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Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 3, 2020

Aichi schools' field trip plans upended by spread of COVID-19

As the number of COVID-19 infections surge, especially in the Tokyo metropolitan area, many junior high schools in Aichi Prefecture have been forced to change their school trip schedules, which are typically held in the spring with third-year students traveling to the Kanto region, or other destinations....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Apr 3, 2020

Iwate 3/11 survivors face isolation as wait to leave makeshift houses drags on

About 40 households who survived the March 2011 earthquakes and tsunami in the coastal areas of Iwate Prefecture are still stuck in makeshift housing, waiting to move into new homes.
Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 1, 2020

Over half of Americans are postponing their weddings as industry reels

One of the last weddings performed in public in Las Vegas was on St. Patrick’s Day. The groom wore a dark suit. The bride wore a rockabilly-style black halter dress. The minister was Slash from Guns N’ Roses — or, rather, a licensed officiant performing as the shaggy-maned, top-hatted guitarist....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 1, 2020

Meet the expat comedians who keep Tokyo smiling

Probably the biggest paradox of stand-up comedy is that while there are no schools of humor — no Bachelor of Laughs degree, not even a “funny” skill on Linkedin to endorse your friend for — stand-up comedians are out there in good numbers. Even in Tokyo, where speaking English can be a struggle,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Mar 28, 2020

Okinawa sees fall in foreign visitors amid pandemic

Senagajima Umikaji Terrace, a Mediterranean-esque shopping mall located near the west coast of Senaga Island in Okinawa Prefecture, usually sees crowds of tourists and lines of buses and rentals cars. Starting in around mid-February this year, however, the number of tour group from overseas has sharply...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Mar 27, 2020

Kagura dance winning over young women

Kagura, a form of Shinto theatrical dance, is increasingly winning the hearts of young women in Shimane Prefecture, carving out a new fan base in the traditionally male-dominated music ritual that is grappling with a shortage of successors.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 27, 2020

Fukui looks back at prefecture’s first nuclear reactor

Japan’s first commercial light-water nuclear reactor started operations in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, on March 14, 1970.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 27, 2020

Squarepusher speaks up for a little human kindness

In 2016, shortly after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Tom Jenkinson released a plaintive protest song under his Squarepusher alias, titled “MIDI Sans Frontieres.” Though he’s better known for maximalist explosions of breakbeats, hyperactive acid synths and fusion-jazz frippery,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 26, 2020

'Mishima: The Last Debate': Careful revival of a battle of wits

It was the title match of the decade: the rumble in the academic jungle. On May 13, 1969, literary titan Yukio Mishima strutted onstage in front of a 1,000-strong audience at the University of Tokyo to debate with representatives of the All Campus Joint Struggle Committee, otherwise known as Zenkyoto....
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Mar 23, 2020

JOC chief Yasuhiro Yamashita advocates shorter postponement for athletes

As the International Olympic Committee begins considering a potential postponement of the Tokyo Olympics amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita told reporters on Monday night that the organization would accept such an adjournment if it were a decision to protect...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2020

Facebook says bug mistook legitimate news stories for spam

Facebook Inc. said a filter for combating spam on the social network was beset by a bug that mistakenly eliminated legitimate news stories and other posts, miscategorizing them as content that violates its rules.
Japan Times
Special Supplements
Mar 10, 2020

Workshops give students chance to pitch sustainable products

On Feb. 19 and 20, throngs of people descended on Yokohama to attend the Sustainable Brands 2020 convention at Pacifico Yokohama.
Japan Times
GLOBAL MEDIA POST / Southwestern USA report 2020
Mar 9, 2020

New Mexico’s free soft landing program helps foreign SMEs enter the US

While many large foreign companies have the resources to hire local lawyers, in-house experts and site selection consultants to help them navigate America’s complex legal and regulatory structure, many foreign small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) do not have access to the necessary support that allows...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 7, 2020

YouTube content that attempts to find real Japanese opinions

A lot has changed over the past decade insofar as Japanese content on YouTube is concerned, with creators moving away from uploads that simply record personal experiences to posts that give viewers real insight into the lives and opinions of Japanese people.   
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 1, 2020

The persecution and lonely death of a Uyghur scholar

How Japanese supporters worked to secure the freedom of imprisoned Uighur scholar Tohti Tunyaz is a story worth telling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 29, 2020

Kansai businesses suffer as COVID-19 alarm hurts tourism

The Japanese expression "kankodori ga naku" (literally, "the cuckoo sings") is frequently used to describe a business slump.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 27, 2020

Schools challenged to teach climate change as students join Greta Thunberg's strikes

Dozens of students packed onto a boat docked in a flood-prone area of Bangladesh listen closely to a lesson highlighting the natural life of the rivers around them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hokkaido
Feb 21, 2020

After Hokkaido backcountry skiing deaths, experts call for enforcing 'Niseko Rules'

Following two cases of backcountry skiers being killed by avalanches in Hokkaido since the beginning of this year, safety experts in the prefecture are working to fully enforce the so-called Niseko Rules to keep skiers safe.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 21, 2020

Amid labor crunch, Japan firms seek to win over students' moms and dads

Earlier this month, Copro-Engineered Co., a Nagoya-based firm specializing in the staffing of construction engineers, hosted a party at a Nagoya hotel for students who are expected to join the firm after graduating from university in spring — and their parents.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 19, 2020

Changing attitudes, not regulations, is the key to Japan's future

There is little indication that the Japanese public will change and allow the reforms required to put Japan's economy on a more stable footing and facilitate growth.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 17, 2020

A new place for Tokyo on the international stage

The problems of international relations and foreign policy are too great to be left to governments alone.
Japan Times
SATOYAMA CONSORTIUM
Feb 16, 2020

City events raise environmental awareness

Located on the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan's main island, Honshu, the city of Mutsu — with a population of about 57,000 — has been making constant efforts to keep the city attractive for both residents and visitors.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / The Big Questions
Feb 16, 2020

Long road ahead in push for globalized education

From the economic boom of the '70s and '80s to the collapse of the bubble economy and the ensuing 'lost decade,' Bruce Stronach — Dean of Temple University Japan (TUJ) — has witnessed Japan undergo several significant transformations.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Feb 15, 2020

COVID-19 reveals fractured moral impulse of social media

The outbreak of a new coronavirus in China, now officially named COVID-19, has sparked plenty of concern online — some valid, others more hyperbolic in nature. Like many global events in the social media age, the outbreak has also resulted in no shortage of fake news and racism. Both elements have...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Hiroshima
Feb 10, 2020

Nuclear energy exhibit to be turned into clinic for doctor-hungry Yamaguchi town

In an unusual move, a nuclear power exhibition facility in a small town in Yamaguchi Prefecture, which has been seeing a steady decline in the number of visitors in recent years, will reopen as a medical clinic when a new doctor starts work there in April.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Feb 10, 2020

Rediscovery of study on Nagasaki atomic bomb blast spotlights pioneering work by Kamekichi Sugimoto

A comparative study report on the development of child survivors of atomic blasts and those unexposed to radiation by the first chair of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors Council, Kamekichi Sugimoto, who died in 1979 at 77, has been discovered in the city of Nagasaki. The documents were retrieved from...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Feb 10, 2020

Aichi students send Hanshin quake-linked sunflowers to disaster-hit areas

Sunflowers that students in Aichi Prefecture cultivated from seeds originally grown at the home of a 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake victim were displayed during a memorial ceremony on Jan. 17, marking the 25th anniversary of the disaster.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2020

Tokyo Olympics organizers 'extremely worried' that coronavirus may hit games

Before, the main concern of the organizers' working group in the Diet was Japan's continuing problem with rubella and measles. Now it's the new coronavirus.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 7, 2020

Chinese rage over death of doctor who raised alarm over coronavirus

A Chinese doctor who issued an early warning about the coronavirus outbreak before it was officially recognized died of the virus on Friday, triggering a wave of public mourning and rare expressions of anger towards the government online.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Feb 6, 2020

Yogendra 'Yogi' Puranik: The first Indian voice in Tokyo politics

After seeing miscommunication and bullying firsthand, Yogendra 'Yogi' Puranik decided to stand up and do something about it. Now, as a politician, he hopes to be a bridge between two communities.

Longform

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