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April 08, 2025
 

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Philip Brasor
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2011
Minister attacked for challenging the 'family system'
Yoko Komiyama is the first woman to ever occupy the post of Japan's minister of health, welfare and labor. As a mother, she may have more insight than her male colleagues into issues her ministry addresses, and from the start of her appointment in August she has stirred up controversy, mainly with her...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 20, 2011
Are consumers being short-changed by the yen's appreciation?
Why hasn't the high yen resulted in lower prices for imported goods?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 16, 2011
Being amateurish is what makes SMAP such pros
NHK's "The Professional" profiles, through interviews and situational coverage, people who are notable for their dedication to some craft or business vision. The series grew out of "Project X," the very popular documentary series about Japan's industrial breakthroughs of the past, and is meant to spotlight...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 16, 2011
The rich are getting out while the getting is good
Japan's wealthy folks are taking their money, and their bodies, to safer havens.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2011
Busan festival takes a bold step, but is Asian cinema ready?
"Change" was the key word at this year's Busan International Film Festival, and not just because the organizers finally succumbed to the host South Korean port city's request to change the name from "Pusan." Lee Yong Kwan took over as festival director from founder Kim Dong Ho, who is credited with turning...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 12, 2011
Politicians hope you don't notice when their pay goes back to normal
The special pay cut for national lawmakers expires this month.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 9, 2011
Television's skewed version of poverty
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations currently taking place in New York continue to garner more and more attention from the American media, which mostly ignored the movement when it began several weeks ago. Now everybody in America who reads a newspaper or watches TV news understands that the protesters...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 6, 2011
Rice market turned upside down by radiation fears
Thanks to radiation fears, the pattern for seasonal rice sales is different this year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 4, 2011
Buying a brand new home: cookie cutter or order made?
We went for the six-pack of beer, which the manufactured-housing company was giving away to the first 10 people who came to inspect its new model homes. Competition is fierce among Japan's many manufactured home builders, and the one we were visiting is No. 10 in terms of units sold per year, though...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 3, 2011
Restaurant chain retains No. 1 position in sales . . . and robberies
Why has the Sukiya beef bowl chain become such a magnet for thieves?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 2, 2011
Press miss the point at antinuke demo
Three weeks after Japan's biggest antinuclear demonstration, there is still some dispute over how many people actually attended. The organizers estimate 60,000 and the police say about 30,000. Except for the Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers, which accept the police figure, the mainstream vernacular media...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 28, 2011
Eat a potato chip and send a kid to college
Three major manufacturers have set up a fund for orphans' continuing education
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 26, 2011
Will K-cars save the domestic automotive industry?
In the wake of the March 11 disaster, mini-cars come into their own.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 25, 2011
Welfare system not faring well
Ten years ago, in her book "Nickel and Dimed," Barbara Ehrenreich chronicled her own experience as a subsistence-level American wage-earner during a period of relative economic vigor. She found a whole class of workers who lived — and would always live — from paycheck to paycheck. In the afterword...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 22, 2011
In Japan, you get the education you (the consumer) pay for
Why is private spending for education in Japan so much more than public spending?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2011
Political elite can't stand outsiders
Yoshio Hachiro's stint as the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the new Yoshihiko Noda administration was not the briefest cabinet assignment on record, but it was certainly one of the most controversial. News outlets reported that it was "public outrage" over two remarks he made which forced...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 15, 2011
Heal me: Spirituality businesses redefining "religion"
'Spirituality businesses' endeavoring to bring back that old-time religion, Japanese-style.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 11, 2011
Local governments crack down on health insurance scofflaws
As the tax base gets poorer fewer people pay their national health insurance premiums, and local governments are doing something about it.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2011
High profile case highlights the delicate issue of foster care in Japan
On Aug. 20, police arrested voice actress Shizuka Suzuike at her home in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of causing injuries that led to the death of 3-year-old Miyuki Watanabe in August 2010. At the time of her death, Miyuki had been in Suzuike's foster care for almost a year. The suspect denies...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 7, 2011
Grandma got game: More elderly patronizing arcades
Game arcades are counting on the elderly to turn around their business fortunes.
Nissan says it will not take new U.S. orders for Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs
A Nissan manufacturing complex in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Nissan says it will not take new orders from the United States for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs following new auto tariffs levied by the U.S.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Nikkei plunges in third-biggest daily loss ever amid Trump tariff concerns
Pedestrians stand in front of an electronic board showing the numbers of the Nikkei Stock Average on the Tokyo Stock Exchange along a street in the Japanese capital on Monday.
Ride-hailing services spreading in Japan
Vehicles used for ride-hailing services in the city of Kiryu, in Gunma Prefecture
Japan responds to Trump's tariffs with a polite phone call and request
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7.
‘Let’s make it practical’: NATO chief eyes greater defense-industrial ties with Japan
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte plans to visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday — his first to the Indo-Pacific region since taking office in October, as he seeks to implement lessons from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.

Podcast

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

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
By Alex K.T. Martin

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