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EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2011

Negotiate in good faith

Negotiations between the government and hepatitis B sufferers and bereaved families have ground to a standstill. Talks began in May 2010 when the government announced its readiness to engage in negotiations in line with recommendations by the district courts in Sapporo and Fukuoka that the related compensation...
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 25, 2011

It's in the water, food, soil: But what are the risks?

Radioactive materials from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have been spreading, contaminating milk, vegetables, water and soil in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2011

Reveal fallout data: ex-nuke chief

A former acting head of the Atomic Energy Commission called Thursday for the government to tell the public how radioactive emissions have spread from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the past and to predict future radiation exposure risks according to distance for the most critical scenarios....
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Foreign media pumped up fears

The international media should hang their collective heads in shame at the way they've reported the unfolding tragedy in Japan. It's an old cliche, but now that I live on the other side of the fence, it seems all the more clear: The media are willing to whip up more panic and put more people in danger...
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Northern hub for international aid

While Aomori Prefecture was spared the brunt of catastrophic damage from the March 11 quake and tsunami, the port of Hachinohe including many factories and businesses, hundreds of homes just north in Oirase town, and the port area of Misawa further north suffered major damage that has destroyed the livelihoods...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2011

A time to demonstrate solidarity with Japan

PRAGUE — The shattering earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 have wrought devastating physical damage — aggravated by the threat of a nuclear disaster — across the country's northeastern coastal areas, and have rekindled grave fears in the only country to have experienced fully...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2011

Jittery Tokyo residents trickle back

Tokyo residents who fled the capital for the Kansai region last week over fears of radiation leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant were returning home as another week started — but with plenty of headaches.
EDITORIALS
Mar 23, 2011

Streamline relief operations

As more than 10 days have passed since the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, the government should quickly review its setup so that it can carry out its relief operations as efficiently and effectively as possible.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 23, 2011

Volunteers translate quake data into visuals

Over the past week we've seen a stark contrast in how the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been reported. "Panic" read the New York Daily News. "Get out of Tokyo Now" said The Sun. One expects that of tabloids, yet more credible media also described an "exodus" from Tokyo, neglecting to mention that it...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 21, 2011

Old-style survival skills put local shop owners in disaster limelight

A week after the earthquake and we are still living with the aftershocks, and in more ways than one. While the earth still shakes under us now and again, shakes of a different kind also keep coming: nuclear power plant failures, radioactive contamination fears, rolling power cuts, panic buying and sudden...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2011

The protocols of freedom

THE ETIQUETTE OF FREEDOM: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild. Edited by Paul Ebenkamp. This is a companion to the film "The Practice of the Wild," directed by John J. Healey, produced by Will Hearst and Jim Harrison with San Simeon Films. Counterpoint, 2010, 160 pp., $28 (cloth/DVD) Snyder...
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.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2011

Lapses, coverups color public view of nuclear plants

Behind the escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a cozy relationship with government regulators, who are often willing to overlook safety lapses.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2011

Innkeeper offers to house 400 disaster-zone refugees

A Bangladeshi resident of Japan who owns several hotels and restaurants offered Friday to house about 400 people displaced by the massive earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 18, 2011

Indie scene aims for normalcy in unusual situation

As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, four days after the earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 and with the continuing drip, drip, drip of nerve-shaking news from the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima forming background noise to life in Tokyo, I see on the BBC news feed that Canadian...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2011

Stars certain movie business will bounce back

Each new day since the March 11 earthquake seems to bring something worse, but the Japanese entertainment industry is no stranger to disaster and mayhem. There's a been-there-seen-it-all mindset, nurtured by a long history of alternating repression and liberation, plus natural disasters in between.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 18, 2011

Charity match replaces New Zealand friendly

Japan will take on a J. League select XI in a March 29 charity match in Osaka after New Zealand pulled out of a friendly on the same date, the Japan Football Association announced Thursday.
Reader Mail
Mar 17, 2011

Sense of community must survive

When last Friday's earthquake hit our city (Fukushima) around 2:40 p.m., I was preparing for a Chinese class. At first I thought it was a usual quake, but it was much stronger and lasted longer than usual. Then a bookshelf fell and I panicked!
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2011

Blood donations up nationwide

In addition to money, food, blankets and medicine, many across Japan are donating blood to help the survivors of Friday's devastation in the Tohoku region.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2011

Embassies list 400 foreigners as missing

About 400 foreigners remained unaccounted for as of noon Wednesday, several dozen embassies told the Foreign Ministry in the wake of Friday's historic earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2011

Japan's immense challenge

HONG KONG — Prime Minister Naoto Kan rightly called it the worst disaster to hit Japan since World War II. But the question now for Japan is whether the massive earthquake and tsunami that smashed the country on Friday can prove to be the earthmoving event that wakes up Japan's politicians to set the...

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