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EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2012

Getting off the deflationary path

Political parties that are competing in the Dec. 16 Lower House election should present convincing proposals to prevent Japan from continuing down the deflationary path. But they must be careful to ensure that their efforts to end deflation will not lead to price rises that are not supported by enlivened...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 11, 2012

'Changed' Abe makes case for fresh chance

In an article published Monday in the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine, Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe apologized for abandoning the prime ministership a year into his term in 2007 but insisted he is a changed man and deserving of another chance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 9, 2012

There are 'snow monsters' who can help save Tohoku

Yes, it's true. Spending some money on skiing among snow monsters and soaking in hot-spring baths is a good way to help the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu recover from the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, the terrible tsunami it triggered and the ongoing nuclear crisis that followed....
Reader Mail
Dec 9, 2012

Wrong man to run a company

Regarding the Dec. 2 Timeout article "Japan's whistle-blower supreme speaks out": Former Olympus Corp. President and CEO Michael Woodford deserves full credit for his accomplishments with Olympus in Europe, and for bringing the appalling status of corporate governance in Japan to a largely naive audience....
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2012

Gender parity task force

Anew task force will be formed to help close the economic gender gap in Japan through cooperation among government, business and social leaders, and Japanese members of the World Economic Forum.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 9, 2012

Granderson sharing passion for baseball on tour of Asia

Curtis Granderson doesn't have to be here. He's got money; he's got fame; he's been an MLB All-Star three times; and, well, he's a New York Yankee.
Reader Mail
Dec 9, 2012

Responsibility for self-protection

Regarding the Dec. 5 editorial "Dangerous moves on supreme law": It is a testament to just how far to the left political discourse is in Japan when the idea that Japan should take responsibility for protecting itself is labeled "dangerous."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2012

Ex-envoy to U.S. heartened by eventful stint

Ichiro Fujisaki's four-year stint as Japan's ambassador to the U.S. saw turbulent events — the Great East Japan Earthquake, shifting political power in Nagata-cho and President Barack Obama's re-election — to name but a few.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 7, 2012

Third force's reform proposals flashy but unreal

The so-called main third force parties hope to cast themselves after the Lower House election as viable alternatives to the established parties by proposing ambitious, even radical, reforms in a number of areas.
EDITORIALS
Dec 7, 2012

Addressing the nuclear power issue

The Dec. 16 Lower House election will be the first national-level election held since the 3/11 disasters, including the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. As if to show their concern over the plight of people whose lives have been disrupted by the nuclear catastrophe...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 5, 2012

Parties posture with grand pronouncements, few details

Privatization of Japan Post was the focal point in the 2005 general election. The 2009 election ended in a lopsided victory for the Democratic Party of Japan and the ouster of the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. This Dec. 16, voters will go to the polls to cast their judgment on nuclear power in...
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2012

Cast your ballots carefully

Disillusionment with politicians and established political parties has been growing in democratic countries for some time. Politicians are increasingly seen as venal. Some are incompetent and ignorant. Many are often arrogant and conceited. But we cannot do without them.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2012

Dangerous moves on supreme law

The campaign for the Dec. 16 Lower House election began Tuesday with candidates running from a dozen parties. The election results will have a great impact not only on people's daily lives but also on the general future direction of Japan. Voters should carefully weigh each party's stance on various...
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2012

Stock exchange merger

Following approval by shareholders on Nov. 20, Tokyo Stock Exchanges Group and Osaka Securities Exchange will merge on Jan. 1 and the Japan Exchange Group will become the holding company for the two exchanges. The newly created entity will rank fourth in the world in size, following the London Stock...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 4, 2012

Takeda exec pushing for more women at top

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Director Deborah Dunsire, the only female on a board of one of Japan's 10 largest public companies, says the drugmaker is just getting started in promoting more women to senior levels.
Japan Times
JAPAN / POSITIONING FOR THE POLL
Dec 4, 2012

Kada's party backs Hague treaty, monthly child support

Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada wants the nation to provide better child-rearing support, become a society that allows participation by everyone, and join the Hague Convention against abductions by estranged parents.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Dec 3, 2012

The best-kept secret in Japanese politics is that policies don't matter

Political parties in Japan are busy preparing for the Dec. 16 Lower House election. Each day, voters face new or newly merged parties, most of them determined to become part of the "third political force" or "third pole" forming to challenge the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and its two rivals —...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2012

Extending the Kyoto Protocol

More than 190 countries on Nov. 26 started a new round of talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Doha, Qatar, to discuss global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions believed to cause global warming.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2012

Tell the stories of those who refused

At first it had seemed like an ordinary day in that Jerusalem court in mid-1961, during the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the logistical mastermind of the Jewish deportations in the Holocaust. Hannah Arendt, the German-Jewish philosopher attending the trial as a journalist, wrote later of "endless sessions"...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 2, 2012

Horse power helps bring light to a national forest's gloom

If you drive, ride or fly over Japan, you might note that a very large part of the country is covered with trees. If you're traveling in autumn or early winter, you might also note that much of the forested land is in uniform patches and swaths of dense, dark green, or perhaps a faint pale-yellowish-brown....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 2, 2012

Why is the potential turning point of 3/11 being allowed to slip away?

Dried Anpo persimmons from Fukushima Prefecture are famed for staying fresh and juicy. However, for the second successive autumn, 90 percent of the crop has had to be discarded due to it registering radioactive contamination levels above legally set limits.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 2, 2012

Abe's rightism: Campaign ploy or governance plan?

The main election slogan of the Liberal Democratic Party, which polls say will prevail in the Dec. 16 general election, is "Restoring Japan," underlining its determination to reclaim the power it lost three years ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 1, 2012

Martial artist credits his achievements to the philosophy of kendo

Alex Bennett was 18 years old when he first read the wisdom — "From one thing, know 10,000" — in Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings." Now living this maxim, Bennett is a scholar, teacher, translator, writer, coach and active competitor in the martial arts.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 1, 2012

Martial artist credits his achievements to the philosophy of kendo

Alex Bennett was 18 years old when he first read the wisdom — "From one thing, know 10,000" — in Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings." Now living this maxim, Bennett is a scholar, teacher, translator, writer, coach and active competitor in the martial arts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 30, 2012

New Komeito not necessarily on same policy page as old, hawkish ally LDP

Revising the war-renouncing Constitution is not an urgent matter and neither the majority of the public nor the international community is supporting Japan's recent rightward tilt led by the Liberal Democratic Party, said Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of LDP ally New Komeito.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 28, 2012

DPJ platform: TPP, end of reactors

The Democratic Party of Japan unveiled on Tuesday its policy platform for the Dec. 16 Lower House election, vowing to end use of nuclear power by the 2030s and promote participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade accord.

Longform

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