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Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2012

Senkakus not a dumping ground

Regarding the Oct. 7 letter "Radioactive debris to Senkakus," I believe this opinion is unreasonable and unacceptable. First,we should not bring the radioactive debris of Fukushima to the Senkaku islands. The islands and the surrounding ocean would be contaminated with radioactive waste. This would mean...
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2012

Remembrance is 'compensation'

This week, seven former American POWs of the Japanese will travel to Japan and revisit former campsites where they were held during World War II. Some of them will also visit the companies for whom they were forced to work. Although their memories of Japan from 68 years ago are still painful, they know...
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2012

Quake's role in Fukushima disaster

Regarding the front-page Oct. 8 article "Noda gets close look at Fukushima plant," reporter Reiji Yoshida quotes one of the "Fukushima 50" workers as saying, "The (power generators) were knocked out by water from the tsunami. I thought it was all over." The reporter then adds that "the workers successfully...
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 14, 2012

Farmer plows own antiradiation furrow

At the end of March 2011, a few weeks after the Great East Japan Earthquake, 20 rice farmers affiliated to J-Rap, an agricultural distribution company in Sukagawa, central Fukushima Prefecture, got together to assess the situation.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 14, 2012

Developing a natural aesthetic

JAPAN AND THE CULTURE OF THE FOUR SEASONS: Nature, Literature and the Arts, by Haruo Shirane. Columbia University Press, 2012. 311 pp., $29.50 (hardcover) The starting point for this illuminating study lay in the author's curiosity about the formation of the saijiki, or seasonal almanacs, that have been...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 14, 2012

For diplomacy's sake, Japan must bring its big-city dogs of war to heel

Not many would remember the name Norris Poulson.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 14, 2012

Why stem-cell science thrives in Japan

It's easy to take for granted the epic scale of what some scientists are attempting these days. When the news broke a couple of weeks ago that Japanese scientists had turned normal cells from a mouse into eggs, and then fertilized them and seen them develop into baby mice, I thought it was pretty cool....
Reader Mail
Oct 14, 2012

Some dementia causes reversible

Regarding the Oct. 6 editorial, "Future of senile dementia," Japan's health authorities need to raise public understanding that dementia, a clinical syndrome of acquired intellectual impairment, could be caused by both reversible and irreversible conditions. Attention to the presence of completely curable...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Oct 13, 2012

Some Japanese women crave a rougher cut of man

Nikushokukei danshi are here to save the day . . . and hopefully boost the sagging national birth rate.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Oct 13, 2012

Manga artist wields 'fude' brush in samurai epic

Illustrator and comic book artist Mulele Jarvis came to Tokyo just as he reached adulthood. It was five years after he had first discovered manga near his home in San Francisco, at Kinokuniya Bookstore, next door to Japantown: "That's where I found Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Akira.' I was so impressed by it,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2012

Tehran feels the squeeze

Iran is hurting. Economic sanctions imposed by Western governments designed to push Tehran back into nuclear negotiations have triggered a virtual collapse of Iran's currency, and the effects are being felt throughout the entire economy. While there are reasons to be concerned about the impact of sanctions...
Japan Times
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Exploring, rediscovering fine arts

While much has changed since Japan last hosted the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in 1964 — a year that symbolized the nation's achievement of reconstruction after World War II through the hosting of the meeting and the Summer Olympics — art has always reflected,...
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Daishichi Sake Brewery makes tradition modern

The Daishichi Sake Brewery Co., located in the castle town of Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, sits at the foot of majestic Mount Adatara. Daishichi was founded in 1752 by Saburoemon Ohta, who hailed originally from a samurai family. Since then, 10 generations of the Ohta family have overseen the business....
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Project lends helping hand to industry, small brewers

Sake, like Japanese fashion, anime or even sushi, can be an acquired taste. Just like those other cultural exports from Japan, sake comes in a wide variety of different styles and flavors, and while your first taste may not be precisely what you're looking for, it can be rewarding for those who keep...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2012

Award-winning Born a global success

Participants from around the world attending the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Tokyo were treated to award-winning sake during a hospitality event in the glitzy Ginza shopping district on Oct. 11.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

Ahead of TIFF appearance, Corman critical of films 'made for festivals'

The high-minded fare of the film festival circuit and the cheap thrills of B-movie pulp couldn't seem farther apart, but the circuit will be closed when king of the B-movies Roger Corman heads the competition jury at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

'The Expendables 2'

The "Expendables" franchise certainly deserves some credit for truth in advertising, although I suppose "The Disposables" or "The Predictables" might have been even more on the mark: This is the sort of generic action movie you're already forgetting as the lights come up.
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
Oct 12, 2012

Sake-making mission, part two: the harvest

The instrument I was given to harvest sake rice was a small sickle, about 20 cm in length, with a thin, curved blade and a serrated edge. It was, essentially, the agricultural equivalent of a pair of children's scissors: If used improperly, you could nick yourself badly but were unlikely to do great...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 12, 2012

Treasures from China's rich tapestry of cultures

"China" has always been something of a simplification. This is because it is an idea that has been used to encapsulate a vast heterogeneous portion of the World's population. With current relations with Japan tense, the idea of China as a monolithic giant with a single purpose, bringing its weight to...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2012

Lagarde raises alarm over debt, job ills

Reining in high debt, reforming financial sectors and lowering unemployment rates are some of the key challenges facing the global economy as it recovers at a slower-than-predicted pace, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said Thursday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Oct 12, 2012

DoCoMo, MasterCard announce e-commerce alliance

NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Thursday a new partnership with MasterCard Worldwide that will enable its smartphone users to make contactless electronic payments in other countries starting sometime after next April.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2012

Defending champion Hawks begin title defense

After winning last season's Japan Series the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks lost their three best pitchers and an All-Star shortstop.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2012

Determined Swallows renew rivalry with playoff-tested Dragons

No matter what changes or how much time passes, it seems like the Chunichi Dragons find a way to make it into the Climax Series.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

Territorial disputes don't rain on Asia's largest parade of cinema

There was very little talk at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, Asia's biggest movie event of the year, of the ongoing conflict between Japan and South Korea over ownership of those rocks in the Japan Sea. It so happens that the festival's Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award was being given to...
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

Nuclear information warfare

Shaun O'Dwyer's Sept. 26 article, "Nuclear crisis lowers curtain on Japan's Confucian politics," is a highly recommended history lesson on how Confucianism helped to create a nation of overly trusting and obedient citizens in Japan. It offers an important understanding of how a nation that is naturally...
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

The working class is to blame

Regarding Joseph Jaworski's Oct. 4 letter, "Laws of economics and physics": He asserts quite correctly that wealth has already been distributed. What he fails to appreciate is the reality of how that has been achieved and how it continues to be achieved.
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

Getting to know a copywriter

Regarding the Oct. 7 Timeout feature, "Shigesato Itoi shares lots of 'delicious life' ": What a great interview with this acclaimed copywriter! Itoi is very well known in the United States as the creator of the Nintendo game "Mother 2," better known as "Earthbound." It was interesting to read about all...
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

Nonrequired safety measures

Regarding the front-page Oct. 4 article "Nuke plants come up short in EU stress tests": It is unsurprising that 10 British nuclear power plants do not have hydrogen "recombiners." Recombiners are required for plants that use water as a coolant since hydrogen, the "H" in the H₂O, can be liberated in...
Reader Mail
Oct 11, 2012

Logic of claiming the Senkakus

Regarding Song Xiao-chen's Oct. 4 letter, "Forget about a Taiwan alliance": I agree on one point — that Japan cannot depend on an alliance with Taiwan (formerly Formosa) to avoid conflict with China over the sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands. Formosa was occupied by the Chinese warlord Chiang Kai-shek...

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