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COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2011

India protects Kazakhstan stake

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Kazakhstan last month is a reminder of the Central Asian stakes for Indian foreign policy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 26, 2011

English mags approach milestone, crossroads

Those members of the expat community in Japan who are addicted to their weekly or monthly fix of English-language magazines will have surely noticed all the changes going on lately. These are troubled and exciting times and, just as it has in the past, the local media world is trying to rise to the challenge...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2011

Building hospital ships for disaster response

An earthquake of unprecedented magnitude, followed by a terrible tsunami, devastated the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, setting off a nuclear emergency that is having global effects.The combination of these calamities has also plunged Japan into a kind of national depression that I have never...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 23, 2011

Rolling blackouts: The virtue of silence

The rolling blackouts in Tokyo meant interruptions in watching TV, running computers, stereos and electric heaters, not to mention recharging cell phones and electronics.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2011

Capturing the eerie beauty of Chernobyl

Pripyat, Ukraine, has been a ghost town for the last 25 years. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's No. 4 reactor experienced a sudden power surge resulting in several explosions and fires that sent a massive amount of nuclear debris into the air.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2011

Fukushima crisis now at Chernobyl level

The government's nuclear watchdog on Tuesday raised its assessment of the severity of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant to the highest level under the international standard, putting it on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe - the worst atomic power disaster in history.
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2011

Wanted: clean, safe power

SINGAPORE — If China and other Asian nations shy away from atomic power following Japan's nuclear crisis, would it intensify the impact of climate change on the region?
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2011

Relocation of evacuees

The March 11 massive earthquake and tsunami and the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at one point made some 450,000 people, mostly from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, homeless. Now some 170,000 people are staying at temporary evacuation shelters. An encouraging...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 27, 2011

Don't destroy that invader, it was here first!

NEW YORK — Among the most recent invaders of the United States to be exterminated that I learned about is the red lionfish. Before that, the Asian carp got all the attention. About the time the carp scare was quieting down the yellow jacket — yes, the wasp — came forward as a heinous invader to...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 25, 2011

Should kids be shielded from coverage of disaster?

Aftershocks, reruns of tsunami footage and images of obliterated communities on television have continued to illustrate the scale of the earthquake that struck the Tohoku region on March 11. But some pundits say children, even those who are only following developments on TV, are highly vulnerable to...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 7, 2011

Germany's economic miracle: New lessons await for old Japan

The economies of Japan and Germany, similar in many respects, are often compared. Not only did both rise from the ashes of World War II to become the leading economies in their regions, but they also formed strong manufacturing bases, large numbers of successful midsize companies and enjoyed extreme...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2011

A call for philosophical thinking

HIROSHIMA — It has been long since hope for the future was lost, and a vague sense of anxiety is now prevailing among us. Yet this feeling of uneasiness should be the beginning of our thinking philosophically. We should rather take it as an unexpected blessing.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2011

Don't give up on Japan's kids

Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japan's once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Feb 15, 2011

Can mah-jongg and pachinko parlors clean up their acts?

The clean air campaign targets some of the smokers' last places of refuge — mah-jongg and pachinko parlors.
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2011

How does Japan start to cope with fewer births, longer lives?

Economic growth depends on the rates of population increase and technological evolution, among other factors. Technological evolution relies on the capacities of human beings. So its kernel factor is human power.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Feb 3, 2011

Eda unsure if he will sign hanging orders

New Justice Minister Satsuki Eda openly opposes capital punishment but can't decide whether to perform his duty and sign off on executions or stick to his personal beliefs.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 23, 2011

The countdown: six months and a day till TV goes digital

Quick: what happened in Japan on Sept. 10, 1960? A few people might recall that was the day Japan commenced color TV broadcasting. At the startup, color programs were few in number, but consumers still had four years and one month to buy a color set before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 15, 2011

Authentic slice of Japan preserved in South Florida

The first two weeks of the new year are over, and Tom Gregersen, 61, is putting away the kine and usu, the traditional wooden mallets and mortars used in the mochitsuki (rice-cake pounding) event held as part of the O-shogatsu Festival at The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2010

Spending big question for 2011

The economy's tepid recovery will have trouble staying on track in 2011 as the effects of government stimulus gradually fade.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2010

Defense focus shifts from Russia to China

The administration endorsed a new defense guideline Friday that focuses on China's growing military activities instead of former Cold War foe Russia and paints North Korea as a regional security threat.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

'Father of the Internet in Japan' predicts the future of networked devices and tells us why Japan must deregulate online healthcare

In 1990, Jun Murai, at the time an associate professor at Keio University in Tokyo, made a prediction in an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. When asked what the future of computer systems would look like, he described a world where, on one level there would be a network, on a second level computers...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 28, 2010

Veering off the path of mutually assured destruction

As individuals, we usually recognize when we're heading off in the wrong direction and then have the good sense to get ourselves back on the right track.

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