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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 28, 2013

Fukushima: evolving fear into fact

Misinformation and flawed reporting about Fukushima radiation levels and reactor stability persisted even when scientific data had become readily available.
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2013

Aso stirs pot with tax plot

The consumption tax is driving a wedge between government officials. On one side sits Finance Minister Taro Aso, a vocal advocate for sticking to the plan to hike the levy next April, while on the other high-ranking officials pussyfoot, insisting it is the prime minister's decision to make — sometime...
LIFE / Travel
Jul 20, 2013

Theaters of war and peace in Kumamoto

The pamphlet tells me this is a "castle" — but the structure in front of me defies that description. Granted, my frame of reference is greatly informed by the impressive edifices of Kumamoto, Himeji and Matsumoto that date back to the gory Sengoku (Warring States) Period spanning some 150 years from...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 20, 2013

Paying a price in Japan for showing up authority

After Japan's defeat in World II, its art world fell into the same flux as the rest of the society, as the rules and values that had governed it for decades suddenly vanished. Styles and movements once censored and banned, from Soviet-style socialist realism to surrealism, were now permitted and even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013

'Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)'

Whenever Hayao Miyazaki, now 72, makes a film, fans and critics weigh it against this anime master's past triumphs — and often find it wanting. Japanese critics, especially, fondly recall the films that Miyazaki directed at the start of his long career as peaks. That is, 1979's "Lupin Sansei: Cagliostro...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013

'2 Days in New York'

If she's known for anything, Julie Delpy is known for her films "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," made with director Richard Linklater and costar Ethan Hawke. And while those films were about the giddy feeling of falling head over heels for someone even when you know better than to believe in happily...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 15, 2013

Trolls or media watchdogs?: Japan's foreign-born defenders

Have the foreign media got it in for Japan? Do they unduly focus on, and sensationalize, Fukushima radiation leaks, alleged racial intolerance and the self-aggrandizing policy pronouncements of the reborn Liberal Democratic Party?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 15, 2013

Seeking to return the spoils of war

Lifelines takes a step back in time this week with two questions linked to World War II.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 13, 2013

Illuminating the interplay between Japanese poetry and pictures

This cleverly titled book combines two subjects, for the "art" that it describes is not just the art of haiku composition but that of the pictures that frequently accompany the poems, often by the same person. "If haiku is a worldwide phenomenon, haiga (haiku painting) is almost unknown," says the author....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2013

C86 sound jangles on in the Japanese indie scene

If pop culture is primarily about escapism, one of the enduring mysteries of the music world must surely be how the sounds of cold, wet afternoons in mid-1980s Manchester came to capture the imaginations of artists around the world. From the sunny shores of California to the icy hillsides of Finland,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2013

Jesse Ruins take cinematic inspiration for debut full-length

Although many Japanese indie bands find it a struggle breaking into overseas markets, Tokyo's Jesse Ruins have always seemed to strike a chord among both international and domestic listeners alike.
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2013

Supporting less fortunate children

A law passed unanimously by the Upper House will test the central government's will to support education for poor children and to help low-income parents find jobs.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 8, 2013

As new UNESCO site, Fuji set to beckon to masses

The official climbing season for Mount Fuji kicked off July 1 amid added fanfare over the iconic peak's inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site in late June.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2013

Deterring an Asia nuke race

Asia risks sliding into a nuclear arms race, aggravated by underlying mistrust. Potential 'threshold' countries include South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and Vietnam.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 8, 2013

Kanebo recall illustrates built-in resilience of cosmetics industry

Compared to what it made on whitening skin-care products, Kanebo's recall will cost very little.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2013

Strict rules help U.S. access data traffic on undersea cables

The U.S. government had a problem: Spying in the digital age required access to the fiber-optic cables traversing the world's oceans, carrying torrents of data at the speed of light. And one of the biggest operators of those cables was being sold to an Asian firm, which might complicate American surveillance...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 6, 2013

Crime pays: Vampire squids wriggle free in wink-and-nod world

It seems the financial world lurches from scandal to scandal as if coated with Teflon, shrugging off demands for accountability.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jul 6, 2013

'Price tag' vandalism attacks on Muslim settlements in Israel on the rise

Ibrahim Hamza was up before first light. When he went out to his truck, he thought it was a simple flat tire. But it didn't take long for Hamza, from one of the founding Muslim families who settled this village west of Jerusalem centuries ago, to realize the tires of 28 vehicles on his street had been...
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2013

Bankers' group to ratchet up oversight of Tibor

The Japanese Bankers Association will step up oversight of the country's benchmark interbank lending rates as part of global efforts to tighten supervision in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Finds raise toxic chemical suspicions at ex-Kadena site

The Okinawa Defense Bureau and the city of Okinawa uncover seven more barrels at a former U.S. base site that may have been used to hold toxic chemicals during the Vietnam War.
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2013

Christian mentality showing

It's only necessary to look at the personal, seemingly malevolent sarcasm of Frank O'Brien's June 23 letter, "Right to express religious views," and Jennifer Kim's June 23 letter, "Mild wisecrack in comparison," to see what is wrong with the Christian mentality.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Rights activists demand end to exploitative trainee program

Japan has long drawn criticism from global watchdogs for failing to curb human trafficking, perhaps most conspicuously when it comes to foreign women brought in to work in the sex trade.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 1, 2013

Japan envoys among U.S. 'spy targets'

Tokyo will 'strongly demand' an explanation from Washington about reports that Japanese diplomats in the U.S. were 'targets' of American spying, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2013

Abe wants to gut public protections: expert

If the Liberal Democratic Party succeeds in rewriting the Constitution, it would severely scale back fundamental human rights and strip the public of various civil liberties, a prominent constitutional scholar warns.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 29, 2013

Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics

The demonstrations in Brazil began after a small rise in bus fares triggered mass protests. Within days this had become a nationwide movement whose concerns had spread far beyond fares: more than a million people were on the streets shouting about everything from corruption to the cost of living to the...
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Basically a case of bad manners

Allow me to express my weariness with Drusilla de Lanor, who in her June 13 letter, "No offense taken to 'that guy,'" called my view bigoted. A careful reading of my June 9 letter, "An offensive religious reference," will show that I do not claim to be a Christian.

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