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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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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 / 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.
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Jan 3, 2015

The biggest terrorism threat in Japan

Remember how the government said Japan needed a state secrets law to protect it from acts of terrorism?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 27, 2014

Concern for Japan's democratic process

Elections are the lifeblood of democracy. They represent an awesome empowerment — the right of citizens to peacefully overthrow their government and choose another.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 22, 2014

NTV's ideal announcer proves problematic

The current government wants women to demonstrate their full potential in the workplace, which means transcending gender roles and achieving occupational parity with their male counterparts.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 15, 2014

Creative crooks stay one step ahead

The "Ore, ore" ("It's me") fraudsters and their ilk, who telephone elderly people and pretend to be a relative in need of money to help them out of a jam, keep coming up with new scams.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 20, 2014

Two of Abe's female ministers resign over separate scandals

Cabinet ministers Yuko Obuchi and Midori Matsushima resign in connection with separate political scandals, dealing a major setback to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 4, 2014

Unburdening oneself of life's possessions

Japanese often cite an old aphorism that goes, "Tatsu tori ato wo nigosazu" ("It is a foolish bird that defiles its own nest"). This can be taken to mean that a departing person should not leave behind a mess.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2014

Is the Asahi a scapegoat of nationalist media or victim of own missteps?

One of the nation's leading newspapers has been in crisis mode of late — a situation that may bode ill for liberal journalism at a time when nationalism appears to be making public inroads.

Longform

Members of the Wajima City Morning Market Association pose for a group photograph on the site where the market once stood.
In the wake of disaster, the revival of Wajima's market brings hope