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BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

BOJ policymakers reject plan to expand asset buying

Bank of Japan policymakers Thursday rejected a proposal by a deputy governor to expand its asset-buying program by ¥5 trillion to cope with last month's historic disaster.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2011

Debt rating threat may hasten tax hike push

The threat of a cut to Japan's credit rating adds pressure on Prime Minister Naoto Kan to raise taxes as he wrestles with financing quake rebuilding without adding to the world's biggest public debt burden.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2011

Critical eye on Mr. Kan

The results of the unified local elections on April 10 and 24 underline the waning of the Democratic Party of Japan's strength. On April 10, the DPJ lost in the gubernatorial elections in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Mie. Its strength decreased from 415 seats to 346 seats in 41 prefectural assemblies and from...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 26, 2011

Memories of Agent Orange; Fukushima folly

I am a victim of Agent Orange Thanks for your story on AO in Okinawa ("Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa" by Jon Mitchell, Zeit Gist, April 12).
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2011

Disclosing radiation data

The government on April 21 declared a 20-km, no-entry zone around the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Violators face fines of up to ¥100,000 and detention of up to 30 days.
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2011

Will postquake recovery lead to a new Japan?

The March 11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami left some 27,000 people dead or missing and caused an estimated ¥25 trillion in economic devastation along the northeastern Pacific coastal areas. And the accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant caused radiation leaks and a power...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2011

Disaster expert seeks better tsunami defense

A town hall located several kilometers inland was the designated disaster evacuation site in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Tohoku on the afternoon of March 11, a young town employee broadcast an urgent evacuation order to local residents. Her broadcasts...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2011

Mr. Keene's noble decision

Mr. Donald Keene, a prominent scholar of Japanese literature and Columbia University professor, has decided to make Japan his permanent home and has begun the process of becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen, it was reported last week. In an interview with NHK, the 88-year-old Japanologist said that...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2011

Giving voice to trauma-hit victims

When the gigantic tsunami hit the Tohoku region on March 11, Kazuya Kikuchi was just getting out of his truck at Sendai port. As he saw the killer waves swallow up a bunch of brand new Toyotas at the harbor waiting to be shipped, he was frozen by the surreal sound of metal against metal - a sound he...
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2011

Tepco's road map

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Sunday announced a road map for actions to bring the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant under control. It is expected to take three months to steadily decrease the release of radioactive materials while cooling the reactors (Step 1), and additional...
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2011

Gas: the rising star of engery

As many countries become wary of nuclear power following Japan's atomic disaster, they are looking to natural gas as the best alternative for generating electricity.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 17, 2011

Yoshiwara fire, war and foreign ministers start weekly meetings, intellectuals on dope, Japan offers to help at Chernobyl

100 YEARS AGOTuesday, April 11, 1911
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2011

Fuel rod fragments at bottom of vessels

Melted fuel rod fragments have sunk to the bottoms of three reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant and could theoretically burn through the pressure vessels if emergency water-pumping operations are seriously disrupted, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan said Friday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 15, 2011

Wakayama fair in Yokohama

The Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu will hold a Wakayama Prefecture dinner fair at its buffet dining restaurant, Cafe Tosca, from April 18 to May 31.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2011

Medvedev's purge of the Kremlin chairmen

MOSCOW — In recent days, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has moved against some of the most powerful men in the Kremlin, including Igor Sechin, a deputy prime minister who is perhaps the closest figure to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — and who is also the chairman of Rosneft, Russia's largest...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2011

Edano denies flying family abroad

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano flatly denied rumors Monday that he sent his family abroad to protect them from radiation exposure when workers began to battle the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2011

End to crisis is years, fortune away

Once Japan's leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2011

Fish processors rise to challenge

SHIOGAMA, Miyagi Pref. — Fumio Oikawa is determined to clean the mud out of his small seaweed salt factory in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, and reopen as soon as possible.
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2011

New food contamination rules

With fears, sometimes unfounded, mounting that food and water might be contaminated by radiation, the government has established a new rule governing bans on contaminated agricultural products.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2011

Fallout of nuclear and financial meltdowns

BRUSSELS — The metaphors used during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 — earthquake, tsunami, meltdown, black swan and fallout — are back with a vengeance, but now they are being recycled literally. In fact, the financial crisis and the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear-power plant in Japan...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2011

U.S. teacher stays to return favor to helpful residents of Miyagi town

TAGAJO, Miyagi Pref. — Kyle Maclauchlan, an English-language teacher from the United States, experienced a nightmare when the March 11 monster earthquake and tsunami devastated the small Miyagi Prefecture town he lived in and wiped away most of his belongings.

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