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EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2012

Thinking over force realignment

Following a revision by Japan and the United States in early February of a 2006 agreement on the realignment of U.S. military forces in Japan, various issues have cropped up that the Diet must scrutinize. But discussions there have not progressed since the government avoids giving specific answers.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2012

Overseas experts urge Japan to create 'safety culture' in nuke power industry

Visiting overseas nuclear experts on Saturday urged Japan to create a culture of safety among its power companies and energy industry regulators, calling this the best way to avoid another nuclear disaster.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2012

National bicycle policy needed

Shizuoka Prefecture took a positive step forward in mid-February when it enacted revised traffic rules and opened new one-way bicycle lanes in Shizuoka City. Taking place on a larger scale than other pilot projects around the country, it should be a harbinger of improved bicycle policies throughout Japan....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

A 'stewpid' time to raise VAT

The International Monetary Fund has joined Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and leading politicians and bureaucrats in laying down a remorseless softening up barrage of facts, figures, argument and just plain determination that the country's consumption tax should rise as quickly as possible.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2012

Dangerous myth of China as a harmless tiger

Chinese dissident writers exiled to the West today get a very different response than Soviet writers received not so long ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Feb 21, 2012

Focus on 'exceptions' waters down abduction pact

For the attention of the Japanese government:
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Feb 21, 2012

Miso's moya moya

Dear Alice,
CULTURE / Books
Feb 19, 2012

Codebreaker who saved the U.S. Pacific fleet

JOE ROCHEFORT'S WAR: The Odyssey Of The Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto At Midway, By Elliot Carlson. Naval Institute, 2011, 616 Pp., $36.95 (hardcover) Spying on other nations has long been part of the global power game, but it has not always been considered proper diplomatic practice.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 19, 2012

Japan's indigenous Ainu, 'a different world'

AINU SPIRITS SINGING: The Living World of Chiri Yukie's Ainu Shinyoshu, By Sarah M. Strong. University Of Hawaii Press, 2011, 314 pp., $58.00 (hardcover) "In the past this spacious Hokkaido was our ancestors' world of freedom. Living with ease and pleasure in the manner of innocent babes in the embrace...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2012

'Afuro Tanaka (Afro Tanaka)'

Japanese comics have been translated into English and other languages by the hundreds, but overseas publishers have long overlooked one of the biggest local genres: gag manga. Their usual excuse is that Japanese humor, which relies heavily on untranslatable wordplay and cultural in-jokes, doesn't travel...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2012

Nuclear safety boss faults agency, utilities

Nuclear Safety Commission chief Haruki Madarame apologized Wednesday for mistakes and safety shortcomings that surfaced during the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and blamed them on bureaucrats and utilities that failed to heed calls for better disaster preparedness.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

In the garden of Shigemori's mind

The Zen gardens of Kyoto have attracted countless admirers and served as inspiration to many artists, designers and other creative people. Steve Jobs, for whom Zen Buddhism was an inspiration, praised Kyoto's gardens, and the minimalism of Zen aesthetics became a strong inspiration behind the design...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 16, 2012

In the garden of Shigemori's mind

The Zen gardens of Kyoto have attracted countless admirers and served as inspiration to many artists, designers and other creative people. Steve Jobs, for whom Zen Buddhism was an inspiration, praised Kyoto's gardens, and the minimalism of Zen aesthetics became a strong inspiration behind the design...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 15, 2012

Fukushima farming hard row to hoe

When Takahiro Nagakura set off for distant Okayama two years ago, his plan was to complete his degree at the prefecture's agricultural university and then return to Fukushima and work his family's peach orchard.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 12, 2012

A glint of copper hints at Fukiya's mining past

Sitting in sublime obscurity in a raised valley one hour by bus from Bitchu-Takahashi, Fukiya Furusato Mura in Okayama Prefecture must surely be one of Japan's most under-appreciated rural destinations. Mention the name even to Japanese travelers and you are likely to draw blank expressions.
EDITORIALS
Feb 12, 2012

Japan: failure or success?

A recent spate of articles in The New York Times comparing Japan's overall condition with America's was so welcome in Japan that the gist of the initial article was read out by a questioning lawmaker in the Diet.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2012

Americans seem driven to work more for less

Recently a friend confided over dinner that her job was "killing" her. I was surprised. She is a director of a midsize nonprofit that is doing citizen diplomacy work in the Middle East, and she has often remarked on how gratifying it is to be involved in a program that brings historical enemies face...
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2012

Less respect for credit rating agencies

Italian investigative authorities have started investigating credit rating agencies on suspicion of manipulating markets by issuing ratings without a solid basis. The investigation appears to be retaliatory action for the agencies' downgrading of bonds of European countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 3, 2012

Exam forces students to cram irrelevant facts

I have been studying academic juku (for-profit supplementary schooling) for many years and have visited over 50 individually operated juku throughout Japan.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2012

Hamilton: U.K. has lost sight of the public benefits of higher education

Professor Andrew Hamilton became the first vice chancellor of Oxford never to have been educated at the university when he took the job in 2009. He is English, educated at Exeter University and Cambridge, but for the previous 28 years had lived in America, the last 13 of them at Yale University, as professor...
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2012

Purpose of a higher education

Regarding the Jan. 23 article, "More crucial than English" (by Takamitsu Sawa): The question of why Japanese students' intellectual capacities are not developed has not been adequately addressed. When it comes to the humanities, Japanese students are discouraged from developing critical thinking skills....
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2012

A less ascetic word for 'monk'

There must be a better word to apply to some male adherents of Buddhism than "monk," as used, for example, in the Jan. 19 Kyodo article "Matchmaking service gives Buddhist monks a boost in dating market." If there isn't, then perhaps we ought to make one because, in English, "monk" denotes a man living...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 29, 2012

Behavioral patterns in the male

RECREATING JAPANESE MEN, edited by Sabine Fruhstuck and Anne Walthall. University of California Press, 2011. 309 pp., $26.95 (paper) Debate on the how, when and why of mankind's creation brims over mere academic study. Sabine Fruhstuck and Anne Walthall, professors of Modern Japanese Culture and History...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 29, 2012

'Stepfather Step'; 'Kiruto no Ie'; CM of the week: Nichii Gakkan

Replacing the historical drama "Mito Komon" in its Monday evening slot is a much different type of series, a "humorous mystery" called "Stepfather Step" (TBS, 8 p.m.), based on a novel by Miyuki Miyabe.

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