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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 19, 2009

Questions over degree of child abuse remain in Japan

Last April, a 34-year-old woman and her 38-year-old live-in boyfriend were arrested for allegedly burying the corpse of the woman's 9-year-old daughter in a Nara graveyard. Osaka police believe that the child had been a victim of abuse at the hands of the boyfriend. School authorities had earlier suspected...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 28, 2009

Mythmaking and the Kamikaze 'volunteers'

NEW YORK — Lisa Hosokawa Garber, a fresh graduate of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina, has sent me "Crosswind," her short, imaginative account of three months in the life of a youth training to be a Kamikaze pilot. It describes what its author calls a Shakespearean "twist of fate":...
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2009

Kawamura retracts skin color gaffe

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura was quick to retract what could be considered a racist remark Friday over the color of late pop star Michael Jackson's skin.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jun 10, 2009

Just Hungry, Just Bento

The kitchen has long been used as a portal to distant places and times, and Just Hungry and Just Bento are two blogs by Makiko Itoh that put all the wonders of Japanese cuisine within a cutting-board's reach. For Makiko, cooking has been a way to re-create comfort foods from Japan while living abroad...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 22, 2009

Tokyo health centers swamped by callers

Worried callers are swamping phone lines at health centers near the school and homes of two Tokyo-area high school students confirmed to have swine flu.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2009

Sean Penn 'Milk' star is cream of the crop — again

'Y ou know, just to get one of them is something most actors don't get to do, and for a long time I didn't think I'd ever get one, let alone two."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 20, 2009

Whispers of sanity in the frenzy of madness

LUCKNOW, India — It was refreshing to hear the views of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, a Right Livelihood Award recipient, on the politics of terrorism. He rightly believes that terrorism is not born of any religion, but is the outcome of political situations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 14, 2009

So, you wanna be a Johnny?

What do the most popular male celebrity in Japan and a star of Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" have in common?
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Apr 5, 2009

Hiroshi Mikitani: Retail revolutionary

On a bitterly cold mid-February day, in the midst of an even harsher economic climate, Hiroshi Mikitani — founder, president and CEO of one of Japan's largest online retailers, Rakuten Inc. — shook off a slight cold to announce at a concise news conference that in fiscal 2008 his company had achieved...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2009

DPJ election win no longer a sure bet

Ichiro Ozawa's efforts to persuade voters to end the Liberal Democratic Party's almost-uninterrupted 50 years of rule and bring his party to power may be set back by reminders of his links to disgraced former LDP lawmakers.
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
Feb 27, 2009

Kato bets on August election if Aso can hang on

Former Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Koichi Kato said Thursday that if Prime Minister Taro Aso retains power, the Lower House general election will likely be held in August after the Group of Eight summit in July.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 27, 2009

FIBA promotes unity between Japan's leagues

Desperate times call for desperate measures, someone once said. And it's safe to say these are desperate times for the Japan Basketball Association.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2009

Be it booze or cheese, LDP loves to court controversy

Was he or wasn't he? That is the question the media wrestled with last week when discussing former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa's behavior at the Valentine's Day news conference held during the Group of Seven meeting in Rome. By this point everyone seems convinced he was drunk, but the relationship...
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2009

Aso accepts blame for Nakagawa

Prime Minister Taro Aso apologized Thursday over the abrupt exit in disgrace of Shoichi Nakagawa as finance minister and accepted responsibility for appointing him.
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2009

Nissan shares jump on optimism over restructuring, huge job cuts

Nissan Motor Co. shares jumped Tuesday, a day after it announced an aggressive restructuring plan that includes cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide to cope with the global slump.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2009

Oceania presses Fiji leader for free election this year

SYDNEY — An Australian newspaper has fired an editorial salvo at the military government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands while reminding the world of what happens when a country tramples on media freedom.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 25, 2009

Repercussions of war gone bad

NEW YORK — A young friend of mine, Rie Nakano, who did some archival research for a university professor, has given me a small batch of documents prepared by the Special Higher Police, known by the Japanese acronym Tokko. (I had told Rie that my father was an officer of the dreaded "thought police.")...
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2009

Regrettable admission in court

In the trial of a psychiatrist charged with disclosing investigative materials on a teenage boy who set a house fire that killed his stepmother, half-brother and half-sister about 2 1/2 years ago, a journalist has testified in court that the psychiatrist was the news source.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CORPORATE COMMUNICATION SYMPOSIUM
Dec 30, 2008

Communication key to good corporate management

Communication with the public and employees is of strategic importance to corporate management today as companies' operations become more global, and people pay more attention to the social responsibilities of businesses, said participants at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 25, 2008

Ruling bloc plans '11 sales tax hike

The government and the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc on Wednesday officially authorized a midterm tax reform program to increase the 5 percent consumption tax in fiscal 2011 if the economy improves.
BUSINESS
Dec 20, 2008

BOJ reduces key interest rate to 0.1%

The Bank of Japan cut its key interest rate to 0.1 percent from 0.3 percent Friday in the face of pressure to take a bold step to check the yen's rise and provide more liquidity to cash-strapped firms amid the deepening recession.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 14, 2008

Aso the donkey plods on

Last week, when poll results showed public support for the current Cabinet at an all-time low, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party tried to move past the bad news by focusing attention on what it believes is really important. Chief Cabinent Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters that the LDP shouldn't...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2008

Aso losing grip on power as LDP faces crisis over budget problems

Prime Minister Taro Aso signaled last week his readiness to depart from austere fiscal policies ardently defended by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his successors.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2008

Cash handout finding few fans

In 1999, the coalition government was bashed for what was dubbed "one of the silliest policy measures of the century."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2008

Fans shocked at fall

As a composer and producer, Tetsuya Komuro was an undisputed sensation on the Japanese and Asian music scenes from the late 1980s to the 1990s.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2008

Web society opts to stay anonymous

Like a lot of 20-year-olds, Kae Takahashi has a page on U.S.-based MySpace, and there is no mistaking it for anyone else's.

Longform

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