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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 3, 2013

Salarymen's allowance falls to 1982 level

The average Japanese husband's monthly allowance slumped to the lowest level since 1982 at the start of the financial year as workers await the dividends promised by "Abenomics."
LIFE / Digital
Jul 3, 2013

Porn: Do we really want ISPs to censor?

Dearly beloved: our subject this morning is online pornography and what to do about it. The fact that there is a good deal of erotic material on the Internet is beyond dispute, though the precise amount is unclear. Let us assume that X percent of websites contain porn, where X is a number between five...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 2, 2013

Moved by the benefits of mobile-home housing

The model house sat on an empty patch of brown land along a commercial stretch of road in southern Ibaraki Prefecture. Few people would have identified it as a model house. It had a forlorn, out-of-place look to it. Technically, it was a mobile home — "trailer house," in Japanese parlance — propped...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2013

Can Rudd resurrect Labor?

Even by the standards of a sports-mad country in which politics is a blood-sport, the events leading to the comeback of Kevin Rudd have been extraordinary.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 1, 2013

Voting for idols is bigger than politics

Elsewhere in the world, the kind of sōsenkyo (総選挙, general election) that fires up public interest and garners media attention is one where political parties compete for national office. In Japan, however, the sōsenkyo of aidoru gurūpu (アイドルグループ, idol group) AKB48 tends to grab...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2013

Fence against cheap labor set too deep in south

If Washington wants to build a fence to keep back the dangers of cheap labor, the fence should run from Virginia to Texas — not along the Mexican border.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 30, 2013

The media needs to open discussion on GMO issue

More than two years on from the disaster of March 11, 2011, debate continues in the mainstream and social media about the uses of fear to advance agendas. Much of the debate is centered on the environmental crisis surrounding the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor. On one side are people who say that...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 30, 2013

Blazing a woodland trail through Shin Kiba

Even if you can't read the kanji for Shin Kiba, you'll sniff out its meaning of "new wood place" the moment you arrive. The Yurakucho subway line's terminus there in eastern Tokyo smells like a cedar closet. Inside the station, a display of Japanese carpentry — including beams featuring dovetail, mitered...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 30, 2013

Charting U.S. decline, without anger

One of the odd things about American news programs is how little American news they feature. Typhoons and hurricanes, crazies and lone gunmen, Barack Obama staging a press conference, 10 seconds about the Middle East, a famous actor doing something scandalous, back to the weather: All this giddy fragmentation...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 29, 2013

Nintendo's game development to revive Wii U

Nintendo Co., the world's biggest maker of video game machines, plans to revive demand for its Wii U through the release of its own new titles as sales of the console failed to meet forecasts amid a lack of software.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 29, 2013

Charles Saatchi: art supremo with an image problem

When the art collector Charles Saatchi wants something, he knows how to set about getting it. Gallerists and curators are full of stories about the way he walks into an exhibition, fixes on the single best work of art on show and rushes toward it — in the words of one acquaintance, "like a heat-seeking...
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 28, 2013

Cerberus impasse with Seibu appears set to drag on

How the public battle between U.S. private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management L.P. and Seibu Holdings Inc. over management of the struggling railway and hotel operator remains unclear even after the Seibu shareholders' meeting Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2013

New nuclear safety standards

Four power companies are expected to apply to restart up to 12 nuclear reactors under newly approved nuclear safety and emergency-response standards.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 27, 2013

Abe's fixations threaten newfound unified approach on North Korea

Just as U.S. President Barack Obama seeks a united front to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatens to go rogue.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Snowden files stoke U.S. security concerns

The ability of contractor-turned-fugitive Edward Snowden to evade arrest is raising new concerns among U.S. officials about the security of top-secret documents he is believed to have in his possession — and about the possibility that he could willingly share them with those who assist his escape....
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Turkey's turn to fight over future

The protests in Turkey now involve an extraordinary diverse group. They are said to pit secularists against Islamists and authoritarians against democrats.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2013

Relaxed visa program for Southeast Asian visitors starts

The government will relax visa requirements for visitors from Southeast Asian countries starting Monday, hoping to lure more travelers from fast-growing economies to spur economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Stalled negotiations take a toll on Israeli economy

Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu is warned by Israeli businessmen that failure to make peace with the Palestinians will have big economic consequences.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 26, 2013

Suntory ¥388 billion drinks IPO priced at low end

Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd. is set to raise as much as ¥388.1 billion in Japan's biggest initial public offering this year after pricing near the low end of its range as volatile markets curbed demand.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Jun 26, 2013

Drumming helps those with dementia reconnect

Standing in a room full of lined faces, Alan Yellowitz held up an orange drum shaped like a wineglass. "This one's called a djembe," he said. "It's from Ghana."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2013

Why Rand Paul won't be GOP savior

The more people see of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, the more they're drawn to his talent, but his libertarian narrative won't be enough to save the Republican Party.
LIFE / Digital
Jun 26, 2013

Beware: NSA knows the power of your metadata

"To be remembered after we are dead," wrote William Hazlitt, "is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living." Cue U.S. President "George W" Obama in the matter of telephone surveillance by his National Security Agency. The fact that for the past seven years the agency has,...
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 25, 2013

Asia demand making ginseng in U.S. scarce

The long tradition of ginseng hunting in the U.S. can be traced from Daniel Boone, the folk hero frontiersman, to Glenn Miller, a retired concrete inspector.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past