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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 22, 2012

Once one and only, Sony seeks to regain that status

Despite reporting a record ¥457 billion annual loss last year, Sony Corp. earlier this month said it would return to the black in fiscal 2012 with a ¥30 billion profit.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2012

The sky's the limit

After the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 last year, the performance of the spectacularly tall Tokyo Sky Tree going up in the capital's downtown Sumida Ward became a subject of heightened interest to experts, residents and the general public alike.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 20, 2012

Japan faces a long, hot, nuclear-free summer

Is Japan — and particularly the Kansai region — going to have enough electric power to get it through peak summer demand? The Meteorological Agency's three-month projection for May through July, posted on its website (www.jma.go.jp/jp/longfcst/000_1_10.html) hedges its bets. For the four main islands,...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 18, 2012

Japan Post would prefer to let sleeping dogs, and accounts, lie

With a trillion yen sitting dormant, government is eyeing so-called sleeping savings accounts and banks are getting nervous.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 15, 2012

Exporting culture via 'Cool Japan'

The auto and electronics industries have served as the economy's main locomotives for decades, but now they are being eclipsed by heavier global competition, particularly from their aggressive Asian rivals.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2012

Utilities' bond risk climbing amid nuclear shutdowns

The bond risk of nuclear power companies had the largest weekly increase in seven months led by Kansai Electric Power Co., the utility likely to face the biggest electricity shortage this summer, after the country shut its last reactor.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 13, 2012

'Where are they now' special; celebrities battle it out; CM of the week: Tokyo Gas

The variety show "Bakuho the Friday" (TBS, Friday, 7 p.m.) expands from an occasional special to a weekly series. The title is a mashup of Bakusho Mondai, the comedy duo who act as hosts, and jōhō, which means information. The theme is in-depth information about showbiz people, in particular those...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 8, 2012

Efforts to save Japanese crested ibis take flight

Japanese spirits were uplifted recently by the news that three "toki," or Japanese crested ibis, chicks were hatched in the wild for the first time in 36 years, the culmination of a ¥300 million project that was started in 1999 to breed the endangered wading birds outside captivity.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 1, 2012

Constitution again faces calls for revision to meet reality

Thursday marks the 65th year since the Constitution took effect in 1947.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2012

Hands behind Sudan's war

Once again Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir waved his walking stick in the air. Once again he spoke of splendid victories over his enemies as thousands of jubilant supporters danced and cheered. But this time around the stakes are too high.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 29, 2012

Japanese families on endangered list

The family is humanity's oldest and most universal institution. But its shape, size, aims and ideologies seem infinitely variable. Japan's families down the ages have been polygamous and monogamous, multigeneration and single-generation, swarming with children or comparatively, if not entirely, devoid...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 26, 2012

Rockers CN Blue stand out amid dancey K-pop

Since its 2009 debut in South Korea, CN Blue has been a bastion of rock in a music scene dominated by danceable electro-pop.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 24, 2012

Yahoo Japan: Same name, very different company

Although they have similar names and operate Web portals with a variety of services, Yahoo Japan Corp. is in many ways a very different company from Yahoo Inc.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 17, 2012

Retail power slow to make inroads despite nuclear crisis

Regional utilities have long dominated the power market, but companies and local governments are starting to get interested in new retailers offering much cheaper rates.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 13, 2012

Ota exemplifies impact good role players can have

Role players rarely dominate the headlines. But smart coaches and successful player-personnel bosses build teams that get potent production from lesser-known players.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2012

Surge in fuel imports may come with dire side effect

To make up for its dwindling supply of nuclear power, Japan is on a frenzied but costly hunt for fossil fuels.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 10, 2012

Teachers with two left feet struggling with dance classes

A new education rule that kicked in this year has created a fresh challenge for gym teachers across the nation: how to teach hip-hop.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2012

Mainstream media toes the line on sales tax

A bill to increase the consumption tax has finally been submitted to the Diet. Approval is by no means assured, owing partly to the fact that the substance of the issue has changed since the idea of a consumption tax was originally formulated. The Liberal Democratic Party saw it as a source of funding...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 3, 2012

Volunteers struggle to track neediest residents

Welfare commissioners cover a broad array of tasks, including regularly checking in on elderly and disabled residents, looking for signs of child abuse, providing local residents with information about services, and even helping them dispose of garbage.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 1, 2012

Yonaguni: Japan's most westerly isle

A colossal, dark-skinned man rides along the sidewalk on a motorbike: no helmet, two small children aboard — a vision of life in the laconic Tropics. There are times here too on Yonaguni, the westernmost land mass in Okinawa Prefecture, when you see a curvaceous island woman in a vivid, flower-patterned...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 30, 2012

Marshall injury deals fresh blow to beleaguered Evessa

Already without two-time MVP Lynn Washington, the face of the franchise and the most famous player in league history after his March 13 arrest on suspicion of smuggling marijuana into Japan, the Osaka Evessa now are coping with the loss of center Wayne Marshall for an estimated four weeks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 27, 2012

Detainees' families fighting for dignity — and hugs

The East Japan Immigration Center, more commonly known as the Ushiku detention center, stands in the middle of sleepy countryside in Ibaraki Prefecture, 50 km north of Tokyo. With one of the world's tallest standing Buddha statues less than 3 km away, the center could have made a nice country getaway...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 27, 2012

Tohoku in rebuilding bubble

As Tohoku struggles to rebuild from last year's quake and tsunami, money continues to pour into the region in the form of central government subsidies for cleanup, repair and reconstruction.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 25, 2012

Sakura: Soul of Japan

"If I were asked to explain the Japanese spirit, I would say it is wild cherry blossoms glowing in the morning sun!" — Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), nativist thinker and poet
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 25, 2012

Is Japan as busy as it first seems?

Are things what they seem? Can you tell a book by its cover? Does the face reveal the heart? Does your appearance give you away?
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2012

Resistance to bigger pension roll

The Democratic Party of Japan has been calling for incorporating irregular workers into kosei nenkin (a pension scheme originally for permanent corporate workers) as a means of helping to stabilize their life. But the plan the government and the DPJ adopted March 13 shows that they bowed to pressure...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2012

"One Piece Exhibition: Original Art × Movies × Experience One Piece"

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the popular "Weekly Shonen Jump" manga "One Piece", the Mori Art Center Gallery is collaborating with its illustrator and writer Eiichiro Oda for a special exhibition that is sure to please fans.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 22, 2012

"One Piece Exhibition: Original Art × Movies × Experience One Piece"

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the popular "Weekly Shonen Jump" manga "One Piece", the Mori Art Center Gallery is collaborating with its illustrator and writer Eiichiro Oda for a special exhibition that is sure to please fans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 20, 2012

Fukushima not just about nuke crisis

The Tohoku region continues to struggle beyond the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, particularly Fukushima Prefecture, whose recovery is being greatly hampered by the triple-meltdown crisis at a coastal nuclear plant.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami