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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Oct 16, 2012

Well-traveled Brit wins woman with 'cheeky smile'

Dave Greatbanks of England met his future wife, Mimari, in 2000 when he was teaching English at a language school in Niigata that she attended once a week after work.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 16, 2012

Retirees can be rehired, but often under worse conditions

Reader PW teaches at an international school in Tokyo and wants to know about Japan's retirement laws:
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Oct 16, 2012

Straw belts

Dear Alice,
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 14, 2012

Morifuku stays calm in pressure-packed situation

Reliever Masahiko Morifuku made his first postseason appearance of the year in the ninth inning, with the bases loaded, nobody out, and his team clinging to a two-run lead in Game 1 of the first stage of the Pacific League Climax Series.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2012

Developing a natural aesthetic

JAPAN AND THE CULTURE OF THE FOUR SEASONS: Nature, Literature and the Arts, by Haruo Shirane. Columbia University Press, 2012. 311 pp., $29.50 (hardcover) The starting point for this illuminating study lay in the author's curiosity about the formation of the saijiki, or seasonal almanacs, that have been...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 14, 2012

For diplomacy's sake, Japan must bring its big-city dogs of war to heel

Not many would remember the name Norris Poulson.
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2012

Some dementia causes reversible

Regarding the Oct. 6 editorial, "Future of senile dementia," Japan's health authorities need to raise public understanding that dementia, a clinical syndrome of acquired intellectual impairment, could be caused by both reversible and irreversible conditions. Attention to the presence of completely curable...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2012

Heterodox views enter mainstream

RETHINKING JAPANESE HISTORY, by Yoshihiko Amino, translated by Alan S. Christy. Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2012. 317 pp., $20 (paper) It is a testimony to Yoshihiko Amino's influential legacy that his once iconoclastic views regarding Japanese history have now become mainstream....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 13, 2012

Hospitality gone wild — don't let yourself be hijacked!

If you are planning on walking the Shikoku Pilgrimage in honor of the patron saint Kobo Daishi — be warned. Don't let yourself get hijacked.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 12, 2012

Tax auditors running out of cheaters, ponder purpose in life

The economy is so bad, even tax investigators have nothing to do.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

'Koi ni Itaru Yamai (The End of Puberty)'

Gender bending in movies is usually a cue for comedy, especially when taken to more fantastic extremes, as when Debbie Reynolds plays a womanizer reincarnated as a woman in Vincente Minnelli's "Goodbye Charlie" (1964) or Satomi Kobayashi and Toshinori Omi play teens who switch bodies and minds in Nobuhiko...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 12, 2012

Treasures from China's rich tapestry of cultures

"China" has always been something of a simplification. This is because it is an idea that has been used to encapsulate a vast heterogeneous portion of the World's population. With current relations with Japan tense, the idea of China as a monolithic giant with a single purpose, bringing its weight to...
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

Getting to know a copywriter

Regarding the Oct. 7 Timeout feature, "Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life' ": What a great interview with this acclaimed copywriter! Itoi is very well known in the United States as the creator of the Nintendo game "Mother 2," better known as "Earthbound." It was interesting to read about all...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 11, 2012

The princely state of Liechtenstein's collection

Liechtenstein is the kind of place that philatelists and tax lawyers know best. Although an insignificant dot on the map, it has its own set of stamps and its small size allows it to offer tax advantages to thousands of holding companies. The latest exhibition at the National Art Center Tokyo (NACT)...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 9, 2012

North Korea abductees mark decade since coming home

Oct. 15 will mark the 10th anniversary since five Japanese citizens were repatriated from North Korea after being abducted by Pyongyang's agents in the 1970s. The government claims that the North has failed to properly address the fate of 12 more Japanese abductees that remain missing, while others say...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 9, 2012

Let Inoue's antinuclear Jizo, forged in Hiroshima, guide Japan's future

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
CULTURE / Books
Oct 7, 2012

Exploring the garden of absolute infinities

Tenryu-Ji: Life and Spirit of a Kyoto Garden, by Norris Brock Johnson. Stone Bridge Press, 2012, 368 pp., $39.95 (hardcover) If the Western garden is bulging with organic matter, the Japanese one is animate with deities, allegory, symbolism and mythology, hinting at a greater depth, a place of divine...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 7, 2012

All-star drama; A male concubine; CM of the week: Wacoal

Nonsatellite TV drama series tend to have the exact same look and sound, regardless of what they're about. That may finally change with the broadcast of "Going My Home" (Fuji TV, Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Written and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda, the series looks and sounds...
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2012

Work remains for consumer safety

A consumer protection commission was launched last month to investigate consumer complaints about appliances, food and commodities. Unfortunately, the seven-member Consumer Safety Investigation Commission might be a case of too little too late.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 6, 2012

Government will take its time deciding on reporting standards, Nakatsuka says

New financial services minister Ikko Nakatsuka on Friday said the government still hopes to make a final decision on whether to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards in the next few months, but only after it finishes weighing their potential impact on Japanese companies.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Oct 6, 2012

Newton confident Ryukyu will contend for another title

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Jeff Newton of the Ryukyu Golden Kings is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 6, 2012

Digging for things to do

One of life's little facts: "Every man needs a hobby."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2012

'Outrage Beyond'

Yakuza movies were once as easy to understand as white-hat-versus-black-hat Hollywood Westerns. A gang that upholds the traditional jingi code of yakuza "chivalry" is being out-fought, out-knifed and outgunned by ruthless, greedy rival hoods. Then a stoic lone outlaw, typically played by Ken Takakura,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2012

Looking at art from a local perspective

In these recessionary times, any contribution to the arts is a cause for celebration. Such a state of affairs makes the opening of the Daegu Art Museum (DAM) in May 2011 in Daegu, South Korea, an especially joyous event.
EDITORIALS
Oct 4, 2012

Review of the lay judge system

As three years have passed since the introduction of the lay judge trial system, the process to review the system has started with a Justice Ministry panel, which includes legal professionals, citizens and mass media people. The review is in accordance with a supplementary provision of the Act on Criminal...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 2, 2012

What it means to be 'Made in Japan'

"Made in Japan" is a such a simple phrase, yet it instantly evokes an image of exceptional design and high-quality production. Japan today is known for creating some of the most stylish, innovative and whimsical products in the world.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 2, 2012

Revisionists marching Japan back to a dangerous place

No doubt you've seen the news about the Takeshima and Senkaku disputes: Japan is sparring with China, South Korea and Taiwan over some specks in the ocean.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 2, 2012

Divergent views on Debito; the fate of mixed-nationality kids

Arudou's writing still needed Most of the readers who indignantly criticize the writings of Debito Arudou seem to share the same outlook. Arudou, they say, should shut up and accept the good with the bad.

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