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Tozen fights back against Gaba’s vicious penalties
On Monday 4th December 2023, members of Tozen’s Gaba local took to the streets to protest and fight for their wellbeing. The video below includes speeches from organiser Louis Carlet, Gaba local President Musashi Sakazaki, and Gaba local General Secretary Mitch Brown.
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Time to consign ‘death by overwork’ to Japan’s history
A 24-year-old pressured to work long, hard hours beyond what she could tolerate at the largest advertising agency in Japan jumped from her third-floor dorm room on Christmas Day of last year. This story went viral, and labor researchers around the country mumbled to themselves, “Dentsu again?” Dentsu is an ad giant notorious for brutal…
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Japan sees progress on sexual harassment, but some still don’t get it
BY HIFUMI OKUNUKI Once upon a time, the English word “harassment” was unfamiliar to Japanese ears. Over the past quarter-century the word has burrowed its way deep into the collective consciousness, at times even replacing the Japanese word iyagarase. Today one would be hard-put to find a citizen unfamiliar with the English version and its many derivatives…
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Japan College of Foreign Languages Local Conducts Recruitment Leafleting, Braves Illegal and Dangerous Management Harassment
JCFL Members braved the rain and management harassment on Thursday, January 22 to conduct a recruitment leafleting to in front of the JCFL Takadanobaba campus during their lunch break. At 12:30, Case officer Gerome Rothman and three union members arrived at the front gate. They began leafleting instructors and staff. Shortly after the union began, management…
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‘Maternity harassment’ verdict benefits women, men — and our humanity
Last Thursday’s Supreme Court verdict in the “maternity harassment” case brought by a physical therapist in Hiroshima was the first of its kind, overturning decades of business-friendly jurisprudence along with rulings from the district and high courts. As I mentioned in last year’s September Labor Pains (“Mata-hara: turning the clock back on women’s rights”), the…