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JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Challenges await next Tokyo leader

While many familiar faces, among them Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa, former Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru and businessman Miki Watanabe, are likely to be seen in the April 10 Tokyo gubernatorial election, the capital's most prominent is expected to stand down.
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2010

Dream becomes reality for Scottish manga creator

It sits in a place of beauty, incongruously bordered between Japanese stone art and a vivid blue ink painting: "2000 A.D.," a classic British comic book from the 1980s. The apocalypse orange cover shrieks "Revenge of the Warlock" but — muted by a plastic overlay to protect its condition — the sci-fi...
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2010

Japan urged to back equality push

Has the world become safer and more peaceful for women and girls in the past 10 years? Not so much, says former United Nations Security Council President Anwarul K. Chowdhury.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 6, 2010

Corgan hails Summer Sonic's '90s vibe

"The positive reaction to what we're doing right now musically and the emotion coming off the stage has just lit a fire back up," says Billy Corgan — guitarist, vocalist and sole remaining original member of alternative titans The Smashing Pumpkins. "I haven't seen a reaction to the band like this...
JAPAN / OKINAWA'S HOSTAGE ECONOMY
Jul 7, 2010

Futenma relocation has certain bidders salivating

NAGO, Okinawa Pref. — Last month an executive of a major construction company in Nago confessed what was considered a long-held industry secret in this city that is poised to be the replacement site for the Futenma military base: For decades most local contractors had rigged bids for public works projects,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2010

Is the Atsugi tragedy finally drawing to a close?

During the 18 years I have been writing this column, few stories have haunted me as much as that about the Japanese-owned incinerator that, for more than a decade, fumigated the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yamato and Ayase.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 17, 2009

Choice, chic, cheap — no one feels fleeced

Times are difficult for many retailers. Conspicuously not among them, however, is Fast Retailing Co., which posted both record sales of ¥685 billion and operating profit of ¥108.6 billion for the business year that ended in August.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Sep 4, 2009

Dom Perignon lounge opens

In collaboration with Dom Perignon Japan, the Hilton Tokyo launched Japan's first Dom Perignon Lounge on Sept. 1 in the hotel's first-floor St. George's Bar.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 19, 2009

Tackle gender gap in mathematics, reading

Dear ministry of education,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 24, 2009

Punishing foreigners, exonerating Japanese

Examine any justice system and patterns emerge. For example, consider how Japan's policing system treats non-Japanese. Zeit Gist has discussed numerous times (July 8, 2008; Feb. 20 and Nov. 13, 2007; May 24, 2005; Jan. 13, 2004; Oct. 7, 2003) how police target and racially profile foreigners under...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Feb 16, 2009

Germans, Japanese have good reasons for shunning equities

S tock markets around the world are really beginning to feel the effects of the financial crisis of 2008, with some industry watchers estimating that as much as $30 trillion of total market capitalization has been lost worldwide since 2007. This is hurting investors everywhere, big and small.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2009

Japan as the catalyst for improving global public health

What place should Japan occupy in the world? This existential question has troubled Japan's leaders for the past two decades. Military leadership is restricted by the Constitution. Economic might has lost its glimmer. Cultural influence, epitomized by "cool Japan," has yet to take center stage.
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2008

High court: Obara buried Blackman

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday sentenced serial rapist Joji Obara to life in prison for kidnapping Briton Lucie Blackman and mutilating her corpse eight years ago, after a lower court acquitted him of the charges.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2008

Kutcher gets lucky — in Vegas and in life

Model turned actor and TV producer Ashton Kutcher is the first to admit he's a very lucky man. In the mid-1990s he auditioned for several U.S. TV series before joining "That '70s Show," which in 1998 launched his career as a nationally known face.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2008

Yen's rally to continue as BOJ intervention unlikely

For the first time in more than a decade, foreign-exchange traders are confident the Bank of Japan won't intervene in the currency market, paving the way for the yen to extend its biggest rally since 2000.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2007

Watami empire built on concept of family 'izakaya'

Until Miki Watanabe opened his first Watami "izakaya" pub in April 1992 in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, such eateries were considered places for business workers and college kids to have a cheap drink and a few side dishes.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 9, 2007

Kroon latest player to attempt to break 'Yomiuri jinx'

Can Marc Kroon break a jinx with the Giants?
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 22, 2007

Can others save Earth despite Big Oil's blinkers?

How can an economic superpower founded on progress and innovation be so averse to change that would cut the greenhouse-gas emissions that are spurring global warming and climate change?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2007

Mitsubishi Motors reports smaller shortfall for quarter

Scandal-marred Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Monday its losses for the April-June quarter shrank to 8.23 billion yen from the same period last year, boosted by growing sales in North America, Europe and Asia.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 20, 2007

Upping the fear factor

The government and media would have you believe that Japan has lost its mantle as a safe country. Apparently we live amidst a spree of heinous crimes. Accurate? Not very, according to a new academic study. But before we get to that, let's take stock of one alleged cause of this "crime wave," this decade's...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan