Asia Times Online - In Japan, The Crime Rate Also Rises: Examines Japan's rising crime rate, as well as various misconceptions about it.
Christian Science Monitor - Japanese Man Publicly Fights Grope Charge: Documents how after women started speaking out, some men now fear false accusations of groping women on trains. Explores Japan's legal system and culture of losing face.
Complicit Exoticism: Japan and its Other: Examines how Japanese view eachother and how westerners have viewed Japan through the 20th century.
Defining Japan's Role in the Post-Taliban World Order Tokyo's Path to Great Power Status: An essay addressing how Japan has responded and changed through the War on Terror.
Freed From Captivity in Iraq, Japanese Return to More Pain: Young Japanese civilians taken hostage and nearly killed in Iraq return home to be treated like criminals.
Japan Under the US Nuclear Umbrella: Investigation on the stationing of nuclear weapons in Japan on US military bases and vessels, violating Japan's stand to be a nuclear weapon free nation.
Japan's Neo-Nationalism: The Role of the Hinomaru and Kimigayo Legislation: Essay on the growing friction in the Japanese government's directives to use wartime nationalist symbols to bolster student patriotism, and their possible connotations and effects.
Japanese Gun Control: An article in the Asia Pacific Law Review, analyzing Japanese gun control laws and history of firearms in Japan.
Korean Herald - Japanese Nationalism: Old News or New Worry?: Editorial giving a warning that there is a current radicalization of an otherwise stable and healthy Japanese nationalism, and it could cause strong friction in the future. [Free registration required].
Mainichi - Schoolgirls Sniff Gold in Pantie Crackdown: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government outlaws the trade in soiled knickers from the underaged, but some school girls see another opportunity arise.
Maintaining Identities: Discourses of Homogeneity in a Rapidly Globalising Japan: Looks at the ideological tools that maintain the idea of Japan as a mono-cultural, homogeneous society and investigates multiculturalism and internationalization in Japan.
Media Intimidation in Japan: A Close Encounter with Hard Japanese Nationalism: Documents a close encounter with hard Japanese nationalism.
Paving Over the Kansai - On Dango: The Famous "Yokosuka Navy Base Toilet Job": Two short essays on Japanese construction, including the corruption among Japanese corporations and obstruction of US firms resulting in the fleecing of American taxpayers.
Pornography, Rape and Sex Crimes in Japan: Study concluding that a massive increase in available pornography in Japan has been correlated with a dramatic decrease in sexual crimes.
Robert Fulford's Column About Japanese Identity: Personal musings about how the Japanese identify themselves.
The Rise of Japan - The Vocabulary of Control: Examines a few social characteristics of Japanese.
Tokyo Trains Tackle Groping Problem: Article on train cars in Tokyo for women only to address the growing problem of men groping women commuters.