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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 9, 2012

Burden of proof lies with employer to justify withdrawing job offers

Reader DD writes: "I am currently unemployed. My last day as an employee of my previous company (Company A) was July 31. My reason for leaving was 1) management had decided to shut down the Tokyo team, and 2) I was going to join a competitor (Company B).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 7, 2012

Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life'

Shigesato Itoi is an established name in the Japanese cultural scene, but what he is known for may differ depending on who you ask.
EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2012

Cracking down on quasi-legal drugs

The use of the so-called dappo doraggu or quasi-legal drugs is spreading. They cause hallucination, intoxication and other euphoria but are not categorized as narcotics or stimulant drugs, whose possession or use is prohibited by law. An increasing number of young people are smoking dappo habu or quasi-legal...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 30, 2012

Teleworking: Home sweet ... office

On March 13, 2011, just two days after the Great East Japan Earthquake, as massive aftershocks rocked the capital and fears of a radioactive cloud spreading over the country seemed all-too real, Yasuyuki Higuchi, president of a Tokyo-based software company, sat down and typed an email to his 2,200 staff....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 25, 2012

It's not all about the mid-life crisis

Finding the solution to a difficult problem lies in asking the right questions. On the afternoon of Sept. 1, in a stylish office building in Aoyama, a gathering of Japanese life coaches practiced this Socratic skill in groups of four. It was a role-playing exercise, in which one person played the role...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 15, 2012

Bone up on your tax audit ninjutsu to fight back

Our island of 602 people has a PA system that is used to make important public announcements. While these announcements usually concern typhoon warnings, ferry cancellations and funeral announcements, the PA system is not limited to these. Temple ceremonies are announced too, such as Buddha's birthday...
COMMENTARY
Sep 13, 2012

Airports: too few or too many?

A hot political question in London in recent weeks has been the need for more airport capacity to meet the needs of business in the 21st century. A neutral observer might think that this is essentially a matter that should be settled on the basis of supply and demand and the relationship between these...
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2012

Democrats stake their claim

Party conventions in the United States are rallies for the faithful. Three days of speeches and pageantry are crafted to move from one emotional peak to the next, to fire up the troops, and provide the intellectual and policy framework for the campaign that will follow. Putting the conventions back to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 24, 2012

Ridley Scott returns to sci-fi with 'Prometheus'

"As a cinematic genre, science-fiction has a longer shelf life than most," says director/producer Sir Ridley Scott. The mastermind behind such classics as "Alien" (1979), "Blade Runner" (1982) and this year's "Prometheus" is referring to how aspects of a sci-fi film can morph from fiction into fact with...
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2012

Mr. Putin's butterflies

Alexander Pope's question — "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" — is as compelling as ever in the wake of the two-year sentences handed down Friday by a Russian court to three young women convicted of hooliganism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 18, 2012

Innovative organic farming achieves sustainability in rural Hokkaido

How to endure? It's an elemental question perfectly matched to the endless, ripening fields of the organic farm Land Mann in the town of Biei, Hokkaido.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 18, 2012

Japan's career fairies — they're ready to help you

One job that exists in Japan that doesn't in my country is that of the career fairy. These are people, usually women, who work at places like the central post office or the bank and are on hand to help customers as they walk in the door. And as a customer, of course you need help.
COMMENTARY
Aug 17, 2012

Ryan invites a 'conversation'

The selection of Paul Ryan — chairman of the House Budget Committee — as Mitt Romney's vice presidential candidate has the potential to turn this dreary presidential campaign into a meaningful debate over the size and role of the federal government.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2012

Munificently treading water

Reciprocity is the first principle of diplomacy, and India has walked the extra mile to befriend neighbors, as underscored by its record on land and water disputes. Yet today, India lives in the world's most-troubled neighborhood.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 10, 2012

Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson back to save the world in 'The Avengers'

Actor Robert Downey Jr. is eager to share his theory of why superheroes are now so prominent and popular at cinemas across the United States.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / LONDON POSTCARD
Jul 30, 2012

Advertisers have fun with 'Flag-gate'

Scanning the headlines of newspapers (print editions) that are rarely available in Japan, is a delightful way to spend some time in the morning in the British capital.
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Put a lid on 'malignant' shills

Regarding the July 16 Kyodo article "Public reactor hearing (Sendai) rocked by alleged government shill": A Japanese seminar or workshop usually has a question-and-answer time at the end for audience members. People are so shy that none wants to ask the first question. An awkward silence may ensue. To...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 22, 2012

Shisaku

Shisaku is a homophone meaning essay, a meditation upon a subject, a policy or measures a government takes. A fitting title for analyst Michael Cucek's blog which provides insight and opinion on Japanese politics, with a distinct hint of satire. In the eight years he's been writing the blog, Shisaku...
EDITORIALS
Jul 22, 2012

Signs of bullying go unheeded

The suicide of a 13-year-old junior high school boy in Otsu in October 2011, apparently due to bullying, has shocked the nation. The bereaved family of the boy, who jumped to his death on Oct. 11 from his family's condominium, has filed a ¥77 million compensation lawsuit against the Otsu city government....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2012

Marx: the return of the giant

If an author's eternal youth consists of his capacity to keep stimulating new ideas, then it may be said that Karl Marx has without question remained young.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 8, 2012

Okinawa's first nuclear missile men break silence

In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of nuclear war after American spy planes discovered that the Kremlin had stationed medium-range atomic missiles on the communist island of Cuba in the Caribbean, barely over the horizon from Florida.
Jun 22, 2012

Cold War shadows Serb's win of key U.N. post

Shadows of the Cold War returned to the United Nations in the recent elections for president of the General Assembly, where a previously agreed candidate from Lithuania was challenged and subsequently defeated by a Russian-backed contender from Serbia.
Jun 21, 2012

Drone warfare clashes with law, human rights

As in other aspects of human life, the march of military technology has greatly outpaced the laws and institutions to regulate the behavior they make possible. The Obama administration has so greatly expanded the Bush policy of drone strikes as to leave neutral observers queasy about the legal regime...
Reader Mail
Jun 7, 2012

Constitutional worries misplaced

Regarding the allegation in the June 2 editorial "Naval exercise tweaks Constitution" that Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) participation in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise violated Japan's Constitution: This could only be stated by people completely unfamiliar with naval exercises....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 3, 2012

Homophobic joke goes awry for Beat

On the May 12 edition of the TBS current affairs variety show "Newscaster" comedian "Beat" Takeshi Kitano made a joke about homosexual unions during a discussion of U.S. President Barack Obama's recent comment in support of same-sex marriage. Kitano's mission as the program's resident chief commentator...
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2012

It's not healthy to make a chief justice 'worry'

In one of his characteristic conniptions about people who frustrated him, Theodore Roosevelt, progressivism's first president, said of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, "I could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that." TR was as mistaken about Holmes' spine as are various progressives...
SUMO
May 29, 2012

Kyokutenho: the first Japanese yusho in six-plus years . . . sort of

In recent years it has been possible to start the regular post-basho article several days before a tournament wraps up.
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.
EDITORIALS
May 21, 2012

True prosecution reform

In the trial of former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa, charged with conspiracy to falsify political fund reports, the Tokyo District Court said his testimony could not be trusted because it contained changes in time and other irregularities. (He was acquitted but faces an appellate trial.)...

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Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
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