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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 9, 2016

Publisher Takarajima-sha bets on shock therapy to revive its fortunes

With the temporary demise of its flagship publication, Takarajima looks to Showa nostalgia and shock ads in a bid to stay relevant.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 10, 2015

Reconstruction minister denies misuse of political funds, underwear theft

Reconstruction minister Tsuyoshi Takagi on Tuesday dismissed any notion he will step down and denied separate allegations that he misused political funds and stole a young woman's underwear.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2015

Aomori's moving castle and other architectural tales

Once every century, Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture experiences an unusual event — the Hirosaki Moving Castle Project — when the city relocates an entire castle using manpower only.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 24, 2015

Water, water everywhere in Japan, but fewer people to pay for it

Water is relatively abundant in Japan, but there are less people around to pay for the infrastructure that processes it and delivers it to homes.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 17, 2015

Councilors get loud on library revamps

As testimony to their characteristically low profile, Japan's public libraries seldom make the news, although two recent exceptions come to mind.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 10, 2015

Child serial killer Sakakibara believed to have launched vanity website

A notorious serial killer whose murders of two children in 1997 revolted the nation has apparently set up a website on which he says he will post updates about his life.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2015

TV sexism comes from a problematic place

At the World Assembly for Women held in Tokyo last week, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, lauded the social achievements of women worldwide but added that "we are not there yet." Sirleaf didn't say where exactly "there" is, but during the same week, two media-related...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2015

Abe catches heat from the weeklies in the dog days of summer

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces such a constant stream of stumbles and irritants, it's hard to identify which of them is causing his biggest headache.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 20, 2015

LDP lawmaker Takaya Muto quits party over money scandal

A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who has been accused over an alleged money scandal quit the party on Wednesday after apologizing for "causing great trouble" to the LDP.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / 70 YEARS AFTER THE WAR'S END
Aug 14, 2015

Abe's nationalism reflected in conservative political movement, but polls show voter dissent

The hot political season is back as the nation observes Aug. 15, which is always an emotional date as it marks Japan's surrender in World War II — and this year is the 70th anniversary of that fateful event.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 1, 2015

Going for gold in the stadium blame game

Yoshiro Mori, former rugby player and prime minister, and current head of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics' organizing committee, is not a man of few words. When the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, took it upon himself to discard the design for the new National Stadium because cost estimates had gotten out...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 25, 2015

Shizuka Kamei and Shintaro Ishihara have the security debate the Diet should have had

When Shintaro Ishihara retired from politics after failing to get re-elected last December, it seemed we wouldn't have the right-wing firebrand to kick around any more, but last week there he was in Shukan Asahi talking to former Liberal Democratic Party comrade Shizuka Kamei about various topics, including...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 6, 2015

'Bottakuri' scams put the squeeze on the unwary

"On any given evening, you can see noisy quarrels between club staff and customers outside the local police box," attorney Katsuyuki Aoshima tells Asahi Geino (May 2), adding, "The police treat these as civil claims between the shop and the customer, and won't get involved, adopting the position of neutral...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 6, 2015

Blame batted about for stadium blunder

The media is still very positive about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but its ardor has cooled significantly with regard to the way the central government is holding up its end of the bargain.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jun 6, 2015

Law still a long way behind fertility boom

As the population declines, the number of domestic businesses involved in fertility is growing, giving birth to a slew of additional problems.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
May 23, 2015

Shifting the scales of juvenile justice

In light of 13-year-old Ryota Uemura's recent murder in Kawasaki, the country is once again split over whether or not to revise the law governing crimes committed by minors.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 23, 2015

The changing face of Tokyo's 'red-light' district

"How would I describe Kabukicho? Frankly, I'm not sure," popular author Hirokatsu Azuma was quoted as saying in the now-defunct monthly Gendai magazine back in January 1999. "If you say it's a scary place, you could be right; and if you say it's a place where you can have fun, well, that's right too."...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 4, 2015

Magazines fixate on the roots of poverty

The oft-seen expression ichioku sō-chūryū translates roughly as "the perception of 'the 100 million,' i.e., the entire nation, as belonging to the middle class."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 14, 2015

Seeking blame in a Kawasaki teen's death

On the morning of Feb. 20, police were summoned to the grassy, elevated bank of the Tama River, which forms the boundary between Tokyo and Kawasaki. They found the naked body of 13-year-old junior high school student Ryota Uemura, dead of multiple stab wounds. The same morning, the partly burned remnants...
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 5, 2015

Shimomura admits support groups told to stay mum on fund allegations

Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura admitted Thursday that his secretary had urged support groups not to speak to reporters about allegations that he misused political funds.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 2, 2015

Questions raised over keeping teen suspects anonymous

The involvement of three teen-aged suspects in the death of a boy in Kawasaki is fueling debate about the anonymity granted to minors in cases of this kind.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Feb 28, 2015

The candy, the whip and freedom of press in Japan

We are familiar with the carrot-and-stick approach in the West, but the phrase in Japan is "ame to muchi" — literally, the candy and the whip.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 16, 2015

Exercise your intuition as you untangle chaotic headlines

Being somewhat 背が高い (se ga takai, tall), I shamelessly confess my height advantage — I stand about 188 cm — has facilitated my ability to 盗み読み (nusumi-yomi, literally "theft-read," meaning to read over other people's shoulders) on public transport.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 26, 2015

Where's the milk? School lunches no longer sacred cows

The cost of a school lunch is now higher than the average salaryman's lunch.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 17, 2015

Snark levels were on full blast for 'Kohaku'

The 2014 edition of NHK's venerated song contest, "Kohaku Uta Gassen," broadcast on Dec. 31, was remarkable for several reasons, though the performance that generated the most remarks was the one by the equally venerated pop-rock group Southern All Stars, their first on the show in 31 years.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?