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Farmers in the city of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, have begun planting rice in a district once designated a no-go zone because of radioactive fallout ejected by the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Recently I was asked to write a blurb for a new liquid plant-nutrient. As soon as I saw the name of the product, 早根早起 （Hayane Hayaoki), I smiled at this example of linguistic creativity.
Life in Japan just seems tailor-made for certain foreign residents, who slip into the fabric of this society as smoothly as a hand slides into a glove. American Curtis Patterson, a professional koto player and music teacher, is a case in point. Not only ...
Denmark’s Emmelie de Forest won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune “Only Teardrops,” despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine. Juries and television viewers across Europe awarded the barefoot, ...
One team’s quest for a first title has ended. The other team’s fight will continue next season. The Yokohama B-Corsairs outplayed the Rizing Fukuoka in Sunday’s bj-league championship game, controlling the tempo for larger stretches and making enough timely baskets to fill an instructional ...
Regarding the April 14 editorial “A positive step in Senkaku dispute“: Disputes over sovereignty are never easy to solve. Therefore, the agreement signed between Japan and Taiwan the week before last over fishing rights in the disputed sea near the Senkaku Islands (allowing Taiwanese ...
The April 12 editorial “A decisive but divisive leader” makes me contemplate a lot of things. For better or worse, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher played an active role in ending the Cold War and was one of the tough advocates of neoliberalism. ...
Regarding the April 12 Kyodo brief “Japanese universities best in Asia: It would be hasty to jump to the conclusion that Japan’s universities are flourishing despite the data released by the London-based Times Higher Education magazine. A reading of the original magazine article gives ...
Anyone who has been around someone who is trying to quit smoking knows the common effects: increased appetite and irritability. Therefore, the headline of the April 17 AFP-JIJI article “Australians smoking, drinking less, but getting heftier, more anxious” should come as a surprise to ...
I am baffled by the April 12 Kyodo article “Hiroshima gives disarmament grades,” which reports that Hiroshima prefectural authorities have judged the United States second best in reducing its nuclear arsenal and working for nuclear weapons nonproliferation. The U.S. is spending an additional $185 ...
In his April 14 paean to Baroness Thatcher, “‘Iron Lady’ is worth emulating,” Paul Gaysford advises Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to read her memoirs, “The Downing Street Years,” to fully grasp her own brand of conservatism. In this 915-page volume covering her time as ...
In his April 14 letter, “Social justice here and now” (a response to my April 4 letter, “Where does human respect live?“), Thomas Clark proves my point. Unable to refute what I actually said — that there is a correlation between human rights and ...
Regarding the April 11 article “Ishin leaders, Abe meet on revising Constitution“: Once more, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated his desire to revise Article 96 of the Constitution so that it can be amended by a simple majority in the Upper and Lower ...
I am so grateful to professor Jeff Kingston for his April 14 review of Adam Komisarof’s book “At Home Abroad: The Contemporary Western Experience in Japan.” I’ve lived here for nearly 17 years and have never really understood my own deep feelings about this ...
As someone who has spent his entire academic life in computational economics, I would like to comment on the April 12 Bloomberg article by theoretical physicist Mark Buchanan, titled “Beware economists who peddle cute models.” An economic model is based on the fundamental assumptions ...
I read Mark Buckton’s April 14 Timeout feature article, “Takarazuka: Japan’s newest ‘traditional’ theater turns 100,” and thought, “Maybe I need to get out more.” The Takarazuka Revue looks like the epitome of Japanese kitsch and gaudiness to me. In other words, pretty ugly. ...
Regarding the April 12 editorial “A decisive but divisive leader“: Once upon the time, the United Kingdom was labeled the “sick old man of Europe.” Margaret Thatcher, a female prime minister, challenged that image and wiped it out. When I look back on Japan’s ...