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EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2010

Surviving with a strong yen

As the Japanese economy is battered by a recent rise of the yen against the U.S. dollar to a 15-year high, the Bank of Japan decided Monday to inject more liquidity — an additional ¥10 trillion at a low interest rate on top of the ¥20 trillion under the existing lending scheme — into the economy,...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2010

Plight of the Roma within EU democracies

NEW YORK — The Roma, persecuted for centuries, now face a form of discrimination unseen in Europe since World War II: group evictions and expulsions from several European democracies of men, women and children on the grounds that they pose a threat to public order.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 31, 2010

Tsukuba: What are the challenges when observing Ramadan in Japan?

Fatma HachaniStudent, 30(Tunisian)Ramadan is the hardest month for me to be away from my family and country. I spend weekdays working in the lab. From 2 p.m. I start to feel tired. Not eating is not a major problem for me, but not drinking in such an exceptionally hot summer is a challenge! I realize...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 31, 2010

Fingerprint all Japanese, for safety's sake

If you're a noncitizen and have entered or re-entered Japan in the last couple of years, you've undoubtedly been invited to participate in the wonderful, fun-filled world of biometrics. It's safe to say that many of you felt as though you were being treated like criminals — not to mention the humiliation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 30, 2010

Do you know Yucho?

Japan's post office launches a campaign to promote the convenience of opening postal savings accounts. City folk, too, might want to look into it.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2010

Kenyans at crossroads with constitution

WATERLOO, Ontario — Earlier this month, Kenyans went to the polls to vote on a new constitution that will replace the current one when signed into law, marking a turning point in the country's history.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2010

Japan's textual demands vex civilian nuclear deal with India

LONDON — When Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada was in Delhi a few days back for the fourth round of strategic dialogue between Japan and India, he made it clear that negotiations on a civilian nuclear cooperation pact are going to be rather difficult.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 29, 2010

Saved by a few — and a fierce typhoon

In 1993, when large tracts of wilderness on the Kagoshima Prefecture island of Yakushima were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, environmentally minded observers the world over celebrated. But the real battle to save the island's forests had been fought — and won — a decade earlier. One of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2010

'Hana to Hebi 3 (Flower & Snake 3)'

Author/director Oniroku Dan's "Hana to Hebi (Flower & Snake)" is the recognized classic of sadomasochistic literature in Japan, probably equal in reputation to Pauline Reage's "Story of O." While the novel has been brought to the big screen in many guises — and to the small as well, in an pervy video...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2010

Immersed in epic visions of nature

It is as epic as it is arresting. With a gentle whirr, thousands of white feathers are blown into the air in a vast clear space where they proceed to toss and tumble like snowflakes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2010

Perceptions of space, from Japan to the world

"I'm a kind of iguana. But I'm the kind of iguana that travels."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2010

In the absence of information comes greater imagination

The 1990s saw the rise of what at the time seemed an important generation of Japanese female photographers. This included Junko Takahashi, HIROMIX, Rika Noguchi, Mika Ninagawa and Tomoko Sawada. While much of this new wave — most notably the narcissistic soft-porn of HIROMIX and the cosplay outings...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 26, 2010

Objets d'art with a purpose in life

Working across the grain
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2010

When scores of centenarians fall off radar

Japan prides itself on the world's longest life expectancy but is struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic — revelations that hundreds of people listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven't been heard from for decades.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Aug 24, 2010

Asakatsu: up and at 'em

More and more Japanese are getting up with the rising sun, for a little me-time.
JAPAN
Aug 24, 2010

Taiji mayor defends dolphin hunt

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. — As kids in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 250-kg dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of squid tossed out by a trainer.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2010

Globalization's benefits are moot unless everybody gets to play

One aspect of the globalized world today is that the world has plunged into fast-paced, turbulent times where everyone is connected — so much so that British sociologist Anthony Giddens has been compelled to write of today's age as one where "the local and the global are inextricably intertwined."...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Aug 23, 2010

'Bottle Imp' poses warning for currency and bond markets

Watching the dollar's recent plight in the foreign-exchange markets, I am reminded of a fascinating story I came across some years ago in an anthology of supernatural tales called "The Bottle Imp." It has its origins in German folklore and goes something like this:
Reader Mail
Aug 22, 2010

America appears to have atoned

Regarding Naoshi Koriyama's Aug. 12 letter, "America can atone for its mistake": Let us ask how a nation could develop such a hate for another country that, upon developing the most powerful weapon in history, it would feel compelled to use such a weapon against the country?
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2010

Of forests and floods

Last week I enjoyed the sublime luxury of watching a sunrise from the middle of a lake in Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat