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Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

Media grill party chiefs in televised debate

With campaigning for the Lower House election set to kick off in a few days, the leaders of 11 parties gathered for a televised discussion Friday that saw most of the questions thrown at Liberal Democratic Party chief Shinzo Abe, whose party leads the opinion polls.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2012

EU challenges require fundamental solutions with fiscal, energy unity

The ultimate solution to the debt crisis in the European Union will not only need a banking union but also have to involve some element of a fiscal union and a major shift of power from the national level to the European level. On the other hand, the EU budget to finance the union's key common needs...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Nov 30, 2012

Oita defaults on player salaries, asks league to intervene

The Oita HeatDevils assembled one of the league's top rosters, a smart collection of veterans, and produced nine victories over their first 14 games, fewer wins than only one club in the 10-team Western Conference — the perennial powerhouse Ryukyu Golden Kings. More of the same appears impossible....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 30, 2012

Expertise on climate is a terrible thing to waste

Doha, the capital of the oil state of Qatar, might be regarded as the most appropriate host for the climate change talks that have started, given that it is a living, breathing testament to the oil and gas-guzzling modern economy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / FOOD MATTERS
Nov 30, 2012

Japan can learn from the Nordic kitchen

Food production in Japan is not in great shape. For decades, rural populations have dwindled and local farmers have been undercut by imports, at both the cheap and luxury ends of the market. Current plans to open up Japan's famously closed farming market through free-trade pacts sound like a death knell...
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2012

Export weakening to drag down yen, expert says

The deterioration of Japan's exports will be the driving force behind weakness in the yen, according to Alan Ruskin, global head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at Deutsche Bank AG in New York.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2012

BOJ should cede right to set inflation target: Abe adviser

The government should be the entity that sets the nation's inflation target and should hold the Bank of Japan governor accountable if the goal is missed, according to a former aide and economic adviser to opposition leader Shinzo Abe.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 29, 2012

2.5D wants to change how you see Japan

A crowd much smaller than solo-guitarist Miyavi is accustomed to has gathered to hear an intimate set at the 2.5D studio in Shibuya's Parco Part 1 building. About a third of the 80 or so people have gathered around the stage so close that they can almost touch the artist. They don't try, of course,...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Opportunists pervert ideologies

Jennifer Kim's Nov. 25 letter, "Core element of communism," seeks to conflate communism, atheism and totalitarianism into one, indistinguishable ideology, and makes the inference that one must be religious to be a good person. This is nonsense to anyone with knowledge of religion, political theory or...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Better elementary schools

While studying in the United States as a 2011 Fulbright visiting scholar, I strongly felt that there was an urgent need for Japan to create a new elementary school environment of progressive education with skilled teachers. As Japan's global presence has diminished, "the nurturing of global human resources"...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Storm brewing in the classroom

The Nov. 25 editorial "Throwaway workers" could have been written about gaijin English teachers — perhaps the most expendable workforce in recent memory. What irony that young Japanese employees now face the same arrogant cavalier attitude of feckless profit-motivated employers that most foreign-language...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Damping workers' discontent

Many Japanese young people are keen on switching workplaces because of dissatisfaction with their jobs. As the number of temporary workers continues to increase, the financial problems of such employees become severe.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

An arrogant take on Fukushima

Gwynne Dyer's Nov. 26 article, "Anti-nuclear madness doesn't jibe with concern about global warming," expresses another narrow viewpoint that essentially assumes that "death" is the only damage that needs to be considered in a nuclear accident.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Loath to live in a new culture

I totally agree with the Nov. 18 editorial "Students staying in Japan." The nervousness of young Japanese people at the prospect of traveling overseas to study is considerable. It is heightened amid all the pressures mentioned in the editorial.
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Ishihara's mysterious appeal

Regarding the Nov. 21 front-page article "Ishihara rattles saber against China": Poor Shintaro Ishihara (Tokyo's former governor). It seems that the grumpy old man realizes he is in the twilight of his political career and has been working feverishly in past months to destroy Japanese-Chinese relations...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Nov 28, 2012

Kyushu Basho: Harumafuji less than impressive as Baruto demoted

In the days leading up to the Nov. 11-25 Kyushu Basho in Fukuoka, much of the talk in sumo circles centered on the ozeki trio of Baruto, Kotoshogiku and the forever injured Kotooshu being able to maintain their rank come the January tournament back in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 27, 2012

Ishihara talks up weapons exports as deterrent

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) leader Shintaro Ishihara said Monday that Japan should produce arms for export overseas so its advanced military technology can act as a deterrent.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Nov 26, 2012

Russian pair triumphs at NHK Trophy

Russia's Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov won the pairs with a steady performance in the free skate on Sunday at the NHK Trophy.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

Never too old for an attitude

Regarding the Nov. 21 front-page article "Ishihara rattles saber against China": Isn't former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara old enough to know what such an attitude leads to?
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

Australia has come a long way

I agree with Roger Pulvers' (Nov. 18 article, "It'll take more than few fine or foreign words to make Australia Asian") that the Australian government's white paper on engagement with Asia is laudable although lacking in specifics and funding. But calling Australians the little self-aggrandizers of Asia...
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

Studying for a Ph.D. in Japan

Regarding professor Takamitsu Sawa's Nov. 19 article, "Make Japanese universities more or less like sumo world": Sawa appears to want to introduce into Japanese universities a failed system of supervision that exists only in Britain and Australia for those working toward Ph.D.s in the social sciences...
BASKETBALL
Nov 25, 2012

Hannaryz extend winning streak to five

David Palmer scored a team-high 19 points and Gyno Pomare poured in 14 as the Kyoto Hannaryz topped the visiting Takamatsu Five Arrows 80-69 on Saturday.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

Not so fast with the setting sun

Regarding Kevin Rafferty's Nov. 15 article, "Japan's sun is setting quickly": For the past 18 years, Western journalists have been predicting doom and gloom for Japan, but they now sound very frustrated that it is not happening.
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

DPJ's commitment to basics

Regarding the Nov. 21 article "DPJ will only back candidates who endorse policies": I personally welcome the Democratic Party of Japan's commitment to oblige its members to agree on a common set of policies. Too many political parties in Japan are united only by the desire to get elected. It is also...
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2012

Core element of communism

Jim Makin's Nov. 15 letter, "The inner heart of an ideology," lectures readers about reason, but it contains claims that are anything but rational or factual. For starters, Makin seeks to shift blame for atheist violence and bloodshed by buying into the idea that atheism's political and societal manifestation...
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2012

More platform barriers

Progress on installing protective barriers on Japan's train station platforms have stalled, according to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. Railway companies have installed platform barriers on only 34, or 14 percent, of the 235 stations (with 100,000 or more passengers per day)...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2012

The Fish Tree

Once upon a time there was a child who, being a child, simply didn't know what to make of himself. "Look," said his mother. "I brought the sun out for you. Go out and play."

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic