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EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2011

Dealing with population trends

Preliminary findings in the 2010 census released Feb. 25 by the internal affairs ministry underline the overall trend of a shrinking and graying population as well as a demographic imbalance characterized by a population rise in a few prefectures and a population drop in most prefectures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 6, 2011

Tadao Sato: 'Japan's single finest film critic'

Tadao Sato laughed an embarrassed laugh as he recalled that three years ago, in London, he had been referred to as a "legend." Though adding to his discomfort, I had to admit that in my university days I had thought of him in the same way. And I still do.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2011

What has become of Japan?

Recently, I had a most bizarre experience. I was walking down a street when a total stranger approached me and asked, "What will become of Japan?" And this happened not once but three times. Under a normal circumstance, those three people would have simply passed by wondering in which newspaper or TV...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2011

How does Japan start to cope with fewer births, longer lives?

Economic growth depends on the rates of population increase and technological evolution, among other factors. Technological evolution relies on the capacities of human beings. So its kernel factor is human power.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2011

Playwright Noda asks, 'What is a Japanese?'

In the early 1980s, when he was a student at the University of Tokyo, Hideki Noda began to emerge as a standard bearer of something new in Japan: Contemporary theater by — and for — young people seeking to change their country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 6, 2011

Yang Sok Gil: Writing about wrongs at home and abroad

Yang Sok Gil is renowned for his novels describing, with remarkable humanity and humor, people's wanton desires and the problems they cause, often from the viewpoint of minorities in Japan or elsewhere.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 1, 2011

Wheelchair pioneer out to change public perceptions

"You can't keep a good man down" is the darkly applicable phrase that springs to mind when listening to Yasuhiro "Mark" Yamazaki. The energy, conviction, sense of mission and utter absence of self-pity in this soft-spoken man is humbling.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 28, 2010

Mind the gap, get over it: Japan hands

Things have changed for the better for foreigners since the old days in Japan.
OLYMPICS
Dec 21, 2010

Protecting the elderly from abuse

In April 2006, the law to prevent abuse of people aged 65 or over went into force, requiring citizens to report any case of abuse to municipal governments. But the situation surrounding the elderly appears to be deteriorating. The welfare ministry reported on Nov. 22 that in fiscal 2009, there were 15,615...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2010

'Nitten' is no mere Braille library

Regular bookstores or libraries might not be much use to blind people, but there's one place in Tokyo where they can not only read and borrow books and meet others in similar situations, but also get advice on improving their quality of life — and even buy a range of everyday goods.
JAPAN / RESETTLEMENT
Dec 16, 2010

Pilot resettlement program put to test with first Karens

This fall, five families from Myanmar arrived in Japan filled with hope and excitement for a new life.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 7, 2010

Japan loses, rest of the world gains from 'one citizenship fits all' policy

Dear Diet Member Keiichiro Asao:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 5, 2010

Matsumoto Koshiro IX: A lifetime of kabuki

"Koraiya!" shouts someone in the audience, acclaiming the actor center stage. Feeding off the adulation, he launches into his next line. "What a useless fellow you are," he yells, berating the servant at his side. "You shall pay dearly!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 30, 2010

Flu prevention advice nothing to sneeze at

As winter sets in, hospitals are calling for people to get flu shots.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2010

The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

"Salarymen are fantastic," says DJ and producer Takkyu Ishino. "If there weren't so many of them doing their thing, then people like me would not be able to exist. If more people acted like me (outside the norm), then I wouldn't have had the life that I've had."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 7, 2010

Noriko Hama: Scholar brings economics to life

Clouds of gloom have been shrouding Japan and its economy for quite some time. The bursting of the asset- inflated economic bubble in the early 1990s, and the failures of banks, insurers and other big corporations later in that decade, has put a huge dent in Japan's collective self-confidence. That is...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 10, 2010

Polls highlight dark times perchance prior to Japan's new dawn

Second of two parts
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 9, 2010

Leaders' broken promises are costing lives

PRINCETON, N.J. — In 2000, the world's leaders met in New York and issued a ringing Millennium Declaration, promising to halve the proportion of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 3, 2010

Architect triumphs in defeat

Kengo Kuma might be the most self-effacing architect around. His trademarks are not large monumental forms or breathtaking sculptural shapes, but finely wrought details such as elegant stone cladding on a high-rise tower, an unlikely pitched roof or a superbly framed view on a garden.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 3, 2010

Japanese opinion polls now reflect reality far better than of yore

First of two parts
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 28, 2010

Building a world without barriers, borders

One afternoon in the mid-1980s, Hiroko Kimura was taking a rest from sightseeing on a park bench in Adelaide, southern Australia. As she was enjoying the warm sunshine, she spotted the words "Japs go home" carved into the wood. This was the height of the bubble years and Kimura was aware that some people...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 19, 2010

Thinking aloud

Few philosophers are compared to rock stars or TV celebrities, but that's the kind of popularity Michael Sandel enjoys in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 18, 2010

Hey, you — go home!

This is one of the few modern countries in the world where you can go back in time without ever leaving the current century.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 12, 2010

Aging through the ages

"If only, when one heard That Old Age was coming One could bolt the door Answer 'not at home' And refuse to meet him!" (Anonymous, "Kokinshu" Imperial poetry anthology, 10th century)
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2010

Japan good on HIV globally but not at home: U.N. exec

The head of the U.N. effort to deal with HIV and AIDS praises Japan for its commitment to the global battle against the pandemic but says domestic organizations need more support in raising awareness here.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 24, 2010

A new generation's search for ground zero

An estimated 140,000 were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, another 70,000 in Nagasaki, with thousands more succumbing to radiation-related illnesses in the months and years that followed. Shocking statistics like these are supposedly etched in history, taught in classrooms across Japan and...
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2010

Tattoo as art on human canvases

The human body becomes a canvas in the hands of tattoo artist Horiyoshi III. Each dot, each line is carefully engraved, until gradually it becomes a colorful masterpiece.
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2010

Where are the missing elderly?

One municipality after another is unable to locate people aged 100 or over. It is likely that more than 200 such people are unaccounted for nationwide. Among them are 105 names of elderly people on the residents' basic register in Kobe and 63 in Osaka. The situation highlights municipalities' failure...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 7, 2010

Why not ride the sushi train to work?

It is not the fault of the Seto Inland Sea islands themselves that they are suffering from declining populations. It's the glossy brochures put out by local governments that are to blame.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2010

Die-hard hikers assault Fuji from the coast

It was a 22-hour hike from the sea to the top of Japan's highest peak, starting out in scorching summer heat and ending with the temperature near zero.

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?