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COMMENTARY
Mar 11, 2010

U.S. base problem drags on

The loud dispute over the future of the U.S. Marine Air Station at Futenma, Okinawa, is puzzling. Even U.S. officialdom agrees that this base causes enormous inconvenience to the residents of Ginowan city who are forced to live alongside. Plans to have it moved have been around for years. But to where?...
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2010

Growth risks balanced, future foggy: Suda

Bank of Japan Policy Board member Miyako Suda reiterated the central bank's view Wednesday that the economy will continue to expand gradually, saying upside and downside risks for growth are evenly balanced.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 10, 2010

The cheapest night out/in

Recession drinking styles now include vending-machine stand bars and Twitter-enhanced boozing. Come here often?
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2010

Shipment of nuclear waste arrives from U.K.

OSAKA — The first delivery of at least 850 canisters of high-level radioactive vitrified waste arrived Tuesday morning by ship from the U.K. in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, where it will sit in storage for decades before being buried deep underground.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Mar 9, 2010

Japan picks over bones of Vancouver medal tally

Was it success or under-achievement? The Japanese squad for the Vancouver Winter Olympics returned home with five medals and 26 top-eight finishes — both better feats than at the 2006 Turin Games.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 7, 2010

Shoplifting teens and sensei secrets; CM of the week: Aguro Bokujo

In the special two-hour drama "Garasu no Kiba" (The Glass Fang; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.), an FM radio disk jockey named Akiko (Atsuko Takahata) is asked by the authorities to monitor and supervise a troubled teen named Yuka (Moe Arai).
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 7, 2010

For humanity's sake, let's tie whaling in with animal welfare as a whole

Back in the early '90s, my wife, children and I lived in the picturesque and historical Sydney suburb of Mosman . . . well, historical by white-settler Australian standards.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2010

Laying the foundation of an intellectual property bridge

The Internet may arguably be the pre-eminent example of how recent technological developments have made life more convenient.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2010

Japan's slow-motion crisis

If you listen to American, European or even Chinese leaders, Japan is the economic future no one wants. In selling massive stimulus packages and bank bailouts, Western leaders told their people, "We must do this or we will end up like Japan, mired in recession and deflation for a decade or more."
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 28, 2010

The business of pets

Japan's pet boom over the last decade has brought considerable benefits to the nation's economy. At the same time, however, it has led to problems involving both unscrupulous breeders and traders.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2010

Panasonic, Hitachi TV ads win prizes

The Japan Chapter of the International Advertising Association has conferred the grand prize of this year's TV advertising award on Panasonic Corp.'s commercial featuring its large-screen flat display television Viera, according to the association.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2010

Central control over bureaucrats

The Hatoyama Cabinet on Feb. 19 endorsed a bill to revise the law governing national public servants and submitted it to the Diet. It aims to enable the Prime Minister's Office to centralize control of personnel affairs related to high-ranking bureaucrats. The administration hopes to implement the new...
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2010

Damping the soot emissions could buy time

SINGAPORE — A team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences trekked across frigid highlands in Tibet to confirm a significant recent discovery about climate change. They drilled and analyzed five ice cores from various locations on the Tibetan Plateau to find that the concentration of black carbon, or...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 26, 2010

Free yuan without the fuss

HONOLULU, EAST-WEST WIRE — Tensions in U.S.-China relations have been rising recently. Trade spats, alleged Chinese hacking attacks, differences over Internet freedom standards, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and the meeting between President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama are all souring the world's most...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 26, 2010

Art museum holds beastly exhibition

Atsuhiko Misawa, a Kyoto born artist, is packing Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts with animals.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2010

National vision for child-rearing

The Hatoyama administration adopted in late January a "children and child-rearing vision" designed to help raise the nation's birthrate. The program involves a variety of initiatives and some 40 numerically defined goals. An obvious problem is where the necessary funds will be found.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 21, 2010

Feeling the heat

Winter whiteouts, freezing weather and power outages everywhere from Europe to Washington and Beijing have been making headlines these last few months, but as fingers by the million have been going numb, Japan has one nifty weapon of mass defrostation to alleviate the seasonal problem: self-warming pads....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 21, 2010

Japan's graphic designers turn over a new leaf

To judge from the staid design work he churns out for many of Japan's labor and environment public-service advertisements, you'd never guess that Tsuyoshi Suzuki is a spiky-haired hipster with a collection of 1950s American crockery.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 21, 2010

Singing the praises of sparrows

In a rush of small wings, a fluttering, chirruping, congregation of familiar birds — Eurasian tree sparrows — descended on the bush in front of me. They chattered noisily among themselves, each shifting its position almost constantly as if unsure whether it had the right to be on any given perch....
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2010

Diet members send Obama nuclear letter

A group of nonpartisan Diet members sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday urging him to strive to limit the role of America's atomic weapons to that of nuclear deterrence.

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