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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 22, 2012

Self-effacement is a fine thing, but does Japanese culture take it too far?

What is it that has aided the people of Tohoku in coping with the tragedy inflicted on that region of northeast Honshu by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011? The entire world marveled at their resilience, courage and stoic altruism.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2012

What to call baby?

While clearing closets at my parents' house in Nara in December following my mother's death the month before, I came across a large square card in a pile of old documents. A snapshot of a baby looking at a birthday cake was glued in the center of the card, and I recognized that it was me at the time...
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2012

Encouragement after tragedy

People in Kobe and adjacent areas on Tuesday prayed for the souls of the victims of the Jan. 17, 1995, earthquake, which killed 6,434 people. This year's anniversary was special. It was the first anniversary remembered since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami, which devastated the Pacific coastal areas...
Japan Times
JAPAN / NUCLEAR AWAKENING
Jan 5, 2012

Disasters kick-started dormant volunteer spirit

The March disasters generated an outpouring of volunteerism unseen since — let alone matched by — what followed the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2012

Ties that continue in 2012

Choosing the word of the year for 2011 must not have been easy, but kizuna, meaning bonds or ties, was an excellent choice that will be important in this coming year as well. The Japan Kanji Association announced its choice at Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, a place that for many feels like the spiritual heart...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2012

Quality of governance in 2012

Even though the new year has started, it is impossible for people in Japan to put 2011 behind them. The effects of the March 11 triple disasters — the magnitude-9 earthquake followed by the massive tsunami that devastated the Tohoku coastal area, plus the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jan 1, 2012

Mayumi Kagita: A fusion of cultures revealed in dance

On Nov. 19, the Pit hall of the New National Theatre, Tokyo, in Shibuya, was filled with hundreds of eager theater-goers. They had come to see a performance of "Onna Goroshi Abura no Jigoku" ("The Women-Killer and the Hell of Oil"), a play written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) — Japan's greatest...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

We asked three long-term foreign residents to give their thoughts about Japan's past year and the coming year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 31, 2011

Used bookstores turn to Internet sales for a lift in turbulent times

Last of two parts
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 25, 2011

It's time to turn over a new leaf in the sheaf of identities we carry with us

Far be it from me to put soot in Santa's chimney, but there is a pet peeve I've just got to get off my chest.
LIFE
Dec 25, 2011

The holy trinity of religions

Michael Hoffman's latest book is "Little Pieces: This Side of Japan" (VBW, 2010)."In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." — Genesis 1:1
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 24, 2011

Tokyo's bookworms find readers' paradise in used bookstores

First of two parts
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 20, 2011

Cultural relativism, Meiji, phonetics and eigo woes

Some readers' responses to Nicolas Gattig's Nov. 22 Zeit Gist column, headlined "MacArthur, identity theory and Japan's lingering eigo woes":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 4, 2011

Tenten Hosokawa: Drawing the blues away

In the last few decades, clinical depression in Japan has emerged from its longstanding obscurity shrouded in shame and guilt to becoming far more openly recognized as a national disease.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2011

Welfare recipients hit new high

The health and welfare ministry announced on Nov. 9 that the number of people on welfare receiving livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection) reached 2,050,495 nationwide as of July 2011, topping the monthly average record of 2,046,646 marked in fiscal 1951, when Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2011

French researchers seek raison d'etre of hikikomori

Is the hikikomori phenomenon unique to Japan — or does it exist in other societies, too?
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2011

Paradoxes pervade gender issues' public face in Japan

Transgender people are popping up everywhere in the current Japanese media landscape. Whether it's appearing on variety shows or hawking soft drinks or makeup in TV ads, the current crop of "new-half" celebrities have established themselves in the mainstream in a way that has surprised many onlookers....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2011

Cookouts along Tama drawing flak

For the people of Tokyo, the wide banks of the Tama River are among the most popular places to have a barbecue.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 13, 2011

'Calamity' awaits those unready for climate-change refugees

There is a wonderful expression in Japanese: Fūdo ni nareru, which means something like "to become acclimatized to natural conditions."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 6, 2011

Kiyoshi Nakabayashi: Ex-Tokyo cop speaks out on a life fighting gangs — and what you can do

Kiyoshi Nakabayashi well remembers how, when he was a high school student in the late 1950s and early '60s, newspapers were full of stories of violent gang wars being fought out openly on the streets of Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 5, 2011

What are they thinking?

People in the Japanese countryside do some strange things. It's enough to make you wonder, "What are they thinking?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2011

Schizophrenic Constitution leaves foreigners' rights mired in confusion

Pop quiz: Who live in palatial homes in fashionable Tokyo neighborhoods but are subject to various forms of discrimination, have no family registry, can't vote and have limited constitutional rights?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011

Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again

Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2011

Social media urban legends

The ever-expanding universe of social-media technologies — including video-sharing, mobile phones, and networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter that allow individuals to share and connect — is as ubiquitous as it is misunderstood. Apostles hail its power to oust dictators and bring us together;...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2011

Satoshi Kamata: Rebel spirit writ large

Monday, Sept. 19, was Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. But on that sweltering national holiday, it wasn't the heat that that drew tens of thousands of people to Meiji Park in central Tokyo, but their concerns for all the nation's citizens, and others, who may face a threat from nuclear power.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 27, 2011

Words of wisdom from JFK to Japan's new chief

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 21, 2011

Interviewed like a star: Anonymous question and answer site is proving popular in Japan

Over the last month or so, a new social service has risen out of the blue in the Japanese Web.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 13, 2011

The loneliness — or otherwise — of the long-distance foreigner

The Japan Times received a large number of readers' emails in response to Debito Arudou's Just Be Cause column published Aug. 2, headlined "The loneliness of the long-distance foreigner." Here, belatedly, are a selection.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Is China's economic miracle a mirage?

Doubts are beginning to be heard about how sustainable is China's economic miracle, particularly the relentless emphasis on exports and investment spending by hundreds of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local governments. Beijing, of course, has its supporters, including banker turned academic Stephen...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 4, 2011

Alfons Deeken: Priest-philosopher makes death his life's work

On Friday, July 22, as the stifling heat and humidity of summer relented for just a fleeting few days, hundreds of people filled a hall at Enkakuji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, to listen to a lecture by philosophy scholar Alfons Deeken.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?