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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 3, 2012

All systems go for happy international campers

Shiro Matsuoka, 39, from Kawasaki, and Zhang Yi, 33, who hails from Changchung, China, first met in 2004 when they were working part-time at a McDonald's in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Two Peace Prize laureates fail to communicate

"The lead interrogator at the Division Interrogation Facility had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2012

Koshiishi scrambles to avoid DPJ split

Hoping to head off a possible breakaway from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, DPJ Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi met Thursday with Ichiro Ozawa, appealing to the party kingpin to stand behind Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and shore up unity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 25, 2012

Deeper political, financial unity seen as solution to eurozone crisis

Even after fears of a Greek exit from the euro were eased by the outcome of the country's June 17 elections, Europe remains in crisis as concern lingers that Spain's banks are a potentially bigger risk. Ending the crisis will require European leaders to come up with a longer-term vision for deeper economic...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 24, 2012

Mutombo using stature to make a difference in world

Dikembe Mutombo commands attention, and it's not because he towers over people at 218 cm, or the fascinating fact that he speaks nine languages (including five African dialects) or blocked 3,289 shots during his 18-season NBA career. Simply put, the big fellow has lived a remarkable life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2012

'Attack the Block' / 'We Need to Talk About Kevin'

When unarmed teen Trayvon Martin was fatally shot in Florida by paranoid neighborhood-watch vigilante George Zimmerman in February, the usual flurry of American media debate ensued. One of the more heated tangents came when celebrity newscaster Geraldo Rivera stated — on Fox News, naturally — that...
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jun 19, 2012

In 'right-to-work' Japan, employees should also have the right to rest

According to the tagline for the 1991 film "City Slickers," "All you need in life is love, courage and paid holidays." Indeed, some of us may find meaning to our lives through single-minded devotion to our jobs, but without leisure time our bodies and minds would inevitably putter out. Taken to extremes,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 18, 2012

Budget airline determined to give passengers their money's worth

Skymark Airlines wants customers to understand what it means to be a 'budget' airline.
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2012

Beijing censors target leads to collective action

When Barack Obama visited China in 2009, the American leader made it a point to publicly declare himself "a big supporter of noncensorship" and said criticism made him a better president.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 18, 2012

Foreign players' message sometimes lost in translation

Foreign ballplayers in Japan have had their words misunderstood for as long as there have been foreign ballplayers in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2012

Signs of a slowdown in China

The People's Bank of China on June 7 lowered banks' one-year lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent and one-year deposit rate by the same margin to 3.25 percent — the first full-scale monetary easing by China since a similar move in December 2008 in the wake of the Lehman Brothers...
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2012

Public to Tepco: Don't hike rates

Citizens attending the first public hearing Thursday on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s request to increase electricity rates for households voiced opposition to the plan and urged the utility to cut costs instead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 7, 2012

Russians who cringed at their own

One of the features of Europe's interwoven network of royal families was that it led to a great deal of cultural transference between the different states. In order to avoid marrying beneath themselves, royals were tempted to look abroad for spouses, with the result that the incomers would often bring...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 4, 2012

A hot genpatsu-free summer threatens

Two things make a battered Japan cringe: genpatsu (原発, nuclear power) and fukeiki (不景気, economic stagnation). The nation has suffered deeply from both. As spring fades into a potentially sweltering, potentially stagnant summer, there arises an agonizing dilemma: Can the latter be avoided, or...
JAPAN
May 31, 2012

Panel likely to delay start of 10% price hike by Tepco

Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s hoped-for 10 percent price hike for households will probably not kick in on July 1 because a government panel scrutinizing the plan faces no deadline for reaching a judgement, an official in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 29, 2012

New feed-in tariff system a rush to get renewables in play

On July 1, a new law takes effect requiring utilities to purchase electricity generated from five renewable energy sources at a fixed price for a set length of time, under what is known as a feed-in tariff system.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

Devalue the euro to help Europe

In his May 21 opinion article, "Rebalancing eurozone wages and productivity," Kemal Dervis only describes the link between the debt problem and high wages in southern European countries. The article fails to put forward how to tackle the debt problem.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 26, 2012

Head monk of Kyoto temple takes Buddhism into the community

Climb the stone walkway, stippled with fallen red camellia blossoms, that leads to Kyoto's Honen-in Temple, past a mossy thatched gate and raised platforms of sand combed in tight patterns of waves and chrysanthemums, and you enter a hushed and otherworldly space at the foot of Mount Daimonji.
Reader Mail
May 24, 2012

Monuments don't change history

Regarding the May 20 AP article "Sex slave plaque in New Jersey riles Japanese officials": As an American citizen, I find it inappropriate for such a monument to be built in the state of New Jersey. If Koreans, on their own soil on the Korean Peninsula, feel the need to build such monuments, I can't...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 22, 2012

The elephant in the foreigner's room now has a name: microaggression

Some positive and negative readers' reactions to Debito Arudou's provocative and widely read May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down":
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 22, 2012

Foreigners disqualified as blood donors for wide range of reasons

From the many responses to our April 3 column, "Less-than-fluent foreigners may have trouble giving blood," it seems that Japanese language ability is an issue at some centers, but not all. Other factors sometimes took precedence, such as medical conditions and other rules.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 20, 2012

Golden Kings set up final rematch

Superior teamwork and execution carried the Ryukyu Golden Kings to the Western Conference title and the best regular-season record (39-13) among the bj-league's 19 teams.
Reader Mail
May 20, 2012

Road for English-speaking robots

I agree with Natsumi Ando, but I'd like to stress the importance of the mother tongue. Without a rich experience of free discussion in the mother tongue, we will never be able to effectively debate in any language. Just witness the sad state of adults engaged in endless exchanges of meaningless words,...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 18, 2012

Ryukyu star Newton set for seventh straight Final Four

This is arguably the most remarkable statistic in the bj-league's seven-year history: Center Jeff Newton's teams have advanced to the Final Four every season.

Longform

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