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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 13, 2013

Tokyo: What does Japan do better than anywhere else?

Everyone here in Japan, or in Tokyo at least, is so disciplined and always punctual. The Japanese people I have met stick by their comments and the promises they make, and in my experience excuses are not accepted as much as they might be elsewhere.
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2013

Discredited theory grips EU

Last week the notorious "troika" representing the three major lenders to severely indebted European Union nations — officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank — once again descended upon Athens to consider new Greek proposals for dealing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2013

Ethanol from cellulose falls short of expectations

In Emmetsburg, Iowa, America's largest maker of ethanol for motor fuel is putting the final touches on a manufacturing plant that will rely not on corn, but on the stalks and cobs left behind.
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2013

Ichihashi film categorized as mere spectacle

Regarding the Nov. 3 TimeOut feature by Jun Hongo, titled "Killer on the run": There was a sickening feeling of frustration in Tokyo's foreign community at the time of the Lindsay Ann Hawker murder investigation. Many foreign residents felt that the Chiba police were simply not too keen on catching the...
WORLD
Nov 9, 2013

Rights of stateless people in the Dominican Republic

A recent decision by the Constitutional Court in the Dominican Republic effectively clears the way for officials to retroactively strip the citizenship of tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent. The ruling — that children born to Haitian immigrants are essentially foreigners in the country...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 8, 2013

Capturing the life and lives of Tokyo, one day at a time

Every day we presumably walk past about 2,000 or 3,000 people we don't know anything about,' French photographer Cedric Riveau says. 'But everyone has his or her story to tell.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 8, 2013

Tehran's nuclear quandary

There are many obstacles to an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. Particularly troubling for the U.S. and its allies, though, is how much Iran has mimicked the regime in Pyongyang.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 6, 2013

Theater of protest boosts rising new hub

Ikebukuro boasts Tokyo's second-busiest rail station after Shinjuku, and until recently it was just a transport hub people passed through between their jobs in the city and homes in suburbs to the north.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 6, 2013

English teacher suffering with cancer and HIV completes 'Yamathon' Tokyo walk

Neil Grainger and a group of supporters completed an epic walk around Tokyo's famous Yamanote Line on Sunday to raise money for his treatment and cancer charities.
Reader Mail
Nov 6, 2013

Lawmaker's brave public action

Regarding Reiji Yoshida's Nov. 1 article, "Lawmaker under fire for letter to Emperor": Upper House lawmaker Taro Yamamoto's action in giving a letter about the health of Japanese children suffering the effects of radiation was a necessary act. It was also brave in a country where such an action is thought...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2013

Tepco feeling heat over fuel removal

With Tepco getting ready to start removing more than 1,000 fuel rod assemblies from a cooling pool at Fukushima No. 1, global pressure is mounting to allow an international task force to monitor and assist the highly hazardous operation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
Nov 4, 2013

No safe country for foreign women: the debate

Holly Lanasolyluna's article published Oct. 23 attracted an unprecedented number of online comments. More than 5,000 people also answered the accompanying poll about safety in Japan. Here are just some of the mails and comments.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 4, 2013

Use 2020 Olympics to lift economy, Suga urges execs

The central government should use the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as an opportunity to boost economic growth nationwide, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 4, 2013

As U.S. withdraws from Afghanistan, poppy trade it spent billions fighting still flourishes

The United States is withdrawing troops from Afghanistan having lost its battle against the country's narcotics industry, marking one of the starkest failures of the 2009 strategy the Obama administration pursued in an effort to turn around the war.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2013

Economists, stop playing in a science lab coat

Why do some economists keep insisting that economics is a science? If they would just give up on the science fixation, they might begin to appreciate the value in what they do.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 3, 2013

Eyes everywhere: 9/11 attacks transform once underfunded NSA into an all-seeing technological powerhouse

The National Security Agency gathers intelligence to keep America safe. But leaked documents reveal the NSA's dark side — and show an agency intent on exploiting the digital revolution to the full.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 2, 2013

Hybrid furniture and the working horse

Right from the outset when we started planning what is now our magnificent Afan Nature Centre that opened three years ago here in the Nagano Prefecture hills outside Kurohime, I insisted it should be built in wood — and that all the wood must be Japanese.
EDITORIALS
Nov 2, 2013

Washoku as a cultural heritage

Coming this December, traditional Japanese cuisine, 'washoku,' is likely to be designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage if the voting by UNESCO goes as expected.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
Nov 1, 2013

Writer, translator, yoga instructor finds inspiration in 'the voices that history silences'

Leza Lowitz has shared the worlds of kamikaze pilots and their last letters to their families, published lesbian writings by contemporary Japanese poets, specifically sought out Ainu writers, and journeyed into the mind of Japan's foremost modernist poet, Nobuo Ayukawa.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 1, 2013

Seven Unlucky Gods sowing misery across Japan

I have a theory about the conspicuous absence of the Seven Lucky Gods: They each have an evil twin.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Nov 1, 2013

Events mark 1800s castaways who were first Japanese in U.S.

In the late Edo Period 200 years ago, a Japanese ship crippled by a storm drifted for 484 days, the longest period on record.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 1, 2013

'Perfect' winds give Brazil another option for power

Wind is emerging as a prize for energy planners in Brazil who see the howling gusts that arrive from the east as a way to offset the fresh limits imposed on hydropower.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo
Oct 31, 2013

History repeats itself in Tokyo's Asakusa area

Asakusa is a busy but attractive area of Tokyo that still retains much of its historical charm. Legend has it that, in the year 628, two fishermen found a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon mysteriously floating in the Sumida River. The chief of the village enshrined the statue in what is now Sensoji Temple,...
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Oct 30, 2013

A message from tsunami-hit Rikuzentakata: Make the trip

Your generosity in making the trip up to Tohoku will be forever remembered by those you talk with. Take the time. Make the trip.

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