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Reader Mail
May 17, 2012

Business entities do not qualify

Is Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan for returning to profitability — restarting nuclear power plants to raise enough cash to pay off the damage caused by their inability to properly manage nuclear power plants — supported by government officials?
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
May 16, 2012

Japan's social-gaming industry hindered by government's anti-gambling move

When it comes to mobile social-gaming, nowhere is it as popular or as profitable as it is in Japan. The nation's two industry giants, Gree and its rival DeNA's Mobage, have been increasing their sales every quarter for years. Gree's TV-commercial campaigns are second only to cosmetics company Shiseido...
JAPAN
May 15, 2012

Cesium spikes in Tokyo Bay samples

Sludge samples taken at the mouths of two major rivers emptying into Tokyo Bay showed radioactive cesium contamination linked to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis grew by 1.5 to 13 times since August, a researcher at Kinki University said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2012

Are humans getting better at beating violence?

With daily headlines focusing on war, terrorism and the abuses of repressive governments, and religious leaders frequently bemoaning declining standards of public and private behavior, it is easy to get the impression that we are witnessing a moral collapse.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 13, 2012

Noda's vexing full plate: tax hike, Ozawa, Futenma, Senkakus

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda hopes to persuade Okinawans to accept the government's highly contentious plan to move the Futenma air base elsewhere in the prefecture once the burden of hosting U.S. forces there starts to ease.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 13, 2012

Born of disaster, modern architecture is itself now an ongoing disaster

In the French writer-director Jacques Tati's superb 1967 film "Play Time," people are like prisoners condemned to roam about in and amid the glass cages of high-rise office blocks. They are lost, both to the world and themselves. In the world of Tati, who died in 1982 aged 75, all cities look alike;...
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

A chart-topper for J-Pop fans

Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop by Michael K. Bourdaghs. Columbia University Press, New York, 2012, 304 pp., $27.50 (paperback)
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 13, 2012

Though spooked by new threats, Japanese accept mass killers

Before March last year, if you'd asked a child in Japan about nuclear radiation you would probably have been told about Godzilla, the monster powered by mutations caused by radiation, or Tetsuwan Atomu, aka the nuclear-powered robot Astro Boy. Not any more.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

Tokugawa: the art of governing

PERFORMING THE GREAT PEACE: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan, by Luke S. Roberts. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 263 pp., $49.00 (hardcover)
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2012

Diet finally starts deliberations on tax hike bill

The Diet kicked off deliberations Friday on the contentious bill to double the 5 percent consumption tax by 2015, and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is urging the opposition camp to help ensure its passage by the end of the Diet session in June.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2012

Filmmaker savors being in situation where threat of the unknown looms

A surfboard mounted against a sea of sludge, whimsically defiant to the ruinous tide of debris. It's the kind of quirky beauty you might expect from Michael Arias, an American filmmaker based in Tokyo. Arias' creative work, in film through to his recent photographs of Tohoku, all paint with the same...
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2012

The return of President Putin

After serving as prime minister for four years, Vladimir Putin returned to the Russian presidency Monday to begin his third term, as outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev was appointed prime minister for the second time, thus continuing their governing partnership.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

After flower-vase success, former D-Bros designers set to blossom

If you're the sort of person who likes art museums but loves art museum gift shops, then you're likely to be familiar with the work of Yoshie Watanabe and Ryosuke Uehara, two designers who are currently the subject of an exhibition at Tokyo's Ginza Graphic Gallery.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 9, 2012

Youngest billionaire extends losses as Gree plunges

Gree Inc. extended losses in Tokyo trading a day after founder Yoshikazu Tanaka, Japan's youngest billionaire, lost $702 million as his social-gaming company plunged on concerns one of its sales methods may be illegal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 8, 2012

The best of Views from the Street

A pick of some of best —and the rest — of the vox pops over the years, in chronological order:
COMMENTARY
May 8, 2012

Cutting-edge navy vessels deploy to Singapore

Four high-speed U.S. Navy vessels will soon start operating from Singapore. They will be the new face of the U.S. Navy for maritime policing and partnership-building in Asia-Pacific waters, where many countries in the region are trying to find a way to balance the rise of China without provoking a military...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
May 8, 2012

Smartphones hook up with domestic appliances

The home of the future is as close as your smartphone.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 6, 2012

Nuclear power role still said critical

Despite the seriousness of the Fukushima disaster, Japan should continue using nuclear power because there isn't another energy source that can replace it and because the nation has a responsibility to further its global development using the lessons learned from the crisis, says energy expert Kenji...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2012

Conservatives call for revising Constitution

The time has come for political parties to overcome their differences and join hands to revise the Constitution to suit the times, including by establishing of an "army" to protect Japan, its people and its territory, conservative lawmakers said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 2, 2012

Okuda to lead JBIC in new direction

Upon assuming the presidency of Japan Bank for International Cooperation on April 1, Hiroshi Okuda told reporters that Japan today is lagging behind the rest of the world in both politics and economy by a wide margin.

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