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Reader Mail
May 15, 2011

Little comfort for disaster victims

Regarding the May 7 Kyodo article from Manila, "DPJ crisis exec found playing golf": I found Democratic Party of Japan Vice President Hajime Ishii's comments, made after he was caught playing golf in the Philippines, to be darkly comic.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 15, 2011

Cheap BBQ meat boss pays a high price for being variety show favorite

Since the earthquake of March 11, there's been a lot of bowing and kneeling on TV. Everywhere the executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co. go in the Tohoku region, they are compelled to not only bend over for residents of the area, but in some cases get down on the ground and perform dogeza, the act of...
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011

Natsume Soseki: mining a literary treasure

THEORY OF LITERATURE AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS, by Natsume Soseki. Columbia University Press, 2009, 287 pp., $50 (hardcover) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is said to rank among the world's great 20th-century writers. Many consider him Japan's greatest modern novelist. His books, from the comic "I Am a...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 13, 2011

Rookie coach Blackwell admires veteran peers

Leading their teams to three consecutive Final Fours, Ryukyu's Dai Oketani and Hamamatsu Higashimikawa's Kazuo Nakamura have earned respect from their coaching peers and helped set the standard of excellence for which all future bj-league coaches will be judged.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 12, 2011

Crisis a chance to forge new energy policy

On March 15, 1970, the long-anticipated Osaka Expo opened, allowing more than 64 million people to indulge their curiosity and learn about future technologies over a six-month period. It would remain the most attended world's fair until the 2010 Shanghai Expo and continues to be regarded, along with...
JAPAN
May 11, 2011

Tepco turns to government for cash

Embattled Tokyo Electric Co. President Masataka Shimizu officially asked the government Tuesday to help shoulder the burden of compensating people affected by the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
May 11, 2011

Hamaoka impact will be far-flung

The decision by Chubu Electric Power Co. to shut down the Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture is testament to the long-lasting and far-reaching impact of the March 11 megaquake.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 10, 2011

Nuclear regulators leave Kan to fill in the blanks

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan, I applaud your call to suspend operations at the Hamaoka nuclear power station (in Shizuoka Prefecture). It's good news following on the heels of the public resignation of your senior nuclear safety advisor, Toshiso Kosako. In the wake of his tearful protest against raising...
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2011

Realignment of Canada's political landscape

In the first election debate between the leaders of Canada's four political parties, opposition leader Michael Ignatieff of the Liberal Party attacked Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the ruling Conservative Party for wanting to shut down anything he could not control.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 7, 2011

Conference semifinals put top stars on display

Eight teams remain in the hunt for the bj-league's sixth title, including the three-time champion Osaka Evessa and the Ryukyu Golden Kings and Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix, both of whom have one title apiece.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 7, 2011

In search of a nuclear disposal site

Roughly 300 km northwest of Finland's capital, Helsinki, is the island of Olkiluoto, home to two nuclear power plants and the potential site for one of the world's first permanent underground high-level nuclear waste repositories.
COMMENTARY
May 7, 2011

Hoping for a return to normal temperatures

Just when you begin to worry that maybe the United States cannot do anything right, this happens. And suddenly things seem just a little better — and the barometric pressure in American a little bit lighter. This is to say that the loud noise you here coming from the 50 states of the United States...
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2011

Worries about Hamaoka plant

Chubu Electric Power Co. on April 28 disclosed a plan to resume by July the operation of the No. 3 reactor in its Hamaoka nuclear power plant in Shizuoka Prefecture. The reactor has been under regular check and observation since November 2010. The plant sits inside a zone where a magnitude-8 earthquake...
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Potential to waste viable organs

Regarding the April 28 Kyodo article "Child organ transplants still face hurdles": The under-age transplant law is a big step forward in children's health in Japan. It is a shame that children would have to die when there are organs available that could help them. The law has potential to waste viable...
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

New record label Pachinko starts up despite uncertain times

In 2010, legal downloads of music in Japan increased marginally over 2009, but CD sales were down by 12 percent, and sales by foreign artists, both imports and nihonban (domestically manufactured discs), by 15 percent. It doesn't sound like the best time to start a new record label featuring overseas...
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2011

The world after bin Laden

Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Osama bin Laden, the author of the 9/11 atrocity in the United States and various lesser terrorist outrages elsewhere, has been killed by American troops in his hideout in northern Pakistan. At last, the world can breathe more easily, but not many people were holding their...
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Facing up to Tokyo's inevitable

Philip Brasor's April 24 Media Mix column, "Decentralizing Tokyo may save the nation," reminded me of the common saying that is such a cliche that it is embarrassing to note: "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 3, 2011

It's innovate or die in today's mad mag world

In few countries are the most vital political, economic and cultural activities as geographically concentrated as in Japan. All the main institutions can be found in Tokyo — one can only shudder to think what will happen not only to this city, but to the whole country if and when a massive earthquake...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
May 3, 2011

Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple'

The past two months have been uncomfortable for Japan, and for the country's foreign residents. Non-Japanese (NJ) have been bashed in the media, unreservedly and undeservedly, as deserters in the face of disaster.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
May 2, 2011

Woes on mound continue to trouble Yomiuri

Starting pitching had been pegged as one of the Yomiuri Giants' problem spots prior to the beginning of the Japanese baseball season.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2011

Way to institutionalize a system of integrity

When a career bureaucrat with a corruption charge pending against him was chosen to be the chief vigilance commissioner, the Supreme Court nullified the appointment to protect the "institutional integrity" of the CVC.

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