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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2011

'My Back Page'

The Japanese student-protest movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s had much in common with its American counterpart, from its massive street demonstrations to its taste in music (The Beatles and Bob Dylan) and movies (anything with Dustin Hoffman or Jack Nicholson).
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2011

Turkey serves as a role model for Arab world

As the Arab Spring enters its fourth month, it faces challenges but also presents opportunities. Despite setbacks in Libya, Yemen and Syria, the democratic wave has already begun to change the Middle East's political landscape.
COMMENTARY
May 26, 2011

Asia's shaky water and energy balancing act

Much of central China along the Yangtze River is in the grip of its worst energy crisis in years. The electricity cuts for industry and households have been exacerbated by a five-month drought that has dried up rivers, reducing hydroelectric generating capacity and leaving many people and large swaths...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 22, 2011

Untouchable lays bare a divided nation

With ebooks increasingly dominating the publishing market, it is a pleasure to hold a printed book so gorgeously designed as this one; the cover alone would make it a welcome addition to any Kenji Nakagami collection.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2011

Democracy's dawn in Middle East?

With protests fading in Tunis and seeming to have peaked in Cairo, it is time to ask whether Tunisia and Egypt will complete democratic transitions.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2011

Was killing him a mistake?

"He lived a hero, he died a martyr. . .if they killed one Osama, a thousand others will be born," says a comment on a Facebook group called "We are all Osama bin Laden." The group formed one hour after U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of the al-Qaida leader's death. The group already has around...
CULTURE / Books
May 8, 2011

Unfractured folk tales, and fantastic fables

SPECULATIVE JAPAN 2: "The Man Who Watched the Sea" and Other Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy. Kurodahan Press, 2010, 269 pp., $16 (paper) A good anthology, particularly one that aims to provide an overview of an unfamiliar subset of a nation's literature, should not please all its readers...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2011

New drama addresses the politics of surrogate pregnancy in Japan

Keiko Matsuzaka started out as a glamorous ingenue who sang and acted. Her career didn't differ greatly from those of other late Showa Era (1926-89) idols, except that she gave in to the unflattering changes her body underwent after entering middle age. Most other actresses who are still working in their...
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2011

The heartland of bin Laden

The killing of Osama bin Laden by United States special forces in a helicopter assault on a sprawling luxury mansion near Islamabad recalls the capture of other al-Qaida leaders in Pakistani cities. Once again, we see that the real terrorist sanctuaries are located not along Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan...
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2011

Hoping for a return to normal temperatures

Just when you begin to worry that maybe the United States cannot do anything right, this happens. And suddenly things seem just a little better — and the barometric pressure in American a little bit lighter. This is to say that the loud noise you here coming from the 50 states of the United States...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2011

The world after bin Laden

Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Osama bin Laden, the author of the 9/11 atrocity in the United States and various lesser terrorist outrages elsewhere, has been killed by American troops in his hideout in northern Pakistan. At last, the world can breathe more easily, but not many people were holding their...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 1, 2011

Tabloids warn of major quake beneath Tokyo

Now that northeast Japan is gradually shifting into recovery mode and the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis is becoming more manageable, new themes have been emerging in the vernacular media. One is the life expectancy of the cabinet of PM Naoto Kan.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2011

No time for political games as Japan tries to rise again

Japanese people who have been hit by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident have been — rightly — praised worldwide for their courage and resilience. In many other places, even one such disaster would have triggered widespread looting if not rioting.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 27, 2011

Stop worrying and embrace the passive tense

English grammarians like to abide by ironclad rules: Don't split infinitives! Don't splice sentences together with commas! Use the active voice!
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2011

Disaster darkens fisheries' decline

The wreckage of a 379-ton tuna boat blocks the road to the deserted fish market in Kesennuma, once Japan's largest port for bonito and swordfish. Even after the debris from last month's tsunami have been cleared away, the industry may never recover.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2011

Building hospital ships for disaster response

An earthquake of unprecedented magnitude, followed by a terrible tsunami, devastated the northeast coast of Japan on March 11, setting off a nuclear emergency that is having global effects.The combination of these calamities has also plunged Japan into a kind of national depression that I have never...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 23, 2011

Coming to proper terms

"You think you've got it rough?" says my wife. "How about me?"
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 22, 2011

The unmistakable taste of a new season

In these days of year-round growing of vegetables in temperature-controlled conditions and air shipments of fresh produce from around the world, it's all too easy to forget the seasons. But in Japan, seasonality is still highly treasured, and there's no time like the spring to enjoy certain vegetables...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2011

Children's voices soothe Iwate survivors

As survivors from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sat in evacuation centers across Iwate Prefecture on March 19, support came from a surprising source. Amid the steady flow of information from the radio, a children's choir began singing.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011

The only panacea for Indonesia's troubles

Is there any idea of the rule of law in the Indonesian Constitution? What is the notion of the rule of law in the context of Indonesia?
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Apr 19, 2011

Architects, artists converge to brainstorm disaster relief

The 52nd floor of the Roppongi Hills complex in downtown Tokyo was filled Saturday night with a high-spirited, energetic atmosphere as people gathered for a charity event to raise donations for survivors of the quake- and tsunami-ravaged Tohoku region.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2011

Portugal has a lesson if the U.S. is watching

Portugal is far along the primrose path to economic bankruptcy, following in the steps of Greece and Ireland. While the Portuguese debt crisis is not nearly as acute as that of Greece and Ireland, it nonetheless serves as a warning to other European Union countries, as well as the United States, that...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 17, 2011

Viewing wildlife through a lens

I grew up in Britain, which is a crane-free zone, so from the very first time I arrived in Japan I was dreaming of seeing the iconic red-crowned cranes of Hokkaido. How much more iconic as a crane can you get than being dubbed Grus japonensis? But just how was I to learn about their haunts and habits?...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2011

The enemies of a digital universal library

Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written. Then, in 2004, Google announced that it would begin digitally scanning all the books held by five major research libraries. Suddenly, the library of utopia seemed within reach.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 16, 2011

Earthquake relief: Little people doing big things

Prime Minister Naoto Kan took out nearly a full-page ad in the International Herald Tribune last week to thank the international community for their kizuna (bond of friendship), regarding Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11. It was a stirring tribute to those who have come together to...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2011

Safer alternative bears on dollar

BERKELEY, Calif. — This is the season for international monetary conferences. In March, national leaders assembled in Nanjing, China, to speechify on exchange and interest rates. And, in early April, leading thinkers and former policymakers met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the birthplace in 1944...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2011

Measuring the revolution wave

NEW YORK — A prediction three months ago that popular protests would soon topple a dictatorship in Tunisia, sweep Hosni Mubarak from power in Egypt, provoke civil war in Moammar Gadhafi's Libya, and rattle regimes from Morocco to Yemen would have drawn serious skepticism. We knew the tinder was dry,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 10, 2011

Realigned values help global order evolve

CANBERRA — On March 17, Security Council Resolution 1973 authorized the use of "all necessary measures," short of an invasion and occupation, "to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas": the first United Nations-sanctioned combat operations since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

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