the spoken word. Though many language apps cater to beginners, we found a few exceptions with more advanced content. We looked at two apps, one focused on Japanese reading and writing skills as well as spoken Japanese, and another dedicated more narrowly to reading and writing. (Wall Street Journal) |
| Mar 13 | Japanese school baseball team a symbol of recovery |
| One year after their lives were torn apart by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, players from Ishinomaki Technical High School are ready to compete on one of the biggest stages in Japanese baseball. When the magnitude-9.0 earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, manager Yoshitsugu Matsumoto was leading his team through practice on the school's baseball field. Earthquakes are all too common in Japan, but like everyone who experienced that terrible day, Matsumoto knew this one was different. Within minutes, the school was transformed into an evacuation center, and it wasn't long before the same field the team was practicing on was under 4.5 feet of water. The players and Matsumoto would spend the next three days in the school before moving to a safer evacuation facility. (seattlepi.com) |
| Mar 12 | 'Invisible enemy' stalks Fukushima |
| Yoshiko Ota keeps her windows shut. She never hangs her laundry outdoors. Fearful of birth defects, she warns her daughters: Never have children. This is life with radiation, nearly one year after a tsunami-hit nuclear power plant began spewing it into Ota's neighborhood, 60 km away. She's so worried that she has broken out in hives. "The government spokesman keeps saying there are no 'immediate' health effects," the 48-year-old nursery school worker says. "He's not talking about 10 years or 20 years later. He must think the people of Fukushima are fools. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 12 | Japanese men love their men more than their women |
| Did somebody use the word "bland" in describing the Japanese male temperament? Wrong. Misinformed. Arienāi! (ありえなーい, not possible!) Okay, maybe my countrymen are bland in some areas best not mentioned in polite conversation. But let me set the record straight: the Japanese male is a toritsukareta (取り憑かれた, obsessive), shōdōteki (衝動的, impulsive), gōyoku (強欲, greedy), downright yajyū (野獣, beast)! At least when it comes to ramen. You heard right: that greasy, steaming bowl laced and layered with fatty calories, has the power to make grown men stand in line for an hour, in all kinds of weather. It will transform a depressed, morose man with thoughts of suicide into a babbling, happy rāmen-baka (ラーメンバカ, a fool for ramen). (Japan Times) |
| Mar 11 | Obesity on the rise as Japanese eat more Western-style food |
| When Japanese people are ordering food, how many times do you hear them asking for "oomori" (large size)? It's the equivalent of asking for "supersize" in a U.S. fast-food joint. My guess is that it is only relatively recently, over the last 20 years or so, that oomori has even been a common option in restaurants and food outlets in this country - perhaps someone reading this can tell me when they first heard it. However, it's not uncommon these days to hear people lamenting that they are "metabo" (overweight) - a Japanese word derived from the English "metabolic syndrome." (Japan Times) |
| Mar 11 | Time has stopped for parents of dead and missing children |
| Almost one year on from what was one of the most tragic episodes of the March 11 disasters, Karino is among many grieving parents for whom time has frozen. For the 49 days before the discovery of her daughter's body, things had been easier. Each day she would visit the devastated area around the school and look for her daughter. She had something to cling on to, something to keep her going. Now she can't stop her mind from wandering. Her surviving children, Yu, 15, and Yui, 18, avoid mentioning their deceased sister's name: "They know it will only make me weep." (Japan Times) |
| Mar 10 | Pupils excelled on 3/11 but life since a struggle |
| Shin Saito, a junior high school teacher in Kamaishi, still has nightmares about the day he and his students had to desperately dash to higher ground as tsunami crashed into Iwate's coast, barely managing to escape the terrifying waves. "My nightmares start with me standing in the school grounds and the earthquake striking. During my dreams, somehow I know that they're dreams but I still have to run and escape," said Saito, a 39-year-old English teacher at Kamaishi East Junior High School. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 09 | Japan moves closer to child custody pact |
| Japan's government on Friday approved a bill to join a pact on settling cross-border child custody rows, opening the way for its adoption after years of foreign pressure. The cabinet approved the bill that would mean Japan signing the 1980 Hague Convention. It would extend custody rights to non-Japanese parents whose children are moved to Japan by their former spouse. The bill is now set to be debated in parliament. (AFP) |
| Mar 08 | Panel urges colleges to make students study harder |
| Colleges and universities that make a determined effort to have their students study harder should receive preferential financial treatment, including government subsidies, according to a draft of proposals released by a panel Wednesday. The panel, which is under the wing of the Central Council for Education, evidently hopes its proposals will encourage colleges that make greater efforts in this respect. The proposals will be studied by the council's subcommittee for colleges and universities and presented as recommendations to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. The ministry plans to implement the proposals as early as in fiscal 2013. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 08 | Disaster claimed 1,046 minors |
| A total of 1,046 people aged 19 or younger died or went missing in the three prefectures hit hardest by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and nearly two-thirds of the victims were aged 60 or older, according to the National Police Agency. The agency on Tuesday released statistics on the number of people missing in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures by age and gender for the first time since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The NPA said 15,786 people were confirmed to have died in the disaster as of the end of February. Of them, 14,308, or 91 percent, drowned, 145 were killed by fire and 667 died from other causes, such as being crushed or freezing to death, according to the NPA. (Yomiuri) |
| Mar 07 | Japan's male managers die younger than other workers -study |
| Male managers and professionals in Japan are dying younger than men in other jobs because they put work before their health, researchers said on Wednesday. Scientists who examined the death certificates of Japanese men who died between 1980 and 2005 found managers and professionals had a 1.7 times higher risk of dying before the age of 60 than those in clerical, sales, services, security, agriculture, production and transport jobs. (chicagotribune.com) |
| Mar 07 | Japanese tea master appointed as UNESCO ambassador |
| UNESCO appointed Japanese tea ceremony master Sen Genshitsu as its second goodwill ambassador from Japan. "I feel a great responsibility as I did when I succeeded the grand master of the Ura Senke school," Genshitsu, 88, said yesterday at an event at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. "Under my motto of 'Peacefulness from a Bowl of Tea,' I'll offer my utmost effort to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization," he said. Genshitsu, who was the 15th grand master of the school from 1964 to 2002, also performed a tea ceremony during the event commemorating the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan a year ago. (zeenews) |
| Mar 06 | Berlitz court ruling unequivocal on basic right to strike |
 After hearing more than three years of testimony, the judge took only a minute to read the court's verdict rejecting Berlitz Japan's ¥110 million lawsuit against striking teachers and their union and reaffirming organized labor's right to take industrial action.
According to the Feb. 27 Tokyo District Court ruling, "There is no reason to deny the legitimacy of the strike in its entirety and the details of its parts - the objective, the procedures, and the form of the strike. Therefore there can be no compensation claim against the defendant, either the union or the individuals. And therefore it is the judgement of this court that all claims are rejected." (Japan Times) |
| Mar 06 | Myanmar refugees set for new life |
| Eighteen Myanmar refugees consisting of four families, who arrived in Japan from a camp in Thailand last year, completed a language and cultural acclimation program Friday and are looking forward to embarking on a new life here. All the refugees are of the Karen ethnic minority and the second group that Japan accepted under its third-country resettlement program. All four husbands in the group will work at a shoe factory in Tokyo, while their wives will work at a cleaning company in Saitama Prefecture. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 06 | Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail |
| Last December, the Japanese government announced that a new visa regime with a "points system" would be introduced this spring. It is designed to attract 2,000 non-Japanese (NJ) with a "high degree of capability" (kōdo jinzai), meaning people with high salaries, impeccable educational and vocational pedigrees, specialized technical knowledge and excellent managerial/administrative skills. Those lucky foreign millionaire Ph.Ds beating a path to this land of opportunity would get preferential visa treatment: five-year visas, fast-tracking to permanent residency, work status for spouses - even visas to bring their parents and "hired housekeepers" along. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 05 | Semester shift to align universities globally means major overhaul |
| A call to shift enrolment from the current April to September, made by the prestigious University of Tokyo and supported by at least 30 other universities, has turned the spotlight on higher education internationalisation in Japan and reviving universities' depleting revenue. But a changeover would also have an impact on broader recruitment practices. Although the university first raised the idea of changing its semester dates last year, it was in an announcement in January that University of Tokyo President Junichi Hamada outlined a timetable for change, saying he "would aim to conclude the transition five years from now". (universityworldnews.com) |
| Mar 03 | Bullying, child abuse at record highs |
| Legal affairs bureaus nationwide handled a record 3,306 bullying cases at schools last year, up 21.8 percent from the previous year, the Justice Ministry said Friday. Cases of child abuse also reached a record, at 865, up 12.2 percent, the ministry said. Of the total, 491 cases were reported by people affected by the March disaster, including children who were bullied at schools after having to move out of the disaster zone, the ministry said. (Japan Times) |
| Mar 03 | Is Japan's enrollment season really a problem? |
 The University of Tokyo -or Todai as it is locally called - is considering changing its enrollment from spring to autumn to be more in sync with universities around the world, 70 percent of which are said to have enrollments in the fall.
The move is controversial, however, as "societal concerns" come into play.
As one Japanese friend said, "I have a strong attachment in April to the beautiful scenery and fullness of cherry blossoms at the start of the academic year."
And, it's not just the blushing cherry blossoms that pose a problem. Tulips are also a harbinger of the new school year in Japan. (Japan Times ) |
| Mar 03 | Japan's tsunami victims learning from an earthquake island's rebuilding mistakes |
| On the night of July 12, 1993, the remote island of Okushiri was ripped apart by a huge earthquake and tsunami that now seem an eerie harbinger of the much larger disaster that struck north-eastern Japan in March last year. Islanders still recall with horror how a wall of frothing black water raced out of the darkness to consume entire communities, leaving almost 200 people dead. In the five years that followed, the Japanese government rebuilt the island, erecting 10.7-metre concrete walls on long stretches of its coast, making it look more like a fortress than a fishing outpost. (Sydney Morning Herald) |
| Mar 02 | Visa problem makes separation from kids even worse |
| For some foreign parents who have been separated from their children due to divorce from their Japanese spouses, the expiration of their spousal visa makes matters worse as intervention by immigration officials can easily sever their ties with their kids. Supporters of these foreign parents say immigration authorities often view their visitation rights as not being enough to permit their continued residence in the country and issue deportation orders, thereby depriving children of access to one of their parents. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 28 | Teacher outfoxes board, exposes bid to fleece JETs |
| English teachers on the JET program are often faced with the bittersweet moment when they realize their contract is ending and they will soon be returning to their home country. However, for one former JET teacher, that moment turned out to be a poisonously sour one as he became embroiled in a conflict with the board of education (BOE) that employed him. After having worked for two years on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program for the local BOE, the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for this article, decided it was time to return to his home country after his second contract ended. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 28 | Berlitz loses suit over union teacher strikes |
| The Tokyo District Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit filed by Berlitz Japan Inc. that sought damages from union executives and its teachers for waging strikes and causing substantial damage to the company. Presiding Judge Hiroshi Watanabe sided with the labor union and its workers, saying acts by the defendants "do not comprise any illegality." Berlitz, the plaintiff, filed the lawsuit in December 2008. The language school chain claimed executives of the National Union of General Workers Tokyo Nambu, and affiliate Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto) - particularly five activist, non-Japanese Berlitz teachers - conducted illegal strikes for 11 months beginning in December 2007. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 27 | Now Japanese universities woo Indian students |
| Many Indians have heard of Japanese companies such as Suzuki and Toyota but any takers for the University of Tokyo? Very, very few. Now 13 core Japanese universities are keen to attract more Indian students by raising their profile in this country by showcasing the benefits of higher education in the world's second most innovative nation. The University of Tokyo, ranked the world's seventh top-most varsity, today announced the opening of its India office here to serve as a liaison office for all 13 universities seeking to enhance awareness on higher education opportunities, and providing information and assistance for students. (zeenews) |
| Feb 27 | Tesda training focuses on Japanese language |
| A second batch of Filipino nurses and care workers bound for Japan is undergoing language training through the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda). Tesda Director Joel Villanueva said the 26 nurses and 73 care workers are taking courses on the Japanese language and the local culture from Monday to Saturday. There are 20 Japanese and nine Filipino lecturers for the program, which began on January 27 and will last until April 12. (businessmirror.com.ph) |
| Feb 27 | Ballet popularity in Japan growing by leaps and bounds |
| Japan is becoming a significant presence in the world of ballet, a recent survey shows, buoyed by a large number of aspiring dancers who benefit from close attention at small schools. The talents of Japanese ballet dancers came under the global spotlight most recently when 17-year-old Madoka Sugai won the prestigious Prix de Lausanne dance competition for young dancers earlier this month. According to a survey by Showa Academia Musicae, a Kawasaki-based music university, more than 400,000 people are expected to take ballet lessons throughout the country this year. (Yomiuri) |