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JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 30, 2011

Tax advocate must seek unity, opposition support

Newly elected Democratic Party of Japan President Yoshihiko Noda has to hit the ground running and quickly address such daunting issues as unifying his party's warring factions and winning the opposition's cooperation in rebuilding the devastated northeast.
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2011

Mr. Biden goes to Asia

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden concluded a brief three-country tour of Asia that took him to China, Mongolia and Japan. While there is always some trepidation when Mr. Biden travels — while he is a genuine foreign policy expert, he has a tendency to make off-the-cuff remarks that get him in trouble...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2011

Texas governor pushes EU-style federalism

You wouldn't think that the governor of Texas, the most conservative of the viable candidates in the Republican presidential field, would want to make the United States more like Europe. Unless, of course, you have read Rick Perry's book.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 29, 2011

The feudal lords of power

The inherently arrogant nature of the electric power industry in Japan came to light recently when Kyushu Electric Power Co. tried to influence a public hearing on whether to allow the company to resume operation of its Genkai nuclear power stations in Saga Prefecture. Kyushu Electric urged its employees...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2011

Budget repair and liberal defiance

The residues of liberalism's Wisconsin Woodstock — 1960s radicalism redux: operatic lamentations, theatrical demonstrations and electoral futilities — are words of plaintive defiance painted on sidewalks around the state capitol.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2011

Palestinian state must field Israeli concerns

Israelis and Palestinians are preparing for a showdown at the United Nations in September, when the Palestinian leadership will ask for recognition of a Palestinian state within the borders that existed before the Six Day War in 1967 (when Israel seized control of Jordanian-occupied territory).
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2011

Tragic adult behavior on river

Regarding the Aug. 19 Kyodo article "Trio still missing in boat sinking": I know this will probably conflict with the knee-jerk reaction that most people have to this tragedy (on the Tenryu River in Shizuoka Prefecture), but I do not lay blame on the tour company or the boat skippers. I believe it falls...
EDITORIALS
Aug 28, 2011

The future of publishing

Last year, with the arrival and immediate success of the iPad in Japan, expectations were raised for the future of e-books in Japan. According to the latest figures (from Impress R&D), in fiscal 2010, sales of e-books increased 13 percent over the previous year to some ¥65 billion.
BASKETBALL
Aug 28, 2011

St. John's alum Burrell joins B-Corsairs

Former St. John's forward Justin Burrell, the Big East Conference's 2011 Sixth Man of the Year, will play for the bj-league's Yokohama B-Corsairs during their inaugural season, according to published reports.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 28, 2011

Fame may be fleeting, but warm memories of Miyoshi Umeki live on

Aug. 28 is the fourth anniversary of the passing of a woman who was an icon in both Japan and the United States. Yet her death in 2007 was barely noted in this, her home country, despite her meteoric rise to stardom in America and the fact that she remains the only East Asian to have received an Academy...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 28, 2011

Star's exit shows it's not what you know — but who

If you asked anyone in the world with access to any sort of media what last week's big news story was, they would probably say Libya. If you asked the same question of similarly connected people in Japan, they would probably say the retirement of comedian Shinsuke Shimada. The fall of Tripoli didn't...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 27, 2011

Summertime's biggest fans

"The first time I went to see a fan dance . . ."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 27, 2011

Mask maker keeping Shimane tradition alive

Hanging on the walls of Jake Davies' home are around 20 artifacts that seem at odds with the idyllic village in Sakurae, Shimane Prefecture where his rustic abode is set.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2011

Ending famine in East Africa

Acorollary of Murphy's law states, "Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse." Unfortunately, that statement aptly sums up the situation in East Africa — and in particular southern Somalia — which is caught in the clutches of a deadly famine.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 27, 2011

Aichi training medical interpreters for foreigners

The Aichi Prefectural Government is running a project to train medical interpreters in English, Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish to help improve communication between foreign patients and doctors.
BUSINESS
Aug 27, 2011

Honda's tunnel takes wind from rivals' sails

Honda Motor Co. is making $355 million worth of upgrades at plants in Ohio where it opened its first U.S. wind tunnel in 2010, seeking productivity and fuel-economy gains for models designed and built in North America.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2011

The DPJ face of Obama perplexes Japanese voters

The Aug. 5 edition of The Economist caricatured the U.S. president as mimicking Japan's "absentee" Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who seems content to "lead from behind the crowd" and who is at a loss about what to do to end Japan's political and economic paralysis, even as corporations and ordinary people...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 26, 2011

Drunken dance to hit Tokyo

The Koenji district in the west of Tokyo is known for used-clothing stores and record shops — the perfect spot for any music lover to settle down in.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 26, 2011

Tokyo Jazz Festival plays to a plethora of tastes

Jazz is always progressing. When the first jazz cafes began appearing in Yokohama around 100 years ago, nobody could have imagined the world they'd be a part of. Bebop and blues, tap dancers and turntables — the essential ingredients of the genre have evolved, and that is the main focus of the Tokyo...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 26, 2011

Five myths about Mormonism

The campaigns by Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman Jr. for the Republican presidential nomination, along with the popular and profane Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon," are putting Mormons in the public eye. But common caricatures — not to mention some of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2011

Spooked consumers snapping up cheap Geiger counters

Geiger counter manufacturers and retailers are offering more affordable models to cash in on continued consumer radiation fears six months into the Fukushima triple meltdown crisis.
Reader Mail
Aug 25, 2011

Imagine a more positive future

Regarding Roger Pulvers' Aug. 21 Counterpoint article, "Should wartime and peace allow such different attitudes to murder?": It is sad that many acts are glorified when they are so similar to certain others that are not glorified. Our portrayal of historical incidents is much like advertisements in that...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji