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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2012

U.S. school massacre won't change views on guns

We live in a society that makes it very, very easy to kill kids, though we want to pretend that isn't true.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2012

IMF economists see perils in China's investment binge

China's investment binge has been the envy of many other countries, not least India where inadequate roads mean that 40 percent of crops are spoiled on the way to market, and Japan, where 30-year-old tunnels are passing their sell-by dates and maintenance is not keeping up with demand.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 16, 2012

Report slams Pakistani leaders as tax dodgers

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, presumed to be one of the nation's richest men, did not file tax returns last year, a new report contends. Neither did Interior Minister Rehman Malik. And nearly 70 percent of the members of Parliament failed to pay taxes, according to what may be the first comprehensive,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 15, 2012

Writer, teacher, advocate finds her stride in the Japanese countryside

For Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, her sociopolitical outlook colors all aspects of her life, as a writer, educator or activist. "Activism runs through what I read and what I write and what I'm teaching; It's all one big thing, as the same mindset invades all those activities. It is inescapable," she says.
COMMENTARY
Dec 15, 2012

A turning point in East Asia

Political transitions in East Asia promise to mark a defining moment in the region's jittery geopolitics. After the ascension in China of Xi Jinping, regarded by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as its own man, Japan seems set to swing to the right in its impending election — an outcome likely to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2012

Jackson bids for more magic with 'The Hobbit'

When asked what "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" offers that "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy didn't, actor Sir Ian McKellan pauses before answering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2012

'The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey(Hobbit: Omoigakenai Bouken)'

OK, I know that some of you out there are anticipating the release of Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" more eagerly than the Second Coming, and for you, here's the short review: If you liked Jackson's first three "Lord of the Rings" movies, you'll love this one, too.
COMMENTARY
Dec 13, 2012

The art of war, Chinese style

The recent 50th anniversary of China's invasion of India attracted much discussion, especially within India. Yet the debate shied away from drawing the broader, long-term lessons for Asian security.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 12, 2012

Knicks may live up to hype this time

There's an old question you hear around the NBA sometimes. It goes like this: What's the definition of a dynasty?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2012

An energy-independent U.S. still has Middle East interests

For some time now, a certain strategic vision has been gaining traction: the United States is becoming energy-independent, paving the way for its political retreat from the Middle East and justifying its strategic "pivot" toward Asia. This view seems intuitively correct, but is it?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2012

Book reveals human drama in Fukushima No. 1 crisis

Experts and journalists have written a number of reports, some even running several hundred pages, about the cause of the triple meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and the chain of events that followed.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 9, 2012

Globe-trotting acrobat left a mark on Japan

PROFESSOR RISLEY AND THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE TROUPE: How an American Acrobat Introduced Circus to Japan — and Japan to the West, by Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, 2012, 336 pp., $35 (hardcover) When a storyteller wields a scholar's pen, history truly comes alive. When that history crosses the...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 7, 2012

Celebrate an underdog military commander at a festival in Uzumasa

Military commander Sengoku Hidehisa (1552−1614) will forever be remembered as a Japanese warrior who messed up the worst but redeemed himself the most. Sengoku was quick to be promoted to the role of daimyo (feudal lord), but due to his lack of chivalry and perceived depravity, historical records harshly...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2012

Translated version of famous Hayashi work has its vicissitudes

FLOATING CLOUDS, by Fumiko Hayashi, translated by Lane Dunlop. Columbia University Press, 2012, 303 pp., $25 (paperback) This novel is one of the most famous of female author Fumiko Hayashi's works. The present translation was done by Lane Dunlop, well-known for his earlier translations of works by writers...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Dec 2, 2012

Japan's 'life-less' anti-stalking laws are costing lives to be lost

"To build a Buddha image but not to put in the soul (仏作って魂入れず/ Hotoke tsukutte tamashii irezu)" is a well-known saying stemming from a folk belief that statues of Buddhist deities are meant to have a spiritual presence. In other words, it's a metaphor for making something that's structurally...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2012

The ever-evolving digital movie world

JAPANESE CINEMA IN THE DIGITAL AGE, by Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 178 pp., $47 (hardcover) The world film industry, including Japan's, is now completing a changeover from traditional film stock to digital substitutes.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 1, 2012

'Old Canyon' theory divides geologists

To stand on the South Rim and gaze into the Grand Canyon is to behold an awesome immensity of time. The serpentine Colorado River has relentlessly incised a 450-km-long chasm that in some places stretches 28 km wide and more than 1½ km deep. Visitors to Grand Canyon National Park will encounter an exhibit...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

DPJ's promise to change the system failed

The Democratic Party of Japan rode to power in 2009 and ended decades of Liberal Democratic Party rule by promising to turn politicians into the true decision-makers and end the practice of bureaucrats calling the shots on behalf of ministries instead of the people.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2012

Expertise on climate is a terrible thing to waste

Doha, the capital of the oil state of Qatar, might be regarded as the most appropriate host for the climate change talks that have started, given that it is a living, breathing testament to the oil and gas-guzzling modern economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2012

Tokyo gubernatorial election a three-horse race

The Tokyo gubernatorial election campaign kicked off Thursday, with three main contenders vying for the post:
COMMENTARY
Nov 30, 2012

China's military crossroads

At a time when China's economy and society are under considerable strain and the country is embroiled in increasingly tense border disputes with its neighbors, the relatively peaceful once-in-a-decade political transition in Beijing has helped deflect attention from the underlying turbulence in the Chinese...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Nov 28, 2012

Cerebral Paul a true renaissance man

You don't hear much profound in sports locker room these days, even about sports.
COMMENTARY
Nov 28, 2012

Japan's university education crisis

Education minister Makiko Tanaka has apologized for trying to cancel approvals given by her ministry bureaucrats for three institutions seeking to operate as fully fledged four-year universities providing undergraduate degrees. But should she have apologized?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2012

You may need less sleep than you think, or not

If holiday shopping leaves you exhausted, a long weekend should offer an opportunity for some serious shut-eye. We spend between a quarter and a third of our lives asleep, but that doesn't make us experts on how much is too much, how little is too little, or how many hours of rest the kids need to be...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2012

Introducing the irreverent, unconventional Ryokan

SKY ABOVE, GREAT WIND: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan, by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Shambhala, 2012, 224 pp., $17.95 (paperback) It is fitting that the first poem in this book features Ryokan's nod to the most famous of Japanese poets:
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2012

Ultimate taboo for military spouses: infidelity

Military spouses talk about almost everything. In running groups, prayer groups, writing groups, many spouses say they lean on one another heavily while their partners are overseas on yet another deployment in this decade of war.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Nov 23, 2012

Fresh soba flour is fall's precious prize

The obsession with fresh, seasonal food in Japan extends to things that you may not even think of as having seasons, such as dried flour. Shin-soba-ko (new fall-harvest buckwheat flour, used in soba noodles) is eagerly anticipated every year by Japanese gourmets. While soba flour has two harvests, one...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 22, 2012

Isao Tomita

Turning 80 this year hasn't interrupted Isao Tomita in his search for new musical possibilities. Known to many as the father of Japanese electronic music, the artist is about to turn his latest dream into a (virtual) reality, by collaborating with computer-generated diva Hatsune Miku. This weekend, Tomita...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2012

America's trouble with China

Xi Jinping, China's newly anointed president, made his first visit to the United States in May 1980. He was a 27-year-old junior officer accompanying Geng Biao, then a vice premier and China's leading military official. Geng had been my host the previous January, when I was the first U.S. defense secretary...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Nov 21, 2012

Merumaga: Paid e-mail newsletters make a come-back

Despite the fact that Japan has the world's largest market for digital-manga, which are primarily read on cellphones, and that Amazon has recently brought out its Kindle platform in Japan — after a delay of 5 years — the e-book business here has yet to take off. As such, it's probably no surprise...

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake