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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Apr 12, 2013

Cocktails with a fresh twist (literally)

Dressed in a crisp white jacket, white shirt and black tie, bartender Gen Yamamoto looks as though he has just emerged from a casino in a James Bond film.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Apr 9, 2013

British ambassador laments his two 'lost decades'

Tim Hitchens, the new British ambassador to Japan, has observed with his own eyes the country's economic transition since he first visited here as a teenager back in the 1970s.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 9, 2013

Rosy Fukushima health report faulted by experts

Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2013

LDP panel binds TOEFL to degrees

The Test of English as a Foreign Language will be needed to enter public universities and graduate from them if the LDP's educational reforms are formalized.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 8, 2013

The life and times of the destitute girl

I was one of those suckers who thought that the seifu (u653fu5e9c, government) might get it right this time.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2013

Return to South Korea thwarted by nationalism

A Korean-born U.S. citizen gets a rude awakening on nationalism when he returns to South Korea to launch a ministry at the president's invitation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 7, 2013

Shigeru Ban: 'People's architect' combines permanence and paper

Generally speaking, an architect's style is defined by particular forms or shapes. There's Frank Lloyd Wright's prominent horizontal lines, for instance; Le Corbusier's simple white boxes; or, more recently, the deliberately abstract masses of Frank Gehry — of Guggenheim Bilbao fame.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 6, 2013

Irrepressible Irishman promotes Japan culture

Humor may be the hardest genre to translate, but laughter speaks any language. Poet and literary translator Peter MacMillan's recent foray into visual art, "Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji," delights with wry whimsicality, employing mixed-media print-making to reveal a multicultural drollery.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 6, 2013

Who turns a company into a 'wonderful place to be'?

Kazuhiro Tsuga, president of Panasonic Corp., addressed his new recruits on Monday telling them that he hopes they will turn the company into "a wonderful place to be." President Akio Toyoda encouraged his recruits at Toyota Motor Corp. to exhibit "the strength seen in cherry blossoms that can persevere...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2013

Can China's new government end corruption?

The typical Chinese public servant today collects feudal wages, yet he can afford cars, homes, travel, luxury goods and a Harvard education for kids.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 5, 2013

Okinawa U.S. land return plan inked

Tokyo and Washington agree on a road map for the reversion of five U.S. military facilities in Okinawa south of the Kadena base and vow to accelerate the handover.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2013

To communicate in English, TOEFL is vital: LDP panel

English-language education at public schools should shift in emphasis to verbal communications skills, and for that purpose, universities must adopt the Test of English as a Foreign Language for entrance exams, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party's education reform panel said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Apr 4, 2013

Interest in final resting places never dies

High-rise cemeteries make it possible for the dearly departed to stay in the big city.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2013

Cooperation with Mongolia

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his visit to Ulan Bator on March 30 agreed with Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag and President Tsakhia Elbegdorj to promote bilateral cooperation in the fields of mineral resources development, trade relations and the environment. They also agreed to launch a trilateral...
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 4, 2013

Marubeni taps geothermal power as nuclear alternative

Marubeni Corp. is working on how to jump-start the geothermal industry and tap the heat that powers volcanoes as an alternative to nuclear reactors.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 3, 2013

Gun control held hostage by politics

Gun-control measures that once seemed destined to become law after the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, are in jeopardy amid a fierce lobbying campaign by firearms advocates.
BUSINESS / Economy
Apr 2, 2013

Nomura, Daiwa pick up most graduates in four years

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Daiwa Securities Group Inc. have hired more university graduates this spring than in the past four years, leading a resurgence in recruitment by Japanese brokerages as the outlook for the economy improves.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2013

When freedom to make laws is license to restrict freedom

Since the presumably rigged elections of December 2011, Russia's Parliament/president machine has been stamping human-rights-restricting and authorities-power-enhancing laws one after another.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2013

Working around others who work works better

Yahoo!'s new CEO recently created a fuss when she no longer let employees work from home. Is her edict a step backward or a boon for creativity?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2013

The 'eternal modern' gardens of Matsuo-taisha

When new buildings were constructed in 1971 at Matsuo-taisha in Kyoto, one of Japan's oldest shrines, the largely self-taught landscape master Mirei Shigemori was commissioned to create a series of gardens on the site.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 31, 2013

Last post: Japan's outdated model is dead; long live the emerging vision

As of today, Roger Pulvers takes leave of Counterpoint, for which he has written weekly since its inception on April 3, 2005. In his final three columns, he set out to consider in turn Japan in the past, present and future. This is the concluding part of that trilogy.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 30, 2013

Brazilian chief wields high-tech tools in battle to save tribe, forests

As a small boy in the early 1980s, Almir Surui hunted monkeys with a bow and arrow, wore a loincloth and struggled with Brazil's official language, Portuguese.
Japan Times
JAPAN / FORUM ON AFRICA-JAPAN RELATIONS
Mar 30, 2013

The evolution of Japan-Africa relations through TICAD

The fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) will be held in Yokohama from June 1 to 3 to discuss various issues regarding the continent with political and business leaders from around the world.
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2013

Elderly 3/11 nuke evacuee deaths spiked

The mortality rate of elderly nursing-care facility residents in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, jumped nearly 2.7 times after they evacuated the city in the days after the March 11, 2011, nuclear disaster, a study finds.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 27, 2013

Seibu rebuffs takeover bid by U.S. fund Cerberus

Seibu Holdings Inc. said Tuesday it opposes a takeover bid by its top shareholder, U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, because the move could undermine the railway and hotel operator's corporate value.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 26, 2013

Lessons from the cyber-attacks on South Korea

Japan seems ill-prepared for massive, simultaneous and physical disruption to critical infrastructures like last week's cyber-attacks on South Korea.

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