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COMMENTARY
Sep 14, 2010

Higher education is worse since policy switch in 1991

For the past two decades, the education ministry has worked hard to reform Japan's university system. In fiscal 1991, the ministry adopted the policy of giving priority to postgraduate programs, leading a number of national universities to change gakubu — traditional undergraduate-level entities such...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2010

Potash holds lessons for China on how to grow its economy

HONG KONG — The hostile takeover bid by Australia's BHP Billiton for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, Canada, is worthy of a case study by Harvard Business Review, but it is also a fascinating example of the adventures and misadventures, opportunities, and considerable failings of global capitalism at...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2010

Japan's future: prolonged malaise or muddling through?

"Japan's best days are behind it," or so the common wisdom goes, and by reading Tokyo-based academic Jeff Kingston's latest work, it is easy to see why.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 11, 2010

Flower designer's success blossomed under rising sun

The Nicolai Bergmann brand radiates upscale elegance, taking flower fashion to a new level. In addition to his famous floral designs — he revolutionized Tokyo's flower world in 2000 with his original Flower Boxes, a best-selling trend that landed his name in more than 500 publications in Japanese,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / LIVING IN LUXURY
Sep 10, 2010

Royal trappings grace Akasaka Guest House

People who visited the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, may have stepped into the old two-story Guest House, which stands behind the 40-story main hotel.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2010

Schools going back to the basics

When Mio Honzawa starts fifth grade next April, her textbooks will be thicker.
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2010

China corners vital market

In the race to build advanced industrial and military products, China has a key advantage: the world's biggest reserves of rare earth minerals that are essential to many of these products.
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2010

Bacterial assault on hospitals

Fifty-three patients at Teikyo University Hospital in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward have been infected with the multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter bacterium since August last year. Thirty-one of them died later of various causes, and nine of those deaths are believed to be directly attributable to the superbug....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 5, 2010

Masumi Kuwata: Pitching for change

Masumi Kuwata has spent most of his life in the spotlight of stardom and publicity.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2010

Fertility issue pregnant with discord

In 2004, Diet lawmaker Seiko Noda wrote a book titled "Watashi wa Umitai" ("I Want to Give Birth"), which chronicled her years of infertility treatments and the subsequent pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Two years later she ended her six-year relationship with fellow politician Yosuke Tsuruho, who...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2010

Coalition on the right track

The British coalition government, formed after the last election between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, has not only survived its first quarter in power but has launched some significant reforms that could change the way Britain is governed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 3, 2010

Korean artist Kim Siyeon opens house on personal struggle

For her first solo exhibition in Tokyo, Seoul-based artist Kim Siyeon brings her home to Gallery Foil in the form of photographs of installations that she created inside her house. Though she is known as an installation artist, the delicate nature of Kim's work and its location, which is an important...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2010

Kids find confidence in speech contest

The Children's International Speech Contest, held Saturday in Tokyo, was unique in that its participants also experienced beforehand various programs promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 31, 2010

Does Japan's affair with tuna mean loving it to extinction?

Japan is known as the biggest consumer of tuna. Be it raw for sushi or sashimi or fried, broiled or canned, tuna is an important element of the food culture.
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2010

Demand for autopsies reflects suspicions over causes of death

A vast majority of the public thinks more autopsies are necessary to determine if a death was due to foul play, according to a Cabinet Office crime survey released Thursday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 27, 2010

Health plan integrity

The health insurance plan introduced in fiscal 2008 for people at least 75 years old was unpopular at first because, in principle, premiums are withdrawn from people's pensions at the source. Nonetheless, the plan appears to have won popular acceptance for the most part.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2010

108 school judo class deaths but no charges, only silence

Yasuhiko Kobayashi's 15-year-old son had skipped judo practice.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 22, 2010

Rakuten's English- only policy endures close media scrutiny

Learn to speak English, or else!
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2010

Tattoo as art on human canvases

The human body becomes a canvas in the hands of tattoo artist Horiyoshi III. Each dot, each line is carefully engraved, until gradually it becomes a colorful masterpiece.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 21, 2010

Voice of the times bridges cultures for seven decades

Most of us would probably be happy to have a handful of memories to reminisce over in our later years, episodes from our youth we could run past our friends while hoping their eyes don't glaze over. Ichiro Urushibara, a British citizen who has spent 69 years in Japan, has enough memories and amusing...
JAPAN / JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Aug 20, 2010

Educators fret fate of nation's language

Last year, more than 10,000 people spoke out against the government's apparent disregard for Japanese-language education when it submitted a bill to effectively abolish the National Institute for Japanese Language.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 20, 2010

In search of society's true affluence

"When I was 40, my father died. When he died, he was working on a project for a children's campground on the island of Naoshima. When I returned from Tokyo to Okayama to lead the family company, I inherited the project. As I lived and worked with the locals, my thinking went through a 180-degree reversal....
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2010

Flickers of hope for nuke abolitionists

HIROSHIMA — In Hiroshima, this place where a fearful age was born one fiery instant 65 years ago, the Flame of Peace still flickers on, awaiting the day when the world is rid of nuclear weapons.

Longform

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