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JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jul 3, 2012

Today's J-blip: Oronamin C 7/3 Facebook Campaign

If you win this contest you might want to invest in a bigger fridge.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 3, 2012

Dip into the history of the Japanese 'system bath'

Japanese people love their evening bath, but tubs in private residences are a relatively recent development. By 1963, only 60 percent of Japanese homes had them. The small amount of living space necessitated by economic reality, not to mention the paucity of indoor plumbing, couldn't accommodate bathrooms,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 3, 2012

Show restraint over Senkaku Islands

As the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties on between Japan and China on Sept. 29, 1972, draws near, friction between the two neighboring countries is increasing over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Both sides must refrain from taking provocative actions and handle the...
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Entering uncharted territory of broken models

We live in a world of broken models. To understand why world leaders can't easily fix the global economy, you have to realize that the economic models on which the United States, Europe and China relied are collapsing. The models differ, but the breakdowns are occurring simultaneously and feed on each...
EDITORIALS
Jul 2, 2012

Commitment that failed to come

The U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, was held in Rio de Janeiro on June 20-22 as a follow up to the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), also held in the Brazilian city. Since 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the U.N. Framework Convention...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 2, 2012

After 15 years, Mainali is a free man

Freed June 7 from 15 years' imprisonment for a murder he apparently never committed, Govinda Prasad Mainali declared himself full of gratitude. Speaking through his lawyer, he said, "Mujitsu, shinjitsu wo shinjite kureta saibankan ni deaete yokatta. Kansha no kimochi de ippai desu," (「無実、真実を信じてくれた裁判官に出会ってよかった。感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです"」"It's...
Reader Mail
Jul 1, 2012

Past nuclear lessons not heeded

Regarding The Washington Post article appearing on the front page of The Japan Times on June 27 titled "Nuclear redress will never approximate losses": Media such as The Washington Post and even The New York Times are finally acknowledging that nuclear energy itself was not the cause of the angst and...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2012

Sexual policies and politics during the occupation of Japan

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan, by Sarah Kovner. Stanford University Press, 2012, 240 pp., $50.00 (hardcover) Love, Sex and Democracy During the American Occupation, by Mark McClelland. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 252 pp., $85.00 (hardcover) Six decades after the U.S. occupation...
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2012

Workers' comp for mental illness

More workers than ever before were approved for compensation for work-related mental illnesses in fiscal 2011, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. While those statistics offer hope of treatment for those suffering and are a clear recognition that workplaces are one of the causes of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 1, 2012

A lesson in respecting river life

I recently had the pleasure of my eldest daughter, Miwako, coming to stay at my Kurohime home in the Nagano Prefecture hills together with her partner, Don McCubbing, and their 4-year old twin daughters Aila and Zanti.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 30, 2012

British artist/chef finds happiness by keeping all of his options open

Cooking can be art and art nourishes, but what really connects the two for chef and artist Johnny Miller is the act of creation itself: "It's the physicality of it — both are directly related to your body and how your body moves. In cooking, you've got to touch things, touch hot and cold things. You've...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2012

Mexicans ready for a change

There's no point in talking about who's going to win the Mexican presidential election on July 1. Enrique Pena Nieto is going to win it. What's more interesting is why he's going to win it.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2012

In Sweden, Julian Assange would receive justice

Julian Assange's bizarre bid for political asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London has claimed headlines everywhere, but it has obscured an important truth: Last month's decision by the United Kingdom's Supreme Court that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual crimes was the...
JAPAN
Jun 30, 2012

Rakuten's English drive ready to take full effect, chief says

Rakuten Inc. CEO Hiroshi Mikitani is happy with the improvement of his workers' English proficiency and all employees understand its importance as the company expands globally, he said Friday.
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2012

Spending on drinking hits 14-year low

Japanese men cut spending on drinking to the lowest level in at least 14 years as household allowances remained at about half of what they were during the heyday of the bubble economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 29, 2012

Today's J-blip: Yoshitomo Nara for No Nukes

Japanese protesters have been showing up in large numbers to say no to nukes. Popular artist Yoshitomo Nara is among them.
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jun 29, 2012

Digging in: the rise of B-kyū gurume

Everyman Eats is a new column about the phenomenon of B-kyū gurume (B-grade gourmet) — inexpensive, down-home cooking that reflects local culinary traditions. This first installment considers 10 moments that helped shape the recent B-kyū boom.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2012

'The Amazing Spider-Man'

One telling scene in "The Amazing Spider-Man" is also the movie's defining moment. A high school English lit teacher explains to her class the premise of fiction and she gives it in three short words: "Who am I?" That's the question Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, struggles with in this reboot to the famed...
EDITORIALS
Jun 29, 2012

Tepco's self-justifying report

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on June 20 released its final report on the disaster at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Tepco stated that the main cause of the accidents was the enormous scale of the tsunami that hit the plant, saying that it was beyond its expectations.
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.
Reader Mail
Jun 28, 2012

Could be the time to take a walk

Regarding Michael Hoffman's June 24 column, "The doomsday cult of 9-to-5 depression": This 9-to-5 depression affects not only Japanese people. I'd gotten to the stage where I wanted to actually vomit in the morning if I had to face another day at my job.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

Expressions that lie between functionality and art

"Function Dysfunction" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto, brings together the ceramic works of three Americans: ceramicists Adam Silverman and Ani Kasten, and sculptor Alma Allen. Silverman, who felt that their works shared an aesthetic DNA, brought the three together, explaining that their pieces,...
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2012

Collusion on consumption tax hike

The Democratic Party of Japan together with the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito on Tuesday passed through the Lower House bills for the so-called unified reform of the tax and social security systems. In the voting for a bill to raise the consumption tax — a pet idea of Prime Minister Yoshihiko...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes