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BUSINESS
Feb 28, 2013

Horse-meat scandal dents Europe's culinary esteem

According to folklore, Europeans have always treated their food with reverence, eating grandma's slow-cooked stews concocted with farm-fresh ingredients while Americans wolfed down the genetically modified, chemically preserved junk symbolized by burgers and fries.
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2013

A long way to gender parity

Regarding Joseph Jaworski's Feb. 21 letter, "Cut the irrelevant gender data": While the treatment of female pop stars is not specifically a factor in Japan's low ranking of 101 out of 135 nations in The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report, the low ranking is not irrelevant. The ranking and...
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 27, 2013

Singapore tightens foreign labor curbs

Singapore on Monday tightened curbs on foreign labor for a fourth consecutive year, as the government seeks to reduce companies' reliance on overseas workers amid a public backlash over the influx.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 27, 2013

Nippon Ishin gunning for Kansai domination

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) is moving forward with plans not only to field candidates nationwide in this summer's Upper House election but also run against Kansai politicians who oppose its efforts to create a new regional system.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2013

Financial regulators' international variety show

It is hard to identify a correlation between regulatory structure and state success in heading off or responding to the financial crisis triggered in 2008.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Feb 27, 2013

Glass may look geeky, but you have to applaud Google's vision

A few weeks ago, the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, spent four days in Cambridge as the Humanitas visiting professor in the university's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, where I work. Afterward, one of the questions I was most frequently asked by people who hadn't been...
LIFE / Digital
Feb 27, 2013

Wearable tech will see, follow us everywhere

Apple has already transformed two industries — music and computing. Now, as the company reportedly attempts the redefinition of the watch — one of man's oldest pieces of technology — the next phase of the techno revolution is moving into clear view: Welcome to the age of "wearable tech," with a...
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2013

Toshiba helm goes to Tanaka in June

Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday that Hisao Tanaka will take over as president in June as it tries to bolster growth from energy and chip operations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Feb 26, 2013

The bird is the latest word in animal cafes

Japan's new cafes let patrons get up close and cuddly - with birds of prey.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 26, 2013

Nissan's female execs help drive strong sales

Among the 780,000 people employed in Japan's auto industry, only three are women responsible for the rollout of new models. They all work at Nissan Motor Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Feb 26, 2013

Romania envoy hopes cultural affinity boosts ties

Romanian Ambassador Radu Serban is a veteran diplomat with a mission to promote economic ties with Japan. But the envoy, 61, has another agenda — promoting cultural and educational exchanges, which ties into his personal love of Japanese literature, especially haiku.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Feb 26, 2013

Everything you wanted to know about Western women (but were afraid to ask): No-holds-barred guide targets Japanese men

Here's an open secret: Japanese men have a bad international reputation on the romance front.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 26, 2013

Carpenter Eiichiro Amakasu

Eiichiro Amakasu, 70, is a carpenter who designs and builds traditional Japanese homes and their surrounding gardens. He is an expert of sukiya, a residential architectural style that is typically associated with Japanese tea houses.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 26, 2013

I've seen haras . . . haras that you've seen: when 'harassment' goes wild

In response to the article "Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims" (The Foreign Element, Jan. 28), we invited readers to come up with their own ideas for new types of "harassment." As you can see, one JT writer got a bit carried away.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 26, 2013

Is the U.S. near a tipping point for government debt?

How much debt can America handle? The question is one of the most fundamental the nation faces, and the answer should determine how the United States handles the delicate task of reducing budget deficits without walloping economic growth.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2013

Who is the real John McCain?

John McCain was excited. It was late January, and the following day, he and a group of bipartisan senators were set to announce their framework for comprehensive immigration reform. He picked up the phone and called an old friend in Arizona.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 25, 2013

Pay attention to the resiliency of public assets

As a long-term priority, developed countries must build public assets to have the resilience and flexibility to respond to structural change over time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 24, 2013

Spring training in Mukojima

It's hard to think of February as springlike, what with snowfalls, freezing winds and a dusting of dead leaves everywhere. But I know from experience that the intrepid Prunus mume, or plum tree, blooms this month, and a trek to see some blossoms seems de rigueur. From the Tobu Isesaki Line, I get off...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 23, 2013

Driving me crazy

Next to my house lies a carpet of land not flat enough to resist puddles and not sandy enough to attract cats.

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