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COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2010

Getting a leg up on health care

LONDON — The signature by U.S. President Barack Obama of his health care bill was welcomed by most people in Britain and Europe. Many thought that the provision of health care for those not covered by insurance or whose insurance could not be renewed because of an existing health condition was long...
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2010

Alarm over investigation failures

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and the National Police Agency on April 1 made public the results of their separate internal reviews of the investigations that led to the wrongful conviction of Mr. Toshikazu Sugaya. Mr. Sugaya served 17 1/2 years of a life sentence for the May 1990 murder of a...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 5, 2010

Japan by the numbers (04.05.10)

Japan shares its thoughts on attractive women, virtual hanami and Hatoyama's inability to solve the Futenma issue.
COMMENTARY
Apr 5, 2010

No fast-track education in Japan

It's back to school in Japan, and back to the perennial questions:
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2010

New Minamata compensation

More than 2,000 unrecognized victims of Minamata disease who had filed damages lawsuits against Chisso Corp. and the central and Kumamoto prefectural governments reached basic agreements with the defendants March 29 to settle the lawsuits under a court-mediated plan. Each unrecognized victim will receive...
Reader Mail
Apr 4, 2010

No excuse for wasting food stocks

I agree with the March 24 editorial "Japan must change tune on tuna." A few years ago a sushi bar in Osaka boasted on television about the "freshness" of its sushi. If the sushi was not sold in 40 minutes, it was put on the rotating conveyor. Was it thrown away after that if it didn't sell soon? I felt...
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2010

Hyping a failed investigation

Fifteen years have passed since the March 30, 1995, shooting attack on Mr. Takaji Kunimatsu, then head of the National Police Agency, outside his Tokyo home. As the statute of limitations on the case has expired without any indictment, the Metropolitan Police Department's action on the day that the case...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 4, 2010

Warming to Ryukyu culture

The air is stifling in the cement interior of the Ishikawa Dome, despite the sides being open to the weather. I shift my limbs, in danger of losing circulation on the unforgiving benches, while my right arm furiously works my paper program as a fan in a desperate effort to gain respite from the Okinawan...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 4, 2010

Worldview colored by blood

A truly international thriller, "The Man From Beijing" moves from a hamlet in Sweden to China, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, with Copenhagen and London thrown into the mix. The novel also moves in time, from the present day back to the China and U.S. of the 1860s, where it is concerned with the travels and...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 2, 2010

The Mujirushi house: Fans finally get total immersion

Fans of Mujirushi can now live in the no-nonsense, customizable house that Muji built. Simple functionality will cost you, though.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 2, 2010

Tools you can trust for the perfect hanami

Cherry-blossom viewing parties don't always go as planned but new mobile apps reduce the risk of a hanami fail.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 2, 2010

Albirex look to solidify third seed for playoffs

Think of a 52-game basketball season as a series of 40-minute examinations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 2, 2010

Lights, camera, Sakanaction!

"I hope foreign listeners can persevere with Japanese music," laughs bespectacled musician Ichiro Yamaguchi. "Sure, there's a lot of crap music here, but there's a lot of good stuff, too. Intelligent music is in the minority now, but I believe it will become mainstream in the future."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'District 9'

In the immortal words of fictional rock stars Spinal Tap, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Further proof of this dictum comes this month from sci-fi flick "District 9," a South-African production featuring the talents of New Zealand's WETA digital effects studio and produced by Peter...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 2, 2010

Spring vegetables feature at open-air market

Look hard enough at the supermarket shelves today and you may find some obscure vegetables that you will hardly see at other times of the year. Whether it be taranome (shoots of Aralia elata, known also as the Japanese angelica-tree), urui (the young leaves of a plantain lily), or kogomi (the young shoots...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'The Wolfman'

"The Wolfman" stars Benicio Del Toro, which normally means I would readily suffer pain and humiliation and even demonstrate some nonexistent rock- climbing skills if need be, just to see my beloved. It's a lonely quest in Japan, where Del Toro doesn't have quite the following he deserves: He's too craggy,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 2, 2010

Cost-cutting brings classics to the masses

"Rather than managing an opera house, I wanted to create a 'structure' for a new event," says French producer Rene Martin in a book published in Japan last month titled "How a Classical Music Festival Gathered 1 Million People."
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2010

Chinese consortium bids to purchase Tokyo Tower

When Japan changes from analog to terrestrial digital TV broadcasting from July 24, 2011, the Tokyo Sky Tree, now under construction in Tokyo's Sumida Ward, will be the source of these transmissions for the Greater Kanto area. One big question that has remained unanswered up to now is what will become...
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2010

The single-currency disease

It seems only yesterday that leading Japanese industrialists who had heavy (and very welcome) investments in the United Kingdom were calling for the pound to merge with the euro in one grand continental currency.

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?