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JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jul 4, 2015

Could Hamp's detention reinforce prejudice?

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Julie Hamp, Toyota Motor Corp.'s first female managing officer, on June 18 on suspicion of importing oxycodone, an opioid used to relieve pain. The drug is tightly controlled in Japan but can be imported into the country with a prescription if certain procedures...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 30, 2015

Is 'proactive peace' just a new term for war?

"Have you ever heard the roar of a jet fighter?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 23, 2015

Lowball nuclear pitch is fooling no one

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the results of a review of energy production costs, which concluded that nuclear will remain the cheapest alternative for Japan over the next 15 years while pointing out that the calculations took into consideration the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 16, 2015

'Kantei Santa' makes himself heard over the din of the election vans

Is crime justified in the service of good?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
May 9, 2015

Keeping the yakuza away from the 2020 Olympics

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo should be a cause for celebration but this may depend on who you talk to.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 29, 2015

Former Asahi Shimbun reporter says threats against him are getting worse

A former Asahi Shimbun reporter who has sustained a spate of personal attacks relating to his coverage of so-called "comfort women" years ago says the threats against him are growing worse.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 25, 2015

U.S. towns pulled into Japanese politics

A recurring news story over the past several years concerns claims of the harassment of Japanese nationals residing on the East and West coasts of the United States. Most appear to have originated from municipalities where South Korean immigrants and Korean-Americans have successfully campaigned to erect...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 18, 2015

Porn is in the iPhone of the beholder

"Her lips languorous like a loose-wound spool, the fragrance of her perfume reaching to the skies. And how lovely when she moves, swaying back and forth. ... When compared to this creature, a man's wife can hardly seem more than a salted fish past its prime!"
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Apr 4, 2015

Learning valuable lessons from the yakuza?

"He had connections and interactions with individuals related to the yakuza. Why on earth would he be appointed a (Cabinet) minister? The responsibility of the prime minister for appointing him to this position is tremendously weighty."
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Mar 14, 2015

Of birds and bugs: journalism in Tokyo and Osaka

One of the first things Tokyoites who relocate to Osaka notice is that, while their favorite mainstream media news source is available in both cities, the tone and often substance of the reporting is different.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 26, 2015

Education chief denies report he received illegal funds

Education minister Hakubun Shimomura denies allegations by a muck-raking magazine that he received illegal political donations, accusing it of failing to check the facts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 21, 2015

Goto's stories put Japan woes in perspective

"More than diamonds, I want peace."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 31, 2015

The changing motives behind juvenile crime in Japan

In a thought-provoking article in the February issue of Bungei Shunju, veteran journalist Kunio Yanagida ponders changes in the patterns of crimes committed by juveniles that have taken place since the end of World War II.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jan 31, 2015

Crime and punishment: Abe's Mideast crisis

In general, crime prevention is a good thing — it helps stop crime. By punishing people for minor transgressions, you stop them from committing larger misdemeanors and discourage crime overall. If the principle is applied blindly, however, it can produce some awkward results.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2015

Former Asahi reporter files libel suit over 'comfort women' issue

The former Asahi Shimbun reporter threatened by nationalists and revisionists for covering the “comfort women” issue sues a publisher and a Korea scholar over claims he fabricated his stories.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 22, 2014

Jeers, apologies and silence: Japan's 2014 in quotes

First of all, we're sorry. Everybody is sorry. This was the year that everyone apologized and everyone was sorry about something. The Asahi Shimbun was sorry so many times (even when maybe they shouldn't have been) that we're omitting them from the list. There's not enough space.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 1, 2014

Media whips up fuss over S&M bar claim

First came what the tabloids referred to as "W-jinin," the resignations of two female Cabinet members — Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi and Justice Minister Midori Matsushima — on the same day.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 25, 2014

The romantic notion of rural relocation

Yu Iwamoto began adult life working in the slums, refugee camps and precarious schools of Afghanistan. Had he even heard, back then, of the Oki Islands off the coast of Shimane Prefecture?
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Oct 4, 2014

Yakuza do what Abe Cabinet pick can't

In most countries, police officers and criminals are supposed to be on opposite sides of the law, especially the higher up the chain of command you go, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't appear to think this is necessary.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 6, 2014

Line fends off fury ahead of lucrative IPO

"What's so exasperating for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ... is the current situation in that platforms, terminals and apps have become dominated by foreign entities," remarked an unnamed writer for a trade publication. "The ministries...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 12, 2014

The high cost of peace and quiet

Peace and quiet! How rare it is, how precious. Why rare? Because a full-blooded modern economy is no monastery, no "ancient pond" into which a frog may jump, producing the hushed "sound of water" immortalized by the haiku poet Basho (1644-94).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 31, 2014

Media eyes trend-setting Sony's loss of momentum

Let's travel back 62 years. On the evening of Dec. 4, 1952, after NHK radio signed off its regular AM programming, an announcer proclaimed: "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo and NHK now commence a joint experimental stereo broadcast."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 24, 2014

Will Japan be a country that welcomes all?

"A nation of immigrants." Japan? The leading proponent of that vision has been Hidenori Sakanaka, former head of the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, current executive director of the private think tank he founded in 2007, the Japan Immigration Policy Institute.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 10, 2014

Convenience stores give our nation pride

Japan's prime minister is an unabashed patriot, as outspoken in his love for his country as in his desire to instill that love in his compatriots. Are his compatriots receptive? Opinion polls on attitudes toward pending revisions of long-standing interpretations of the pacifist Constitution, prologue...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 26, 2014

Mini-revolutions may add up to a change

1949. The war was over. Slowly, a numbed populace rose from the dead. That year, 2.7 million babies were born — a record high, never surpassed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 29, 2014

The truth is, we have gotten too used to lying

Philosophers love truth — that's a truism. What about the rest of us? Do we love truth or falsehood? Truth, we naturally affirm. So why are we swimming in falsehood?
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 16, 2014

Playing the Japanese name game

Once, when telephoning the international PR office of a major electronics manufacturer, I got lucky. Without my even asking, the young woman who picked up the phone volunteered her name, saying 私は青木と申します (Watashi wa Aoki to mōshimasu, My name is Aoki). Actually it sounded more like...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2014

Paternity testing opens up a world of hurt for families — and family courts

The paternity test procedure can now cost as little as ¥30,000, which means it's affordable to anyone. Recently, an increasing number of Japanese men have been carrying out DNA testing on their children, usually because they suspect their wives of cheating.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 28, 2013

There's a cloud above our silver generation

Travel back with me, reader, 60 years in time. It's 1953. Two booms are in full swing: one economic, the other reproductive; the first fueled largely by the Korean War, the second, in part, by the first. Among the 2 million babies born in Japan that year — nearly twice as many as were born this year...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2013

Celebrity stands up to talent agency 'stalker'

Miss International, Ikuu00admi You00adshiu00admau00adtsu, files criminal and civil charges against one of Japan's most powerful talent agencies' executives for stalking her and attempting to ruin her career.

Longform

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