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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 24, 2011

Travel firms feel pinch, pitch in after disasters

Every spring, as the wave of blossoms sweeps up the archipelago from south to north, washing up from the coasts into the higher altitudes, travelers flood into Japan. Rivaled only by the cool autumn months that redden maple leaves across the country, March and April are high season for tourism in Japan....
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2011

Health in hand with education

Better education, particularly among mothers, is widely associated with better health. Experiences in several countries have shown the power of education to increase the nutritional levels and the health status of the poor.
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

Village mayor with foresight

Regarding the May 18 AP article "How one village defied the tsunami": How is it that the tiny fishing village of Fudai in Iwate Prefecture could anticipate the threat of a major earthquake/tsunami? How did this tiny fishing village have the resolve and foresight to build a sea wall and floodgates at...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2011

U.S. court victories show how to get rid of nuclear plants

Lawyer Tom Twomey knows far more than most of us about the importance of citizen participation in making energy policy. That's because Twomey has spent four decades keeping a watchful eye on electric power suppliers in New York — and he's learned that what we don't know can hurt us.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 22, 2011

Mothers of modern China; Sakana-kun sempai; CM of the week: Nippon Ham

In April, NHK launched the BS Premium channel, which is mainly dedicated to art and history. This week, Premium presents a special four-part series entitled "Kindai Chugoku ni Kunrin Shita Onnatachi" ("Women Who Dominated Modern China"; Mon.-Thurs., 7:30 p.m.).
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 22, 2011

Recalling fond memories of Killebrew

It is always sad to hear about the death of a ballplayer who, as a youth, you admired.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 22, 2011

Up close and personal: Why Dylan is so big in Japan

It was the fall of 1963, when — in what seemed like a flash of lightning — I became a fan of Bob Dylan the moment I heard "Blowin' in the Wind" on the radio. I was in my first year of high school.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 21, 2011

Sunny today with a chance of margaritas

When I first moved to the "Harenokuni Okayama (Sunny Okayama)" prefecture, I couldn't help but imagine how lazy the weather forecasters must be. I envisioned them laying in hammocks with margaritas in their hand while spewing out the weekly forecast — "Sunny every day!" — and assuring the public...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 21, 2011

Five teams battle to avoid relegation

It is billed as Survival Sunday and as the most exciting season many fans can remember reaches a climax Wigan, Blackpool, Birmingham, Wolves and Blackburn will be fighting for their Premier League lives and a television contract next season worth a minimum of £40 million.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 20, 2011

Osaka-Ryukyu battle highlights semifinals

Final Four weekend brings three teams to Tokyo that were expected to be here and one that joined the mix by a less conventional route.
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2011

Care for orphaned children

As of May 14, there were 141 orphaned children in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which devastated much of the region.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 20, 2011

Surveying the waters of 2111

Coral reefs worldwide could face extinction by 2050, according to the World Resources Institute. At this rate, what will our oceans look like in 2111? An exhibition in Tokyo aims to shed light on an issue that could potentially see countless species, not to mention the 500 million people whose livelihoods...
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2011

Top vacancy looms in IMF

The International Monetary Fund will be looking for a new managing director sooner than anyone imagined, and in the most bizarrely depressing circumstances.
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2011

A visit to Libya's front line of democracy

Last week I flew to Benghazi to meet Libya's Transitional National Council (TNC), a visit coordinated with European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton and NATO allies. What I saw reminded me of my country 20 years ago, just after Poland's first free elections.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 19, 2011

Edo disaster images strike grim chords

How will the experience of the recent natural disasters impact on the work of Japan's artists? It's a question that is playing on the minds of many observers of the art world here these days, and it's a question that is somewhat answered — at least by way of historical parallel — in a show currently...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 18, 2011

Happinets show Pierce the door after first season with expansion team

The Akita Northern Happinets fired coach Bob Pierce on Monday night, clearing the path for a possible titanic shift in the bj-league's coaching landscape.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2011

U.S. envoy gives up

Mr. George Mitchell, the special U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, has thrown in the towel. Of course, neither Mr. Mitchell nor the U.S. government would characterize his resignation last week as giving up, but there is no mistaking his frustration with the peace process.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 17, 2011

When it comes to mighty Tepco, pride goes before the fall

Until quite recently, landing a job at Tokyo Electric Power Co., Japan's largest and most powerful electric utility, meant a lifetime of steady employment and generous paychecks, a status envied and often likened to that of a civil servant.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 16, 2011

The new enervated Tepco

With the onset of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant crisis following the March 11 Tohoku-Pacific earthquake, radioactive substances continue to seep into the sea, air and soil. Residents within a designated proximity of the plant will likely have to live away from their homes a long time. The prospect...
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2011

Rebel conductor making music for peace

He has been called "a real Jew hater" and a "real anti-Semite" by former Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat. However, few musicians have done as much for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as Daniel Barenboim, the noted Argentine-born Israeli orchestra conductor. It will be only through efforts...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 16, 2011

Old proverbs should be minded even in tough economic times

Recent news of the restaurant chain Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu serving contaminated raw beef to its customers makes me think of an old Japanese proverb. It tells us that "poverty breeds stupidity." All old proverbs are invariably wise. They also tend to be true most of the time.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
May 16, 2011

NBA veteran Satterfield making impact on Evessa

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Kenny Satterfield of the Osaka Evessa is the subject of this week's profile.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011

When prevention is more effective than relief

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, Brian Tucker was in Padang, Indonesia. Tucker was working with a colleague to design a refuge that could save thousands of lives if — or rather, when — a tsunami like the one in 1797 that came out of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 km southeast of...
SOCCER / J. League
May 16, 2011

Frontale display impressive verve in win over Antlers

Kawasaki Frontale ensured Kashima Antlers' stop-start season remained stuck in first gear with a pulsating 3-2 win over the former J. League champions on Sunday.
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011

Natsume Soseki: mining a literary treasure

THEORY OF LITERATURE AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS, by Natsume Soseki. Columbia University Press, 2009, 287 pp., $50 (hardcover) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is said to rank among the world's great 20th-century writers. Many consider him Japan's greatest modern novelist. His books, from the comic "I Am a...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’