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Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 3, 2009

Newspapers here soldiering on

Japan's newspaper industry caters to a nation of avid readers and has thus enjoyed a healthy business environment when compared with other developed countries — but times are changing.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 27, 2009

House legend Farley can't shake the habit

When the house scene exploded in Britain in the late 1980s, Terry Farley could surely not have predicted that he would one day play a four-hour set in Tokyo at the age of 50.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 24, 2009

Christianity's long history in the margins

Prime Minister Taro Aso may be a proclaimed Christian, but as far as the spread of the faith among the populace, it finds only a marginal presence.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 17, 2009

Accelerating Toyota forced to downshift

Figures for just the past five years show how much Toyota Motor Corp. has prospered. During that period, the carmaker continued to post record sales, profits, production and sales units, ultimately taking the top of the hill from General Motors Corp.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 10, 2009

Recession won't sour Valentine's

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and stores are geared up to cater to that special time when women give their romantic others a sweet treat and, in the Japanese workplace, offer colleagues tasty tidbits out of gratitude.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2009

Divisions over Aso rack LDP's largest faction

The Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction decided Thursday to unify solely under former Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura in an attempt to muzzle outspoken faction manager Hidenao Nakagawa and keep him in line with its goals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 3, 2009

Bank transfer fraudsters have that grift of gab

Subway posters, newspaper ads, TV commercials and automatic teller machines nationwide bear warnings against "furikome sagi" — remittance fraud — a scourge that bilks the vulnerable out of billions of yen every year.
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2009

Israel showed forbearance

The Jan. 22 front-page photo caption of the Hamas militant (titled "Youth Movement") — about U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's visit and the sympathy toward fallen Palestinians — has broken new moral ground in the show of unbalanced reporting regarding the situation between Israel and Gaza.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 27, 2009

No brown bagging it for students

Safe, healthy, tasty. That's the goal of "kyushoku" (school lunches) that are distributed nationwide.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 21, 2009

The key words that kept Japan abuzz in 2008

Last October, publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha released the 61st edition of its "Gendai Yogo no Kiso Chishiki (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Words)" — a massive 1,614-page tome that retails for just ¥2,980. I have a facsimile copy of the book's first edition, launched on Oct. 10, 1948. In the introduction,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 20, 2009

'Exam hell' now not so hot

The annual university entrance examination season kicked off Saturday and Sunday as some 540,000 high school students and graduates nationwide took the standardized National Center Test for University Admissions.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2009

Deputy chief Cabinet secretary's alleged affair heaps further woes on Aso

Just what Prime Minister Taro Aso didn't need was another problem, but a new one landed on his plate Thursday when allegations emerged in a weekly magazine that Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike has been having an affair.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 16, 2009

If you can't sell designer bags, rent them

Japanese consumers are renowned for their appetite for luxury brands, hence Georgio Armani and other high-end labels opened their largest outlets in the world in the glitzy Ginza district in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Jan 15, 2009

Heartless order against homeless

Regarding the Jan. 10 article "NPO told to stop feeding homeless": There are times when official pronouncements reveal just how out of touch with reality the bureaucracy is. The order from the metropolitan government that the nonprofit organization Sanyukai stop handing out weekly free meals to the homeless...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 13, 2009

Graduate job search in full swing, despite recession

Each year, the cherry blossoms of April are accompanied by the nervous march of over 400,000 fresh-faced graduates on their way to their new jobs.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jan 11, 2009

Mao's poise under pressure proved decisive in 2008

Mao Asada capped off an incredible year by rallying for her third straight national title in Nagano on Dec. 27.
LIFE
Jan 11, 2009

A meeting of minds

OXFORD ENGLAND — The last leaves were falling and the world was plunging into an economic crisis as journalists from around the world gathered for a meeting in England. The venue, though, was not a conference room in the financial hub of the City of London, but the ancient university city of Oxford,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 6, 2009

Lessons from when the bubble burst

With the current global financial crisis, there is much talk in the international economic communities about how to prevent the kind of prolonged slump that hit Japan after the end of the bubble economy years.
BASKETBALL
Dec 31, 2008

Webb receives weekly honor

Toyama Grouses power forward Rodney Webb, the team's leading scorer, helped the Grouses record their first winning streak of the season, which ended at three games with Sunday's loss to the Tokyo Apache at Ariake Colosseum. Webb played a big part in extending the streak to three, scoring a game-high...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 30, 2008

Half century on, Tokyo Tower still dazzles as landmark

Tokyo Tower, a long-standing landmark of the capital, celebrated its 50th birthday on Dec. 23. It still attracts about 3 million visitors a year and has provided the metropolis with good TV reception for decades.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2008

Dueling with a rare Japanese superhero

Japanese pop culture, by and large, doesn't do human superheroes. Super-powered robots (Atom Boy, aka Tetsuwan Atom), monsters (Godzilla) and aliens (Ultraman) exist in abundance, but it's harder to find the local equivalents to Spider-Man or Batman, especially on the big screen.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 23, 2008

Tight budgets or not, the year's hit products roll on

As the year rushes toward its finale, Japan's media devotes a lot of coverage to identifying hitto shōhin (ヒット商品, hit products) that have succeeded in capturing consumers' hearts and minds over the previous 12 months.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 23, 2008

Gay scene: Tolerance, legal limbo

Some countries see homosexuality as a crime punishable by death, while others are open to diversity and make no judgment on the basis of one's sexual orientation.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Dec 21, 2008

Burning temples, busted black marketeers, golf boom and discriminatory bookshop

100 YEARS AGO
BASKETBALL
Dec 17, 2008

High-scoring Parker nabs weekly honor

Talented forward Michael Parker has been the Rizing Fukuoka's best player this season. And after a sensational weekend, the bj-league recognized him as the Circle K Sunkus Player of the Week, it was announced on Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 16, 2008

A highway system that ever exacts toll

Expressways have been a prominent feature of postwar Japan's infrastructure-building efforts.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 9, 2008

Shinkansen about more than speed

Shinkansen stand as global symbols of Japanese technological innovation. Debuting just in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the bullet trains continue to carry people across the nation at record speed.

Longform

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