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COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2012

Homestead Act: the door-opener to America

At the end of this year in which election results reinserted immigration into the political conversation, remember that 2012 is the 150th anniversary of "the first comprehensive immigration law."
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2012

The facts on Fukushima's fish

The catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant not only affected people directly in Fukushima Prefecture but also harmed the local economy. Sales of products from the prefecture have suffered, and tourist spots have lost business, because of rumors or misinformation about...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2012

Risks of Mr. Abe's economic policy

Financial markets and people appear to hope that the economic policy to be adopted by the incoming administration of Liberal Democratic Party chief Shinzo Abe will improve the Japanese economy. Clearly people want deflation to end, the economy to pick up and the reconstruction from the effects of the...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 23, 2012

Abe is a hawk, the public merely conservative

Commenting acidly on November's U.S. presidential election, American columnist George Will said all it showed was "whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney has the smaller gigantic number of Americans not wanting him to be president." Substitute the names of Prime Minister-elect Shinzo Abe and outgoing Prime...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 23, 2012

Public works funds best spent fixing aging infrastructure

Last week's Lower House election was all about what people didn't want — the Democratic Party of Japan — but the issue foremost in voters' minds was the state of the economy, and new prime minister Shinzo Abe has made that his first priority by pledging to boost inflation through monetary easing...
Reader Mail
Dec 23, 2012

View from the oppressor's side

Jennifer Rubin's Washington Post blog that was published in The Japan Times on Dec. 7, under the headline "Paucity of 'no' votes reflects a cowardly profile," reflects the grumbling of someone who sees the world through the gunport peepholes of a superpower's mighty fortress. Her complaint against the...
Reader Mail
Dec 23, 2012

LDP doesn't get a grace period

I was tremendously interested in the Dec. 17 editorial, "LDP back in the saddle again." A few comments about that.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2012

'Abenomics' — a dangerous policy of print and spend

The "landslide" victory of Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party was much less than it seemed. The party won only 43 percent of the popular vote in the constituencies and a mere 28 percent in the proportional representational seats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 22, 2012

Forty years on, why we're still living in the moon's shadow

On Dec. 19,1972, a final sonic boom above the South Pacific signaled the end of the Apollo program, as a tiny space capsule burst back through the blue sky. On board were the last three astronauts to visit the moon on Apollo 17. Riding home with them was the precious negative of a photograph that would...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Dec 21, 2012

Food festivals: all yesterday's parties

The best of 2012 The inaugural Tama Geta Shoku no Saiten in Hachioji offered locavores a chance to sample the creative cuisine of western Tokyo. Thirty vendors showed off dishes such as motsu yaki-udon, a bowl of beef tripe and noodles from the town of Mizuho in Nishitama, and the "Tokyo-X" hot dog,...
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2012

Keep a close eye on Gov. Inose

Mr. Naoki Inose, who became vice governor of Tokyo in June 2007 under Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and served in that position until Nov. 29, 2012, won Tokyo's gubernatorial election Sunday by a landslide. He garnered a whopping 4,338,936 votes — the largest ever number of votes won by a candidate in the...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 19, 2012

2012 has been a big year on the Japanese social-media scene

Twitter continues to ride high. Facebook has grown a lot, but newcomer Line seems set to overtake it. Social game companies Gree and Mobage have shifted their overseas expansion into high gear. And Mixi finally admits that it needs to try harder to understand what its members want. In this month's column,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2012

British austerity woes highlight risks for U.S.

ANALYSIS
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 18, 2012

Nova's restructuring laid the foundations for Geos' revival

This year marked the fifth anniversary of the collapse of English language school giant Nova, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 26, 2007.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 18, 2012

DPJ blows chance to establish two-party rule

It took 54 years for the nation's politics to produce a viable opposition party, and 39 months for it to self-destruct after winning power, splintering prospects for an enduring policy-driven two-party system.
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 18, 2012

Jubilant Corinthians on cloud nine after CWC victory

Corinthians defender Paulo Andre paid tribute to his team's formidable supporters after beating Chelsea to win the Club World Cup on Sunday night, framing it as a victory for the Brazilian people over the aristocrats of European soccer.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Dec 17, 2012

Job one for Inose: stepping out from Ishihara's shadow

The Tokyo gubernatorial race ended Sunday with Vice Gov. Naoki Inose winning the top job, drawing the curtain on a lackluster campaign for the capital that was overshadowed by the Lower House election.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2012

In movie, she's a hero; in real life, it's complicated

She was a real-life heroine of the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden, a headstrong young operative whose work tracking the al-Qaida leader serves as the dramatic core of a Hollywood film set to premiere this month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 15, 2012

Writer, teacher, advocate finds her stride in the Japanese countryside

For Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, her sociopolitical outlook colors all aspects of her life, as a writer, educator or activist. "Activism runs through what I read and what I write and what I'm teaching; It's all one big thing, as the same mindset invades all those activities. It is inescapable," she says.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2012

Egypt's constitutional monster in the making

On Saturday, Egypt's draft constitution is due to be put to a referendum. A year ago, Egyptians were thrilled to know that finally their country's constitution would reflect their democratic hopes and aspirations. Yet the document that they will now vote on is more likely to dash those hopes and dim...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 15, 2012

'Face of election' Kawamura of Nagoya now the odd man out

After deciding not to run in this weekend's Lower House poll, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's status as the "face of the election" has faded and his frustration is clearly growing.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 14, 2012

Working the system: Beware of doctors with private rooms

Doctors have ways of making money outside the insurance system.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2012

Britain less religious, more diverse

London AP
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2012

Nuclear risks not bound by borders

One of the key issues in Sunday's Lower House election is the future of Japan's 50 commercial nuclear reactors, all but two of which remain off line in light of the Fukushima disaster.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2012

Sony loses science talent as student resumes go to dairies

Science students are eschewing traditional high-powered employers such as Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. to help make ice cream and yogurt.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight