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Philip Brasor
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 14, 2013
Japan still paying for war sins through international copyrights
If you're a copyright holder, you have a special reason to be happy if your work is sold in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 9, 2013
Taro Aso may, for once, have a point
Ever since the Liberal Democratic Party regained power last year, standard-bearer Shinzo Abe has been conspicuously cautious with his public pronouncements, cooling it on the nationalist rhetoric and keeping the bravado to a minimum. Deprived of excitement, the media was delighted by Vice Prime Minister...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 8, 2013
Japanese attorneys throw their nets farther out
Big city lawyers are moving to the sticks to drum up business.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Feb 4, 2013
Building your home can come at quite a cost
People in the market for new single-family houses usually don't worry as much about the land those houses occupy because they tend to work with developers, who purchase huge tracts and then subdivide them. The customer buys the land and the house as a package, though the authorities see it as two purchases...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2013
Celebrity bloggers not required to disclose paid endorsements
In December several celebrities were forced to apologize publicly for stating on their personal blogs that they had "won" items on so-called penny auction websites when, in fact, they hadn't.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 2, 2013
Government says all single parents not created equal
A single mother finds that she doesn't qualify for a tax exemption because she was never married.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 26, 2013
No room for subtleties when laying off workers
Thanks to a feature that appeared on the front page of the Dec. 31 issue of the Asahi Shimbun, oidashi beya is the first topical neologism of 2013 if you don't count "Abenomics." It's not clear if the term, which translates as "expulsion room," was coined by the newspaper, but since then the blogosphere...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 24, 2013
Deflation watch: Retort curry
What effect has deflation had on ready-to-eat curry?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 19, 2013
Beating kids to create 'fighting spirit' in sport doesn't translate
In a recent interview on the Barnes & Noble Review website promoting his latest book, historian Jared Diamond mentions how treatment of the young "varies among traditional societies just as it varies among industrial societies," and gives examples of how some of the former use corporal punishment...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 16, 2013
Gas station business losing to reality
A new law is accelerating the closures of gas stations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 13, 2013
Mascots bear cash for local authorities
In September 2007, after Shinzo Abe had abruptly quit his first stint as prime minister, sales of Shin-chan Manju, a bean-paste-filled bun named after Abe, spiked. The maker of the buns had tried to promote the product over the course of Abe's year as the Liberal Democratic Party leader, changing its...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 9, 2013
Energy conservation isn't just for summers any more
More Japanese homes are using electricity for heating purposes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 6, 2013
Japan's farming could be going to seed
"Tis the season for predictions, and last week Hiromasa Yonekura, the chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), told Asahi Shimbun he believed Japan will decide in 2013 to take part in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Yonekura is also chairman of Sumitomo Chemical, which in 2010...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2013
Cleaning 'angels' reinforce positive image of Japanese workers
Train cleaning crews are the new heroes of Japanese commerce.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jan 1, 2013
Checking out the real estate agents
Several months ago we looked at a house that had been bought at auction by a housing company, fixed up and then put on the market. We found it among the listings on the home page of a realtor we've dealt with in the past, and he agreed to show it to us.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 30, 2012
This year's highlights and lowlights
Media figures of the year:
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 28, 2012
Endure New Year's on TV with the rest of Japan
Last year, NHK's annual New Year's Eve song contest, "Kohaku Uta Gassen" (7:15-11:45 p.m.), enjoyed its first ratings boost in more than a decade. As the most hallowed tradition in Japanese broadcasting, the program offered some needed end-of-year holiday solace for a nation still recovering emotionally...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 27, 2012
In Japan it's never too late to get in on the ground floor with stocks
Will the Japanese public, in particular women, finally start investing in the stock market?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2012
Public works funds best spent fixing aging infrastructure
Last week's Lower House election was all about what people didn't want — the Democratic Party of Japan — but the issue foremost in voters' minds was the state of the economy, and new prime minister Shinzo Abe has made that his first priority by pledging to boost inflation through monetary...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 23, 2012
"Family History"; Top athletes in unimaginable contests; CM of the week: Sato Shokuhi
The portion of resident Korean nationals in the sports and show business worlds is higher than it is in the general population. Athletics and entertainment were and still are two traditional ways for non-Japanese to escape poverty.

Longform

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