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Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2011

Downside of higher tobacco tax

One point of agreement on the Sept. 27 editorial "Health side of tobacco tax" — the Japanese government should sell its shares of Japan Tobacco as well as all shares of any other private company it owns. Governments have no business taking stakes in private companies because it will inevitably cause...
BUSINESS
Oct 1, 2011

It's 1987 without the bubble as the labor force shrinks

The labor force shrank in August to its smallest size since October 1987, when the Nikkei 225 average was 185 percent higher and land prices were 85 percent greater than Friday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2011

Mr. Putin's Kremlin comeback plan

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed at a Sept. 24 convention of the United Russia party that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin run for the presidential election set for March 2012. Mr. Putin accepted the proposal and his comeback as Russia's president is believed to be certain. He in turn called on...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 30, 2011

Sake circle raises a glass for Tohoku victims

A buzzy atmosphere of excitement hung in the air as sake fans lined up for the Wa ni Naro Nihonshu charity sake tasting last Friday afternoon. As attendees streamed through the front doors of Tokyo Dome City's vast Prism Hall, gasps of astonishment mingled with the spirited rhythms of live taiko drumming...
EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2011

Land prices continue decline

The land, infrastructure and transport ministry has found that as of July 1, the nationwide average residential land prices went down 3.2 percent from a year before — the 20th straight annual drop — and average prices for commercial areas fell 4 percent — the fourth straight decrease. The trend...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Sep 29, 2011

Plenty of problems in tax hike plan

The government and the Democratic Party of Japan have finalized their temporary tax hike plan and will ask the public to cough up ¥11.2 trillion to help reconstruct the disaster-hit Tohoku region, but experts Wednesday were quick to point out flaws in the hastily prepared blueprint.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2011

The cute 'n' kooky world of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japan's newest pop idol

A recurring theme in the Strange Boutique column has been the question of what has gone wrong with pop music in Japan. Amid discussions of the pernicious influence of advertising agencies, record industry conservatism in the face of declining sales, and the faceless, self-replicating Eurobeat monstrosity...
BUSINESS
Sep 28, 2011

U.S. push for battery, plug-in cars not cost-effective: study

U.S. government incentives to spur a market for battery-powered autos aren't a cost-effective way to cut oil use and tailpipe emissions, compared with boosting sales of hybrids and plug-in cars that go short distances on electricity, according to a new study.
EDITORIALS
Sep 27, 2011

Protection law fails whistleblowers

The Tokyo High Court on Aug. 31 reversed a lower court ruling and ordered Olympus Corp. to pay ¥2.2 million in damages to a 50-year-old employee who argued that the firm transferred him to different sections three times in retaliation for blowing the whistle on his boss. The firm appealed the ruling...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Sep 27, 2011

Jamaica coffee, music recipe for success

Yukiko Ariga, 39, a Tokyo native, visited Jamaica, where her friend was living, twice on holiday because she loved reggae music. Eventually, she decided that she wanted to do something different in her life, so she went to live and work in the Caribbean nation in 1998.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2011

Delays over, Boeing has high hopes for slick 787

Boeing Co. was to hand over the first 787 Dreamliner on Monday to end more than three years of delays for a plane the company says will become a benchmark for decades in terms of technology and passenger amenities.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 25, 2011

Japan's noisy neighbors keep-a knocking

Sanshoku, the word for "encroachment" in Japanese, is written with characters meaning "silkworm" and "to eat." Imagine a mulberry leaf, being slowly consumed from the outer edges, nibble by nibble, by writhing white worms. Then overlay this leaf on a map of the Japanese archipelago, and look at the spots...
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
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011

'The Company Men'

Years ago, Tommy Lee Jones came to Tokyo and said to a room full of overworked reporters: "I envy the Japanese. You don't have any vacation time. I hate vacations, they make me ill." That must have struck a resounding chord with the media here, because soon after that Jones started appearing in ads,...
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2011

Honda spending $50 million on Ohio plant to restore full production in U.S.

Honda Motor Co. is spending $50 million to expand a transmission factory in Ohio as it upgrades U.S. assembly operations and works to restore full production slowed by an earthquake.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 22, 2011

Tradition that hides in abstraction

Abstraction came into vogue during a reinvigorated period of the 1950s and '60s, following on from its introduction by experimental Japanese artists of the 1910s, who were influenced by European importations of Expressionism, Cubism and Futurism.
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.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 18, 2011

Castles and Crafts on the Yomitan Peninsula

Most people come to the Yomitan Peninsula on Okinawa's main island for the sand and the scuba opportunities. I, however, am one of those island residents on whom paradise is wasted — I like neither a sweltering day at the beach nor an afternoon spent exploring the intimidating world beneath the waves....
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2011

Accelerate reconstruction

Six months after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku Pacific coastal areas on March 11, people there are continuing to rebuild together their lives. In Fukushima Prefecture, people have suffered not only from the natural disasters but also from the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 13, 2011

Kawabata says too early to sell Japan Post shares

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Tatsuo Kawabata said Monday it is too early for the government to consider selling its shares in Japan Post Holdings Co. as a source of financing reconstruction in the disaster-hit areas.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 13, 2011

Maeda eyes Eco-point plan to revive Tohoku

New transport minister Takeshi Maeda says he wants to bring back the Housing Eco-point incentive system to achieve low-carbon, sustainable cities in the quake- and tsunami-hit Tohoku region.
EDITORIALS
Sep 10, 2011

Switzerland wages war

In a move that jolted currency markets, the Swiss National Bank, the European nation's central bank, pledged this week to drive down the value of its currency, the Swiss franc. The move was prompted by the rising value of the franc against the euro, a trend that has pummeled Swiss exporters.

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