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COMMUNITY / Issues / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 31, 2012

Debate rages over value of JET program, assistant language teachers

Some readers' responses to letters published in this column on July 10 ("Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary") regarding Patrick Budmar's July 3 Zeit Gist article, "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary":
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 30, 2012

Lochte takes gold as Phelps misses medal

He made it look easy, and he made history in the process, beating the greatest swimmer of all time.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2012

Revolution was in the air during Japan's Taisho Era, but soon evaporated into the status quo

In the summer of 1918, "rice riots" swept the country. They began in a fishing village on the Sea of Japan in remote Toyama Prefecture. By September, some 2 million people in hundreds of municipalities had taken to the streets. They looted, bombed, demonstrated, struck.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2012

China deepening aid and trade ties with Africa

Having overtaken the United States as Africa's biggest trading partner two years ago, China is continuing to cement its relationship with the continent, with President Hu Jintao pledging $20 billion in loans over the next three years at a meeting in Beijing attended by leaders from 50 African countries....
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jul 26, 2012

Olympic team well placed to set record straight in London

The odds are stacked against Japan's men winning soccer gold at the London Olympics, but given the talent at manager Takashi Sekizuka's disposal, the possibility of a first medal since 1968 should not be completely discounted.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 24, 2012

Psychology, counseling interests unite couple

Japanese-American John Shiomi, 40, and his wife, Misako, 32, met in the city of Fukuoka in January last year. Misako had posted a message about wanting a friend in the online version of Fukuoka Now, a free publication for foreigners in the area.
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2012

Osprey's arrival foments distrust

Twelve MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft were unloaded from a transport ship at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Monday amid protest from Iwakuni's conservative Mayor Yoshihiko Fukuda and local residents. After confirming its safety, Tokyo and Washington plan to start...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 24, 2012

100 years of Summer Games

When the 293 Japanese athletes compete in the London Games that start Friday, they will represent a century of the participation in the Summer Olympics, starting with marathoner Shiso Kanakuri and sprinter Yahiko Mishima in Stockholm in 1912.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2012

America's surprisingly good score on mobility

In America, we believe that anyone can grow up to be anything. You want to be president? Go for it. Among recent presidents, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower all came from modest backgrounds.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 22, 2012

Spies and their watchers in a tense war of nerves

What in the world is China going to do with 5,000 tsubo — about four acres — of land in Niigata City? Build a new consulate general, it says. But that seems like an awful lot for a consulate in a regional city whose main activity since it initially opened has been issuance of commercial visas.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 22, 2012

Is Rio+20 the way the world ends — with a whimper?

Last month, more than 45,000 people descended on Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 19, 2012

China and Japan: A 40-year friendship worth singing about

Forget allegations of spies and economic intrigue. Put aside the controversial Senkaku Islands and celebrate as the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing unites with the New National Theatre in Tokyo to commemorate the 40th anniversary of normalized relations between Japan and China. Two...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2012

East Asian miracle revisited

Almost two decades ago, the World Bank published its landmark study "The East Asian Miracle," analyzing why East Asian economies grew faster than emerging markets in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere. These economies, the study concluded, achieved high growth rates by getting the basics right, promoting...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2012

Global demand for nuclear power remains high

Despite the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster that hit Japan last year, the global appetite for nuclear energy remains largely unchanged as emerging economic powers are set to account for much of the growth in worldwide electricity demand in the coming decades, a U.S. think tank expert said at a...
OLYMPICS
Jul 15, 2012

Speculation increases on who will light flame

There's plenty of speculation and anticipation about who will light the Olympic flame on July 25 at the London Games Opening Ceremony.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 15, 2012

Life up in the treetops

Imagine strolling through a forest and coming across a hut supported by four trees 8 meters off the ground. With its triangular roof, stained-glass door panels and timber decking, at first sight it's like something in a fairyland.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 14, 2012

NPO's projects seek to help Tuvaluans facing global warming issues

For many years people have been acquainted with the word "refugee." Though it usually brings to mind wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing, more and more often it has been linked to climate change and natural disasters. We may now be entering the age of the "environmental refugee."
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2012

New president, old challenges

Twelve years in the political wilderness have ended for Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with the victory of Mr. Enrique Peña Nieto in this month's presidential election.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 11, 2012

BayStars cruise past Swallows

STAFF WRITER
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 10, 2012

Japan's battered men suffer abuse in silence

As in many surveys, numbers and percentages are abundant. But for me, it was that little 3.4 at the bottom of page 21 that stood out more than any other: 3.4 percent of married men in Japan say that their spouses have forced them to engage in sexual relations against their will. And that is down from...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 10, 2012

Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary

Some readers' responses to "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary" by Patrick Budmar (Zeit Gist, July 3):
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2012

The health of America

Health care reforms put forward by U.S. President Barack Obama have passed constitutional scrutiny. In an anxiously awaited, bitterly divided 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the week before last that the bulk of the bill, put into law in 2010, can go into effect.
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2012

Reforming Japan's universities

Media reports say Japan's education bureaucrats are considering allowing students with "stellar" academic records to graduate from high school before they turn 18. In other words, the required three-year stint at high school might be cut to two.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 2, 2012

After 15 years, Mainali is a free man

Freed June 7 from 15 years' imprisonment for a murder he apparently never committed, Govinda Prasad Mainali declared himself full of gratitude. Speaking through his lawyer, he said, "Mujitsu, shinjitsu wo shinjite kureta saibankan ni deaete yokatta. Kansha no kimochi de ippai desu," (「無実、真実を信じてくれた裁判官に出会ってよかった。感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです"」"It's...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 1, 2012

The land where sex fears to tread

No love, no sex, no marriage, no kids — such, in glum outline, is Japan today. It's too bleak a picture, it can't be true! But it can't be false either. If it were, people would be marrying, making babies and having love affairs. Instead, statistics reflecting everything from marriage and childbirth...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2012

Mexicans ready for a change

There's no point in talking about who's going to win the Mexican presidential election on July 1. Enrique Pena Nieto is going to win it. What's more interesting is why he's going to win it.

Longform

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