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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 16, 2012

Japan's sticky, hot, windy summer gives women the blues

Ever wondered why there are so many female Japanese tourists in Hawaii at this time of year? Never mind the statistics and official answer to that, I'll give it to you straight in one short word: utsu (鬱, depression). The joshi (女子, women) of this country get seriously depressed in the summer and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Jul 13, 2012

Sake production, literally from the ground up

Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2012

Get American society on track

Washington Post writer Robert J. Samuelson's July 2 column in The Japan Times, titled "Entering uncharted territory of broken models," was interesting for pointing out that too much money and talent were poured into the finance sector in past decades.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 10, 2012

Place your bets: Local governments pray for a jackpot

A lottery win can be a jackpot for the local government where the tickets were sold.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 10, 2012

Complex rules in place for safety's sake, but Red Cross still wants your blood

Some readers may have misunderstood the intent of our May 22 column, "Foreigners disqualified as blood donors for wide range of reasons," which was meant to illustrate, through readers' responses, that if a foreigner is turned away from giving blood in Japan, it happens more often because of standard...
EDITORIALS
Jul 10, 2012

The health of America

Health care reforms put forward by U.S. President Barack Obama have passed constitutional scrutiny. In an anxiously awaited, bitterly divided 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the week before last that the bulk of the bill, put into law in 2010, can go into effect.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

'United'

In "United," soccer is described as "beautiful" — a wondrous amalgam of a simple ball, freshly mown grass and men doing godlike things with their feet. Set in Manchester, England, in the 1950s, "United" pays full tribute to this beauty with loving attention to the details of the sport.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2012

Mr. Ozawa needs more than slogan

Former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa and 49 other DPJ lawmakers on Monday bolted from the DPJ, which Mr. Ozawa had helped come to power by leading it to a victory in August 2009 Lower House election.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jul 4, 2012

By skipping Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft is not doing anything to win over Japanese gamers

The United States was easy. Europe was slightly harder. But Japan has always seemed nearly impenetrable for Microsoft's Xbox gaming platform.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 3, 2012

All systems go for happy international campers

Shiro Matsuoka, 39, from Kawasaki, and Zhang Yi, 33, who hails from Changchung, China, first met in 2004 when they were working part-time at a McDonald's in Tokyo.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 3, 2012

Health: It's in 'tokuho' label

Kirin Beverage Co.'s hit beverage Mets Cola has gained Consumer Affairs Agency recognition as "tokuho," which is short for "tokutei hokenyou shokuhin," or foods with special healthy qualities.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 1, 2012

The land where sex fears to tread

No love, no sex, no marriage, no kids — such, in glum outline, is Japan today. It's too bleak a picture, it can't be true! But it can't be false either. If it were, people would be marrying, making babies and having love affairs. Instead, statistics reflecting everything from marriage and childbirth...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 1, 2012

Poor record not stopping BayStars from aggressive marketing

A professional sports team has essentially two goals: Trying to win a championship and promoting the team to attract fans.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 30, 2012

Where the wild things aren't

"I have this idea to get rich quick," says this friend. Like me, he is underwhelmed by his Japanese income. Unlike me, he still has dreams. He also has my attention. For we all want to get rich and "quick" is by far the preferred method. But then he says . . .
COMMENTARY
Jun 29, 2012

A pat on the back for bucking a LOST cause

There they go again. Like those who say climate change is an emergency too obvious and urgent to allow for debate, some proponents of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, aka the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), say arguments against it are nonexistent. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

Exploring what makes the fabric of a nation

Held in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the reversion of Okinawa from U.S. to Japanese control, "Bingata: Colors and Shapes of the Ryukyu Dynasty" presents 245 examples of vibrantly colored textiles and stencils produced in the Ryukyu Kingdom, which between the 14th and 19th centuries ruled over...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2012

Nuclear redress will never approximate losses

It was 15 months ago that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant suffered three meltdowns and contaminated a broad circle of countryside and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes, jobs or both.
Reader Mail
Jun 24, 2012

If not one excuse, it's another

In June 1991, I noticed an interesting newspaper editorial titled "Worrisome decrease in births," which warned Japanese people that their hardworking ways as "corporate warriors" had led to a decreasing birthrate. More than 20 years ago, the Japanese mass media were already making much of this, yet the...
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2012

Law school enrollment blues

Recruitment failed to meet enrollment goals at 63 of Japan's 73 law schools in 2011. The number of students enrolled was less than half the quota at 35 law schools, compared with only 14 under-filled schools last year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2012

Skytree a mixed blessing for locals

A month after the opening of Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Skytree Town in Sumida Ward, the world's tallest broadcasting tower and its shopping and entertainment complex continue to draw hordes of visitors, reaching 1.6 million in just the first week, according to operator Tobu Tower Skytree Co. and its parent,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2012

'One Day'

They say that the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. "One Day" is all about that need, and how two people (subconsciously and otherwise) hold on to that for 23 long years.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2012

Accurate radiation info needed

The Fukushima nuclear accidents were indeed a catastrophe, but the damage that was done was caused entirely by a misguided and paranoid human response to nonexistent threats, not by radiation. In the June 17 editorial "Regrettable 'go' on reactors," The Japan Times says operating nuclear power plants...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jun 19, 2012

Seaweed salt

Dear Alice,
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2012

Effective diplomacy in the age of social media

Far from being rendered irrelevant by technological progress, where governments can communicate with one another directly on a need-to basis, diplomacy has become an increasingly critical instrument in an age of interdependence and globalization.
Reader Mail
Jun 17, 2012

Getting accepted as an equal

Regarding Donald Wood's June 14 letter, "Undoing foreign stereotypes": I have to admit that I have never met a foreigner who jokes about natto. The only natto humor I have ever encountered consists of Japanese people trying to force the stuff on foreigners for a laugh. This even included the compeer...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Hunting ivory netsuke carvers is like a big game

Netsuke are the diminutive works of art that dangled from cords attaching purses or other pouches to a kimono's obi sash before Western garb ousted traditional dress after the modernizing Meiji Restoration of 1868.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Exoskeletons await in work/care closet

There are friendly smiles on the faces of the engineering students peering past their PCs and half-finished gadget designs in the Tokyo lab as I try to lift 40 kg of rice. Normally I'd worry about impending humiliation, but today I'm confident my ego will remain intact.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2012

Long journey home for a soldier-journalist

MARCH FORTH, by Trevor and Debbie Greene. Harper and Collins, 2012, 272 pp., $29.00 (hardcover) On March 4, 2006, a Canadian patrol led by Capt. Kevin Schamuhn was on security operations in the Gumbad Valley, in the Shah Wali Koi District, an area known to be a hotbed of Taliban activity. The patrol...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2012

Regrettable 'go' on reactors

The government on Saturday finally gave the go-ahead to Kansai Electric Power Co.'s plan to restart the Nos. 3 and 4 reactors at its Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture. The decision ignores the crucial lesson from the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant:...

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