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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Sep 25, 2012

Cheers! Wine shop serves as a bridge for couple

Jamie Paquin and Nozomi Mihara, who jointly own an all-Canadian wine shop that opened in Tokyo last year, met by chance at a cafe six years ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 23, 2012

Adrift from Kyoto's Amanohashidate on Heaven's Floating Bridge

The Japanese have long had a fondness for categorizing impressive features of the world around them into numbered lists. And in this enterprise, trios hold particular fascination. Thus, in addition to the Three Great Festivals and the Three Great Night Views, among well over 100 prestigious triads are...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2012

Osprey on the flight path

The government on Wednesday declared the U.S. MV-22 tilt-rotor transport aircraft safe to fly, and the U.S. Marine Corps on Friday started test-flying 12 Osprey aircraft now parked at its air station in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The 12 aircraft are expected to be deployed at Futenma air station...
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2012

In America, a tangled web of conflicting rights

Elaine Huguenin, who with her husband operates Elane Photography in New Mexico, asks only to be let alone. But instead of being allowed a reasonable zone of sovereignty in which to live her life in accordance with her beliefs, she is being bullied by people wielding government power.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 19, 2012

Yahoo! Japan's 'explosive speed' changes Web biz

This spring, Japanese Web titan Yahoo! Japan appointed a new CEO and new board members — the first big change to its board since the company was founded 16 years ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Sep 18, 2012

Osaka: Where will Mayor Toru Hashimoto and his ‘One Osaka’ vision be in 2022?

Narumi Watanabe
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

It's past midnight but child-abduction treaty promise is not yet a pumpkin

Despite much promise and a flurry of activity, it didn't happen: Japan failed to ratify the Hague Convention on international child abduction and pass the extensive piece of accompanying domestic legislation the government felt was necessary in order for it to do so. Both items on the Diet agenda were...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2012

Competition for national dignity drove 9/11

September 11, 2001, may — at least at first — seem like an inappropriate addition to the history of nationalism, given al-Qaida's explicitly stated global pretensions.
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

Vaccinations against pneumonia

Regarding the Sept. 9 editorial "Upper hand on pneumonia": To protect people from community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), strategic use of pneumococcal vaccination is essential. The central and local governments need to enlighten the public on who is at increased risk of CAP and when they should be vaccinated....
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

The will to fly the national flag

Regarding the Sept. 12 Kyodo article "Town eyes subsidy for residents to buy flag": The plan (by the Nakanoto municipal government, Ishikawa Prefecture) to subsidize the purchase of national flags to encourage more people to fly the flag demonstrates just how out of touch politicians are with the common...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 16, 2012

Beacons of hope and inspiration light even the darkest pits of despond

The renowned Polish-born film and television director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland has created a stunning work about life and death in the Lviv ghetto during the closing months of World War II.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2012

Mayor Hashimoto goes national

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, also head of Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka Restoration Association), a local party, on Sept. 12 declared the establishment of Nippon Ishin-no Kai (Japan Restoration Party). Basically his local party was upgraded a party for national-level politics.
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2012

Reproaching the nationalists

Regarding the Sept. 10 article "Lee says 'true meaning' of comments about emperor not conveyed to Japan": South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's clarified position is exactly true. Japanese people often, for the sake of national pride, do convey a propensity to defend or water down their history.
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2012

Yamanashi school song rankles

Regarding the Korea Times editorial titled "Japan slips into retrograde," which was reprinted in The Japan Times on Aug. 31: As a Japanese who is a member of the Society for the Annulment of Imperial Rescripts, I want the Japanese people to be courageous enough to confront the past and not be influenced...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2012

Home is always where the heart is

Contemporary artists are a product of a globally minded world. While artists of past ages have had clear goals of making it in London, Paris or New York, artists of the 21st century seek stimulation from any number of locations across the planet. All they need is a passport, a place to stay, and ideally...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ANALYSIS
Sep 12, 2012

Island disputes could cost Tokyo 2020 Olympics

With the vote to determine the host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games less than one year away, Tokyo's chances of landing the global extravaganza could slip away in the wake of Japan's ongoing involvement in island disputes with South Korea, China, Russia and Taiwan.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2012

Turkey's troubles

Like Japan, Turkey sees itself as a bridge between two worlds — in this case, between Europe and the Middle East. Not only does geography enable Turkish leadership, but its successful combination of Islam and democracy is seen as model for the Middle East as well.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 11, 2012

Hotelier sees disaster bring out best in Japanese

As a veteran of the tourism and hotel industries in Japan for more than two decades, Tony Virili says he will "never forget" what took place at one of his firm's franchise hotels in Sendai on March 11, 2011.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 5, 2012

Buy now to beat the consumption tax increase ... or don't

The pros and cons of making big-ticket purchases before the consumption tax increase.
Reader Mail
Sep 2, 2012

Another anti-nuclear hit piece

Regarding the Aug. 30 editorial "3/11 deaths that were preventable": I would note that Japan's Reconstruction Agency is not a medical committee and thus lacks the knowledge and training to reach any conclusion that can be taken seriously by medical professionals. The editorial is another hit piece against...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 2, 2012

Goldenglow may be a treat for the Cherokees, but it's a pest for Old Nic!

Summertime here in northern Nagano is very pleasant, quite unlike the muggy ovens of the big cities. This year, after living here for 32 years, I was persuaded to install a fan. We certainly don't have a cooler. At night, or while working in my study, I leave the windows open to let in the sounds of...
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2012

Rising grain prices

Irregular weather conditions are causing prices of grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans to shoot up. The most vulnerable people in this situation are the poor in developing countries that rely heavily on food imports. Officials of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World...
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2012

Pawns of the neo-Putin era

After the May 7 inauguration of Vladimir Putin, the re-elected Russian president rapidly began taking revenge on those who caused him anxiety from December to March. Of late, he and his henchmen have demonstrated a sharp stance against dissent and opposition in general.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Aug 31, 2012

Farmers markets on the rise in Tokyo

In a city the size of Tokyo, it's all too easy to be unaware of where your food comes from. Most of what we eat is shipped in from far away, not just the extremities of the country but from all around the world. Japan's overall food self-sufficiency rate is bad enough — a mere 38.3 percent as of 2010....
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2012

Nankai quake projected toll radically raised

As many as 323,000 people in 30 prefectures could be killed by a major earthquake and ensuing monster tsunami that scientists say could hit in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast, the Cabinet Office's Central Disaster Prevention Council said Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2012

London Paralympics starts

The London 2012 Paralympics starts Thursday (Wednesday local time) with some 4,300 physically disabled athletes from 166 countries and regions taking part in 20 sports. From Japan, 135 athletes will participate in 17 sports. It is hoped that the Paralympics, which will continue through Sept. 9, will...
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2012

Romney poised to fix a GOP problem

Conventions are the seventh-inning stretch of presidential politics, a pause to consider the interminable prelude and the coming climax. Republicans gathering in Tampa face an unusual election in which they do not have a substantial advantage concerning the most presidential subject, foreign policy....

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