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EDITORIALS
Sep 2, 2007

Aging bridges of Japan

The collapse a month ago of a freeway bridge over the Mississippi River near downtown Minneapolis offers an important lesson for Japan, where a large number of bridges are expected to reach the end of their useful life in the near future. The collapse points to the danger inherent in old infrastructure...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 28, 2007

The blame game

We live in interesting times. With the shortage and high cost of domestic labor, the Japanese government has brought over record numbers of cheap foreign workers. Even though whole industrial sectors now depend on foreign labor, few publicly accept the symbiosis as permanent. Instead, foreigners are...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Aug 21, 2007

Pocket tissues

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 9, 2007

After 100 years of change, Nitten moves to the NACT

R esearch the biography of any prominent Japanese artist in the last 100 years and you'll likely run into terms such as Bunten, Teiten, Shin Bunten and Nitten. Though the plethora of names may be off-putting, they all refer to the same thing: Japan's largest, annual open art exhibition.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2007

Let the punishment fit the spam

Among life's many hassles, the most recently invented is e-mail spam. Nowadays every single e-mail arrives sandwiched between garbage that must be cleared away before getting to friends, family and business. Even those few foolish people who follow up on spam probably hate spam. However, restricting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2007

'Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi'

Movie reviewers come in two broad categories — the ones who try to write truthfully about films, even if the director is a best buddy, and the ones who let personal factors, such as the free lunch from a PR guy, influence their judgment. The two can overlap, though, as I discovered when I went to a...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jul 24, 2007

'Silver workers' a gold mine for temp agency entrepreneur

When Shigeo Hirano set up Mystar60 Corp., a staffing agency specializing in finding jobs for people age 60 and over, he was a man on a mission.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2007

Outsiders, or not; that is the question

I wish I had a yen or two for every time I've been told: "You will never be accepted in Japan."
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2007

'Kawaii' trend is not dead

Regarding the June 30 article "Miss Universe director turns Japanese into women of worldm": I find it quite rich that the one person who actively works for an event that is nothing more than an archaic display of male chauvinism and sexism has the guts to scoff at the "kawaii (cute)" ideal in Japanese...
Japan Times
LIFE / REFUGEES AND JAPAN
Jul 8, 2007

Diplomat rues Tokyo's 'lack of humanity' to asylum-seekers

Sadako Ogata was the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991-2001, and has been President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 2003. Here, she talks frankly to The Japan Times about Japan's attitudes to those who flee their homelands and seek sanctuary on these shores.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 6, 2007

Japan's favorite violinist

Kyoko Takezawa, one of today's foremost violinists, celebrates 20 years since making her concert debut with a series of recitals featuring an all-romantic, modern program. Titled "A Trip Around the World on the Violin," the tour takes in Nagano, Osaka and Tokyo from July 8-13.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 5, 2007

NPB announces monthly awards

Chiba Lotte Marines outfielder Saburo Omura, Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters right-hander Ryan Glynn and Yakult Swallows right-hander Seth Greisinger won monthly MVP awards for the first time on Wednesday. Omura, playing in his 13th year as a professional, was named the Pacific League MVP for June after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2007

"Katsutoshi Yuasa: The World is Overflowing with Light"

Cibone Gallery Closes in 55 days
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 3, 2007

"Tunnels," "The Boy in the Biscuit Tin"

"Tunnels," By Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams, Chicken House; 2007; 463 pp. Books that lead to sequels are good news and bad news bundled into one. Good news because a sequel means that there's more where this came from, and bad news because the author is not obligated to resolving the plot by the...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2007

For those needing home care, here's how the plan works

Following are answers to some common questions about the national nursing-care insurance plan and how it works:
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

A Japanese Grand Prix

The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival could be graced by more Japanese if the government and the film industry were to cooperate in a more substantiative way, suggests director Naomi Kawase, this year's winner of the Grand Prix for her film "Mogari no Mori (The Mourning Forest)."
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2007

Worst student suicide rate yet

The National Police Agency says that suicides in Japan topped 30,000 for the ninth consecutive year in 2006. While the total number, 32,155, was down 1.2 percent from 2005, the number of suicides among students, 886 — up 25 (2.9 percent) from 2005 — was the worst since 1978 when the NPA started compiling...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?