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BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2012

Government foresees deflation end even though prices are still falling

The government has forecast an end to deflation even after a report this week showed the economy is still struggling to shake off more than a decade of falling prices.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2012

Daughter tormented into suicide, mom on truth quest

Fifteen years after her only child, Kasumi, killed herself at age 15, Midori Komori still hasn't received any apologies from the people who bullied her daughter and the high school she attended said no such abuse occurred.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 12, 2012

Seeking eternal youth in an aging society

Here's an idea: we all retire at 40.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Aug 11, 2012

Legislation's OK just start of long, rough road ahead

The countdown to raising the sales tax officially began Friday with the Diet passing the necessary legislation, but the move is just the start of a long road that still lies ahead.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2012

Opposition vote to oust Noda fails

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote Thursday, bringing him one step closer to achieving his goal of doubling the consumption tax.
COMMENTARY
Aug 8, 2012

Autopsies shine light on NFL's deadly problem

Are you ready for some American football? First, however, are you ready for some autopsies? The opening of the NFL training camps coincided with the closing of the investigation into the April suicide by gunshot of Ray Easterling, 62, an eight-season NFL safety in the 1970s.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2012

Love and marriage in North Korea

Imagine North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a tuxedo, waiting nervously at the altar (or shrine) of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father, Kim Jong Il. He beholds his future wife's face, anticipating his chance to kiss the bride. Of course, such an event can only be imagined in today's North Korea....
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2012

Wedding gift for the first couple of North Korea

I guess I am a sucker for old-fashioned romance. When I heard about the stunning marriage of Kim Jong Un, the young new leader of North Korea, to the lovely Ri Sol Ju, apparently a professional singer, I hurriedly buried the ideological hatchet and grabbed the latest BRIDES magazine to figure out what...
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 7, 2012

Olympic spirit pushes Murray to tennis glory

No one is insisting that the Olympic tennis tournament becomes an unofficial fifth Grand Slam once every four years. It is, however, the closest thing to a major tournament in 2012 away from the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and upcoming U.S. Open.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2012

Noda forges on as temperatures rise

Tokyo is in the dead of summer and if anything, things are only getting hotter in the political hub of Nagata-cho.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Aug 7, 2012

The size of your dog could depend on your landlord

A 53-year-old woman was recently arrested after she moved out of a 50-sq.-meter rental apartment in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, leaving behind 26 dogs. She hadn't paid her rent for some time and went missing in early June. By the time someone entered her apartment on July 3, one of the dogs was...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 6, 2012

Britain savors golden night on track

It was a glorious night for British athletics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 4, 2012

Cataclysmic circumstances lead to neko strike

Fed up with long working hours, minimal job security and paltry remuneration in Japan's depressed economy, maneki neko cats all over Japan are going on strike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2012

'7 Días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)'

Just last week this column trotted out the movie industry's defense — post-Colorado "Batman" shootings — that films don't influence actual behavior. Now along comes "7 Días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)," a raucous compendium film that features scene after simmering scene of people getting righteously...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2012

Kids' safety key worry in Fukushima

A year and half after the start of the nuclear crisis, many who attended the government's latest public hearing on energy policy in Fukushima on Wednesday still expressed concern about the impact of radiation on their children.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2012

'Nippon no Uso: Hodo Shashinka Fukushima Kikujiro 90-sai (Japan Lies)'

Caring too much can be an occupational hazard for journalists in disaster or war zones. The mantra of big media is objectivity, not advocacy. Also, the media spotlight keeps shifting, while victims are still suffering. You either move with it — or get left behind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2012

Hasegawa gets the perfect portrait

Making a documentary on a crusading 90-year-old photojournalist who is famously fearless and uncompromising is not for the timid. Saburo Hasegawa, who has been directing television documentaries on a range of social issues since the 1990s, was initially afraid that his subject, Kikujiro Fukushima, might...
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 2, 2012

Marial epitomizes the Olympic spirit

There are more than 10,000 athletes listed as participants in the London Olympics.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2012

Phelps most decorated Olympian in history

The first truly transcendent sports moment of the London Olympics took place around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2012

'The Dark Knight Rises'

Jean-Jacques Beineix, the director of "Diva" and "Betty Blue," once told me that "when fiction and reality collide, you have a problem." Beineix was talking about his 1992 film "IP5," in which beloved French actor Yves Montand dies from a heart attack in the film, and actually died from one just after...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 24, 2012

From baby massage to fostering pets, many options for volunteers

Reader M.S. is looking for volunteer opportunities in Tokyo that don't require fluent Japanese ability, as many — if not most — do. In particular, she'd like to work with animals.
OLYMPICS
Jul 23, 2012

Costas' criticism sparks discussion over tributes

Should the International Olympic Committee permit individuals or groups to make political statements during the Olympics?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

Written out of history: a female Edo master's story

The Printmaker's Daughter, by Katherine Govier. Harper Perennial, 2011, 512 pp., $14.99 (paperback) In this story of Katsushika Oei, the little- known daughter of the late Edo Period printmaker Hokusai, the author examines not only the constraints of politics and censorship under which artists worked,...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 20, 2012

The infamous queen of style

For fashion fans who harbor a love of vintage looks, "La Vie de Marie Antoinette" should prove an inspiration. Arranged in sections to reflect different aspects of her short but significant life, this exhibition charts the rise and fall of the infamous 18th-century Queen of France through portraits,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 19, 2012

√thumm "Mimoro"

Kansai-based trio √thumm's music doesn't just mix clashing styles together, but also touches on two cultural representations of Japan today. The group attracted attention around Kansai with two albums of maximalist techno-pop, futuristic numbers resembling the modern overload of Perfume, albeit without...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 19, 2012

Greeen Linez debut revisits Japan's City Pop summer jams of the past

Nostalgia is nothing new in popular music. A disco revival during the 1990s (think Deee-Lite), led to a renewed fascination with the 1980s during the 2000s (think Chromeo and a synth-pop boom) and that decade even started seeing a '90s revival toward the end of it.

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