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JAPAN
Jun 21, 2012

Noda officially gives in on tax, welfare reform

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Democratic Party of Japan executives officially endorsed changes to the government's social security and tax reform bills Wednesday, while signalling the Diet session will be extended, possibly to early September.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 21, 2012

Fan loyalty brings 2PM ups and downs

Dancing boy bands are a common feature in K-pop, but when it comes to fan loyalty, 2PM has few rivals.
Jun 21, 2012

What can be done about Syria?

The indiscriminate killing of civilians including women and children in Syria continues. All we seem able to do is wring our hands and denounce the perpetrators.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 20, 2012

How Jordan kept Isiah off Dream Team

Ironic how last Thursday was Flag Day and here we are, draped in drool over the 20th anniversary of the narcissistic 1992 Dream Team.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jun 20, 2012

Gardow done as Chiba coach

After an up-and-down inaugural season, the Chiba Jets will have a new coach for the 2012-13 campaign.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2012

Okinawa governor opposes Osprey deployment

Kyodo Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima is urging the central to stop the planned deployment of U.S. MV-22 Osprey aircraft at the Futenma air station following recent crashes abroad.
Jun 20, 2012

Helping Myanmar transform

Across the Mideast, and now in Myanmar, one of the great questions of contemporary global politics has resurfaced: How can countries move from a failing authoritarianism to some form of self-sustaining pluralism?
Jun 20, 2012

Japan's tale of two stockpiles

Mount Fuji stands as a powerful eco-symbol in Japan, invoked frequently to describe elements of Japanese nature and culture. According to Japanese writers and others, Mount Fuji's towering summit-cone and elegantly balanced slopes convey the remote majesty of nature, the essence of purity, a trove of...
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2012

Nikko Asset to put IPO plan on hold until 2013

Nikko Asset Management Co. may wait until next year before pursuing an initial public offering that it shelved in December, avoiding markets roiled by Europe's debt crisis, two sources said.
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
BASKETBALL
Jun 19, 2012

Gardow finished in Chiba; Tomiyama named new Jets coach

After an up-and-down inaugural season, the Chiba Jets will have a new coach for the 2012-13 campaign.
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2012

Reversing the population decline

Demographic statistics findings made public on June 5 by the health and welfare ministry has confirmed what is already well known: Japan's population will steadily decline unless effective measures are taken in a timely manner. The government and enterprises must waste no time in implementing policies...
EDITORIALS
Jun 19, 2012

Scrutinize 'special ward' plans

The ruling and opposition parties have respectively submitted bills designed to allow prefectures and other local governments to set up "special wards" — similar to those that exist in Tokyo — to the Diet. Behind this is a move by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, leader of Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka Association...
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.
Reader Mail
Jun 17, 2012

Sweet dream for Fukushima

Regarding the June 11 article "18% of Fukushima evacuees may be unable to return home even after 10 years": This figure is laughable; there is no way. The example is Chernobyl. Not one person has returned to Chernobyl because the hazard is still present in the soil.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2012

Japan: the history behind its love affair with dogs

Empire of Dogs: Canine, Japan and the Making of the Modern World, by Aaron Skabelund. Cornell University Press, 2011, 312 pp., $39.95 (hardcover) The Japanese fascination with dogs is long-standing, but the pampered pooches of today would cringe at the horrid treatment of their predecessors during wartime...
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2012

New fisheries approach needed

The Cabinet on May 25 endorsed a white book on fisheries for fiscal 2011. As the white book points out, it is important to revitalize fisheries in the Pacific coastal areas of the Tohoku region, which greatly suffered from the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis. Reviving...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 15, 2012

Smartphone toys come to the fore

The International Tokyo Toy Show kicked off Thursday with an unmistakable message that toy makers don't want to miss out on the smartphone boom.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 15, 2012

Sendai 89ers to begin play in Xebio Arena next season

Symbolic of Tohoku's revitalization after the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Sendai 89ers will begin play in a new basketball gymnasium, Xebio Arena, in Taiha Ward, in October.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 15, 2012

Agent Orange at base in '80s: U.S. vet

The U.S. Marine Corps buried a massive stockpile of Agent Orange at the Futenma air station in Okinawa, possibly poisoning the base's former head of maintenance and potentially contaminating nearby residents and the ground beneath the base, The Japan Times recently learned from interviews with U.S. veterans....
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2012

Article 9 has stood by Japan

As a member of the Sagami Group to Protect Article 9, I am appalled by Andreas Kolb's June 10 letter. Kolb says Article 9 did not protect Japan from the Cold War and won't protect Japan from terrorists and fascists. But if Japan keeps its war-renouncing Constitution and refrains from suppressing other...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jun 14, 2012

Bolt hungry to take star to new level during Olympics

Has anyone, anywhere, had a greater love of the camera than Usain Bolt? Maybe Marilyn Monroe.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2012

In the light of Rinko Kawauchi

It's quite surprising to find out that "Kawauchi Rinko: Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow" is Rinko Kawauchi's first solo exhibition in Tokyo. For a winner of prestigious photography prizes, who has published multiple books — not to mention held major exhibitions overseas — this mid-career show...
JAPAN
Jun 14, 2012

Ospreys add to Okinawa grievances

For nearly 30 years, Ginowan resident Eisho Nakandakari has had periodic trouble sleeping at night. It's not insomnia that keeps him up, but the roar of jets from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, just a few hundred meters from his home.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?