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BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 14, 2012

Atomic exit deserves warm welcome in land of nuclear apprentices

As of May 6, Japan became a nuclear power-free zone. All of the nuclear plants throughout the country are offline, either as a result of last year's Fukushima disaster or routine maintenance. The government and electric power companies are hoping to see them back in action soon, but public sentiment...
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2012

Consequences of the state's proclivity to tax

Bill Hewlett and David Packard, tinkering in a California garage, began what became Hewlett-Packard.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2012

Are humans getting better at beating violence?

With daily headlines focusing on war, terrorism and the abuses of repressive governments, and religious leaders frequently bemoaning declining standards of public and private behavior, it is easy to get the impression that we are witnessing a moral collapse.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 14, 2012

How living can kill you, and other inconvenient truths

It's around this time of year that many Japanese turn their thoughts away from Golden Week escapades (if indeed, there were any. This year, according to a survey by Sankei Shimbun, a good bulk of Tokyoites stayed in and laid low during the holidays) and to the kenkō shindan (健康診断, health examinations),...
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2012

Road-death stats hide the truth

The media likes to report on victims of accidents, disasters and crimes, and while it's natural to feel sympathy for unfortunate individuals, the only imaginable benefit this sort of coverage provides to viewers and readers is catharsis, which is better served by the popular arts.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 12, 2012

Filmmaker savors being in situation where threat of the unknown looms

A surfboard mounted against a sea of sludge, whimsically defiant to the ruinous tide of debris. It's the kind of quirky beauty you might expect from Michael Arias, an American filmmaker based in Tokyo. Arias' creative work, in film through to his recent photographs of Tohoku, all paint with the same...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

'Bad Teacher'

Arguably the greatest legacy of Bill Clinton's time in the White House is that fellatio jokes entered the mainstream. It's damn near impossible these days to find an American comedy that doesn't include a sniggering blow-job reference in the first five minutes, and the new Cameron Diaz comedy "Bad Teacher"...
COMMENTARY
May 11, 2012

Chance to improve public health in Myanmar

In 1998, the publication Burma Debate included my article "The Health of Burma's Women and Children," which was a critical assessment of the health situation in the country. It was a groundbreaking article in that as soon as it was published I received a midnight call from UNICEF's representative in...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 11, 2012

Hamamatsu, Ryukyu, Osaka favored to make Final Four

The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix have a rookie head coach in Ryuji Kawai, but a veteran nucleus of players that captured consecutive championships in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Kazuo Nakamura, the bj-league's elder statesman.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

Clooney comes of age as land and loves collide

Of all the descriptors actor George Clooney gets pegged with, "father" is not usually among them. Academy Award-winner? Sure. Activist? Yes. Sexiest Man Alive? You bet. It was his turn as a dad in "The Descendants" last year, however, that earned him a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nomination.
Reader Mail
May 10, 2012

Due process of lese-majeste law

Regarding Pavin Chachavalpongpun's May 3 article, "If you don't think the king deserves to be feted, don't say so in Thailand": I wish to impress upon readers the following points:
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 10, 2012

Low incomes drive surge in number of never-marrieds

The percentage of men who have never been married by age 50 topped 20 percent for the first time on record in 2010, coinciding with another societal trend that finds more males are living on reduced incomes, according to a government survey.
JAPAN
May 10, 2012

College grad suicides laid to failed job hunt

Suicides among young people who fail to land jobs after college have soared 2.5-fold in the past five years as companies pared hiring amid the recession, underlining the difficulty of launching a career if not hired straight out of school.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

Makoto Morimura literally finds hope in the news

Osaka-based artist Makoto Morimura was surely not alone last year in feeling that the newspapers were full of gloom and doom. But he probably was the only person who in response set for himself the task of searching for hope, literally.
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2012

Discontent with politicians

Voters in democratic countries are increasingly disenchanted with traditional party politics and regard most politicians with skepticism at best and as generally untrustworthy.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2012

Somali pirates see their ambitions trimmed

There has been a significant drop in ship seizures and hijackings by Somali pirates in the troubled waters off East Africa.
JAPAN
May 8, 2012

Weather's recipe right for twisters

Sunday's devastating tornadoes in Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures were caused by a rare situation attributed in part to a winter that went on for some weeks longer than normal, and a recent sharp rise in surface temperatures, experts said Monday.
COMMUNITY
May 8, 2012

A different story: the most-read Zeit Gist articles on our website

The most-viewed Zeit Gist articles on The Japan Times Online since 2007:
BUSINESS
May 8, 2012

Convenience store chains go with flow, grow

The nation's top three convenience store chains last month posted record annual operating profits for the 2011 business year despite the sluggish, disaster-stricken domestic economy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 6, 2012

A postcard from Kauai's 'South Pacific' paradise

Those who know me know I tend to pick up and go quite easily, as the travel bug has never loosened its hold. This time, I've made the ultimate getaway to paradise to escape my regular routine of work and college. I'm talking about Kauai, Hawaii.
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 6, 2012

Small fry spawn big dreams

The Shinano, at 374 km the country's longest river, empties into the Sea of Japan at Niigata City. Salmon still migrate back from the open ocean to this river of their birth to breed and die, but a few decades ago they would arrive to spawn not only in the main river but also in its many tributaries,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2012

Tokyo to be treated to rare annular eclipse, Venus transit

If you're in the right place, a couple of rare astronomical events in the coming weeks — an annular eclipse and a transit of Venus — may make it worthwhile to buy a pair of eclipse glasses.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 4, 2012

Sumida River to light up with LED fireflies

Japan isn't a difficult place to live. If you want to eat Mexican food, there are Mexican restaurants. If you want to buy brand-name British clothes, there are shops and websites that deliver. So Tokyo Hotaru Festival asks the question: What does Tokyo, where you can get anything, really need now?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

'Faces in the Crowd'

Here's something you don't see often: Milla Jovovich not battling zombies, and not wielding some impossibly menacing piece of artillery. In "Faces in the Crowd," we see Jovovich in a rare mode of vulnerability and fragility (in spite of those muscular shoulders) — even giving the impression that she...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 4, 2012

Playoffs could provide surprises in both conferences

And now, finally, it's time for the real season to tip off.

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