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置いてけぼりの夏の真ん中 ー2021盛夏、コロナとオリンピックの渦のなかでー Midsummer 2021 – Left to be sucked into the corona-Olympic vortex
奥貫妃文の詩。 A poem by Hifumi Okunuki. (English is below the Japanese.) いまは、いったいいつなんだろう。 ここは、いったいどこなんだろう。 東京都新宿区、奥神楽坂の我が家から歩いて3分。 中国人のジャンさんが営む中華料理レストランがあった。 私と夫は頻繁に通っては、裏メニュー「黒酢きゅうり」を頼んでいた。 2021年8月の現在、その店は、もうない。 夜遅くまで客足が絶えず、楽し気な声で満ちていた店は、真っ暗なまま。 がらんどうになった店の入口は、落ち葉の吹き溜まりになっている。 壁には「テナント募集」の張り紙。それもすっかり色褪せ、 今にもはがれそうにカサカサ、カサカサ、と音を立てている。 新しい賃借人が入るのは、いつのことになるだろうか。
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五輪中止オンライン抗議アクション Anti-Olympics Live Stream Candlelit Protest
On Friday 30th July 2021, members of Tozen held a candle-lit online protest calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics.
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Bread & Roses: Covid, Not Olympics, Requires Our National Effort
SNA (Tokyo) — I teach a weekly class on social security theory at a nursing college. When I read comments from the aspiring nurses, I can see their passion for alleviating human suffering, as well as for the class, which is gratifying as a teacher. The Covid pandemic that has spread over the globe over…
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Tozen Union Opposes the Tokyo Olympics
As a labour union we fight for workers’ rights, and worker safety. And the Tokyo Olympics has had numerous counts of worker deaths and injuries, and workers have reported a “culture of fear” that discouraged them from making complaints about working conditions. Another major reason that we do not support the Olympics is that the…
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Foreign workers fear exploitation as Olympic projects gather steam
My first Labor Pains column of the new fiscal year will look at the government’s recent proposal for bringing in foreign workers. Various proposals on easing immigration restrictions for foreign workers have been bandied about in recent years, but they were inevitably scrapped because “Japan is but a tiny island nation.” (In fact, Japan is…