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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 15, 2012

On the trail of treasures at Kyoto's Toji Temple

The man unfurled the scroll and hung it on the wall of the makeshift tent to reveal a majestic mountain soaring to the heights in bold black brush strokes. It was a scene showing nature in all its grandeur dwarfing a lone human figure halfway up the mountain.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 15, 2012

Slugs, snails and astonishing tales

Late last month, I arrived at my friends' house in the historic southwest English town of Stroud a little too early, only to find both Ian and Caroline Redmond out. So, with time on my hands, I wandered into their lovely garden on the slope of a hill overlooking the town and began to "potter about."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 12, 2012

Ukraine and Japan's radioactive bond

Bedecked in an odd yellow protective suit and wandering through a ruined landscape, the figure could be a member of the first landing party of an invading alien army. And yet, to the Ukrainian audience at the current Kiev Biennale, the scene is immediately recognizable, for it comes from their own recent...
Reader Mail
Jul 1, 2012

Compulsory voting is no remedy

I object to the idea of making voting compulsory, put forth by Bloomberg writer Peter Orszag in The Japan Times' June 25 Op-Ed, "For a better democracy, have everybody vote."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 26, 2012

Tokyo: Which three albums would you need to have with you if you were stuck on a desert island?

Pierre Ono, 34
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2012

The Beach Boys get around, a half-century on

Three hours before showtime, Brian Wilson says: "There is no Rhonda."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 17, 2012

Rock on down to a geopark near you

To naturalists and hikers, the renown of 810-meter Mount Apoi near the southern tip of Hokkaido towers mightily above its lowly elevation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2012

An artistic way with words

"Shoichi Ida, Prints (1941-2006)" focuses on works bequeathed to The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, by the artist's studio and family. Though mostly forgotten today, Ida could count among his acquaintances such renowned artists as modernist painter Robert Rauschenberg and minimalist sculptor Carl...
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2012

Don't delay justice any longer

The Tokyo High Court on June 7 decided to retry a Nepalese man serving a life sentence for the 1997 robbery-murder of a 39-year-old woman in Tokyo on the strength of new evidence and he was released at the court's order. But the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors Office immediately filed an objection. The...
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2012

Yuan-yen trade starts as China seeks to globalize currency

China started direct trading of the yen and the yuan Friday in Tokyo and Shanghai, another step in its efforts to expand the global use of its currency and reduce reliance on the dollar.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2012

Citizens are main stakeholders in rebuilding global governance

The Council on Foreign Relations, a leading U.S. foreign policy institute and publisher of Foreign Affairs magazine, this spring launched a network of the world's influential policy institutes. The initiative aims at creating a forum for serious discussion among policy researchers to address pressing...
JAPAN
May 18, 2012

Owner OK with metro bid to buy disputed Senkaku Islands

Ever since Hiroyuki Kurihara and his family took title to the Senkaku Islands in the 1970s, they have firmly kept to the will of the previous owner: The islets are not to be sold to anyone but the Japanese government or a public organization.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
May 15, 2012

Supreme Court knocks down discipline of mentally ill employee

Can a company discipline an employee for taking absence without leave if that worker could be suffering from mental illness? Just a few weeks ago, on April 27, the Supreme Court ruled against Hewlett-Packard Japan Ltd. in a case that posed precisely this question. The verdict illustrates the courts'...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 13, 2012

Though spooked by new threats, Japanese accept mass killers

Before March last year, if you'd asked a child in Japan about nuclear radiation you would probably have been told about Godzilla, the monster powered by mutations caused by radiation, or Tetsuwan Atomu, aka the nuclear-powered robot Astro Boy. Not any more.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

Tokugawa: the art of governing

PERFORMING THE GREAT PEACE: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan, by Luke S. Roberts. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 263 pp., $49.00 (hardcover)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

'Bad Teacher'

Arguably the greatest legacy of Bill Clinton's time in the White House is that fellatio jokes entered the mainstream. It's damn near impossible these days to find an American comedy that doesn't include a sniggering blow-job reference in the first five minutes, and the new Cameron Diaz comedy "Bad Teacher"...
Reader Mail
May 10, 2012

Politically correct 'straw men'

I was delighted to read Nick Wood's May 3 criticism, "Poor joke about liberators," of my April 29 letter ("Dogma gets in the way of joke") because he proved something about so much of modern political discourse. I never wrote that Western males were perfect with regard to their treatment of women. Wood's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 8, 2012

Issey Miyake's innovations beat the Brits to win the Design Museum of London fashion award

Colloquially called "The Oscars of Design," the Design Museum of London Design Awards are prestigious accolades given in six categories to the most innovative and inspiring designs of the year — and this year's top honors in the fashion category went to Japan's own Issey Miyake and his team of boundary-pushing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2012

Signed, sealed and delivered: Paul Smith's stamp collection

His creations are more commonly found paraded on fashion catwalks or on hangers in boutiques around the world.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2012

Hands behind Sudan's war

Once again Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir waved his walking stick in the air. Once again he spoke of splendid victories over his enemies as thousands of jubilant supporters danced and cheered. But this time around the stakes are too high.

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