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BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

BOJ confusing households: survey

Households having difficulty understanding what the Bank of Japan is trying to communicate rose to their highest level in almost four years, a survey by the central bank shows.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi and the art of compromise

Chief Justice John Roberts last week did something that, in polarized Washington, may turn out to be more important than saving Obamacare.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2012

What is iconic photography?

Osamu Wataya is a photographer, but only in the dictionary sense of the word. Most artistic photographers use their subjects to make a work of art, "I want to be able to serve my subjects," he says, "I want my subjects to be able to use me." When the shutter snaps, he isn't so much freezing a moment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 5, 2012

Big theater names and 'Super Kabuki'

At the start of the performances at Tokyo's Shimbashi Embujo Ichikawa theater in June this year, Kamejiro II (born Takahiko Kinoshi), 36, took the name Ichikawa Ennosuke IV, while his uncle Ichikawa Ennosuke III, famously known as the founder of "Super Kabuki," took the name Ichikawa En'o II.
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.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 3, 2012

Dip into the history of the Japanese 'system bath'

Japanese people love their evening bath, but tubs in private residences are a relatively recent development. By 1963, only 60 percent of Japanese homes had them. The small amount of living space necessitated by economic reality, not to mention the paucity of indoor plumbing, couldn't accommodate bathrooms,...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 3, 2012

In formulating immigration policy, no seat at the table for non-Japanese

Last month the Japanese government took baby steps toward an official immigration policy. Ten ministries and several specialist "people of awareness" (yūshikisha) held meetings aimed at creating a "coexistence society" (kyōsei shakai) within which non-Japanese (NJ) would be "accepted" (uke ire).
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Two Peace Prize laureates fail to communicate

"The lead interrogator at the Division Interrogation Facility had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned....
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2012

Sexual policies and politics during the occupation of Japan

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan, by Sarah Kovner. Stanford University Press, 2012, 240 pp., $50.00 (hardcover) Love, Sex and Democracy During the American Occupation, by Mark McClelland. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 252 pp., $85.00 (hardcover) Six decades after the U.S. occupation...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2012

Author Lesley Downer's romance with Japan is no fleeting affair

British writer, historian and journalist Lesley Downer has been visiting Japan and writing about it for nearly 35 years — beginning in 1978, when she was part of the first-ever intake of the English Teaching Recruitment Program, which evolved into the famous JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program)...
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2012

Workers' comp for mental illness

More workers than ever before were approved for compensation for work-related mental illnesses in fiscal 2011, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. While those statistics offer hope of treatment for those suffering and are a clear recognition that workplaces are one of the causes of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 29, 2012

Warriors to give Burrell shot in Summer League

Power forward Justin Burrell has accepted an invitation to play for the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Summer League in July.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2012

'Rinjo: Gekijoban (The Last Answer)'

Japanese murder mysteries, whether on the big or small screen, are typically puzzles, with the characters serving as pieces whose deaths mean little more than Col. Mustard's in the board game Clue. The detective may be eccentric, hard-boiled or a combination of both, but he does not usually show emotion...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 29, 2012

'Gundam' characters grace guest rooms at Grand Pacific Le Daiba

Grand Pacific Le Daiba, a hotel in Minato Ward, Tokyo, will be offering three guest rooms starting Friday with interior decorations featuring characters from the popular "Mobile Suit Gundam" animated series.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2012

'The Amazing Spider-Man'

One telling scene in "The Amazing Spider-Man" is also the movie's defining moment. A high school English lit teacher explains to her class the premise of fiction and she gives it in three short words: "Who am I?" That's the question Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, struggles with in this reboot to the famed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 29, 2012

'Crazy Horse' / 'This Must Be the Place'

I knew a dancer back in the States who worked with the Washington Ballet ... by day. Some nights, under a different name, she performed as a stripper in a seedier part of town. While recognizing the need for secrecy, she herself had no problem with moonlighting as a peeler, and in fact enjoyed it. I...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

Expressions that lie between functionality and art

"Function Dysfunction" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto, brings together the ceramic works of three Americans: ceramicists Adam Silverman and Ani Kasten, and sculptor Alma Allen. Silverman, who felt that their works shared an aesthetic DNA, brought the three together, explaining that their pieces,...
COMMENTARY
Jun 27, 2012

A woman of courage in war-ravaged Somalia

Somalia can be considered one of the most troublesome countries in the world, one frequently called a "failed state," ravaged by violence and instability.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jun 27, 2012

Weighing up ultra-thin new laptops from Japan

Over the past few weeks we have seen a barrage of great new laptop offerings from PC manufacturers, all hoping to deliver thin, light, and powerful mobile-computing solutions driven by Intel's new Ivy Bridge processor. Competition in this space will be fierce, perhaps even more so now that Apple's has...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 27, 2012

Mazda ends rotary output, takes the fuel-efficient route

Many people of a certain age remember Mazda Motor Corp.'s catchy ads from the 1970s. "Piston engines go boing-boing," they said. "Mazda goes hummmm." The voice-over sang: "There's nothing like it on the road today; the rotary engine is here to stay."
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 26, 2012

Cremation finds favor even with royal clan

Cremation has been the norm for dealing with the deceased in modern-day Japan — where communities are crowded and land is scarce.
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2012

Hurry with reapportionment

The Supreme Court in March 2011 ruled that the 2009 Lower House election, which brought the Democratic Party of Japan to power, was held in an unconstitutional state because of great disparity in the value of a vote between depopulated rural areas and populated urban areas. But it refrained from declaring...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2012

Nuclear laws have serious flaws

The Diet on June 20 enacted a law to establish a nuclear regulatory commission. If the new body is established, it will end the current system, in which the authorities promoting nuclear power generation and the authorities regulating it are virtually integrated in the form of the trade and industry's...
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2012

A success story with or without 'Tiger Moms'

High up in the category of news that's too familiar to be newsworthy is the latest poll that finds Asians to be the most-educated and highest-earning population in the United States.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped