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Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2009

Immigration buoys the economy

Regarding Hiroaki Sato's Nov. 29 article, "The warring mind-sets on U.S. immigration": Thanks to immigration, the population of the United States continues to grow, and due to the influx of young and not-so-young blood, the economy is more dynamic than stagnant.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 5, 2009

I'm a gaijin — just another guy in jeans

An editor once asked why I use the masculine pronoun "he," instead of the less sexist "he or she" when referring to people of both genders in the same sentence. Despite having grown up in what is now called the second wave of feminism, from the early '60s to late '80s, I still never quite made the change...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 5, 2009

I'm a gaijin — just another guy in jeans

An editor once asked why I use the masculine pronoun "he," instead of the less sexist "he or she" when referring to people of both genders in the same sentence. Despite having grown up in what is now called the second wave of feminism, from the early '60s to late '80s, I still never quite made the change...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2009

Pachinko maker pushes for legalization of casinos

SINGAPORE — The government lacks the will to legalize casinos and let the industry compensate for declining tax revenue amid deflation, according to the head of pachinko maker Universal Entertainment Corp.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 1, 2009

Local vote for foreign residents: time ripe?

Permanent foreign residents of Japan may finally face a realistic chance of being granted local-level suffrage under the administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan, which has signaled a willingness to pursue such rights.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 1, 2009

A level playing field for immigrants

For the first time in Japan's postwar history, we have a viable opposition party in power — one that might stick around long enough to make some new policies stick. In my last column for 2009, let me suggest how the Democratic Party of Japan could make life easier for Japan's residents, regardless...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2009

Don't be like U.S.: Michael Moore

American movie director Michael Moore came to Japan for the first time Monday to plug his new movie "Capitalism: A Love Story" and to urge the country not to follow the path taken by the United States, where he says the gap between rich and poor is extreme.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2009

Liberal ticket to utopia unlikely

Regarding Charles G. Wilt's Nov. 19 letter, "Conservatives had their chance": As an American commenting on Japanese politics, I don't pretend to know much about this subject, but I do know this: I agree that President Barack Obama has done his country a service by mentioning those who suffered from the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2009

LDP calls Hatoyama to account

Revelations that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama received ¥900 million from his mother — allegedly as a loan — has put the Democratic Party of Japan on the defensive, as opposition parties, the ex-long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in particular, seek to grill the fledgling administration over the...
BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2009

Exporters face 'breaking point' over strong yen

Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. are among Japanese exporters that may miss their forecasts as the yen strengthens more than they anticipated, eroding their earnings from televisions and cars sold overseas, investors said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Nov 27, 2009

Society's whiskies hit the high notes

I've found a new whisky to love. It's a 26-year-old single malt from Hokkaido's Yoichi distillery. It's got oak and a gentle, sweet smokiness, a touch of leather, cherries, toasted almonds and I'm just making this up now, because after "oaky" and "a bit smoky," I ran out of vocabulary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2009

'Black Gaisha ni Tsutometerundaga mo Ore wa Genkai Kamo Shirenai'

Films about Japanese organization men, from bureaucrats to salarymen, have long broadly divided into two categories — the serious ones, that portray work life as a sort of holy war, fought by loyal, self-sacrificing blue-suited soldiers, and the comic, whose characters range from pompous idiots to...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 26, 2009

Taiyaki: the people's choice during hard times

Business would appear to be good for vendors of taiyaki, the cheap, sweet street food. And this isn't Japan's first taiyaki boom.
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2009

Worries about deflation

In its economic assessment for November, the government announced that the Japanese economy is in a state of mild deflation — the first time since June 2006 that the monthly report has referred to deflation. The very mention of it indicates the government's sense of crisis over a possible rise in unemployment...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2009

An able, nonpolitical civil service

LONDON — In Britain and Japan, civil servants are supposed to be nonpolitical and to give unbiased advice. But their independence is threatened by some politicians who want posts to be filled by what Margaret Thatcher used to call "one of us" — people who share the same aspirations as the governing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2009

Southeast Asian economies look to return to growth in 2010

Southeast Asian economies hit hard by the global crisis expect to return to positive growth in 2010 as signs of recovery started to emerge in recent months following massive government stimulus measures, veteran journalists from the region told a recent symposium.
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2009

Two smart guys trying to figure it all out

LOS ANGELES — The two looked over the precipice and gasped at the steepness of the drop. They looked down at a desert of dashed hopes and old skeletons, scraping the bottom of the canyon.
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2009

Deflation concern rises even as growth quickens

The acceleration of the economy to its fastest pace of growth in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and services that threatens to temper the recovery.
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2009

Strengthen budget scrutiny

The Board of Audit has found that government offices and central government-funded corporations improperly spent or handled ¥236.45 billion in public money in 717 cases in fiscal 2008 — a record amount and nearly double the ¥125.36 billion in fiscal 2007. Some ¥12.3 billion in 593 cases was spent...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 17, 2009

Showbiz means to an end, not goal

Chuck Wilson, 63, is a fitness trainer. But he was — and arguably still is — far more famous as a funny foreigner who speaks in a defiantly casual and blunt manner to TV personality bigwigs.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2009

Transparent universities

All Japanese universities may soon be required to provide students with key statistics about their employment and dropout rates and other quantifiable facts, if a new proposal is accepted by the Central Council for Education. The list of items to publicly divulge is divided into five areas the education...
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2009

Teens get funny

Teenagers always think their jokes are funny, but are they? Apparently, at least one is — from a first-year high school student of Hyogo Prefecture, Yugo Sagawa, who won the first-ever comedy contest for high school students. A panel of judges from the Kansai Comic Scriptwriter Association chose Sagawa's...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?