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COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 7, 2011

'Flyjin,' 'sheeple,' angry people: readers' views

Debito Arudou's May 3 Just Be Cause column, headlined " Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple,'" provoked an online skirmish between contributors to the columnist's blog, Debito.org, and its self-proclaimed "debunker" site. Here are just some of the mails received at The Japan Times...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2011

India finds its second wind with Afghanistan

With strategic realities in South Asia radically shifting in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death, India's prime minister lost no time in reaching out to Afghanistan during a recent two-day visit to Kabul, where he announced a fresh commitment of $500 million toward Afghanistan's development —...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2011

Ahmadinejad tempts the wrath of Ayatollah

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has now made the mistake that all Iranian presidents make: He has challenged the authority of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is doomed to fail.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 5, 2011

Can we all just get along?

THE POLITICS OF ECONOMIC REGIONALISM, by Kevin G. Cai. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 196 pp., $80 (hardcover) CHINA, JAPAN AND REGIONAL LEADERSHIP IN EAST ASIA, by Christopher M. Dent. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010, 311 pp., $50 (paper)
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2011

Back to basics with Russia

Prime Minister Naoto Kan met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on May 27 in the French seaside resort of Deauville shortly after a two-day Group of Eight summit held there. No substantive development came out of the meeting concerning a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute, except that Mr....
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 3, 2011

Abdul-Rauf opines on Aono's dismissal

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf has been in this business long enough to know that coaches face an unenviable task every time they step onto the court. In other words, they can't please everyone.
Reader Mail
Jun 2, 2011

20% renewable target too timid?

Regarding the May 27 article "Kan sets 20% target for renewable energy": I can't help thinking that the 20 percent target is a little under-ambitious. I built my house six years ago, and if the local government at the time had offered incentives for me to add solar power to my house, I would have jumped...
COMMENTARY
Jun 2, 2011

Privacy and public interest

How far is privacy a human right? This question has become a issue in Britain and Europe in recent weeks.
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2011

Business bent deflates the sails of India's left

A common joke used to make the rounds in Kolkata, where I grew up and found my footing in journalism. The joke was that West Bengal, whose capital city is Kolkata, was more Marxist than China — this in the heyday of communism. While China retained its Marxist model of governance, it was shrewd enough...
CULTURE / Books
May 29, 2011

Legends of the Middle Kingdom

THE MOON OVER THE MOUNTAIN AND OTHER STORIES, by Atsushi Nakajima. Translated by Paul McCarthy and Nobuko Ochner. Autumn Hill Books, 2010, 175 pp., $15.95 (paper) Orientalism, that essentializing exoticization of the East is, we all know, a deplorable thing — but those of us who have been drawn to...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 29, 2011

The hot, sticky summer of our discontent

Last summer went on record as Japan's hottest ever, as the daytime mercury seemed stubbornly stuck in the 33 to 36 degrees Celsius range while at nighttime it usually refused to budge to below the 25 C mark.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 29, 2011

Japanese genius shines eclectic in its extravagant simplicities of style

"Live your era, surmount your era!" With these words, written in 1935, the young woodblock artist Yoshio Fujimaki gave out a cry for genius. Certainly his words apply to the genius of Bob Dylan (whose 70th birthday was celebrated on these pages last week), since both he, Fujimaki and others of genius...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
May 29, 2011

Casting around in Tsukudajima

From Tsukishima Station on Tokyo's Oedo subway line, I launch myself northward toward Tsukudajima. A mere sandbar in the early days of the Edo Period (1603-1868), Tsukudajima long ago began to be expanded with boulders and landfill on the way to creating the area we now know.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 28, 2011

Here comes the rainy season boot camp

It's May and Kyushu has already officially entered the rainy season. The rest of Japan is not far behind. What, no spring? Well, we all know what happened to spring this year. It headed to the Middle East: The Arab Spring. Let someone else have some of it.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 27, 2011

Hashimoto stalks anthem foes

Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has stepped up his long-running feud with teachers opposed to the "Kimigayo" national anthem by pushing his political group to propose an ordinance that would force them to stand when the song is sung at school ceremonies.
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2011

Dalai Lama's words open door for Beijing

The election of Lobsang Sangay, a Harvard Law School scholar, as prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile was followed immediately by China's rejection of any talks with him on the future of Tibet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 27, 2011

"Tezuka Osamu's Student Life in Osaka University: To Be a Doctor or a Manga Artist, That Is the Question"

Osamu Tezuka, one of Japan's most famous manga artists, was an Osaka University medical graduate, though he never practiced medicine. He started at Osaka University in 1945 and made his manga debut the following year. In 1950, when he was still a student, he started a manga series titled "Jungle Taitei"...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
May 26, 2011

'Secret society' takes a national stool sample

A 'secret society' asked the Japanese public to tell them more about their poop. Yes they did.
COMMENTARY / World
May 25, 2011

Japan's nuclear conundrum

Concerns regarding nuclear power in Japan following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are fueling debates on a possible reformulation of the country's energy policy.
JAPAN
May 25, 2011

Independent panel created to probe cause of crisis

The government established an independent panel Tuesday to probe the cause of the nuclear crisis with the aim of preventing future disasters and coming up with proposals for limiting the damage at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2011

France stages judicial revolution as citizens challenge legislation

A new and important acronym has entered the French political lexicon: QPC, which stands for the rather austere-sounding "Priority preliminary ruling on the question of constitutionality."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2011

Iejima: an island of resistance

During the 30-minute ferry ride from Motobu on mainland Okinawa, Iejima reveals itself in stages. First, Mount Tacchu emerges above the waves like a chunk of the peanut brittle for which the island is renowned. Next, the wind-blown scent of countless thousands of hibiscuses sweetens the stink of the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2011

Democracy's dawn in Middle East?

With protests fading in Tunis and seeming to have peaked in Cairo, it is time to ask whether Tunisia and Egypt will complete democratic transitions.

Longform

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