Japan's Independent Network of English Schools

Stephen Twigg, shadow education secretary of Britain's largest opposition party, has proposed the country learn from Japan to improve its classroom teaching style, which he feels has remained stagnant for more than a century, the BBC reported online. (Yomiuri)

Eighty per cent of businesses in Kamaishi city in Iwate Prefecture are believed to have resumed operations, some in temporary facilities. It is one of the coastal areas damaged by last year's earthquake and tsunami that is now showing signs of recovery. (Channel NewsAsia)

England's schools should take lessons from Japan and the Far East on how to improve performance, the shadow education secretary says. (BBC)

The government plans to set up Hello Work job placement branches at universities to support college students who have been struggling to find jobs amid a stagnant economy. (Japan Times)

Back in 2008, at an Osaka elementary school, there was an incident involving a 3rd grade student who smashed two bottles of milk together during lunch time. As a result, the bottles shattered sending a shard of glass into the child's eye and leaving him disabled. It's certainly a terrible accident but what followed had turned the public's sympathy into outrage. (Japan Today)

Before March last year, if you'd asked a child in Japan about nuclear radiation you would probably have been told about Godzilla, the monster powered by mutations caused by radiation, or Tetsuwan Atomu, aka the nuclear-powered robot Astro Boy. Not any more. (Japan Times)

The welfare ministry has asked local governments to encourage meetings between divorced parents and their children by arranging and overseeing such encounters, but little progress has been made. (Yomiuri)

Patrick Galbraith wants you to know that otaku isn't just Japanese for "nerd." The Alaska-born ethnographer and journalist has spent over a decade studying the subculture, from cosplayers to collectors, "rotten girls" to bishojo-loving boys. (theverge.com)

One year ago -- less than two months after the Great East Japan Earthquake and with the Fukushima nuclear crisis in flux -- anyone walking the streets of Tokyo might very well have asked that question. With Japan in the teeth of disaster, it seemed as though the country's foreign population had evaporated, an image reinforced by news footage of gargantuan queues at Narita International Airport check-in counters. (Mainichi)

Sailor-style outfits, blazers, and stand-up collars are just some representative items from Japanese school uniforms, which are now spreading across the world as part of the "Cool Japan" trend. Behind the skirts and the sleeves, however, are decades' worth of imported culture and generational changes. (Mainichi)