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EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2012

Higher wages for nursing care

The government will increase payments awarded to nursing care services for the elderly by an average 1.2 percent beginning in fiscal 2012 (from April). These payments will go directly to entities providing the services — not to the individual care workers themselves. Still, the main purpose of the...
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.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2012

Students' retreat from English

Arecent education ministry survey of third-year middle school students nationwide found most students have an ambivalent and contradictory attitude toward English. Of the 3,225 students surveyed, most felt English was important to study, but few wanted a job requiring English. The disjuncture between...
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2012

Eventually not a drop of groundwater to drink?

The world is in the midst of a boom in groundwater use. The rate of extraction from aquifers more than doubled in the 40 years to 2000. It has continued to soar since then.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2012

Smoking deaths

The health ministry is drawing up a plan to halve the smoking rate in Japan from 23.4 percent in 2009 to 10 percent. Unfortunately, the plan is tucked into a long-range health promotion plan from 2013 to 2022.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 28, 2012

Kyoto-based Italian physicist blazes trail for foreign academics

Professor Giuseppe Pezzotti, 51, a materials scientist at Kyoto Institute of Technology, effortlessly switches from a newspaper interview in English to discuss research collaboration with a colleague in fluent Japanese. Even sartorially, he straddles East and West: While his torso is clad in button-down...
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012

Typecast 'vulture capitalist' has work cut out

For Mitt Romney, it's the best of times and the worst of times. While his New Hampshire win brings him closer to the Republican nomination, his campaign narrative against President Barack Obama may be unraveling.
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2012

Todai aims for fall start in five years

The president of the University of Tokyo said Friday that he wants to form consultative bodies with other universities and companies to achieve a smooth transition to an autumn start of the academic year within five years.
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...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2012

Co-op checking meals for cesium

The Japanese Consumers' Cooperative Union said Thursday it is monitoring how much radioactive material is contained in household meals to help ease consumer worries.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 10, 2012

International education a triple-A investment in your child's — and Japan's — future

Bicultural families are on the rise in Japan. In 1970, less than 6,000 "international marriages" — where one partner is non-Japanese — were registered, or 0.5 percent of the total. In 2000, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported that one in 22, or 4.5 percent, of all marriages that year...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 1, 2012

Mayumi Kagita: A fusion of cultures revealed in dance

On Nov. 19, the Pit hall of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in Shibuya, was filled with hundreds of eager theater-goers. They had come to see a performance of "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" ("The Women-Killer and the Hell of Oil"), a play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) — Japan's greatest...
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2011

Unprepared for what happened

A third-party panel set up by the government to investigate the accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant issued Monday an interim report based on interviews with 456 people. It emerges from the report that before the March 11 disaster both Tepco and the government had...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Misconceptions about college

Takamitsu Sawa's Dec. 19 article, "Motivation for college study," shows us what is wrong with the educational system in Japan. The comments made by a university president that are not based on knowledge or statistics are quite shocking. I started out hoping to learn more about motivation and ended up...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 5, 2011

Hokkaido roots spur woman to bring folk tales to masses

For Deborah Davidson, Hokkaido is not only home, it is a door to other worlds. As a child, she played with Ainu children and watched them care for the frolicking cubs of the "iomante" (bear ceremony). As a translator, she now focuses on bringing Ainu folk tales to an English-speaking audience.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 2, 2011

Car taxes could be cut next year

The government may try to spur car sales by slashing related taxes.
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2011

Sleepless in Tokyo

If you ever wonder why Tokyoites are always sleeping on the train, a report at the 6th World Congress of the World Sleep Federation explains why: They're not sleeping enough at home.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2011

Who will write Asia-Pacific trade rules for Asia?

In the last half century, world trade has grown twice as fast as output and helped to lift the majority of the world's people from poverty — a feat unimaginable a generation ago. When APEC leaders meet in Honolulu next month, they will represent countries that account for half of world trade. Can APEC...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 21, 2011

Kabaya starts strong as B-Corsairs evolve

With four games in the books, the expansion Yokohama B-Corsairs now have several relevant things that can be discussed in team meetings. A few trends have started to emerge, too, including the solid play of guards Masayuki Kabaya and Kenji Yamada.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 14, 2011

Print show profits to help quake victims

Art fans have the chance to enjoy one of Japan's longest running exhibitions and help out the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake at the same time this weekend, when the College Women's Association of Japan hosts its annual print show at the Tokyo American Club.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2011

Social media urban legends

The ever-expanding universe of social-media technologies — including video-sharing, mobile phones, and networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter that allow individuals to share and connect — is as ubiquitous as it is misunderstood. Apostles hail its power to oust dictators and bring us together;...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 25, 2011

Problems plague every level of game

Without drastic changes in the way it operates — and stuck with a mentality that is out of date with current reality — the Japan Basketball Association (JBA) will continue to be a deterrent to success and progress in men's and boys basketball at all levels.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2011

Raise cigarette tax to cover medical costs: health chief

Tobacco taxes should be raised until the average price for a pack of cigarettes is about ¥700, or 75 percent more than the present level, to cut medical costs, according to health minister Yoko Komiyama.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2011

Battery life, prices may dent EV sales drive

Klaus Doerrzapf, who has installed solar panels on his roof but has no plans to buy an emission-free car, is one of the reasons automakers such as Nissan Motor Co. won't recoup investments in electric vehicles anytime soon.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 20, 2011

Hiraoka urges 'active' debate on executions

Japanese should think about how developed nations view their country's policy on executions, Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka said in a recent interview.

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