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Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / GAME OF NUMBERS
Jul 4, 2013

LDP spin team hammers voters with 'Abenomics' mantra

The Upper House election will be a test of the economic strategies being pursued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition government — or so says his ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2013

Girl-group fans help push Japan music sales past U.S.

Ritsuhiko Tajima has about 100 CDs by his favorite band, girl group AKB48, many of them copies of the same disc.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2013

Finds raise toxic chemical suspicions at ex-Kadena site

The Okinawa Defense Bureau and the city of Okinawa uncover seven more barrels at a former U.S. base site that may have been used to hold toxic chemicals during the Vietnam War.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 3, 2013

Size, intensity of wildfires in U.S. increasing

Volatile weather patterns marked by shortened winters, stifling heat waves and prolonged droughts. New housing developments encroaching on fire-prone lands. Shrinking budgets for fire prevention measures.
Reader Mail
Jun 30, 2013

Labor market has been rigged

Regarding the June 25 article "Unpaid overtime excesses hit young": Many things need to change to reach a pluralistic society: the lack of political opposition, the abusive amakudari system (high-ranking government officials' "retiring" into lucrative private jobs), the excessive power of corporations,...
Reader Mail
Jun 30, 2013

Not quite as pretty as it seems

My partner works in an industry where they tend to work six days a week for 10-plus hours a day with no overtime, no holiday pay and no sick pay. She is a beautician. It's not pretty.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 30, 2013

Smartphones are killing the art of conversation

If our age is rich in anything, it is, one would think (wrongly), rich in things to talk about. How can anyone nowadays be at a loss for words? What excuse is there for awkward silence? The merest glance at a newspaper furnishes conversational fodder for a lifetime — reminding us, if anyone is in danger...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 29, 2013

Exploring Japan's ancient past through pilgrimage

I've been running pilgrimages in Japan since 1997. So far, I've run the Shikoku 88-Temple Pilgrimage, the Mount Hiei Kaihogyo route in Kyoto (of the Tendai-shu monks), and tens of other smaller pilgrimages in Japan. If you are a runner in Japan, you should be running pilgrimages. If you're a hiker, you...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 29, 2013

Charles Saatchi: art supremo with an image problem

When the art collector Charles Saatchi wants something, he knows how to set about getting it. Gallerists and curators are full of stories about the way he walks into an exhibition, fixes on the single best work of art on show and rushes toward it — in the words of one acquaintance, "like a heat-seeking...
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 28, 2013

Marc Rich, fugitive financier pardoned by Clinton, dies at 78

Marc Rich, a fugitive financier who made deals with shady international regimes and was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list before his controversial presidential pardon on Bill Clinton's final day in office in 2001, died Wednesday at a hospital in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was 78.
WORLD
Jun 28, 2013

Snowden had contempt for leakers

When he was working in the intelligence community in 2009, Edward Snowden, the U.S. National Security Agency contractor who passed top-secret documents to journalists, appears to have had nothing but disdain for those who leaked classified information, the newspapers that printed their revelations and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2013

July Live

Though you might be dreading July, with its sweltering heat and seasonal rain, the month makes up for it with a slew of exciting concerts. It's time to let loose — and pray the venues have air conditioning. Here's a selection of what July has in store.
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

Abe bears watching after July

I always look forward to Noriko Hama's columns as she has an adroit way of aiming her own "arrows" at the heart of any subject matter she chooses. She once again excels in her June 24 article, "Abe's rhetoric reveals a growth strategy aimed at global conquest." If any headline could cause Japan's neighbors...
Reader Mail
Jun 27, 2013

The only ethical energy option

Regarding the June 19 article "Meltdowns haven't killed anyone: LDP bigwig": Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Sanae Takaichi's comment that the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant "have not claimed the lives of any people," however technically accurate, was deservedly criticized...
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2013

Suntory ¥388 billion drinks IPO priced at low end

Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd. is set to raise as much as ¥388.1 billion in Japan's biggest initial public offering this year after pricing near the low end of its range as volatile markets curbed demand.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 26, 2013

Golden Kings star McHenry shined as league's top player in 2012-13

As the summer begins, with the regular-season and playoff memories now neatly stored in our brains, it's time to highlight top individuals from the bj-league's eighth season.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

James Gandolfini and the art of 'The Sopranos'

James Gandolfini's legacy will remain a cascade of popular television programs that people who search for quality aren't embarrassed about to watch and debate.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 25, 2013

Day traders creating, exploiting volatility

Sitting before a cluster of computer screens in an apartment with the drapes shut, it took Naoki Murakami seconds to make $3,500 betting $1 million that Tokyo Electric Power Co. shares would fall a fraction of a percent.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Jun 24, 2013

State photo-ID databases become troves for police

The faces of more than 120 million people are in searchable photo databases that state officials assembled to prevent driver's license fraud but that increasingly are used by police to identify suspects, accomplices and even innocent bystanders in a wide range of criminal investigations.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
Reader Mail
Jun 23, 2013

Mild wisecrack in comparison

On behalf of Christians everywhere, I apologize to Drusilla de Lanor for making her think she has to "walk on eggshells" around us. I share her view that Brian Redmond overreacted to Amy Chavez's "that guy on the cross" quip, although not for the same reason. While De Lanor thinks Redmond's letter was...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 22, 2013

Vienna embraces the culture of the bicycle

On the Praterstern, where cars, buses and trams converge from several busy streets on a road that loops around Vienna's central train station, a new digital counter stands under the eye of the Riesenrad Ferris wheel.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 22, 2013

Tourism goal within reach, JTA chief says

The rapid drop in the yen helped lure a record 3.17 million tourists to Japan from January to April, but achieving the government's goal of 10 million this year will require more work, Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Norifumi Ide said.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 21, 2013

Councilors snub bill on vote gap fix

In an act of protest, the opposition-controlled House of Councilors refuses to vote on a bill to rectify the unconstitutional vote-value disparity in the House of Representatives and sends it back to the lower chamber.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2013

Strontium in groundwater at No. 1 soars

Groundwater contaminated with highly radioactive substances is detected from a monitoring well just 27 meters from the seashore within the compound of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jun 18, 2013

Democracy, interrupted: How local voices were silenced in Tokyo's first referendum

On Sunday, May 26, something quite remarkable happened in Kodaira city, western Tokyo: Over 50,000 citizens voted in Tokyo's very first local referendum (jūmin tōhyō) on the issue of whether a 50-year-old plan to construct a road should be reviewed or not.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 18, 2013

Cruise missile threat in Asia

Cruise missiles that are difficult to detect, increasingly fast and capable of carrying nuclear warheads are raising the risk of catastrophic conflict in Asia.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jun 18, 2013

Okigusuri

Dear Alice,

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