China Is Building A $5BN Railway Tunnel Across the Himalayas!

A ruling in Japan advances transgender rights

 

Japan’s Supreme Court hearing the gender change case in Tokyo last month.Jiji Press, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A ruling in Japan advances transgender rights

Japan’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that requiring transgender people to undergo sterilization in order to legally change their gender identity was unconstitutional. Activists welcomed the ruling as a step forward for L.G.B.T.Q. rights in a nation that has been slow to recognize them.

Still, the court did not rule on a separate requirement that transgender people must undergo transition surgery in order to legally register as the gender with which they identify. In practice, that means many transgender people will still be unable to make the legal change. The top court said it would send the case back to the High Court for further discussion of the transition surgery clause.

What's Life Like Inside A Japanese Prison?

 

 

We gained unprecedented filming access to two Japanese prisons to find out if accusations that the system is inhumane are true. What we witnessed was staggering. Inmates must march to their worksites attached by a cord; they are not allowed to look the guards in the eye; outside of scheduled leisure hours, they must maintain absolute silence, unless they have obtained prior permission to speak. The treatment of suspects in custody pushes many to confess to crimes which they did not commit, as was the case with one man who spent 46 years on death row. He was finally exonerated six years ago, but was left broken. We try to explain why a country which operates on strict principles of balance and order might choose such a repressive system, and see if this may explain Japan having one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Japan seeks to dissolve the Unification Church

Japan seeks to dissolve the Unification Church

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said yesterday that the government would seek to dissolve the Japan branch of the Unification Church, more than a year after the fringe group’s ties to conservative Japanese politicians were revealed in the wake of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s assassination in July 2022.

After the killing, lawmakers scurried to contain the political fallout and began to scrutinize the church, which was found to have manipulated its members into handing over large sums of money over several decades.

What’s next: If the Tokyo district court orders the Unification Church to dissolve in Japan, the church will lose its property tax exemption and have to dispose of its assets. The church could appeal to the Supreme Court, or take its activities underground.

The headquarters of the Unification Church in Tokyo in May. Noriko Hayashi for The New York Times