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CULTURE / Books
Oct 9, 2011

Hymns for human potential

March and After, by Jon Mitchell. Printed Matter Press, 2011, 34pp., ¥1,000 (paperback) "March and After" brims with pithy song, but it is not merely a collection of poetry. The slim volume cuts with journalistic economy and biographical precision.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2011

The patron saint of Japanese indie?

Steven Tanaka has a secret. The vibrant live-house scenes of Tokyo's Koenji and Shimokitazawa neighborhoods hold a special place in his heart, and since last year he has been spending vast sums to take some of that energy to Canada — just don't tell his parents.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2011

Sage of Omaha could help Obama

President Barack Obama sure has been talking about Warren Buffett's taxes a lot lately. At his speech before a joint session of Congress this month, the president said that the billionaire shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than his secretary, a point Buffett has often made. The secretary's tax rate, and...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 25, 2011

There but for fortune ...

On Sept. 26, 1954, the passenger ferry Toya Maru, 7-year-old pride of the Japanese Railways-owned fleet plying the cold blue waters of the Tsugaru Straits between Hokkaido and northern Honshu, sank in a typhoon with the loss of more than 1,200 lives. Barely 150 passengers and crew survived.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011

In a galaxy not so far away....

"Japanese space engineers could just possibly be the most boring people on the face of the Earth," laughed an aeronautics engineer working for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), during a brief interview with The Japan Times.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 20, 2011

Restructuring for the future, not rebuilding the past

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 20, 2011

Hold the cesium: Ways to reduce radiation in your diet

Is our food really safe?
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Sep 19, 2011

Japan faces crossroads for rebranding itself after Fukushima crisis

The Fukushima power plant crisis has clearly damaged Japan as a country brand. There has been an outpouring of sympathy for the victims and a widespread admiration for Japan's perseverance, stoicism and orderly response, but the overwhelming perception overseas is negative: disbelief that such an accident...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 18, 2011

Is permanent connectedness really something we all need?

An Associated Press report of Apple Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs' resignation last month stated, "Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home." This testifies to Jobs' genius but fails to raise what seems an obvious question: Is it a change for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 15, 2011

The Bawdies get ready for their Beatles moment

Dropping their fifth full-length album, "Live the Life I Love," at the beginning of June made The Bawdies prime candidates for Japan's continually expanding summer festival circuit. The Tokyo four-piece have spent the last two months showcasing their infectious brand of throwback 1950s- and '60s-styled...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011

Effect of contaminated soil on food chain sparks fears

Six months after the nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima Prefecture, the public's awareness of the threat posed by radiation is entering a new phase: the realization that the biggest danger now and in the future is from contaminated soil.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Is China's economic miracle a mirage?

Doubts are beginning to be heard about how sustainable is China's economic miracle, particularly the relentless emphasis on exports and investment spending by hundreds of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local governments. Beijing, of course, has its supporters, including banker turned academic Stephen...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 6, 2011

'Sexlessness' wrecks marriages, threatens nation's future

In its cover story last month, The Economist newsmagazine looked at the issue of "Asia's lonely hearts: Why Asian women are rejecting marriage and what that means." It offered many reasons — including economics, education level, changes in family structures and gender roles, divorce difficulties, and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Aug 30, 2011

Mascots on a mission to explain the mundane

It is often said that the Japanese have a unique attitude towards law. Many explanations have been offered for why this is so, and in what circumstances:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 30, 2011

Japan's 'silent tsunami' severs parental ties, wrecks children's lives

To the next Prime Minister,
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2011

Tragic adult behavior on river

Regarding the Aug. 19 Kyodo article "Trio still missing in boat sinking": I know this will probably conflict with the knee-jerk reaction that most people have to this tragedy (on the Tenryu River in Shizuoka Prefecture), but I do not lay blame on the tour company or the boat skippers. I believe it falls...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Tsuneo Enari Exhibition — Japan and its Forgotten War: Showa

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Closes Sept. 25.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2011

U.S.-China economic stage

In conventional mass media and online of late, one can discover abundant information describing the unprecedented scale and intensity of industrial cooperation and capital migration between the United States and China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2011

'Ichimai no Hagaki (Post Card)'

Kaneto Shindo is, at 99, the oldest film director in Japan and, after Portugal's centenarian Manoel de Oliveira, the world. As a scriptwriter active since the 1930s, he has worked on many commercial films, but as a director, starting in 1951 with "Aisai Monogatari (Story of a Beloved Wife)," he has taken...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 7, 2011

NPB, MLB clubs make moves to prepare for stretch run

Now that the July 31 deadline has passed for Japanese teams to sign new foreign players this season, here is a review of players acquired since the beginning of the year by Central and Pacific League clubs in an effort to bolster their rosters for the run toward the Climax Series.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Aug 2, 2011

Embassies, educational groups get 'stamp' of approval from students

If you're a Japanese student interested in studying at a foreign university, it might be best to start preparing early.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 24, 2011

What chance a 'free market' would cure all the world's ills?

An old friend is a successful investment banker who makes more money in a year than I will make in my lifetime. Like many people, though, he would like to make even more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 19, 2011

Japan's Nigerians pay price for prosperity

The Nigerian Union in Japan is the central civic organization for immigrants from Africa's most populous nation. It has foundered twice in 21 years and its current incarnation is less than a year old. Its mixed history is a reflection of the social and economic turmoil Japan's Nigerian community has...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2011

Green is good for you — and the Earth

My work often takes me away from my home in Hokkaido, and with every absence I am irked to be missing out on some part of the inexorable seasonal advance. So, each time I return I make a beeline for my local forest to reacquaint myself with the resident and migrant birds, to trace the tracks and signs...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011

Salvation through baffling wisdom

PURIFYING ZEN: Watsuji Tetsuro's Shamon Dogen. Translated by Steve Bein. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 174 pp., $24 (paper) Zen is baffling: You find yourself wrestling with thoughts such as "It is easy to grasp body-mind. The world is like rice or flax or bamboo or bulrushes."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Jul 8, 2011

Kusuda makes NZ wine his own way

Pinot Noir is one of the world's most challenging grapes: Sensitive to frost and rot, this thin-skinned varietal really tests the limits of a winemaker's skill. But tenacious winemaker Hiroyuki Kusuda wouldn't have it any other way. This Japanese national has fought against the odds to set up his own...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 28, 2011

Kanazawa: What's the one thing you couldn't live without?

Yasushi TakaEnglish teacher, 22 (Japanese)It has to be comedy. I watch comedy almost every day on TV or on YouTube. I especially like Japanese manzai, but that's only one kind that I'm a fan of. I'm always exhausted when I go home, but comedy always makes me feel better. I think laughter is the most...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 21, 2011

Memory of Japan Series glory lives on for all-time saves leader Iwase

Moments after becoming Japan's new all-time saves leader, Hitoki Iwase took a brief trip down memory lane.

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