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EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2010

Fear of studying abroad

Data disclosed by the education ministry on Wednesday confirms that fewer and fewer Japanese students are studying abroad. After the number of students studying overseas hit a peak of 82,945 in 2004, it declined for four straight years. In 2008 it dropped a staggering 11 percent from 2007 to 66,833....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2010

U.S. may up child custody pressure

NEW YORK — Japan and India are among America's key allies. Yet to scores of embittered parents across the U.S., they are outlaw states when it comes to the wrenching phenomenon of "international child abduction."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 23, 2010

Part-time salesman/cleaner Seiji Date

Seiji Date, 60, is a part-time clothing salesman and a part-time cleaner. He has 38 years of experience in the fashion business, but six months ago, the economic slump forced his employer to retire him at the company's mandatory retirement age of 60. Having spent 27 years with the same retailer, where...
OLYMPICS
Dec 23, 2010

Defense for the next decade

The Kan administration on Dec. 17 endorsed a new National Defense Program Outline, which will serve as a guideline for Japan's defense policy for the next 10 years from fiscal 2011. The guideline has introduced the new concept of "dynamic defense capabilities" focusing on "rapid response, mobility, flexibility,...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2010

'Nitten' is no mere Braille library

Regular bookstores or libraries might not be much use to blind people, but there's one place in Tokyo where they can not only read and borrow books and meet others in similar situations, but also get advice on improving their quality of life — and even buy a range of everyday goods.
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 18, 2010

University to fund those seeking study abroad

Nagoya University of Foreign Studies in the city of Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture, plans to start a new program from next fall that subsidizes all the costs necessary for its students to study abroad.
BUSINESS
Dec 18, 2010

Mixi feels Facebook lacks local appeal

Mixi Inc., owner of Japan's largest social networking service, expects to fend off Facebook Inc. because its website is better suited to domestic users and personal data are more secure, President Kenji Kasahara said recently.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 17, 2010

Butoh legend dances to a different beat

Though much younger than the late Kazuo Ohno and the late Tatsumi Hijikata, two legends of butoh, Akira Kasai was also a pioneer of the art form in the 1960s and '70s. He was even dubbed the "Nijinsky of butoh."
CULTURE / Music
Dec 17, 2010

Japanese beatboxer Afra causes a scene

The United States can point to Rahzel, Scratch (both formerly of The Roots) and reggae-fusion artist Matisyahu as examples of human beatboxers who have experienced mainstream success. Britain has Killa Kella and Shlomo, the latter of whom, as well as having contributed to Bjork's 2004 album "Medulla,"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2010

Escaping the city to get much more down to earth

Outside of Tokyo, at the tiny organic farm Nahual Garden in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, a group of young professionals swap packets of seeds and horticultural advice over cups of freshly brewed lemongrass tea.
JAPAN / Q&A
Dec 15, 2010

Testimony at ethics panel not under oath

The Democratic Party of Japan's internal rift is widening by the day on whether DPJ heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa should be summoned to give unsworn testimony before the Lower House Council on Political Ethics about the money scandal for which he faces indictment.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2010

Governments shouldn't overreact

Controversy surrounding WikiLeaks focuses on three issues: the motives and behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the man behind the website; the damage done to U.S. diplomatic interests and the embarrassment to foreign leaders; and the prospects for securing information in a wired world. A close examination...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 12, 2010

Era of American managers in NPB finished for now

Flash back to 2007. One-third of the teams in Japanese pro baseball (including half the Pacific League clubs) had American managers. There was Marty Brown with the Hiroshima Carp, Terry Collins leading the Orix Buffaloes, Trey Hillman guiding the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and Bobby Valentine at the...
COMMUNITY
Dec 11, 2010

Mover, shaker aids Goa's poorest kids

Stephen Young has always felt "driven to see the world" and left London at the age of 17 to do just that. He loves music, celebrates life and love and sees value, use, and often great potential in the world's outcasts, whether they be unwanted appliances in Tokyo or street children in the slums of Goa....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Dec 10, 2010

Ho ho ho and a bottle of Bordeaux

It's easy to feel sick of Christmas before it's even started. Shops are so desperate to tap into your Christmas spirit by piping the same stale old songs ad nauseam that by the time the actual event rolls around, most of us have built up an immunity to even the simple charms of tinsel and fairy lights....
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 10, 2010

Class of 2010: Japan's playwrights head west

Japan's young dramatists are increasingly shrugging off their medium's long-standing, self-imposed national isolation and are setting sail in search of new audiences, and critical praise, overseas.

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