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COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 16, 2013

Rewriting history is unwise

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has appointed a Cabinet that, according to press reports, contains a number of ministers who want to rewrite the history of the 20th century. They, including the new minister of education, are reported as demanding the rescinding of the statement made in 1995 by former Prime...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Jan 15, 2013

Hall of Fame long overdue for another foreign member

Victor Starffin was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1960. Wally Yonamine was enshrined in 1994.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

Sign of the Financial Times: Will it sell independence?

Too many years ago, this young reporter was about to move from one of Britain's biggest newspaper groups to a paper with a daily sale of fewer than 200,000 copies. A hard-bitten veteran, who had spent years reporting for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph pleaded with me over farewell drinks not...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 14, 2013

Hit product lists laud the year's marketing successes

Toward the end of every year, Japan's print media and many business organizations look back on "hit products" whose successes helped define consumer spending over the previous 12 months.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 13, 2013

Magazines struggle to maintain relevance

The print edition of venerable U.S. weekly news magazine Newsweek is no more. From the Jan. 4 issue it relaunched as a digital-only publication.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2013

Failures of governance spawned the rape crisis

The shock waves from the pack-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in New Delhi continue to reverberate in India and around the world. The pathology of rape is not rooted in local culture. A nation does not rise in collective revulsion at normal but rather at unacceptable behavior.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Jan 11, 2013

Kabuki kicks off the new year

Audiences at the Asakusa Kokaido venue in Tokyo have been welcoming 2013 in with some high culture.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 10, 2013

Wasabi takes old sounds to a young audience

The members of Wasabi, a quartet who plays traditional Japanese instruments, are all used to fans and the politics of backstage meet-and-greets. However, they were surprised to see one particular fan after a recent 11 a.m. performance at a high school in Nara.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2013

Foreign nurse success story has message for Japan: Open up

The success story of Dewi Rachmawati may hold the key to coping with Japan's declining population and quickly aging society. The struggles the Indonesian nurse has endured during her four years living in the country are what the government must rapidly remedy.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2013

The dynasty-loving Asians

To the extent that culture matters in politics, the recent spate of leadership changes in Northeast Asia suggests that Asian societies are more tolerant — if not supportive — of dynastic succession.
EDITORIALS
Jan 5, 2013

A call for courage in 2013

There may be a temptation to coast through 2013. After all, we survived the end of the world last month, and if we can get through that, many people would like to believe that we have earned a respite. That do-nothing approach is probably the worst possible option. In truth, we have coasted for too long....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2013

Cleaning 'angels' reinforce positive image of Japanese workers

Train cleaning crews are the new heroes of Japanese commerce.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2013

Mac who would be governor says: Smile

Makoto Tonami was born in 1948 in Aichi Prefecture and graduated from the prestigious Kyoto University with a degree in agriculture. Upon graduation he went to work for trading house Itochu Corp., a job that would take him on business trips around the globe.
Reader Mail
Jan 3, 2013

Cost of gun 'freedom' too high

Regarding Robert J. Spitzer's Washington Post article that was published in The Japan Times on Dec. 26 under the headline "Five myths about U.S. gun control": Again we are on that old spinning wheel watching the United States convulse over another mass shooting at a school with young, innocent victims....
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2013

What's up with Toyama's police?

The Toyama prefectural police on Dec. 22 arrested a 54-year-old assistant police inspector, Mr. Takeshi Kano, on suspicion of murdering an elderly couple who had been his friends for more than 30 years, and of setting their residence afire in April 2010. He allegedly confessed to these heinous crimes....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jan 1, 2013

The year for non-Japanese in '12: a top 10

Back by popular demand, here is JBC's roundup of the top 10 human rights events that most affected non-Japanese (NJ) residents of Japan in 2012, in ascending order.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jan 1, 2013

The reasons behind India's alarming culture of sexual violence

Violence against Indian women is widespread and has deep roots. Here are some of the reasons behind the issue:
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 1, 2013

China's Muslims key to Arab investment

The praying and slaughtering begin every morning at sunrise. "Allahu akbar" intones the imam over each cow before it is strung up by its hooves and quartered.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 1, 2013

Myriad options for studying Japanese in the sticks

Reader JA is seeking a Japanese language school in the countryside here for his 18-year-old son.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Dec 31, 2012

Arabic calligraphy exhibition

An exhibition of Arabic calligraphy was held from Dec. 10 to 23 at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 30, 2012

As the new year approaches, Japan still reels from 2011

What a sad, sad country this is. What sad shape it's in, as this Year of the Dragon draws to a close. Economically, politically socially, individually, it is merely scraping by, surviving rather than living.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 30, 2012

The wonderful worlds of 100 waka

The scene: England, Boxing Day 2012. The archetypical Carters are relaxing after a cold turkey lunch (with bread sauce) and are watching the Royal Family's latest sonnets being read on the goggle-box. Time for a game!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / BEST OF 2012
Dec 28, 2012

Japan's female directors make a strong showing

Female Japanese directors were once like those rare species periodically discovered in Asian jungles and immediately labeled endangered. This year, however, in their highly individual ways, they made some of Japan's strongest, most ambitious films. By now the only thing endangered is local industry prejudice...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Dec 25, 2012

The year in quotes: 25 windows on the way things were in 2012

It was a year dominated by Japan's spats with its most powerful neighbors, China and South Korea, over tiny specks in the sea, and by national soul-searching over nuclear power and the calamity that struck Japan in March 2011. It ended with the stunning political resurrection of the Liberal Democratic...

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