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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 28, 2013

A Pacific idyll where some go to escape, others to connect

A woman from western Japan, who calls herself "Amy," couldn't find paradise in Thailand, Cuba, Brazil or French Polynesia, so with the last of her $300 savings she bought a one-way ticket from Tahiti to Rarotonga. Then, claiming to be penniless, she walked from the airport to the police station and...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 28, 2013

Abe-history: Premier again seems set on stoking controversy and ire

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is no stranger to historical controversy. Back in 2001 he pressured national broadcaster NHK to revise a documentary about the judgment of an international people's tribunal regarding the war responsibility of Emperor Hirohito (posthumously known as Emperor Showa). And in 2007...
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2013

Survival as a nation ruled by law

Regarding the April 18 article "Pulvers wins Noma translation prize": I can't thank former Japan Times columnist Roger Pulvers enough for his great contribution of introducing Japan's literary legacy to the world. That said, with all due respect, my thoughts are a little different from his March 31 article,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 26, 2013

Buoyant Abe's true colors emerging

Riding high in the polls, Prime Minister Abe begins to reveal his true colors as a right-leaning historical revisionist, four months into his administration.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 26, 2013

Young Gree chief loses $2.6 billion to smartphone boom

In five years, Yoshikazu Tanaka became Japan's youngest billionaire as investors piled into Gree Inc., valuing his controlling stake in the early maker of phone-based games at $4 billion. Just 18 months later, that has shriveled to about $1.4 billion.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2013

Yasukuni visits undermine diplomacy

Recent visits to Yasukuni Shrine by three Abe Cabinet members suggest that they view personal ideological urges as important as Japan's diplomatic interests.
Reader Mail
Apr 25, 2013

Fewer babies no cause for panic

Regarding the April 17 editorial, "Japan's depopulation time bomb": So much fuss has been made in the news media about the declining birthrate that it would be easy to mistake it for an impending disaster. Despite the pressure on an overburdened pension system, perhaps Japan should be looking further...
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2013

Worrying defense spending trends

The 0.5 percent decline in military spending worldwide in 2012 was the first real drop since 1998. But a closer look at the numbers leaves little reason to cheer.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 23, 2013

Renter guarantor system a headache for foreigners

Things were going well for Patrick after a year in Japan. He had found a job he liked, met a girl he planned to marry and was ready to move out of the small room his older brother, a longtime resident, was letting him use.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 21, 2013

Anti-Alien Bill protested, controlling the Western Pacific, Daibutsu climbers arrested, land prices soar

100 YEARS AGO
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2013

Universities far from flourishing

Regarding the April 12 Kyodo brief "Japanese universities best in Asia: It would be hasty to jump to the conclusion that Japan's universities are flourishing despite the data released by the London-based Times Higher Education magazine. A reading of the original magazine article gives a little better...
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2013

Senate continues to deny Futenma transfer funding

The Senate clarifies that funding for realigning U.S. forces will be denied until a clear timetable and cost estimate for replacing Futenma airbase is provided.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 20, 2013

Doraemon trumps Hello Kitty for Olympic Games ambassador

Japan's most lovable anime character, el gato cosmico (the cosmic cat) has been chosen to be Japan's ambassador in Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games. It's the first time Japan has chosen an anime character for an Olympic ambassadorship. Congratulations Doraemon!
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2013

High schoolers dream of Ivy League

One March afternoon in Shibuya Ward, a group of high schoolers earnestly listened as students from Harvard University described life on their campus.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2013

METI chief urges Gazprom to keep LNG plant's spigot open, reasonable

Trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Wednesday called on the president of Russia-owned Gazprom to provide Japan with liquefied natural gas from its plant to be built near Vladivostok at a “reasonable price” and in a “timely manner” after it starts up.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 18, 2013

Scroll displays the human side of Perry's arrival

"It's come pretty much out of nowhere," says British Museum curator Tim Clark, placing a small wooden box on the table — it's about the dimensions of a shoebox, slightly weathered and lightly inscribed with fluid kanji characters. "It was in Japan until last summer, where it belonged to a dealer, and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2013

Film sheds light on plight of left-behind parents

Images of left-behind parents, holding up photos of their children, flash across the screen. In the United States, Canada, Europe and even Japan, these parents are waiting to reunite with offspring taken away by their estranged Japanese spouses.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 16, 2013

Startups find there's financing in numbers

In a country where a stubbornly stagnant economy has turned the adventurous away from high-risk investment, fundraising has become one of the highest hurdles a startup can overcome.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 16, 2013

Mad court rush could brake or bless Abe's vision

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet rush to diminish the Bank of Japan's bothersome independence, join the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations (sort of . . .), start pouring lovely, popular concrete before the summer House of Councilors elections and (sotto voce) maybe even amend the Constitution,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 14, 2013

Tabloids sharpen claws for North Korea's 'X-Day'

Three months before the present crisis on the Korean peninsula, Shukan Jitsuwa (Jan. 24) ran an uncharacteristically astute article predicting that in addition to potential for armed conflict with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands, North Korea, under its inexperienced young leader Kim Jong Un, posed a serious threat to Japan.
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2013

A positive step in Senkaku dispute

Japan and Taiwan on Wednesday signed an agreement on fishing rights in the sea near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, claimed by both China and Taiwan. The agreement sets aside the sovereignty issue over the Senkakus and allows Taiwanese trawlers to operate in part of Japan's exclusive...

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