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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 2, 2011

Press miss the point at antinuke demo

Three weeks after Japan's biggest antinuclear demonstration, there is still some dispute over how many people actually attended. The organizers estimate 60,000 and the police say about 30,000. Except for the Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers, which accept the police figure, the mainstream vernacular media...
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2011

Tohoku mental health care

As the cleanup of the physical wreckage from the Tohoku disasters continues, more work is needed to heal psychological wounds. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced plans in early September to set up mental health care centers for children who lost parents in the March 11 disasters. In August,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2011

The quest for food security

At the initiation of France, the Group of 20 agricultural ministers held a summit in Paris on June 22-23 to discuss ways to ensure food security and tame volatility in food prices. Global food prices have soared to a record high this year, raising concerns of new round of social unrest like that which...
EDITORIALS
Jun 30, 2011

Hope and reconstruction

After two and a half months of deliberation, the Reconstruction Design Council on June 25 submitted to Prime Minister Naoto Kan a set of proposals for the reconstruction of the Tohoku-Pacific coastal region, which was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and Fukushima Prefecture, which...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2011

Eagleburger: the U.S. diplomat's ambassador

For many of us in the U.S. Foreign Service, Lawrence Eagleburger, who died early this month, was a larger-than-life figure who left an indelible mark on our lives.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 22, 2011

Up close and personal: Why Dylan is so big in Japan

It was the fall of 1963, when — in what seemed like a flash of lightning — I became a fan of Bob Dylan the moment I heard "Blowin' in the Wind" on the radio. I was in my first year of high school.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 20, 2011

Surveying the waters of 2111

Coral reefs worldwide could face extinction by 2050, according to the World Resources Institute. At this rate, what will our oceans look like in 2111? An exhibition in Tokyo aims to shed light on an issue that could potentially see countless species, not to mention the 500 million people whose livelihoods...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 24, 2011

Decentralizing Tokyo may save the nation

The concentration of money and power in Tokyo is to a degree unthinkable in the United States. — Edward Seidensticker
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 25, 2011

It's in the water, food, soil: But what are the risks?

Radioactive materials from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have been spreading, contaminating milk, vegetables, water and soil in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures.
COMMENTARY
Feb 2, 2011

Beijing should take a leaf out of Li Na's book

LOS ANGELES — A metaphor for our dramatic world geopolitical change occurred in Melbourne at the prestigious Australian Open. There, even as time-honored warriors Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal were eliminated, a Chinese woman slammed her way into history. The relentless Li Na became the first Asian...
LIFE
Nov 28, 2010

Summiteering with Nobel peace laureates

Hiroshima is a beautiful city with cute trams cruising along its tree-lined streets.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010

Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak

This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 9, 2010

Japan's long love affair with 'matsutake'

When it comes to status — and exorbitant prices — "matsutake" mushrooms may be in the same league as caviar and truffles.
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Oct 22, 2010

Anime fan pilgrimages help boost tourism

Fans paying tribute to their favorite anime and games are helping to boost tourism in both popular sightseeing spots and those off the beaten path.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2010

Parties unite in demanding Senkaku video

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Thursday to ask the government to submit video footage documenting last month's collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast Guard cutters to the Diet.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 30, 2010

Chinese labor strife frames larger fight over ideology

Since May, a number of factories in China have been hit by strikes and other forms of labor disputes, and an end seems to be nowhere in sight. Most of the plants targeted by the strikers are subsidiaries of overseas corporations. Especially hard hit have been the subsidiaries of Japanese companies, including...
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2010

War epics on screen skip mass slaughter of civilians

SAN FRANCISCO — Does the history diet fed to Americans by Hollywood promote an unhealthy national memory? The latest screen epic about American heroism in World War II — the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" — is clouded by an unintended irony.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 4, 2010

Eikaiwa on the ropes after fall of Geos

RICHARD SMART Special to The Japan Times A chain of English conversation schools is closed down. Thousands of employees are left worrying whether they will get paid or keep their jobs. Students are told refunds will not be given on advance payments for lessons. G.communication steps in to pick up the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 2, 2010

He's unusual, so why not just kill him

In a review of the book "Shikei de Ii desu" ("The Death Sentence Is OK With Me") that appears in the Feb. 26 issue of Kinyobi, critic Tatsunori Yagashiwa asks if a society that "disregards illness" can properly judge criminal suspects.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2010

Tabloid tracks security chief's Diet dorm 'trysts'

Drained by a chain of political money scandals, the Democratic Party of Japan-led coalition came under a fresh attack Thursday by a weekly magazine that accused the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission of shirking his duties by having an "inappropriate tryst" with a woman he is dating.
BUSINESS / U.K. JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 26, 2010

Voter behavior holds key to political system change

Six months have passed since the Democratic Party of Japan ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power. But whether there will be a fundamental change to the nation's political system will depend not just on the lawmakers but on the behavior of voters.
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2010

Half-year on, Hatoyama struggling

It's been six months since Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Cabinet strutted the red-carpet for an inaugural photo session, staging a perfect Hollywood ending to a summer blockbuster election that knocked the Liberal Democratic Party out of almost 50 years of unbroken rule.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 28, 2010

Three LatAm capitals and the Tokyo of 1964

NEW YORK — While visiting three capitals in Latin America on a lecture tour earlier this month, I wondered if Tokyo looked or felt like any of these cities to someone visiting it from New York or a large European city half a century ago.
EDITORIALS
Feb 18, 2010

Justice finally served

The Yokohama District Court on Feb. 4 ruled that five now-deceased men, three of them journalists, were falsely charged in a case known as the Yokohama Incident, which is regarded as the worst example of wartime free-speech suppression, and ordered the government to pay compensation to six relatives...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Dec 23, 2009

One step at a time — sumo needs to change

As 2009 draws to a close, the sport of sumo can look back on a year largely free from scandal. Pleasing perhaps for many of the conservative elements in and around the sport, but 2010, could well prove the year in which relative young bloods in the ruling stablemaster elite take steps towards advancing...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?