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JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

Japan's economy strong enough to weather tax hike storm

Last year Japan's economy finally refound some backbone, with strong growth, better company earnings, falling unemployment and the key stock index soaring by a half to a six-year high, thanks mainly to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic measures, the so-called "Abenomics."
Japan Times
JAPAN / DAVOS SPECIAL 2014
Jan 23, 2014

Young entrepreneur out to change education

The Global Shapers are highly motivated young people between the ages of 20 and 30 with the potential to be society's future leaders, according to the World Economic Forum, which selects them based on several factors, such as their initiative, commitment and potential to "make a difference."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2014

The Onodera enigma

The name of the late great Pina Bausch's acclaimed Tanztheater in the German city of Wuppertal may translate as "Dancetheater," but its works often owe more to abstract emotional action and snatched dialogue than to dance. Over in London, meanwhile, Simon McBurney's Complicite company has long been at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 22, 2014

Hiraki Sawa’s dream world: Worth the pause for thought

Sometimes it can be irritating visiting an exhibition of video-based art. You come in halfway through one of the videos or near the end of another, and you feel that you've missed something and wonder if you should stick around to watch it from the start.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

Avoiding the nuclear debate

Regarding the Jan. 17 Kyodo article "Fukushima No. 1 engineer's warning to Taiwan: Nuclear power unstable": So now we know that the government — the Liberal Democratic Party, that is — was not only clearly informed of the likelihood of a nuclear disaster but has been deliberately covering up this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2014

Komanosuke Takemoto: a rare voice of tradition

The traditional performing art of bunraku (ningyō jōruri) involves three puppeteers together operating a cast of single puppets, with a gidayū bushi to the side comprising a story-teller (tayū) and a shamisen player (shamisen- hiki) seated on a round platform (yuka).
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

Aging society tops all issues

The most problematic issue for Tokyo today is how to deal with the various effects of the aging society.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

Get going with tidal energy

We're students from Yokohama International School. We were assigned to spread awareness of tidal energy in Japan. From the recent rallies in Tokyo, it is evident that many are going the anti-nuclear route, and some suggest alternative energy sources to gradually replace nuclear power plants.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

Better remedy than income taxes

I agree with Keisuke Akita's opinions in his Jan. 8 letter, "A simple remedy for inequality," except for his assertion that economics is not a science. There are no indisputable laws in economics comparable to Newton's laws in physics, but much of the pure sciences is based on theories, and theories...
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

Ideas for an English education

About 10 years ago while motorcycling in Fuji-Hakone National Park, I met a Japanese motorcyclist who had just returned from a two-year work/study program in Australia. He spoke English very fluently and had landed a job teaching his second language at a junior high school in Izu and was very excited...
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2014

A source of Japanese democracy

This year marks the 130th anniversary of the Chichibu Incident in Saitama Prefecture. Of the more than 10 "peasant" uprisings that occurred in Japan in 1883 and 1884, the Chichibu Incident (November 1884) was the largest and most violent. The people who participated in it were mostly farmers. Some were...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2014

Barakan says broadcasters told him to avoid nuclear issues till after poll

Freelance TV and radio commentator Peter Barakan said he was pressured by two broadcast stations to steer clear of nuclear power issues on his programs until after the Tokyo gubernatorial election on Feb. 9, causing concern among some about possible media censorship.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2014

BOJ misfire seen in regional banks' turn to aircraft loans

Chugoku Bank Ltd. wants to get into the global airline debt market after loans to local businesses fell for a fourth straight year.
COMMENTARY / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 21, 2014

Is the Obama administration prioritizing ties with China?

The different tones of the U.S. and Japanese reactions to China's recent establishment of an air defense identificatin zone raises the question of whether the Obama administration is prioritizing ties with Beijing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / OSAKA RESTAURANTS
Jan 21, 2014

Curry the Irish way (it's full of Guinness)

Almost 20 years ago there appeared on The New York Times best-seller list a book titled 'How the Irish Saved Civilization.' To most Irish people this benign feat was not news.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2014

Model general whose best defense was offense

Had Ariel Sharon never entered politics, he would still be known around the world as a military commander and tactician whose methods diverged from normal military practices, even in the unconventional Israeli army.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 20, 2014

Expiry dates

It's hard when our children decide we're past our prime. Let's prove we've still got a little shelf life sorting out an admittedly tricky subject.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Jan 20, 2014

My niece, the drug smuggler

Imagine two New York Jewish women groomed among the stylish and well-educated on opposite shores of Long Island. They meet up in Tokyo for the first time. In a strange twist of fate, they are not sipping tea from fine bone china, as they might have back home. Instead they find themselves seated on opposite...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Jan 20, 2014

'Mr. Basketball' back on court in new role

Putting his honorable nickname behind him, Kenichi Sako is beginning a new adventure, though it may not proceed as smoothly as it did when he was a player.
BASKETBALL
Jan 19, 2014

Akita rolls to ninth straight victory

The All-Star spotlight will shine on Akita next Sunday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 19, 2014

Marketers succeed by generating hitto products

Japanese consumers and marketers alike certainly love their ヒット商品 (hitto shōhin, hit products). To understand how this term came about, we need to look back to the decade following World War II. When living standards gradually began to improve from the early 1950s, Japanese consumers eagerly...
COMMENTARY
Jan 19, 2014

Criminal envoy or rogue state?

If Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's alleged offenses in New York City were criminally outside the norm, Washington should have worked with India to file charges in the U.S. or in India. If Delhi proved noncooperative, Khobragade could have been expelled persona non grata.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Jan 19, 2014

Best thing for Senkakus: Never let push come to shove

On Jan. 12, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera observed the annual drill held by the Ground Self-Defense Force's elite 1st Airborne Brigade in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 18, 2014

Hirata and Saito: love on the run

The trial of Makoto Hirata, which commenced Thursday, is expected to reveal a number of new facts about the former Aum Shinrikyo fugitive, but of most interest to investigators will be how he managed to stay hidden for so long.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jan 18, 2014

The Setting Sun

Career nihilist Osamu Dazai had already attempted suicide four times when he published his most famous novel in 1947. "The Setting Sun" quickly became a byword for the decline of Japan's aristocracy in the wake of World War II, but its portrait of a country adrift from its spiritual moorings would resonate...
COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Jan 18, 2014

Stuff kids say

Father: Which part of 'Stop jumping!' don't you understand
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2014

School costs gap wider than ever

A fiscal 2012 education ministry survey of parents throughout Japan reports that total spending for a child going to private schools from kindergarten through senior high school came to ¥16.77 million on average, significantly more than the ¥5 million for a child going to public schools.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person