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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2012

Don't confuse mental illness with evil incarnate

As a baby reporter in Texas, I covered what we euphemistically called mental health services in the state. These "services," reserved for the dangerously ill, involved brief, groggy hospital stays followed up with a handshake, script for enough pills to stun a moose, and best wishes: See you soon!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012

Seasonality, internal awareness

"Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature and the Arts" (Columbia University Press) by Haruo Shirane. The whole seasonal consciousness of Japan, so meticulously considered and observed, is an intangible cultural tradition, though it has a certain physical embodiment in saijiki, the...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 23, 2012

Beware the nuclear village as it readies to rear-end docile Japan again

If you remember the Pinto, dear reader, then you may be as old as the hills — or at least as old as I am.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE YEAR IN BOOKS
Dec 23, 2012

Four aspects of Japan's history

"Oh, what happy people they must have been!" Thus Yukie Chiri (1903-22), reflecting on the pristine past of her people, the Ainu of southwestern Hokkaido. "Ainu Spirits Singing" (University of Hawaii Press) by Sarah Strong is an elegy to a lost time and an almost lost culture, seen largely through Chiri's...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2012

Inose says his charges must 'sell' Tokyo goals

Metropolitan government employees need to improve their ability to promote the capital's services so they can serve residents better and gain their support for hosting the 2020 Summer Olympics, newly elected Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 21, 2012

Linchpin for Thai amnesty — or more violence

Last week the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) decided to press murder charges against former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his deputy Suthep Thaugsuban in connection with their role in a military crackdown against anti-government red-shirt protesters during April and May of 2010....
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 21, 2012

Big Pacific shark sanctuaries created

French Polynesia and the Cook Islands have created adjacent shark sanctuaries spanning roughly 6.7 million sq. km of ocean, a move that reflects a growing trend to protect sharks worldwide and more than doubles the area now off-limits to any shark fishing.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2012

With LDP swollen, will faction rivalries return?

With the Liberal Democratic Party suddenly doubling its numbers in the Lower House thanks to its landslide win, concerns have already emerged that Shinzo Abe won't be able to control this throng after he becomes prime minister next week.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Dec 19, 2012

'Secrets of India' seen in manga

The inaugural publication ceremony of a manga comic book titled "Secrets of India" was held at the auditorium of the Indian Embassy in Tokyo on Dec. 14.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 18, 2012

Stop thinking — the test is about to start

Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Dec 18, 2012

Eagles need new addition Jones' game to match considerable star power

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' official announcement of the signing of former MLB star Andruw Jones signals the start of a period that will be remembered either for its great success or abject failure.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 16, 2012

Japan loses its cool as South Korea heats up

Last month, a nationwide survey of 3,000 people by the Cabinet office found that the percentage of Japanese who do not view South Korea on friendly terms rose to 59 percent, up by 23.7 points from 2011. The sharply negative shift appeared to reverse over a decade of warming relations between the two...
Reader Mail
Dec 16, 2012

Who cares for national treasures?

Regarding the Dec. 8 article "In era of skyscrapers, group lobbies to keep Tokyo's traditional buildings": Sumiko Enbutsu should be considered a national living treasure! She understands that the soul of a nation is in its architectural heritage. To tear down a landmark historical building to make room...
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2012

Press and Internet freedom

The exposure of the scandalous behavior of the popular press in Britain in hacking into the telephones of people in the news caused such anger that the British prime minister set up a judicial inquiry into standards of behavior in the media.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2012

Nature that goes beyond its course

The easiest way to describe this exhibition is "The meeting of two Mets," with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Tokyo serving as a venue for 133 works from its much more renowned New York version, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, known simply as "The Met."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2012

Tadanori Yokoo unearths a future from personal past

The establishment of a museum in the name of an individual is always, to a degree, a memorializing issue in preparation for the inevitable. The inauguration of the Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art in many ways heralds such, and Yokoo's oeuvre has often been a dialogue with death.
Reader Mail / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Dec 13, 2012

Rethink gender-parity principles

Regarding the Dec. 9 editorial "Gender parity task force": On the basis of the results of similar initiatives to date, the prognosis for any meaningful results ever arising from the "task force" is dim at best. Why has Japan waited so long to even acknowledge the obvious gender disparity blatant in every...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2012

Nuclear risks not bound by borders

One of the key issues in Sunday's Lower House election is the future of Japan's 50 commercial nuclear reactors, all but two of which remain off line in light of the Fukushima disaster.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Dec 11, 2012

Fashion's Night Out hits Japan's second-largest city, with another all-star cast of names

The popular Fashion's Night Out festival — helmed by Vogue magazine and held in the top fashion cities of the world every September — is about to be replicated in Osaka, Japan's second-largest city.
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2012

Accident probes in full swing

The seven-member Consumer Safety Investigation Commission, which was inaugurated in October, has chosen five accidents as initial targets for investigation.
LIFE
Dec 9, 2012

Apocalypse made in Japan

A world-ending cataclysm is common to many mythologies. The Biblical flood narrative is the best known and follows a fairly typical pattern: wrathful deity, mass destruction, surviving remnant — in this case the righteous man Noah and his family. We gather from these tales that life to early humans...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 9, 2012

Granderson sharing passion for baseball on tour of Asia

Curtis Granderson doesn't have to be here. He's got money; he's got fame; he's been an MLB All-Star three times; and, well, he's a New York Yankee.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 8, 2012

In era of skyscrapers, group lobbies to keep Tokyo's traditional buildings

Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2012

Arab leaders ignore crowd dynamics at their peril

In 1896, the social psychologist Gustave Le Bon warned his contemporaries of the dangers of crowds, writing that, "It is necessary to arrive at a solution to the problems offered by [crowds'] psychology, or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them." As spontaneous protest overtakes organized political...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 8, 2012

In era of skyscrapers, group lobbies to keep Tokyo's traditional buildings

Sitting at a wooden table in the glass-enclosed sun room of the miraculously preserved 95-year-old Yasuda House, Sumiko Enbutsu, a very youthful 78, radiates enthusiasm.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2012

'MIS: Human Secret Weapon' / 'Santa Kurosu wo Tsukamaete (Chasing Santa Claus)'

Following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, thousands of Japanese-Americans, including those born and raised in the United States, were shipped to internment camps, while others joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which fought with great bravery in the European theater.
Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2012

What hostility toward Japanese?

I would like to comment on Dipak Basu's Dec. 2 letter, "Good reasons to stay at home."

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