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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 5, 2012

Our woods may be home to a 'new ' spider species

An apparently new species of spider has been found in our woods, even though the creature has probably been around since long before humans came to Japan.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jan 21, 2012

Darvish deal yet another wakeup call for the NPB

Yu Darvish got his wish, the Texas Rangers got their man and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters got their money.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 20, 2012

Players, coaches fired up by large turnout at All-Star Game

The largest crowd in bj-league history, 14,011, witnessed Sunday's All-Star Game at Saitama Super Arena, and the positive energy from that experience carried over to players from throughout the league.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 16, 2012

Looking for a doomsday scenario to believe in?

You've probably heard about the Mayan carvings that predict the year 2012 will be our last. Supposedly, the war and creation god Bolon Yokte will return, bringing with him certain doom. Scholars have been trying to tamp down those claims, saying that's an erroneous interpretation of the Mayan calendar,...
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2012

Russia as a WTO member

A ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in mid-December unanimously approved Russia's request to join the world trade body. It also approved Samoa's and Montenegro's entry. It took 18 years for Russia to become a WTO member.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 15, 2012

Danger! Nuclear waste! Keep out — forever!

The earliest known cave paintings date from about 30,000 years ago, and the earliest bone tools found so far predate those paintings by another 40,000 years. Go back 100,000 years, and Homo sapiens — us lot — are only just emerging, though the fossil record suggests our ancestors back then had larger...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2012

Winds of political change blow through Pakistan

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari abruptly returned to Karachi on the morning of Dec. 19, following a 13-day absence for medical treatment in Dubai, where he lived while in exile. The government did not issue a formal statement about Zadari's health, but his supporters disclosed that he had suffered...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

We asked three long-term foreign residents to give their thoughts about Japan's past year and the coming year.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 10, 2011

Shiga studies impact on Lake Biwa from possible Fukui nuke accident

The Shiga Prefectural Government plans to develop a computer system able to simulate the amount and dispersal of radioactive materials that would contaminate Lake Biwa in the event of an accident at one of the nuclear power plants in neighboring Fukui Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Dec 2, 2011

Toyota, BMW tie up on green technologies

Toyota Motor Corp. and Germany's BMW said Thursday they are teaming up in the field of hybrid vehicle technologies, aiming to speed up development and lower the costs of producing "green" vehicles amid a stricter regulatory environment.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 27, 2011

Demand change: an open letter to Japan's rising generations

If you're like my 17-year-old, then you probably already know just about everything there is to know, and reading this column you'll likely just say: "Yeah, right, whatever," or "So?"
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2011

Inspiration from Bhutan

The king and queen of Bhutan were in Japan from Nov. 15 to 20, and they made quite an impression on the Japanese people. Among the heads of state and their wives who have visited Japan in recent years, they probably have left the most amiable impression. Their traditional Bhutanese clothes, looking somewhat...
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2011

Miyagi debris from tsunami Tokyo-bound

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced Thursday the capital's incineration facilities will help store, dump and burn up disaster debris from Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, next year.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Nov 22, 2011

Universities risk getting what they pay for with English tutors

To the Ministry of Education,
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2011

Officials dump sender's radioactive soil in Saitama lot

An anonymous sender earlier this month mailed a package to the Environment Ministry apparently containing dirt contaminated by radioactive fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant that was later dumped in an empty lot near a ministry official's home in Saitama Prefecture, Environment Minister Goshi...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2011

First glimpses inside the Fukushima No. 1 compound since 3/11

On Saturday a group of journalists, including this reporter, were allowed for the first time to enter the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on a guided tour.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2011

Fukushima No. 1 tour an eye-opener

"Now 1,000 microsieverts (per hour)!"
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2011

'Calamity' awaits those unready for climate-change refugees

There is a wonderful expression in Japanese: Fūdo ni nareru, which means something like "to become acclimatized to natural conditions."
EDITORIALS
Nov 13, 2011

Embarking on difficult talks

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Friday announced that Japan will take part in talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a multilateral scheme for abolishing tariffs in principle and for liberalizing a wide range of economic activities, including investment and services. He will convey his decision...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 10, 2011

Breathing life into the nature of architecture

Staging an exhibition of architecture, perhaps more than any other art form, demands a curatorial grasp of space-making. In the inevitable absence of the built reality, stand-ins in the form of drawings, models, photographs and film are drafted in to explain and evoke architectural ideas and experiences....

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