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April 08, 2025
 

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Philip Brasor
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 17, 2011
When Sanma goes, so may the laughs
The tabloid Tokyo Sports has reported that one of the longest-running shows on Japanese TV, "Waratte Ii to mo" ("It's OK to Laugh"), may go off the air next spring due to sagging ratings. Hosted by the sunglass-sporting comedian Tamori since its inception in 1982, the noontime show's mix of celebrity...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 14, 2011
Hummer don't hurt them: Are Japanese consumers allergic to big cars?
Does GM's plan to sell small cars in Japan make sense?
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 11, 2011
Realists and idealists on the cost of adopting renewable energy
If the Renewable Energy Act passes, what will it mean to your electricity bill?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 10, 2011
Japan's attention to detail is all in the delivery
While in California recently, I saw a reality program called "Undercover Boss," in which the president of a company disguises himself as a new hire and works beside his frontline employees. The boss thus comes to appreciate how important those people are to the success of his business. At the end of...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 5, 2011
Okozukai vs. hesokuri: An alternate view of home economics
Wives traditionally control Japanese household finances, but that doesn't mean they have financial freedom.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 5, 2011
Your dream home could become a quake nightmare
Like other people in the Tokyo metropolitan area who were living in a high-rise when the March 11 earthquake struck, we subsequently decided to move.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 3, 2011
Antinuke stance within establishment slowly gathers steam
In May, Wakamono Manifest Sakutei Iinkai, a policy research group dedicated to issues relevant to people under 40, posted results of a survey in which members were asked who they wanted to lead Japan. There was no consensus, but the individual who received the most votes was Liberal Democratic Party...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 29, 2011
The hidden economics of diabetes
Japanese doctors can make a lot of money from the diabetes epidemic.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 26, 2011
Game changer as advertisers take a sporting chance
Earlier this month, teen golf sensation Ryo Ishikawa was driving his Audi when he was stopped by police and told that his international driver's license, obtained in the United States, was not valid in Japan. It was an innocent faux pas, but Ishikawa was forced to apologize profusely through the media...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 24, 2011
Joyful Honda and the rise of the car-centric 'home center'
Are American-styled home centers Japan's retail model for the future?
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 21, 2011
Reported epidemic of elder shoplifting may not be what it seems
Media may be missing the point when it reports on rise in crime among retirees.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 19, 2011
Conduct most becoming of Sado's Berlin triumph
In the past two weeks, three television programs, each on a different network, covered conductor Yutaka Sado's debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. Though Sado's one-off gig would normally mean little outside the rarefied world of classical music, TBS and NHK each decided it merited an in-depth special....
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 18, 2011
Annals of Cheap: 32-inch flat screen TVs
Prices of TV sets, especially smaller models, are now as low as they'll ever be.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 13, 2011
More shopping refugees: Residents of planned community at the mercy of bureaucratic prerogatives
Elderly residents of a corner of Chiba New Town have been left without a supermarket to shop in.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 12, 2011
Those opposing Kan offer no clear reason he must go
The 2012 U.S. presidential election campaign officially started two weeks ago, when former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney announced he would be a candidate for the Republican Party nomination. Romney chose as the setting for his momentous, though unsurprising, announcement a beautiful old family farm...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 5, 2011
Regional bank tries to make money work for good things
A small Tokyo bank encourages customers to be energy efficient in a substantial way.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 5, 2011
Bodikon girl's remarkable selfmade comeback
One of the more enduring TV formats is the Ano hito wa ima (Where are they now?) variety special, which tracks down celebrities of the past to find out what happened to them in the decades since they vanished from our collective consciousness. The hunt is more interesting than the capture, since the...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 31, 2011
LEDs make it cheaper to blind family and friends
How much can you really save if you switch your light bulbs to LEDs?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 29, 2011
Kan government struggles to raise reconstruction funds
John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), the British economist who advocated government intervention to regulate financial health, has lately been cited in the Japanese press in reference to the current administration's plan to raise the consumption tax (CT). When he held the post of finance minister for five...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 26, 2011
Will the 'morning-after pill' make gynecologists obsolete?
The morning-after pill is finally available to Japanese women.
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
Taiwan eyes zero tariffs with U.S., pledges more investment
Kids view the area from a lookout point over cranes and containers at the Port of Keelung, Taiwan, on Thursday.
‘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.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.

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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