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EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2011

Backing off from the nuke phaseout

In a high-level United Nations meeting on nuclear safety and security held Sept. 22, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda delivered a speech and said, "Japan is determined to raise the safety of nuclear power generation to the highest level in the world."
Japan Times
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 27, 2011

Geothermal trove lies mostly untapped despite energy crisis

Deep in the mountains of Aso-Kuju National Park, which straddles the border of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, it's easy to believe you are in central Hokkaido rather than in central Kyushu. It's July, but the daytime temperature is in low 20s and evenings are, depending on your preference, either comfortably...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 25, 2011

The helping hand of travel

Travel Guide To Aid Japan. WAttention, 2011, 159 pp. ¥1,000 (paper) Tourism is the world's foremost industry, one that Japan, until very recently, has been rather slow to take advantage of. Sophisticated travel writing has never been a significant component of Japanese literature, the country failing...
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2011

Unrealistic promise on Futenma

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with the U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time Wednesday in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. While the two leaders agreed to deepen the alliance between Japan and the United States, Mr. Obama urged Mr. Noda to make serious efforts to ensure...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2011

Fukuoka publisher offers discerning readers range of translated genre fiction

The Japanese publishing industry is facing a historic crisis, with total sales now only two-thirds of that in 1997 and hundreds of bookstores nationwide shutting down every year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 23, 2011

Forage your way into mushroom season

Edible mushrooms are a feature of the fall season in temperate climates worldwide, and Japan is no exception. The humid climate lends itself to the growth of all kinds of fungi, so it's easy to assume that mushrooms (or kinoko in Japanese) of all kinds have been included in the daily meals of the Japanese...
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2011

The economic morality play

World attention focuses on the problems of the Greek economy — no doubt with a large helping of schadenfreude added: There, but for the grace of God, go the rest of us is the thought.
Reader Mail
Sep 22, 2011

Antagonistic position baffles

In response to Laura Holland's Sept. 11 letter, "Tourists ignoring dolphin culls": First, I never suggested that the barbaric, inhumane dolphin drives in Japan were keeping tourists from coming to Japan. Unfortunately, concerns of radioactive content in foods and surroundings are now a deterrent for...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 21, 2011

Raise cigarette tax to cover medical costs: health chief

Tobacco taxes should be raised until the average price for a pack of cigarettes is about ¥700, or 75 percent more than the present level, to cut medical costs, according to health minister Yoko Komiyama.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2011

End the grad student quotas

Starting in the 1991 academic year (April 1991 through March 1992), a number of leading national universities in Japan underwent major structural changes, led by the Law School at the University of Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Sep 20, 2011

Juvenile issues bring couple together

Vincent Marx, 47, from the U.S. state of Washington, and his wife Emiko, a Tokyo native, first met at a juvenile detention center in Seattle in 1992.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2011

Stronger defense for region

Although the original version of this article was written for a Japanese daily, I initially had American readers in my mind as the main target of my argument.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 18, 2011

Carp's Sarfate keeps focus on game, not records

In 2010, it was Hanshin Tigers outfielder Matt Murton who broke the Japanese baseball record for most hits in a season when he banged out 214 safeties in his first year playing in the country.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2011

Slacker in public education funding

Japan's spending on education as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) is the lowest among 31 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a comprehensive survey released in September by the OECD found.
Japan Times
Rugby
Sep 17, 2011

All Blacks validate superiority with rout

The Brave Blossoms had momentum after a confidence-building opener against France, but that wave hit a wall the second time out.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 17, 2011

American out to save boat-building art

Douglas Brooks is a man on a mission. A boat builder and craftsman originally from Connecticut, Brooks is committed to helping keep afloat the dying craft of traditional boat building in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 16, 2011

Expect tons of surprises at Tokyo Game Show

For gamers, this weekend will feel like Christmas. Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Japan's biggest gaming event, began Thursday at Chiba's Makuhari Messe convention center and will continue through Sept. 18 (on Saturday and Sunday it will be open to the public). More than 140 exhibitors are on hand, off-site...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2011

March 11 disasters a turning point for Japanese civil society

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the coast of Japan on March 11, it was clear the scale of this disaster, compounded by the nuclear crisis in Fukushima, was unprecedented — even for natural disaster-prone Japan, where some 20 percent of the world's earthquakes occur.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2011

Tasks set for Mr. Noda

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in his first policy speech before the Diet on Sept. 13 refrained from talking about eye-catching slogans. Instead he concentrated on listing issues his Cabinet will tackle in earnest — reconstruction from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, putting the Fukushima nuclear...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 15, 2011

Don't miss those fleeting moments

The closest English photographer, and former night porter, Chris Shaw ever came to Japan was listening to stories at home in Merseyside from his Irish ex-merchant navy father. Sailor Shaw told his wide-eyed son of an extraordinary stopover in Osaka before the war in 1939, when he was granted shore leave....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 13, 2011

3/11: no excuse for skipping your re-entry visa

Shortly after the March 11 disasters, Hans left Japan without a re-entry permit. He came back on a tourist visa and is wondering if he can easily regain his previous visa status:
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 13, 2011

Despite mounting debt, yen still a safe haven

The yen climbed to and has remained at a historic high since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster. On Aug. 19 it hit a postwar high of 75.95 to the dollar, an event that has led the government to intervene in the foreign exchange market twice.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011

Print ad featuring MacArthur sends muddled message

On Sept. 2, a controversial newspaper advertisement placed by Takarajima-sha, a mid-tier publisher, went viral on Japanese blogs and Web news sites.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 11, 2011

Taro Yashima: an unsung beacon for all against 'evil on this Earth'

First of two parts
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2011

'Terrorists' got redefined after 9/11

Ten years after al-Qaida attacked the United States on Sept. 11, Japan has strengthened efforts to combat domestic and international terrorism through new legislation, policy directives and tougher immigration procedures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 9, 2011

Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake

Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country's biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider the meaning of the festival in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2011

"Jamaica Rocks"

A group of Jamaican musicians and dancers led by explosive "singjay" Abijah, as well as Tessanne Chin and rising star I Eye, have set off on a major tour of Japan. The tour is being coordinated by the Min-On Concert Association, in collaboration with the Embassy of Jamaica in Tokyo, and Jamaica's Ministry...

Longform

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