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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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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?
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 / 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
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.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 26, 2013

Japan Inc.'s hurt pride may be behind bout of fresh phone fears

What's the explanation for the current surge in concern over the poor manners and inattention of addicted cellphone users — especially considering smart phones are arguably no more distracting than the previous generation of mobile gadgets
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 6, 2013

Female novelist says pregnant women should quit work

The plight of Japan's working women is a subject that often pops up in the media. Female politicians and company executives voice the opinion that it would be good to harness the power of women in Japan, and that the garasu no tenjō (ガラスの天井, glass ceiling) needs to be smashed. But meanwhile,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 7, 2013

What's the real story behind 'Emperor'?

"Emperor," a film directed by Peter Webber that takes up the subject of Emperor Showa and the postwar occupation period, has been showing at local theaters since July. The film's protagonist is Gen. Bonner Frank Fellers, who served as a subordinate to Supreme Commander Allied Forces Gen. Douglas MacArthur....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 24, 2013

Chilling tales are tops when trying to beat the heat

Perhaps stemming from the belief that hearing a scary story will send a chill down the spine and provide welcome relief from the summer heat, August is Japan's favorite season for traditional tales of horror. At local festivals and in theme parks, the obake yashiki (haunted house) is a standby for dating...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 17, 2013

Cyber-kids get a break during Bon holidays

You didn't need prophetic powers, back in the 1980s when the personal computer was starting to show its potential, to foresee something like Internet addiction. It should have been obvious. It was, to science-fiction writer William Gibson. Reminiscing to Time magazine in 1995, he recalled his shock,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 20, 2013

Japan's weeklies debate modern man's burden

Pity the declining male in an age of expanding female empowerment!
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 13, 2013

'Black' business tales cast shadow on candidate

Elections for the House of Councillors will be held a week from today. The election is being billed as historic in that candidates are permitted to appeal to voters via the Internet.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2013

How even the mightiest can sometimes succumb to their own success

Toyota was famously slow to respond to the glut of claims of sudden acceleration problems afflicting some of its vehicles — at least until a now-notorious recording of an emergency 911 call made from one of the passengers stuck in 45-year-old California Highway Patrolman Mark Saylor's speeding Lexus on Aug. 28, 2009.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 2, 2013

Severe sports training methods became taibatsu in time

The martial arts were the inspiration for the famous baseball team at the First Higher School of Tokyo, a late 19th century powerhouse that helped make yakyu, as baseball came to be known, the national sport of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 28, 2013

An avian flu outbreak in Japan could kill 'Abenomics'

No one has ever fully explained why, in 2002-3, the virulent pathogen known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) ran rampant in mainland China (5,328 cases, 349 deaths) but only infected four people in South Korea, with no fatalities, and none in Japan.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?