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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 2, 2012

Michael Woodford: Japan's whistle-blower supreme speaks out

Michael Woodford glances out of the floor-to-ceiling window of his multimillion-pound loft apartment, which looks out across the River Thames toward the City of London, the so-called Square Mile that is among the world's leading financial and commercial centers.
Reader Mail
Dec 2, 2012

Suspicious cancer-risk report

Regarding the Nov. 27 Kyodo news brief "Fukushima cancer risk said low": I smell a big fat rat. First, why would anyone say this? Either it is true, in which case there's no problem, or it is false, and hey, there is always a reason people say things.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 1, 2012

Man United, Man City in own class

Every season it's the same.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 1, 2012

Shame game in Oita: Players rip team, allege fraud

The on-the-verge-of-bankruptcy Oita HeatDevils will field an undermanned team this weekend at home, a squad that's a cheap imitation of the 12-man unit that had the potential to reach the Final Four this season.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

DPJ's promise to change the system failed

The Democratic Party of Japan rode to power in 2009 and ended decades of Liberal Democratic Party rule by promising to turn politicians into the true decision-makers and end the practice of bureaucrats calling the shots on behalf of ministries instead of the people.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 30, 2012

Nippon Ishin qualifies nuclear phaseout goal

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), the "third force" emerging as a serious challenger to the political status quo, unveiled a watered-down version of its election platform Thursday devoid of a definitive road map for phasing out nuclear power.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 30, 2012

Seven Christians sentenced to death in absentia over film

Cairo AFP-JIJI
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.
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2012

Nippon Ishin's dream to be main challenger to DPJ, LDP threatened

Despite the last-minute announcement, Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada's Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party) political group is the culmination of months of behind-the-scenes preparation, and its advent spells trouble for the hopes of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) to become the main third political...
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
WORLD / Politics
Nov 27, 2012

What role will 'walking NGO' Clinton choose next?

On a recent Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked with her husband onto a stage at the New York Sheraton to cheers and whoops and a standing ovation that only got louder as she tried to quiet things down.
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.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 25, 2012

Attitude change needed to shake up the workforce

Several weeks ago the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, hung around briefly after the IMF finished up its annual meeting — which happened to be in Tokyo this year — and appeared on a special hourlong edition of NHK's in-depth news show "Closeup Gendai." The topic was working...
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.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 25, 2012

First love no use when the last hope for Japan is the chance to marry

Boy meets girl. They fall in love. What happens after that ... well, it depends on the individuals, the mores of their generation and the availability of a few square meters of private space.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 25, 2012

The convoluted crime spree of Amagasaki's 'piranha family'

By next week, the media will start compiling lists of the top news stories of 2012. The short list can be expected to include natural and manmade disasters, political bombshells, international disputes, indiscretions by celebrities in the worlds of sports and entertainment and, of course, sensational...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Nov 25, 2012

The fall fires of Nishigahara

Burning to see fall colors, I head to Tokyo's northern Kita Ward, where Kyu Furukawa Teien, the former estate of copper magnate Ichibei Furukawa, features not only a traditional Japanese garden but also Western-style flowerbeds of autumn-blooming roses. At this time of the season, it should be ablaze....

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers