Akemi Nakamura - The Japan Times

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Akemi Nakamura

For Akemi Nakamura's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

JAPAN

Jan 11, 2008

Reaching a resolution on 'balance billing' won't come soon

The government's ban on health insurance coverage of medical treatment provided in combination with uninsured therapy creates unnecessary financial problems for patients who need the uninsured but advanced treatment, critics charge.

Japan Times

JAPAN / THIS FOREIGN LAND

Jan 3, 2008

Flexible and diverse, international schools thrive

Second in a series

JAPAN

Dec 15, 2007

Pair share eco-friendly role model goals

they don't have any prejudice toward foreigners. Satoko: When I quarreled with him (before marriage), my parents told me I am the closest person to Peo and have to support him.

Japan Times

JAPAN / READERS' FUND

Dec 12, 2007

Kyoto NGO works to boost Afghan women's lot, literacy

This is the first in a series on how contributions to The Japan Times Readers' Fund last year — the 52nd since the campaign started — are being put to use. Readers donated ¥1,191,888 in 2006, which has gone to six groups helping needy people across Asia.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Dec 5, 2007

Hepatitis disaster another warning ignored

Ikuko Kuno gave birth to her first son at a maternity hospital in Ise, Mie Prefecture, in May 1988. The only thing different from when she gave birth to her daughter in 1986 was that the obstetrician gave her a blood-clotting agent to stop her hemorrhaging.

Japan Times

JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES

Dec 1, 2007

Bond forged in Nepal still going strong

Praveen Lama and Kazuko Tanikawa have lived in a bustling shopping street in Tokyo's Kita Ward since July 2003, when the Nepalese married his Japanese wife after a long-distance love affair that lasted several years through e-mails and phone calls.

JAPAN

Nov 22, 2007

Elderly play key role in society's safety net: study

pension. If they have money enough to spare, they give the spillover to their children's families," Ogawa said. "So the elderly have played a key role as a safety net in Japanese society." Ogawa's study took into account the national transfer accounts system, which was devised two years ago by a group of researchers led by two American economics professors.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Nov 10, 2007

Foreigners still dogged by housing barriers

Having arrived in Tokyo from Seoul about a year ago, Im Yeong Eun, like many foreigners who come to Japan, soon encountered a major difficulty — housing discrimination.

Japan Times

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Oct 30, 2007

Textbook screening — not always on same page

The spotlight has fallen again on textbook screening as people in Okinawa denounce the government's March instruction that publishers delete descriptions about the role the Imperial army played in ordering mass civilian suicides during the Battle of Okinawa.

JAPAN

Oct 17, 2007

Okinawans lobby in Tokyo for textbook changes

A group of 167 political leaders and activists from Okinawa urged the central government Tuesday to retract the education ministry's instruction to publishers to remove references to the military's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the Battle of Okinawa.

JAPAN

Sep 28, 2007

Tokai tasked with continuing education reforms

Fukuda to rebuild the education system," the 59-year-old Lower House member from Hyogo Prefecture said Wednesday. "As education is a pillar supporting a nation, I support this direction." The ministerial post, which Tokai assumed on Tuesday, is the lawmaker's first in a 21-year career. Begun under Abe, the Education Rebuilding Council has emerged as a major force behind the push to reform the public education system. Among other things, the 17-member panel has proposed increasing class hours by 10 percent at public elementary and junior high schools and augmenting ethics education. The council will continue to discuss further reform measures under Fukuda.

JAPAN

Sep 24, 2007

Public reaction mixed on nation's next leader

Aso lacks," Shuichi Minoike, a 29-year-old office worker from Chiba Prefecture, said at JR Akihabara Station. Minoike said he is optimistic Fukuda will "utilize his established skills" when he faces critical decisions as the next prime minister, including the debate over extending the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and managing the pension record scandal.

JAPAN

Sep 15, 2007

Hope found in submarine legacy

and Katja Boonstra (left), who lost their fathers during World War II, visit William King, the former skipper of the British submarine HMS Telemachus, at Oranmore Castle in Ireland in May 2004. PHOTO COURTESY OF AKIRA TSURUKAME

Japan Times

JAPAN

Sep 13, 2007

English-language Web site gives voice to survivors of atomic bombs

Gleaning stories from countless hours of recordings made by the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a former broadcast journalist started an English Web site last month to share their horrifying experiences with the outside world.

Japan Times

JAPAN

Sep 12, 2007

Japan enters orbit of nations exploring the moon

The moon has languished in the shadows of space exploration since the heyday of manned missions in the 1960s and 1970s, eclipsed by projects focused on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, not to mention the U.S. space shuttle and the International Space Station.

Japan Times

JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW

Sep 6, 2007

Work-life imbalance said birthrate's key foe

The key to turning around Japan's declining birthrate is to improve the work-life balance for both women and men, asserts Yoko Kamikawa, new state minister for population issues and gender equality.

Japan Times

JAPAN / ATOMIC POWER AT ANY COST

Sep 1, 2007

Nuclear doubts spread in wake of Niigata

Global competition for energy resources and tougher controls on greenhouse gas emissions have made Japan reliant on nuclear power. While the government and regional power utilities are quick to associate the word "safety" with atomic energy, several fatalities, accidents, coverups and earthquake threats have damaged the industry's image.

JAPAN

Aug 24, 2007

Three more inmates sent to gallows

Three death-row inmates went to the gallows Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of hangings approved by Jinen Nagase during his 11 months as justice minister.

Japan Times

JAPAN / EXPLAINER

Aug 21, 2007

'Hanko' fate sealed by test of time

A "hanko" personal seal is a necessary item for most adults in Japan, serving the same role as a signature in the West.

Japan Times

Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR

Aug 18, 2007

Spared Korean war criminal pursues redress

Lee Hak Rae was stunned on March 20, 1947, when he stood in an Australian military court in Singapore and was sentenced to hang as a war criminal for the brutal treatment he was accused of inflicting on ailing Allied prisoners of war who were forced to build the infamous Death Railway to their last breath.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.

The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces

By Stephen Mansfield

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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