Search - article

 
 
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2013

The DPJ's obligation

Members of the No. 1 opposition party, DPJ, have a duty to check the moves of the Abe administration with regard to economic and and defense policies.
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2013

Abe's willpower for core values

Some Japan Times staff writers, at the expense of their journalistic integrity, seem to have a penchant for the same old partisan cliche in reporting on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as we see in the Jan. 29 front-page article "Abe opens Diet, skips hawkish rhetoric," and in previous articles that either...
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2013

Leave Japanese courses alone

Regarding the Jan. 30 Kyodo article "U.K. plan to limit Japanese worries language teachers": While Japanese could be considered a luxury item on the curriculum, ironically, the same label could also be applied to subjects such as art, music, drama, dance and even English, science and math!
Reader Mail
Feb 3, 2013

Questions about contamination

The Jan. 29 Kyodo article "Fukushima kids' thyroids said safe" indicates that radiation levels in the thyroids of 1-year-old kids living near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are "estimated to be less than 30 millisieverts in most cases," based on medical exams of 1,000 children. The story goes...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 3, 2013

U.S. to Abe: Collective self-defense off agenda

Washington does not want Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to bring up the issue of collective self-defense at the Japan-U.S. summit to be held later this month, diplomatic sources said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 2, 2013

Government says all single parents not created equal

A single mother finds that she doesn't qualify for a tax exemption because she was never married.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 2, 2013

'Cosplay' students promote Nagoya's highlights

Running away with a win against a Memphis team in disarray after trading away top scorer Rudy Gay, the Oklahoma City Thunder found a way to come unhinged, too.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture

The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Feb 1, 2013

Two sides to corporal punishment practices in Japan

The December suicide of an Osaka high school basketball team captain who had been physically punished by his coach cast a harsh light on corporal punishment in Japan, and this week's admission by the All Japan Judo Federation that Olympic female judoka had been physically abused and harassed by their...
WORLD
Feb 1, 2013

The quirky sex lives of barnacles

Mostly hermaphroditic, barnacles are famous for their genitalia — the longest in the animal kingdom, relative to size — which can change shape and size to fertilize neighboring barnacles. For the times when accessing a potential mate is too difficult, most barnacles rely on self-fertilization to...
Reader Mail
Jan 31, 2013

Retiring teachers deserve better

Shame on The Japan Times for implicitly joining in with the wholly unjustified criticism of teachers who have retired early to avoid cuts to their retirement allowance. The use of the word "dodge" in the Jan. 23 article titled "Teachers retire to dodge benefit cut" implies that teachers are doing something...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2013

A question of Chinese sovereignty

China's 'historic rights' claims in the South China Sea have prompted Southeast Asian nations to argue that China is flouting international law.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 28, 2013

Who'll govern the governor?

A high-ranking bureaucrat of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had this to say about new Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose: "Although he served as vice governor, it is not known whether he has the necessary political finesse. I wonder if he is capable of moving metropolitan politics forward."
Japan Times
WORLD
Jan 28, 2013

Feminists split over first lady

In the opening moments of her second turn at history, as Michelle Obama waved at celebrants along Pennsylvania Avenue, Americans clamored to see the first lady, who remains one of the most popular public figures in the country. In the most recent poll, 73 percent said they approve of the way she is handling...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 27, 2013

Farewell games in Japan usually teary affairs

There was a news item saying the New York Yankees were considering signing Hideki Matsui to a one-day contract so he can officially retire as a major leaguer with that club. The Jan. 10 Kyodo report quoted Yankees team co-owner Hal Steinbrenner as saying the team might also invite Matsui "to throw out...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 27, 2013

Time to stop nonsense on import rule, expand to 48-minute game

Formed as a six-team breakaway circuit from the old-guard JBL, the bj-league aimed to usher in a new era of pro basketball in Japan in 2005.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 26, 2013

No room for subtleties when laying off workers

Thanks to a feature that appeared on the front page of the Dec. 31 issue of the Asahi Shimbun, oidashi beya is the first topical neologism of 2013 if you don't count "Abenomics." It's not clear if the term, which translates as "expulsion room," was coined by the newspaper, but since then the blogosphere...
Reader Mail
Jan 26, 2013

How does coach avoid arrest?

Since I first heard of the physical abuse perpetrated against students by a basketball coach at Osaka's Sakuranomiya Senior High School, I've been waiting fruitlessly to hear of the coach's arrest on assault charges. I cannot for the life of me understand why this man is not being prosecuted.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 25, 2013

Aichi NPO helps the homeless land work and get off welfare

A program run by a nonprofit organization in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, to hire homeless people and help them get back on their feet is bearing fruit a year and a half after its inception.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jan 25, 2013

Snacking on squid guts and soybeans

Doritos and Budweiser, canapes and Champagne, jamon and Tempranillo — when it comes to happy hour, everyone has their favorite combination of booze and umami-infused treats.
Reader Mail
Jan 23, 2013

'Flyjin' demonstrated a reality

There is an old rule about judging people by their actions: Don't generalize. Generalizing may allow you to sound funny at first, but on second take, you may appear completely off the mark. Consider Emmanuelle Bodin (subject of the Jan. 16 article "Frenchwoman fired for leaving Japan during 3/11 nuclear...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / DAVOS SPECIAL 2013
Jan 23, 2013

Expert details Japan's 'seemingly' rightward shift

When the Liberal Democratic Party's Shinzo Abe became prime minister in December, some domestic and global media ran editorials labeling his appointment as the sign of Japan's swing to the right.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 22, 2013

Sisters are DIYing it for themselves

When you have a pink hammer, everything looks like a nail.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 21, 2013

Japan's leaders must see the need for sustaining a fiscal Big Bang

With Japan's stock market surging even before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unveiled his plans for economic stimulus, we would have expected the usual anti-stimulus critics to be silent, at least for a while. But no. Already we hear the usual complaints — more printing of money, more public debt, more...
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2013

Radiation results beggar belief

The Jan. 10 article "As radiation fears dwindle, so do checkups" has a Dr. Masaharu Tsubokura complaining that Fukushima residents have stopped coming in for additional body scans to gauge their exposure to radiation following the 3/11 nuclear plant disaster.
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2013

Deport the solo 'fly-jin' of 3/11

Regarding the Jan. 16 article "Frenchwoman fired for leaving Japan during nuclear crisis sues NHK": I know this will upset a lot of foreigners in Japan, but I fully agree with NHK's terminating the employment of Emmanuelle Bodin after she fled Japan during the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis in March...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Zen and the cross-cultural art of tree-climbing

In the upstairs meeting room of a camping lodge in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, two women and about 20 men walked slowly and intently in circles one rainy day last November. At the front of the room, a weathered and wiry Englishman intoned the sort of instructions a yoga aficionado would find familiar....
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2013

Coach may be just tip of iceberg

Regarding the Jan. 12/13 Kyodo article "Osaka basketball coach tries to justify physical discipline after beaten boy's suicide": Whether the student was struck one time, 10 times or 30 times does not make any difference. People with a mind-set like this teacher's have to be kept away from pupils.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 19, 2013

Rumors rife that Sony may unveil next-generation PS4 this summer

Speculation is growing that Sony Corp. plans to release a new version of its PlayStation game console in early summer following a recent remark by senior official Hiroshi Sakamoto during an interview with Chilean website emol.com.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat