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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 13, 2011

Media takes both sides of TPP debate

Last week Kyodo News conducted a survey on the public's understanding of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Japan is thinking of joining. The TPP basically constitutes a free-trade zone among member countries in the Pacific rim region, including the United States, but right now it is still in the negotiation...
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2011

Risk-averse Noda shuns hallway interviews

Words are often the strongest weapon in a politician's armory, but the slightest slip of the tongue can turn into a huge liability, as evidenced by the number of occasions prime ministers and Cabinet members have been caught out in the last six years.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 23, 2011

Documenting disaster

THE TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE and Tsunami, the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, and How the World's Media Reported Them, by Eric Johnston. The Japan Times, 2011, 96 pp., ¥1,260 (paperback) Seven months after Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, the jury remains out on media reporting...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 4, 2011

Japan needs less ganbatte, more genuine action

Ganbatte kudasai!
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2011

Chinese social media reshape image of Japan

While Chinese mass media tend to focus on negative images of Japan, social media have begun to provide more diversified perspectives since the 3/11 Great Tohoku Earthquake. Social media have allowed Chinese to get to know Japan in a more comprehensive manner.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 16, 2011

Nashida announces plan to step down after 2011 season

Masataka Nashida is stepping down as manager of the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at the end of the season.
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2011

METI aims to wean nation off nuclear power: Edano

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will take the initiative in promoting renewable energy so Japan will be less dependent on nuclear power, Yukio Edano said shortly after taking the METI portfolio.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2011

High profile case highlights the delicate issue of foster care in Japan

On Aug. 20, police arrested voice actress Shizuka Suzuike at her home in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of causing injuries that led to the death of 3-year-old Miyuki Watanabe in August 2010. At the time of her death, Miyuki had been in Suzuike's foster care for almost a year. The suspect denies...
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2011

Unsavory ties for an entertainer

Popular TV personality Shinsuke Shimada and his agency Yoshimoto Creative Agency Co. hastily called a news conference on the night of Aug. 23 to announce his retirement from the entertainment industry, effective immediately, because of his relationship with a gangster.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 16, 2011

Volunteers feel for Tohoku, but their duties lie in Nepal

In the physiotherapy ward at Katmandu's Bir Hospital, a middle-aged woman lay in bed, her back strapped to a big mechanical device. Rukmini Roka, 56, who suffers from chronic backache, struggled to stretch her legs as required by the special therapy machine.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jul 20, 2011

Beef radiation scare recalls mad cow fiasco

The mounting cases of beef containing high levels of cesium recall the 2001 domestic outbreak of mad cow disease, in that slow government action and poor communication have once again been blamed for exacerbating the damage, industry experts say.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 10, 2011

Media were quick off the mark with March 11 disaster publications

Within a couple of weeks of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, major magazine publishers and newspapers were already putting out extra editions covering the disaster. The first were mostly A4-size on glossy paper, which made them easy to display in the magazine racks at convenience stores and bookshops....
Japan Times
CULTURE
Jul 8, 2011

Live from Tokyo, it's Saturday Night!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's Saturday Night Live Japan!
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2011

Opportunity for Hiraizumi area

Regarding the June 27 article "Hiraizumi gets listed as Heritage site": It is glad news that the temples and landscape of Hiraizumi (Iwate Prefecture) have won UNESCO approval as a World Heritage cultural site. The news comes amid the aftereffects of the horrific March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Although...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 29, 2011

Sale of Apache not on fast track; HeatDevils to play on

Technically, it's too early to say the Tokyo Apache are defunct.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 25, 2011

'Reluctant' musician blows success his way with horn

Over half his lifetime ago, reluctant horn player Jonathan Hammill, at 15, slumped in the back seat of the family car. Sweaty and bored on a family trip to his grandparents' house in Florida, Hammill watched as his mother impulsively popped in a tape his music teacher had given him as encouragement at...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 30, 2011

Bedfellows of those 'lax,' 'insular' Japanese

Are some of those who write for The New York Times utterly unaware of the rest of the world — including the United States?
BUSINESS
May 16, 2011

Ten reasons to be glad Rajaratnam trial is over

What a shock. Raj is guilty.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 25, 2011

Mideast unnerving North Korea

North Korea's ruler and his heir apparent are scared stiff at the prospect of prodemocracy movements spreading from the Middle East and northern Africa to their home turf.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2011

Tepco chief vows to stay at helm

A day after the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was raised to the level of Chernobyl, Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu offered apologies but was unable to outline specific ideas or plans to stabilize the situation.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 10, 2011

'Kan the Destroyer' needs his fire back

In spring 1997, the American news magazine Time published a special issue titled "The New Japan." The subtitle was "A rising generation of risk-takers and rule-breakers is stirring the country from its slumber."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2011

Market investors loath to weigh real challenges to U.S. economy

HONG KONG — Sometimes I find it hard to understand "Mr. Market" — if I may presume to call and poke fun at the combined wisdom of investors in stock and other markets. Immediately after announcement of a modest rise in U.S. employment numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial average rose, triggering a general...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 10, 2011

Ishihara may just benefit from 'divine retribution'

There are 11 men vying today for the office of Tokyo governor. Four are taken seriously by the media, the eccentric inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu is humored as a perennial also-ran, and the remaining six are dismissed as margin-dwellers who are in the game to draw attention to themselves or advocate...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 6, 2011

In a catastrophe, chitsujo serves Japan well

Something so immense has befallen Japan that it almost defies contemplation, let alone expression. It is a watershed event, shattering lives and the ground they are lived on; challenging also one of the unspoken (and unproven) assumptions underlying civilized life — that konton (混沌, chaos) is the...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

Ideas floated to stanch leak of radiation

With operations to pump out massive amounts of contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant running into trouble, new ideas surfaced Wednesday to move the effort forward, including storing the tainted water in tankers and covering the reactor sites with fabric shrouds.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 26, 2011

Measuring what has happened

This is supposed to be a humor column.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2011

Child care firms and others scramble for bottled water

Nursery schools, supermarkets and manufacturers scrambled to secure enough supplies of bottled water Thursday following news that tap water in Tokyo and other prefectures was found to be contaminated with levels of radioactive iodine dangerous to infants aged 1 or younger.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami