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Reader Mail
May 31, 2012

Tepco admits to incompetence

To a person like me following the developments in Japan from a distance, it is shocking to learn that the initial radiation levels from the meltdown of the reactors at Fukushima were 2.5 times the levels originally estimated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.!
CULTURE / Music
May 31, 2012

AKB48 'election' shows marketing brilliance

The biggest event of the year for AKB48, the 48-member pop group that's the most popular music act in Japan today, arrives next Wednesday.
JAPAN
May 29, 2012

'Various reasons' halted sex slave exhibit: Nikon

Nikon Corp. canceled its planned photo exhibition of wartime sex slaves for "various reasons," the major camera maker has announced.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2012

Sumitomo Mitsui in insider probe

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc., the nation's fourth-biggest bank by market value, said it's being investigated for possible insider trading, the second such probe in two months.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 28, 2012

Edano alleges Tepco planned No. 1 pullout

Trade minister Yukio Edano, the government's top spokesman during the March 11 disasters, testified Sunday at the Diet that Tokyo Electric Power Co. considered withdrawing all its workers and abandoning the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant amid the meltdown crisis.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

A roughshod run over contracts

Regarding the May 23 Kyodo article "Hashimoto: Answer tattoo survey or else": The debate surrounding tattoos on public employees in Osaka can evoke a lot of emotion, so it is helpful to approach it from clearly defined principles.
JAPAN / Media
May 27, 2012

Nuke documentary experiments with online fundraising

At one point or another, every filmmaker, producer or journalist has dreamed about freeing themselves from the financial restraints of media production. The team behind "We Are All Radioactive" — a documentary about a community of surfers and fishermen in the small tsunami-stricken town of Motoyoshi...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 27, 2012

Nuclear power profiteers seem keen to risk getting blood on their hands

Areport this year by the Independent Investigation Committee on the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, a group set up in September 2011 by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, condemned what it called Japan's "absolute safety myth." The Japanese government, in collusion with the media and the regional electric-power...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 27, 2012

Junko Tabei : The first woman atop the world

Almost exactly 37 years ago, on the morning of May 16, 1975, then 35-year-old Junko Tabei and her Sherpa guide Ang Tshering reached the 8,763-meter South Summit of Mount Everest — their final halt before pushing on to the 8,848-meter peak itself.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2012

Desperate Kurd plays final asylum card

The 42-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker's wife and four children fled back to Turkey more than a year ago, terrified about the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, but he stayed on, in limbo, hoping beyond hope that he would be permitted to remain in Japan.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 25, 2012

Shakuhachi players to gather in Kyoto for festival

The clear and deep sound of the shakuhachi, a vertical Japanese bamboo flute, will take center stage in Kyoto from May 28 to June 4.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 25, 2012

Namizato involvement casts cloud over Golden Kings' win

Ryukyu Golden Kings' 2011-12 championship memorabilia are now proudly displayed throughout Okinawa, what with the team dethroning the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix in Sunday's title game. At the same time, the long summer of discontent has already arrived.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 25, 2012

Play reveals manzai's U.S. roots

Watching the fast-paced, two-person manzai routines that characterize much of Japanese TV comedy these days, it's difficult to imagine that two key influences on that genre's birth were stars of cinema's silent era: Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 25, 2012

Fest focuses on European film

In Manchester, England, a hallucinating suicidal postman receives philosophical advice from a football legend. Meanwhile, in Sweden, a 12-year-old boy falls in love with the spooky girl next door, only to find out she is a vampire. And then there's the struggling interracial couple in war-stricken Netherlands,...
BUSINESS
May 25, 2012

Softbank may issue ¥50 billion in bonds

Softbank Corp. plans to sell at least ¥50 billion ($629 million) in bonds next week, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 24, 2012

Wi-Fi, Facebook and all that jazz

Fumito Fukuchi, owner and proprietor of Kissa Sakaiki jazz cafe in Tokyo's central Yotsuya neighborhood, grins as he puts the finishing touches to an online schedule.
JAPAN
May 24, 2012

Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building set to reopen

An "old and new" landmark will soon be back up and running at JR Tokyo Station.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 24, 2012

Matthias von Stegmann creates a modern German myth for Japan

Modern and mythological perspectives converge as the New National Theatre Tokyo's Opera Division looks to its past to envision the future. From June 1-16, German-Japanese director Matthias von Stegmann guides this new vision of Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin," last produced at NNTT in 1997, when the...
JAPAN
May 23, 2012

Skytree has elevator glitch on first day

Despite cold and rainy springtime weather Tuesday, Tokyo Skytree attracted thousands of people to the new landmark as the world's tallest tower opened to the public.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 22, 2012

The elephant in the foreigner's room now has a name: microaggression

Some positive and negative readers' reactions to Debito Arudou's provocative and widely read May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down":
JAPAN
May 22, 2012

Rare eclipse delivers spectacle despite cloudy weather

Monday's rare annular eclipse wowed millions nationwide as they looked up in the morning sky to witness the astronomical event.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go