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JAPAN
Mar 27, 2011

Mabuchi, axed from Cabinet, to be Kan adviser

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Saturday appointed former transport minister Sumio Mabuchi, replaced in a Cabinet reshuffle in January after he was targeted with an Upper House censure motion, as his adviser on the nuclear crisis and disaster relief operations.
BUSINESS
Mar 25, 2011

Export growth was picking up prequake

Export growth accelerated in February, before the Tohoku quake and tsunami hit earlier this month, shutting down factories and causing power shortages in a disaster likely to disrupt trade for months.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2011

Minister is economical with economic truth

HONG KONG — Japan's economy supremo, 72-year-old Kaoru Yosano, clad in his regulation ministerial "Action Man" powder-blue boiler suit and heavy gumboots ready to spring into emergency mode instantly, claimed last week that the damage to the country's economy from the earthquake and tsunami would be...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2011

The Vatican circles the wagons

HONG KONG — The abrupt — and underhanded — sacking of a key lay Catholic official by Vatican clerics raises disturbing questions about where Pope Benedict XVI is taking the Roman Catholic Church.
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2011

United Continental hints at flight cuts

United Continental Holdings Inc. reported a "measurable decline" in demand for Japan-bound flights and signaled some flying may be cut as the crisis deepens at the country's earthquake-damaged nuclear plant.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 15, 2011

HIV/AIDS awareness often too late

More than two decades after the first case of AIDS in a Japanese patient was officially reported by the health ministry's National AIDS Surveillance Committee in 1985, HIV/AIDS seems to have become a disease of the past. With much less media coverage, people have become complacent about the issue, experts...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 11, 2011

Tyler raising his game as season progresses

Jeremy Tyler, still a few months shy of his 20th birthday, is no stranger to NBA talent evaluators. Though he's playing halfway around the world, the Tokyo Apache's highly touted 210-cm prospect is being closely watched.
BUSINESS
Mar 11, 2011

Sony revamp to place Hirai in crucial role

Sony Corp. said Thursday it will reorganize its main electronics businesses and promote the star of its gaming operations to lead a new consumer products division.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 8, 2011

Domestic child abuse in spotlight

The Fukuoka District Court in January sentenced a 34-year-old mother to six years in prison for causing bodily injury resulting in her daughter's death, casting the spotlight anew on child abuse.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 6, 2011

Illegitimacy is in the eye of the beholder

Case 1: Kabuki stars are different.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 6, 2011

'Galapagos' has evolved as an analogy for Japan

English naturalist Charles Darwin put Galapagos on the map, having visited the group of islands, situated in the Pacific Ocean some 970 km west of continental Ecuador, in 1835, during the voyage of the HMS Beagle. His impressions and observations of the islands' unique biosystem contributed to his 1859...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 4, 2011

Kuriyama trades her blades for a song

She's died on screen almost as many times as she's killed. Western movie fans will know her as Gogo Yubari, the spiked-ball-and-chain-wielding schoolgirl who disembowels men for fun before crying tears of blood in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." In Japan, she's been an actress since the age...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 3, 2011

The busy lives of Japan's super furry creatures

When first-time visitors arrive in Japan, a few things they may notice right off the bat include the juxtaposition of the high-tech and the ancient, the unfailing politeness of locals, and a curious fixation with cuteness — to wit, all the cute mascots that promote regions, historic sites, local specialties...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 1, 2011

Latest volcano show: Shinmoe

OSAKA — In late January, Mount Shinmoe, one of a cluster of volcanoes on a mountain range straddling Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures, woke back up.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 22, 2011

NPO tax status threatened by Diet split

With the opposition camp trying to veto all budget-related bills in the divided Diet, the fate of legislation proposed by the Democratic Party of Japan-led government to enhance the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations is hanging in the air.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 20, 2011

The sticky subject of Japan's rice protection

Twenty-five years ago, Japan was a very competitive manufacturing country, and much of its economic policy since then has been in response to trade friction with the United States, which demanded greater access to Japanese markets for American agricultural products in order to offset Japan's trade surplus....
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 15, 2011

Secret funds shadowed by abuse

Paying ransom to win the release of kidnapped Japanese, buying off foreign dignitaries to reach backdoor deals and giving cash in exchange for secrets.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 11, 2011

Golden Kings are first team with radio deal

Kudos to the Ryukyu Golden Kings for taking a big step forward, partnering with Radio Okinawa (864 AM) to offer live broadcasts of the team's 12 remaining home games this season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Feb 11, 2011

Asia's top sommelier sees glass half full

Satoru Mori is a sommelier with almost unlimited reserves of drive and passion. At the age of 33, he is not only the winner of 2009's Best Sommelier of Asia-Oceania Competition, but also more recently a semifinalist in the Best Sommelier of the World Competition 2010.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 8, 2011

The second-most powerful job

Second in power only to the prime minister, Tokyo's governor manages a metropolis with a population several times that of any other prefecture and a gross domestic product larger than that of most other nations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 8, 2011

Indian works to serve expat enclave

Once you get out of Nishi-Kasai Station on the Tozai subway line, it's likely that you will bump into at least half a dozen Indians in the first five minutes on the street.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2011

The Sky Tree phenomenon

Sky Tree, the new tower going up in Tokyo, has become a fixture in Japan's mass media. Each week brings another spectacular photo in the photogravure section of a weekly magazine, and newspapers breathlessly report each new benchmark passed on the way to its final height of 634 meters in the spring of...
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2011

Edano to hold weekly press briefings for all reporters

The top government spokesman's news conferences will be open once a week to reporters outside members of the press club for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's office, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 1, 2011

Trendy Harajuku draws crowds

For several decades, the trendy Harajuku district in central Tokyo has been a magnet for young people seeking the latest fashion trends and also for those who want to express their own style.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 30, 2011

Miyazaki's Shimizu enjoying leading new team in his hometown

The Japan Times features periodical interviews with players in the bj-league. Taishiro Shimizu of the Miyazaki Shining Suns is the subject of this week's profile.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building