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Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 23, 2011

Zoos, aquariums weigh power cut, animal safety

While the Tokai region strives to cut electricity use this summer following the shutdown of the Hamaoka nuclear plant in May, local aquariums and zoos must continue to maintain a suitable environment for their fish and animals regardless of the circumstances.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jul 20, 2011

Will Japan invite Google+ into its growing circle of social networks?

Despite only being in closed beta testing at the moment, Google's new social-network service, Google+, is rapidly proving to be huge, with more than 10 million users joining since it was announced on June 28. And thanks to their international connections, Net-savvy Japanese too were soon getting invitations...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2011

Green is good for you — and the Earth

My work often takes me away from my home in Hokkaido, and with every absence I am irked to be missing out on some part of the inexorable seasonal advance. So, each time I return I make a beeline for my local forest to reacquaint myself with the resident and migrant birds, to trace the tracks and signs...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 16, 2011

Suzuki not waiting for Tokai quake to make for high ground

At a shareholders' meeting June 29 of Suzuki Motor Corp., the major manufacturer of cars and motorcycles based in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, an investor asked what measures the company is taking against the Tokai earthquake, the long-predicted killer temblor that could hit the region in the near...
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2011

Snapshot of current thought

Shinsho (new writing or paperback originals) nonfiction books, written for a general audience by experts on topics of current interest, offer a window on what's on the minds of the Japanese. Judging from recent shinsho best-sellers, that's primarily the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster and the proper...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 2, 2011

Nagoya TV tower losing role, future iffy

Nagoya TV Tower in Hisaya Odori Park hopes to remain a tourist draw after its broadcast role ends with the July 24 full changeover to digital from analog broadcasting, but upkeep costs may doom it to the wrecking ball.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 25, 2011

Parts makers at mercy of recovery's pace

Kokune Ltd. President Yasushi Kogune is not sure his 55-worker die-casting company will be able to survive until the slump brought on by the March 11 earthquake ends.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jun 20, 2011

Hawks, Pa. League stage another dominant interleague campaign

Another interleague season is in the books and, as has been the case in each of the previous seven years, a Pacific League team is raising the interleague pennant.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 18, 2011

Chubu Electric urges power-saving after Kepco snub

When Kansai Electric Power Co. announced it would ask its customers to cut back on electricity usage this summer, fearing supply shortages, it also dashed Chubu Electric Power Co.'s hopes of receiving electricity from the that utility.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 16, 2011

You're not alone in feeling lonely

For playwright and director Ryuta Horai, the last two years have been a nonstop whirl of activity since "Mahoroba" ("A splendid location") — his drama about four generations of women in a traditional rural family meeting up and feuding — won the highly prestigious Kishida Kunio Award for best play...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 11, 2011

Gifu college sets up manga program for French students

Ogaki Women's College in Gifu Prefecture will in July conclude a manga study partnership agreement with Paris-based academic institution Eurasiam.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jun 4, 2011

Intern at Disney, get credits

Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture, has launched an overseas program to give its students the opportunity to study in the U.S. and work at Disney World in Florida.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 31, 2011

English magazines run gamut from poetry to prose, Kanto to Chubu

We received several additional English-magazine suggestions in response to our May 17 column, "Print is suffering, but English readers have never had it so good."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 31, 2011

The edified and TEDified in Japan

On May 21, Tokyo's third annual TEDx event was held at Miraikan (the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) in Odaiba. Though officially closed until June 11 due to the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake, Miraikan hosted 300 guests to this year's event: TEDxTokyo 2011: Enter the Unknown.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 28, 2011

Funds elude drug rehab effort in Turkey

A former staffer of Mie-DARC, a drug addiction rehabilitation center in Mie Prefecture, has been providing similar support for addicts in Turkey.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 21, 2011

'Koala crisis' is prompting zoos to accelerate their breeding efforts

In another 20 years, koalas may disappear from Japanese zoos.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 15, 2011

Cheap BBQ meat boss pays a high price for being variety show favorite

Since the earthquake of March 11, there's been a lot of bowing and kneeling on TV. Everywhere the executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. go in the Tohoku region, they are compelled to not only bend over for residents of the area, but in some cases get down on the ground and perform dogeza, the act of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 14, 2011

Disasters reached Brazilian 'bento' firm in Tokai

At 8 a.m. one day in April, three workers at FujiNippon Refeicoes, a catering company serving Brazilian workers in Japan, were filling boxed lunches with freshly made Brazilian dishes on a large kitchen counter.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
May 9, 2011

Meaningful future needed to preserve Tokyo Motor Show

Japanese automakers were hit hard by the March earthquake and the massive supply chain interruptions continue. It's so bad in fact that normalization of production at most domestic and overseas plants is expected to take until the end of the year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 30, 2011

3/11 renders tax-cut advocates' poll momentum a distant dream

When candidates from the new local group Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) led by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura won the triple elections held in Aichi Prefecture in February, the group's tax cut initiative seemed to have gained momentum.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 28, 2011

Maharaja Company president Emiko Kothari

Emiko Kothari is president of the Maharaja Company Ltd, a chain of Indian restaurants across Japan. In 1968, Emiko and her husband, Shivji, opened their first Indian restaurant in Tokyo, and the couple's winning recipe of mixing authentic Indian cuisine and Japanese hospitality contributed to an Indian...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 12, 2011

Classics scholar seeks to repay debt

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast on March 11, Robert Campbell, an Irish-American scholar of Edo Period to early Meiji Era literature, was in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 10, 2011

Ishihara may just benefit from 'divine retribution'

There are 11 men vying today for the office of Tokyo governor. Four are taken seriously by the media, the eccentric inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu is humored as a perennial also-ran, and the remaining six are dismissed as margin-dwellers who are in the game to draw attention to themselves or advocate...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2011

Tohoku disaster sparks innovative social media responses

As Japan grapples with an unprecedented triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis — the Web has spawned creativity and innovation online amid a collective desire to ease suffering.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 25, 2011

Comic's tweets tackle specter of fear

These are hard times for entertainers in Japan. In the face of the March 11 Tohoku-Kanto Earthquake and tsunami, which has killed more than 9,000 and left many more missing, and with radiation still leaking from the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, hard news coverage has taken center stage,...
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2011

Words of advice for the media

I agree with Ivor Paul's March 6 letter, "TV listings offer little help." Japanese television is absolute garbage, unworthy of viewing by anyone. It is heavily biased with rightwing, conservative viewpoints pushed relentlessly on the viewing public. An example is the debate on whaling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 15, 2011

HIV/AIDS awareness often too late

More than two decades after the first case of AIDS in a Japanese patient was officially reported by the health ministry's National AIDS Surveillance Committee in 1985, HIV/AIDS seems to have become a disease of the past. With much less media coverage, people have become complacent about the issue, experts...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 12, 2011

Aichi firm unmasks its potential

A venture firm in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, has developed technology to produce a mask bearing a shocking resemblance to the person ordering it, and they're taking off as gifts and for stage performances.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.