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COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 29, 2009

Gaijin health coverage: an appeal for choice

Unless you've just made it to this corner of the world in the last couple of weeks, you're probably well aware of the new visa guideline that's scheduled to go into effect in April 2010. Because of this guideline, foreigners who wish to renew their visa and who are required to be enrolled in social health...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Grayer population

In its Respect for the Aged Day (Sep. 21) report, the internal affairs ministry made public its information about the population n Japan. As of Sept. 15, Japan's population stood at 127.56 million, down 120,000 from a year before. People aged 65 or over numbered 28.98 million (12.39 million men and 16.59...
EDITORIALS
Sep 28, 2009

Local accounting irregularities

The Chiba prefectural government has detected accounting irregularities totaling ¥29.79 billion from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2007. The irregularities were found at 383 — about 96 percent — of the prefectural government's sections, including the prefectural police.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 27, 2009

Murder with hefty history

PAPER BUTTERFLY, by Diane Wei Liang. Simon and Schuster, 2009, 227 pages, $24.00 (hardcover) Reviewed by Mark Schreiber Mei Wang, the Beijing-based female private investigator who made her first appearance in "The Eye of Jade" (2008), is back. Burned out by the demands of her job in the Ministry of Public...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 27, 2009

Denied bear necessities of life

About a week ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a headline at the BBC Web site that made me pause: "Bear injures 9 at bus terminal." The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why was a bear waiting for a bus?"
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Bike tours offer a new view of the city

Despite long-standing conflicts between cyclists and others with a stake in using Tokyo's streets, Japan's capital can be a great place to tour by bike — as I discovered last weekend while participating in the "Tokyo Great Cycling Tour," a one-day guided trip organized by Tokyo-based operator Alive...
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2009

Probe launched into four secret pacts with U.S.

Under direct orders from the new administration, Foreign Ministry officials launched a comprehensive investigation Friday into secret pacts with the United States, including an accord to allow entry of U.S. ships and aircraft carrying nuclear arms into Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 26, 2009

Reaching young people with music

When someone asks his age, Michael Di Stasio sometimes responds that it is the same as the late king of pop, Michael Jackson: "May he rest in peace."
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

Observing the pieces of a fragmented self

From an overwhelming slew of art, literature, music, cinema and theater references, there seems to emerge a provisional feel for order in William Kentridge's filmic worlds: worlds created between the artist and spectators' activity in constructing narratives from discrete fragments. How this materializes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2009

Asagiri Jam

The last major outdoor music festival of the year, Asagiri Jam has been dubbed "the real Fuji Rock Festival" due to its very scenic location at the foot of Mount Fuji in Shizuoka. The two-day concert was established in 2001 and inspired by the spirit of the late 1960s and the communal atmosphere at early...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 25, 2009

'Paulus' to mark Mendelssohn bicentennial

To mark the bicentennial of the birth of German composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847), two choral groups and two instrumental groups based in Tokyo will present "Paulus (St. Paul)," the first of the composer's oratorios.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 25, 2009

On the pleasure of self-deception

William Kentridge is known for his hand-drawn animations that evoke the quaint charms of the silent film era while unflinchingly observing the brutality of contemporary society, with many of his works drawing from the context of his native South Africa.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 25, 2009

Osaka swims with aquatic exhibitions

Eight museums run by the city of Osaka are displaying exhibits related to water this week, as part of the "Museum Weeks Osaka 2009" campaign.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2009

JAL president asks for public fund injection

Japan Airlines Corp. President Haruka Nishimatsu on Thursday asked transport minister Seiji Maehara for a capital injection of public funds to keep the troubled carrier flying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2009

Miyake score taps the exotic

Jun Miyake is a self-proclaimed lover of the exotic. Nowhere is this more evident than in his latest composition, the music for a revival of avant-garde playwright Shuji Terayama's 1977 play, "Chugoku no Fushigina Yakunin" ("The Miraculous Mandarin").
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 23, 2009

Details on how Japan's dolphin catches work

Dolphin slaughters in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, have drawn strong protests from animal rights groups, their supporters and foreign media over what they call the brutality of the traditional hunt.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 22, 2009

Lifelines lead back to World War II

Seeking an old friend Kevin Roop, writing to us from the U.S., is trying to find an old friend of his 85-year-old father, Vernon Roop, a veteran of World War II who after the war was based with his unit, the 5th AAF, at Tachikawa Air Base in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2009

Down by the waterside

Rivers, fountains, roses and art; they're all there on Nakanoshima Island in Osaka, just a stone's throw away but a world apart from the flashy neon and garish glitz of the city's bustling Dotonbori dining and entertainment hub.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Sep 20, 2009

Mystery on the 'Dark Dinner' menu

One evening in mid-August, a dozen people gathered at Ryokusenji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district for a meal. But this was to be no regular feast, as the diners sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers would all be blindfolded and served a series of dishes the organizers would not disclose beforehand....
LIFE / Travel
Sep 20, 2009

Down by the waterside

Rivers, fountains, roses and art; they're all there on Nakanoshima Island in Osaka, just a stone's throw away but a world apart from the flashy neon and garish glitz of the city's bustling Dotonbori dining and entertainment hub.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 20, 2009

Urban warfare medieval style

Aikido, judo, jujitsu, kendo, karate, sumo: Surely Japan has enough martial arts to keep even the most voracious of combat connoisseurs entertained for a lifetime, right? Wrong.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 19, 2009

Tokyo rabbi gives unconditionally

"Whatever we have, we give 100 percent," says Binyomin Edery, the 33-year-old chief rabbi at Chabad House in Tokyo. "Our bank account is at zero! If we have one, we give two; if we have two, we give four. That's what we do."
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2009

Colombo risks squandering Sri Lanka's hard-won peace

If Sri Lanka is to become a tropical paradise again, it must build enduring peace. This will only occur through genuine interethnic equality, and a transition from being a unitary state to being a federation that grants provincial and local autonomy.

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