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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 4, 2010

Only connect: Japan struggles to bond

When the novelist Chiyo Uno died in 1996 at age 98, she was as extravagantly eulogized for her love life as for her literary work. Four marriages, four divorces, several high-profile love affairs, one attempted love suicide — now that was living! Society disapproved? That should have been her biggest...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 7, 2010

Tiebreaker could be needed in tight West

It's possible for the Osaka Evessa, Rizing Fukuoka and Ryukyu Golden Kings to all finish with identical 32-20 records.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Apr 9, 2010

Kings of comedy yuck it up on April Fools

While satire isn't a staple among Japanese humorists, two kings of comedy are leading the way.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 6, 2010

2channel's success rests on anonymity

The nation's largest online forum, 2channel, draws millions of people ranging from the benign to the malignant, from police hunting criminals to politicians and corporations keeping their ears to the rail of public opinion.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2010

Half-year on, Hatoyama struggling

It's been six months since Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Cabinet strutted the red-carpet for an inaugural photo session, staging a perfect Hollywood ending to a summer blockbuster election that knocked the Liberal Democratic Party out of almost 50 years of unbroken rule.
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2010

Media gang up on Iran for Latam outreach

SEATTLE — Should the United States be concerned about Iran's determined efforts to reach out to Latin America or, as was suggestively described in the Economist, about the ayatollahs' strategy of cozying up to Latin America?
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Jan 23, 2010

Bookoff chief guides firm out of attitude bind

Hiroshi Sato took the helm of Bookoff Corp., the nation's largest secondhand book store chain, in 2007, when the company's corporate survival was in doubt after weekly magazines broke news that the firm had rigged its accounts.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2009

Wresting the press from pampered hacks

HONG KONG — Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was adamant that a free press is the most precious of all freedoms because it opens up or expands other freedoms. He famously wrote that given the choice of a government without a free press or a free press without a government,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Let's Bike!

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama could have made a stronger impact at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York last week had he trumpeted another environmentally laudable proposal in addition to his declared goal of Japan cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2009

Taiwan gets a U.N. invite

The World Health Organization has invited Taiwan to take part in the May 18-27 meeting of the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing body, as an observer. The invitation came just after Beijing and Taipei signed agreements April 26 to deepen ties, signaling that relations across the Taiwan Strait...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 21, 2009

The past, present and future of fortunetelling

From the traditional "omikuji" — sacred lots — people draw at shrines and temples to learn their New Year's fortunes, to the horoscopes displayed on commuter train video screens to distract strap-hangers, Japanese society is immersed in fortunetelling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 14, 2009

So, you wanna be a Johnny?

What do the most popular male celebrity in Japan and a star of Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" have in common?
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2009

Aso's kanji conundrums spur self-reflection, textbook sales

Reading Japanese isn't easy — even for Japanese.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2009

Elementary school English: Ready or not

Poor English skills and coordination with visiting English speakers are just two of the problems worrying elementary school teachers as the government's two-year transition period to inaugurate weekly classes in the language begins next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 17, 2009

Job taken on a whim leads to 35 years in Tokyo

Peter Barakan, 57, wears many hats. He is a radio DJ, a TV program host, an author of books on music and English language education, a long-time Tokyoite fluent in Japanese, husband to a Japanese woman, and the father of a college boy and high school girl. Barakan said he never imagined spending more...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2009

NPO told to stop feeding homeless

The nonprofit organization Sanyukai, which aids the homeless in Tokyo's Sanya district, has been ordered by the metropolitan government to stop handing out its weekly free meals along the Sumida River because local residents are complaining, the volunteer group's chief said Friday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2008

U.S. could ignite growth in six months

The global financial crisis that erupted in the United States this fall appears to be largely under control, but how long the recession in the world's largest economy will last depends on the actions of the administration of Barack Obama, the editor of Barron's weekly said at a recent seminar in Tokyo....
BUSINESS
Jul 19, 2008

Nippon Oil ditches dated pricing system

Nippon Oil Corp., the nation's largest refiner, will abandon a decades-old pricing method, breaking with common practice in an effort to boost transparency and pass on soaring crude-import costs, company officials said.

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