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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 10, 2012

NNTT hopes Generation 2.0 hears 'Silence'

The late classical composer Teizo Matsumura, American film director Martin Scorsese, and playwright/director Keiko Miyata may seem an unlikely trio, but they share a reverence for "Silence," the 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo.
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

Wider road to family medicine

Regarding the Jan. 10 editorial "Improving medical services": In order to achieve better medical services, Japan needs to create an effective family medicine system. Because of (1) distorted medical school curricula that place too much weight on specialization and (2) an educational system that enables...
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

Initiative beats kanji knowledge

Regarding Franz Pichler's Feb. 5 letter, "Only Japanese-speaking nurses": What Pichler seems not to appreciate is that it is not a question of Indonesian nurses being unable to speak Japanese. After three years in a Japanese environment, I'm sure that most of them have a level of Japanese proficiency...
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2012

Dubious reasons to attack Iran

It is hard not to be impressed by the one-dimensional reasons the United States gives for its various animosities.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2012

Hashimoto group claims union tried to tip election

Osaka Municipal Assembly members from Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group are pursuing allegations that a city labor union attempted to gather votes for Hashimoto's opponent in last November's election in possible violation of campaign laws.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2012

Questions over stress tests

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) on Jan. 18 judged "appropriate" the results of the stress tests of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. On Jan. 31, an International Atomic Energy Agency team determined that Japan's stress...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2012

Battlegrounds for bringing Wall Street to justice

What shall we make of the surprise pronouncement in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that a belated investigation has been launched into the role of fraud in the financial crisis?
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2012

Less respect for credit rating agencies

Italian investigative authorities have started investigating credit rating agencies on suspicion of manipulating markets by issuing ratings without a solid basis. The investigation appears to be retaliatory action for the agencies' downgrading of bonds of European countries.
Reader Mail
Feb 5, 2012

Higher level of political discourse

Kevin Rafferty's Feb. 1 article, "President Obama's dreams are suffering nightmares," reads like a love letter to Barack Obama, calling him the "young, intelligent, telegenic president."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 5, 2012

Yakushima free-stay takes some fearful turns

"Oh, if you want to pee you can just do it out the front door," my host Yuki says as he gives me an introductory tour of the house and points out the powder room — merely a pit with a long drop and an unconnected toilet pedestal covering the hole.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2012

TSE glitch no payday for platforms

Japan's alternative trading platforms missed out on a potential payday as regulators stopped them from fielding orders when a computer error caused the biggest trading disruption in six years Thursday at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 3, 2012

Ice sculptures, snow slides at Hokkaido fest

The City of Sapporo will be hosting the 63rd annual Snow Festival this month. The event is considered a "must see" for tourists and about 2 million people visited the festival last year.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2012

Execs indicted for N. Korea exports

Two executives from small trading houses in Nagoya and Tokyo were indicted Wednesday for allegedly violating government trade sanctions by exporting used personal computers to North Korea.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2012

Genba meets AKB48 China envoys

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba met with members of all-girl idol group AKB48 on Thursday and thanked them for taking part in a campaign to attract Chinese tourists and dispel harmful rumors about the safety of Japanese food products.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2012

System glitch halts some trading on TSE

The Tokyo Stock Exchange suffered its biggest system glitch in six years Thursday, temporarily suspending trade of 241 stocks and other financial instruments for more than three hours.
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2012

Net loss forecast shoots to ¥220 billion

Sony Corp., Japan's largest consumer-electronics exporter, widened its full-year net loss forecast to ¥220 billion from the ¥90 billion loss predicted in November, the company said in a statement Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 2, 2012

Tokyo Jihen "Color Bars"

Tokyo Jihen's first five albums have titles relating to types of television programming, "Sports" or "Variety" or "Adult." The Shiina-Ringo-led group's sixth album, though, is titled "Color Bars," after the rainbow lines that grace the TV screen during technical difficulties or dead-air time. It's a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2012

The rootless woodblock prints of Kuniyoshi

There have been several exhibitions of the 19th-century ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi in recent years. In 2009, there was "Woodblock Prints of Eccentricity and Laughter" at the Fuchu Art Museum and last year we had "Utagawa Kuniyoshi: Unparalleled Ukiyo-e Artist" at the Ota Memorial...
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2012

The rootless woodblock prints of Kuniyoshi

There have been several exhibitions of the 19th-century ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi in recent years. In 2009, there was "Woodblock Prints of Eccentricity and Laughter" at the Fuchu Art Museum and last year we had "Utagawa Kuniyoshi: Unparalleled Ukiyo-e Artist" at the Ota Memorial...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2012

Privacy and Net cafes — a tale of two cities

Kazushi Takahashi, a 22-year-old student in Tokyo, likes the privacy provided by closed individual rooms in Internet cafes, where he can surf the Web, play online games and read manga.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2012

Foreigners' poor test grades force rethink on nurse tests

Non-Japanese applicants hoping to become certified nurses could see the government's notoriously rigorous exams get easier with the inclusion of English-language tests and a new set of communication exams based on basic Japanese.
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2012

Don't short-shrift the 'Big One'

I find the Jan. 24 front-page Kyodo brief "New 'Big One' forecast: four years" very disturbing. This topic would appear to be a very serious matter as the story states that Japan could experience a catastrophe much greater and much more deadly than the tragedy experienced in the Tohoku-Pacific region...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2012

Disaster adds tension to year-in-the-life TV

Fuji TV's Sunday afternoon documentary series "The Non-Fiction" usually covers individuals over long periods of time. "The Old Man and Radiation," aired in two parts on Jan. 15 and 22, was about Toshihiko Kawamoto, an 80-year-old former carpenter who moved from Tokyo to the wilds of Fukushima Prefecture...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 28, 2012

Kyoto-based Italian physicist blazes trail for foreign academics

Professor Giuseppe Pezzotti, 51, a materials scientist at Kyoto Institute of Technology, effortlessly switches from a newspaper interview in English to discuss research collaboration with a colleague in fluent Japanese. Even sartorially, he straddles East and West: While his torso is clad in button-down...
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jan 28, 2012

Aichi's denizens warm to foreigners

Most Aichi residents like the idea of having many foreign residents living among them, according to a prefectural survey.

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