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July 04, 2026
 

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David McNeill

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David McNeill
David McNeill is a Tokyo-based writer from Ireland. He writes for several international publications and teaches political science at Sophia University. His new co-authored book is "Strong in the Rain: Surviving Japan's Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima Nuclear Disaster."
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 15, 2003
Has rightwing hijacked Japan abductee issue?
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who says he has been “humiliated” by Prime Minister Koizumi and will never again talk to him, formed a secret alliance with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, even as his regime was preparing thousands of liters of chemical weapons to drop over Japan’s cities....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 25, 2003
Family at risk as dad locked up
In a dingy apartment in Kawaguchi, Saitama, Turkish Kurd Meryem Kosan and her children Merve, 4, and Mehmet Serxwebijn, 12 months, wait for their father Erdal to come home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 25, 2003
Japan’s refugee policies failing
Erbil Suleyman has never read the Czech writer Franz Kafka, but he should. Since arriving in Narita Airport on Nov. 13, 1998, as a Kurdish refugee from Turkey, Suleyman’s life has resembled one of Kafka’s stories, with their hapless characters trapped in absurd situations over which they have little...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 11, 2003
Building projects defy huge cash woe
Until a year ago, the tallest structure I could see from my apartment in Hashimoto, Kanagawa Prefecture, was the neon sign for the local Denny’s. Not any more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 14, 2003
Japanese activists rally to antiwar cry
For three days last month, Ayako Nishimura and hundreds of students, pacifists, leftists and religious groups took their banners and bullhorns to the port of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
Thailand gets serious about chasing high-spending tourists
Chinese tourists at Wat Arun Ratchawararam Rathawaramahawihan in Bangkok
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
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