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Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 31, 2012

Preseason contests signal start of league's eighth season

After another offseason of major changes, the bj-league is entering year eight of its curious existence.
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2012

The fight against climate change

A quote often attributed to Gandhi reads "Be the change you want to see in the world." This sentiment seems lost on Stephen Hesse, who, in his Aug. 26 article titled "If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?", writes about his trans-Pacific sojourn with a group of Japanese university students...
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2012

Another chance for Abe to lead

Regarding the Aug. 25 front-page article "On sex slaves, Hashimoto on same page as Abe": It is very hard to believe that former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seriously thinks of himself as a viable contender for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency who should be given another chance to lead the country....
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2012

Censure motion against Noda OK'd

With the Sept. 8 end of the current Diet session nearing, political players in Nagata-cho engaged in a heated tit-for-tat battle Wednesday as the opposition-controlled Upper House passed a censure motion against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to try to push him into dissolving the Lower House.
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2012

Harbinger of the future is here

Thank you for Stephen Hesse's insightful Aug. 26 article, "If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?" Here in Missouri the drought of 2012 continues to oppress both farmer and rancher across the state. Rural water wells are going dry! Major cities are asking residents to refrain from watering...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 30, 2012

Fact welcomes a new face to the fold

In September, Fact will embark on a monthlong Japan trek in support of their fourth full-length effort, January's "Burundanga." The gigs will be the Chiba posthardcore act's first domestic concerts since performing last December at the popular annual Countdown Japan yearend music festival. They will...
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2012

Nankai quake projected toll radically raised

As many as 323,000 people in 30 prefectures could be killed by a major earthquake and ensuing monster tsunami that scientists say could hit in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast, the Cabinet Office's Central Disaster Prevention Council said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2012

End of currency swap deal to test bilateral ties

The exchange of jabs between Japan and South Korea over the territorial dispute in the Sea of Japan will reach a key turning point in October when a temporary bilateral currency swap arrangement comes to an end.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 29, 2012

The strongest case against Obama's economic policy

The strongest case against the Obama administration's economic policy goes something like this:
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Aug 29, 2012

Kim reveals new programs, denies marriage rumors

Kim Yu-na geared up for her much-anticipated return to competition this season by announcing her musical selections for her programs recently through her agency, All That Sports.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2012

DPJ bills clear Lower House, to stall

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan used its numeric advantage to pass two key bills through the Lower House on Tuesday amid a vote boycott by the main opposition parties, which plan to block passage of the legislation through the Sept. 8 end of the Diet session.
BASKETBALL
Aug 29, 2012

MVP Burrell to join French League

Power forward Justin Burrell, the 2011-12 bj-league MVP, has finalized a one-year contract to play for Champagne Chalons Reims Basket, a second-division club in France.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2012

Nuke crisis tested oldest sake brewer

Over its 850 plus years, sake maker Sudohonke Inc. has endured wars, famines, earthquakes, plagues, droughts, storms and everything in between. But the nuclear crisis that started last year at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was an unparalleled catastrophe that pushed it to the brink.
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2012

MHI in talks with wind turbine maker

Vestas Wind Systems, the world's largest maker of wind turbines, said it is in talks with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. on possible "strategic cooperation."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Aug 29, 2012

Risk management, sustainability solutions; fashionable activewear for women

ANNOUNCEMENTS
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2012

Lockdown on expert candor

Larry Summers knows better. In a column for the Washington Post (which ran Monday in The Japan Times under the headline "The unlikely chance of shrinking government"), the Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and former economic adviser to President Barack Obama shows why the federal government...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 28, 2012

Purifying plant power

The Airleaf Mini is an interesting product that makes use of your fan or air conditioner. It contains little beads filled with oils extracted from fir trees, which purifies air as it's blown through by cutting down the carbon dioxide and restricting production of oxygen radicals.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 28, 2012

Why is government policymaking paralyzed?

It is no secret that the global economy is struggling. Europe is in the midst of a crisis whose root cause is a structurally flawed monetary and economic union.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 28, 2012

Paid leave, advice for foreign parents, JET's value: readers' views

Uncompetitive Japan Inc. Not being a Japanese person employed in a private Japanese company, it is hard for me to imagine the hardship experienced by the writer of the July 17 Have Your Say letter ("Working employees to death"). I can, however, say with a high degree of confidence that laws mandating...
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2012

DPJ fix for vote-value gap wins panel nod

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan voted Monday in an opposition-boycotted Lower House committee to back its legislation aimed at rectifying the national disparity in vote values, which is threatening the constitutionality of Japan's elections.
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Growth argument stretched thin

Regarding Takamitsu Sawa's Aug. 20 article "Measuring a society's value": I find the article confusing as Sawa seems to be trying to relate the "well fed, well bred" slogan to economic growth.
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Don't be shy about drinking up

Regarding Greg Blossom's Aug. 16 letter, "Wasteful ways to quench thirst": Putting pressure on people to hydrate "less wastefully" is more of the same sadomasochistic pressure Japanese people are already under to bear up under the heat. Thirty-nine people are reported to have died of heatstroke in July....
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Military brothels go way back

Study world history. European powers and others kept "comfort women" or legitimate military brothels into the 20th century. In the 1970s, there were separate brothels in South Korea for American forces and for Katusas (Koreans attached to the U.S. Army).
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Infeasible retirement proposal

Regarding the Aug. 22 article "What if no-benefit 'retirement' age is set at 40?": Mandatory retirement at 40 would hit around the age when many people have families with small children. Japan already has a huge problem with low birthrates. I imagine that the prospect of losing one's job just when family...
Reader Mail
Aug 26, 2012

Let Hashimoto show his evidence

Regarding the Aug. 23 front-page article "No evidence sex slaves were taken by military: Hashimoto": Although there is overwhelming evidence that Japan forcibly used "comfort women" during its brutal occupation of Korea, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has revealed his abhorrent character by suggesting that...

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