The new Japanese government should take a leadership role in helping to improve human rights conditions in North Korea.

Japan’s new administration should publicly press the Sri Lankan government to end the illegal detention of approximately 250,000 Tamil civilians, five Japanese and international human rights organizations said in a joint letter to Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, made public today.

Governments in countries with caste systems should respond to the call from a top UN official to end this form of discrimination.

The new Japanese government should undertake a thorough review of Japan’s policies designed to promote human rights in Burma

Japan needs to “play a more active role” in confronting the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, four international organizations said in a letter today to Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan. Ahead of today’s ministerial-level meeting at the United Nations Security Council, the groups urged Japan, as a council member, to support urgent formal action on the situation.

The Japanese government, parliament, and bureaucracy should become much stronger proponents for human rights in Asia and worldwide, Human Rights Watch said today at a news conference to open its Tokyo Office.

Despite all the noise and widespread condemnation just one year ago during the regime's brutal crackdown, Burma is way down the list of priorities for the international community including Japan and the US.

Each day brings news of a new human rights crisis. Even focusing only on our Asian neighbors, countless civilians are being killed in conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka; governments are crushing protest movements in Burma, Tibet and Uzbekistan; security forces and armed groups are abducting, torturing and killing people in Sri Lanka, North Korea, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines, while the military government is compelling people to vote in Burma with no respect for the rule of law. Japan's goal to make the 21st century "a century of human rights" seems wishful thinking.