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COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2012

The challenge of family life for Russia's working mothers

As with other prevalent trends in most European countries, in Russia an ever- increasing share of mothers prefer to combine household activities with work outside their household.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2012

Demographic threat shadows a world power

For the last two decades, demographics and its effect on Russian society and future development prospects have been at the center of discussions on that country.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 26, 2012

Local orphanages may be best bet for volunteers

L.P. would like to volunteer at a Catholic orphanage in the Tohoku region, near the March 11 disaster areas, but isn't sure how to get started.
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2012

Consensus on risky tax raise

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the two main opposition parties, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, on Friday reached a basic agreement on raising the consumption tax. Although the tax raise is coupled with reform of the social security system, the agreement has failed to present a clear...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2012

'My House' takes Tsutsumi home

"Auteur" is not the first word that leaps to mind to describe Yukihiko Tsutsumi. In a directing career that began with a segment of the 1988 comedy anthology "Bakayaro! I'm Plenty Mad," the prolific Tsutsumi has made films in a variety of genres — mystery/thriller ("Spec: The Movie"), dystopian fantasy...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2012

What counts as a Catholic within a secular state

The dispute over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new regulations mandating that employers provide contraception coverage has been framed by opponents of the rules as a fight over religious liberty. And so it is.
CULTURE / Books
May 20, 2012

Exploring the pathologies of Japan's youth

A Sociology of Japanese Youth: From Returnees to NEETs, edited by Roger Goodman, Yuki Imoto and Tuukka Toivonen. Routledge: Abingdon, U.K., 2012, 191 pp., $51.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
JAPAN / 40 YEARS AFTER REVERSION
May 16, 2012

U.S. defense shift keeps Okinawa in strategic mix

The 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan came with a price — the continued use by the United States of sprawling military bases and other facilities in the prefecture to protect Japan and maintain peace in the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 16, 2012

Tokyo Green Space

What do you see when you look at Tokyo? Hypermodern constructions of steel and concrete? Cubic, characterless office buildings? Jared Braiterman sees green ... in the back streets, in the small cracks of dirt on the sidewalks and on his balcony. He finds patches, slivers and swaths of nature that tourists...
EDITORIALS
May 6, 2012

Danger in the bath

An investigation into one of Japan's favorite pastimes — bathing — has found a startling statistic: 14,000 people a year die during bath time. That's nearly three times more deaths than from car accidents, 4,612 people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
May 1, 2012

Blood, beatings and the cage: the bouncer

Before The Japan Times was invited inside Nagoya's iD Cafe to speak to Thomas, the nightclub's security manager, we stopped to chat to a uniformed policeman near the club. He told us there were as many as 50 fights in a nearby park on Friday and Saturday nights. This busy area of the city, Sakae, known...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 23, 2012

Land grabs raise security issues

A foreign-capital property buying spree that has extended to areas in and around facilities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the American armed forces could pose a threat to Japan's security.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 22, 2012

Past and present on Route 66

"Ah, there's nothing like a Polish sausage smothered with jalapenos to settle a queasy stomach," I said to my skeptical traveling companion Bob Allen, adding a squirt of mustard for good luck and taking a humongous bite.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2012

A white flag in Latin America's war on drugs

The retired general who won Guatemala's presidency in November seems an unlikely advocate of a kinder approach toward counternarcotics policy. Otto Perez — whose party's symbol is a clenched fist — campaigned on the promise that his government would crack down on the crime ravaging parts of the country....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 6, 2012

Budget finally passed

The fiscal 2012 budget, at more than ¥90 trillion the biggest in history, was finally enacted by the Diet on Thursday as an earlier vote in the Lower House took priority after the opposition-controlled Upper House shot it down earlier in the day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Apr 3, 2012

Little houses crammed in a big city

The neighborhood of Minami Senju in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward is serviced by three train lines that provide easy, quick access to all parts of the city and beyond. East of these lines is an area called Shioiri, highlighted by a relatively new urban development complex centered around high-rise condominiums...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 1, 2012

Naohiko Jinno: Master of public finance brings life to numbers

Born the grandson of a once-prosperous textile manufacturer in Urawa, Saitama Prefecture, Naohiko Jinno says that when he was growing up he was told by his mother, over and over again, that money was not important.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2012

Japanese-Americans continue to grapple with mixed legacy

For a long, quiet moment, a white-haired gentleman stood and gazed at the words engraved in a low granite wall. Few passersby noticed the memorial, tucked on a tiny patch of federal parkland near Union Station in Washington. But every time Grant Ichikawa returns to the spot and stands before the statue...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 27, 2012

False eyelashes, an authentic Eid, but we're not in Karachi anymore

As soon as I told any of my friends in Pakistan I was going to study for a semester in Tokyo, it was as if my facial features suddenly started turning Japanese.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2012

Cuts to wasteful public works now said blocking rebound

After years of criticism for public works spending that rewarded political constituents at the cost of adding debt, the government succeeded in cutting the largesse in half. Now, that legacy of success is hampering an economic rebound.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2012

Island fortresses floated for Tohoku

The idea of building raised stadium-size "islands" to accommodate tsunami-ravaged communities might sound like a bad joke, but that's exactly what one architect is urging devastated towns in Tohoku to consider.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 6, 2012

Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail

Last December, the Japanese government announced that a new visa regime with a "points system" would be introduced this spring.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 28, 2012

Tepco's political tentacles

Just as Tokyo Electric Power Co. is under fire for trying to raise consumers' electricity bills before making sufficient efforts to streamline its management, a series of cases have surfaced in which the company appeared to be trying to strengthen its political influence by sending employees to prefectural...

Longform

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