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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2013

Land parliamentary secretary resigned over sex scandal involving a minor

The abrupt resignation of the land ministry's parliamentary secretary, was the result of a sex scandal involving a minor, according to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 4, 2013

Cyclists who flout law face charges

Traffic accidents have witnessed an overall decline in recent years, but the percentage of cases involving bicycles is on the rise. National Police Agency data show bicycles were involved in 20.8 percent of all traffic accidents in 2011, up 18.5 percent from 2001.
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 4, 2013

Composting food waste growing trend in America

Roy Derrick maneuvered his forklift with a pallet of neatly boxed expired produce and flowers and dropped it into an industrial compactor at Safeway's cavernous return center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. As the compactor hummed, compressed food and floral scraps spilled through a chute into a 12-meter...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 4, 2013

'Abenomics' will either make or break Japan's economy

This story is concerned with money, vast sums of it, amounts quite beyond most people's imagination. The operative word is chu014d (u5146, trillion).
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 3, 2013

Celebrity bloggers not required to disclose paid endorsements

In December several celebrities were forced to apologize publicly for stating on their personal blogs that they had "won" items on so-called penny auction websites when, in fact, they hadn't.
BASKETBALL
Feb 2, 2013

Cinq Reves acquire veteran guard Cummard

Looking to fine tune their roster for the season's final three months, the Tokyo Cinq Reves have signed former BYU shooting guard Lee Cummard, the expansion team announced on Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 member's 'penance' shows flaws in idol culture

The image of a young girl in front of a camera, her head recently shaved, sobbing into the lens is one that's guaranteed to shock. But when that girl is a key member of idol group AKB48, the reaction is bound to be stronger.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2013

AKB48 idol begs for fans' mercy after breaking dating ban

A member of AKB48 stirs up an online frenzy by getting a crew cut and posting an apology for breaking the all-girl group's rule against romantic relationships.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 29, 2013

In Japan, gun control is the norm and discipline is rigid

The recent mass shootings in the United States have spurred the White House to pursue what many in the nation consider taboo: strict gun controls.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 22, 2013

The blunt, blue-blooded Aso is back

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be the face of the new government led by Liberal Democratic Party, but Finance Minister Taro Aso is also a force in the LDP to be reckoned with.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 18, 2013

Yokohama's Geary recalls getting to meet NBA legends

Like every midseason showcase, the 1997 NBA All-Star Weekend in Cleveland was a marquee event, not only for its collection of active players — Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, et al — but also for the much-planned celebration of the league's storied history.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 16, 2013

CV frauds revealed by diligent online fact checks

In recent years, there have been several cases where Japanese media icons, especially those who shine across national and language borders, have been accused of falsifying their personal histories, and they have consequently lost whatever popularity they had gained through the mass media and/or books....
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 15, 2013

Tokyo hopes this Olympics bid wins

Tokyo's quest to host the 2020 Olympics entered a new stage last week when it presented its candidature file to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 14, 2013

Hit product lists laud the year's marketing successes

Toward the end of every year, Japan's print media and many business organizations look back on "hit products" whose successes helped define consumer spending over the previous 12 months.
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 13, 2013

Corn tech limited drought losses

Des Moines Iowa AP, BLOOMBERG
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jan 11, 2013

Gomez, Ogawa helping Shiga stay in playoff picture

In 10-game increments, you can get a pretty good measure of how a team is playing during the long, 52-game bj-league regular season.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 8, 2013

U.S. imagination goes wild regarding Iranian 'threat'

Reading the text of a bill that was recently signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama would instill fear in the hearts of ordinary Americans.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 6, 2013

Additives: Let's hope we are not what we eat

Four-legged chickens
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 1, 2013

Myriad options for studying Japanese in the sticks

Reader JA is seeking a Japanese language school in the countryside here for his 18-year-old son.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 30, 2012

As the new year approaches, Japan still reels from 2011

What a sad, sad country this is. What sad shape it's in, as this Year of the Dragon draws to a close. Economically, politically socially, individually, it is merely scraping by, surviving rather than living.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Dec 28, 2012

Endure New Year's on TV with the rest of Japan

Last year, NHK's annual New Year's Eve song contest, "Kohaku Uta Gassen" (7:15-11:45 p.m.), enjoyed its first ratings boost in more than a decade. As the most hallowed tradition in Japanese broadcasting, the program offered some needed end-of-year holiday solace for a nation still recovering emotionally...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 25, 2012

LDP returns with all its old baggage

They're baaaack. After warming the opposition bench for more than three years, the Liberal Democratic Party has returned to power, hungrier and more eager than ever to rule.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 23, 2012

Abe is a hawk, the public merely conservative

Commenting acidly on November's U.S. presidential election, American columnist George Will said all it showed was "whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney has the smaller gigantic number of Americans not wanting him to be president." Substitute the names of Prime Minister-elect Shinzo Abe and outgoing Prime...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2012

Public works funds best spent fixing aging infrastructure

Last week's Lower House election was all about what people didn't want — the Democratic Party of Japan — but the issue foremost in voters' minds was the state of the economy, and new prime minister Shinzo Abe has made that his first priority by pledging to boost inflation through monetary easing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2012

Hatsune Miku goes highbrow

On her own, Japanese pop superstar Hatsune Miku can't sing. Nor can she rap, dance or DJ. She is drug- and alcohol-free because she can't indulge in either, and she can't have affairs or engage in offstage shenanigans fit for YouTube scandals or tabloid headlines. Now entering her sixth year as a beloved...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 20, 2012

'Fans' fawn over 'Pingping'

Are vocal online fans of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping the real thing, or part of an elaborate and complex Potemkin village

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?