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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2012

Output trumps energy-saving mood

In this summer of idled nuclear plants and energy shortages, corporate Japan is under duress.
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2012

Quasi-legal herbs get more scrutiny

As concerns mount over the growing use of quasi-legal herbs as narcotics, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has started monitoring Internet sales of the herbal mixture — but to limited effect as vendors take great pains to stay within the law.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 14, 2012

Yokosuka rape victim takes fight for justice to U.S. courts

Australian Catherine Jane Fisher, who was raped by a U.S. Navy sailor in Yokosuka in 2002, has now taken her case for compensation all the way to the U.S. courts.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 14, 2012

U.S. holds off Spain in final

Between them, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have scored more than 48,000 points in their NBA careers.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 13, 2012

Bolt, Farah, Felix win more gold in electric night on track

The two most recognizable stars heading into the 2012 London Olympics were American swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2012

Don't blame Glass-Steagall repeal for the crisis

When the Titanic set sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912, bound for New York, it was called "unsinkable." This was before that chance encounter in the North Atlantic with a large iceberg. You know how that movie ended.
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Don't sweat a child's stare

Regarding the May 22 Hotline to Nagatacho letter, "Parents, please keep your kids away from me at feeding time": Maybe the small inquisitive children who are said to be drawn to the writer when she eats out in restaurants are wondering if, even by a miracle, the writer might speak to them or even just...
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Leadership or authoritarianism?

Regarding Ralph Cossa's Aug. 3 article, "Pushing Seoul-Tokyo Forward": Cossa finally reveals his fundamental political inclinations. In the context of the South Korea-Japan military relationship, Cossa quotes the reply of an unnamed former U.S. president who was asked if he knew what the American people...
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Conditions for Article 9 changes

Regarding Timothy Bedwell's Aug. 9 letter: "A sign of giving up on pacifism": I would like to add three points.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2012

Queen Elizabeth engineering prize seeks innovation for easing life's hardships

Nominations are currently open for Britain's first-ever international Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which has been created to honor individuals for groundbreaking innovation that benefits humanity — and which rewards the winner handsomely with a staggering £1 million (¥123 million).
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Alternative to quasi-legal herbs

Regarding the Aug. 7 article "Curbs afoot as narcotic quasi-legal herbs slip through regulatory cracks": The increased use of synthetic cannabinoids is an unintended side effect of the war on natural marijuana. Consumers are turning to potentially toxic drugs made in China and sold as research chemicals...
Reader Mail
Aug 12, 2012

Tyranny of the global unelected

Shinji Fukukawa posits a very dangerous definition of a politician in his Aug. 9 article, "Populism is destroying globalism." According to Fukukawa, "Politicians are primarily required to present a vision of their country's future course and call for tough policy choices for the sake of security and...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 12, 2012

For the sake of survival: concealing the cross

In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians: A Story of Suppression, Secrecy and Survival, by John Dougill. Tuttle Publishing, 2012, 272 pp., $22.95 (hardcover) When you travel with a mission, a theme in mind, encounters unfold, stories are forthcoming, history uncoils. John Dougill begins his own journey...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 12, 2012

Japan beats South Korea for historic volleyball bronze

One of the most appealing aspects of Olympic volleyball is the fast, furious pace of the matches.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 12, 2012

Diving into Ise-Shima's ancient womanly traditions

The hut of the pearl divers is more modern than I'd expected. Here, in the village of Osatsu along the craggy coast of the Ise-Shima region in Mie Prefecture, the small concrete building named Hachimankamado blends in with its 21st-century surroundings. But inside the hut the traditions are age-old,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 12, 2012

New breed of single fathers should be a model for men across Japan

He is a much maligned creature at home and abroad. Some call him good for nothing; others say he is good for only one thing: bringing home the bacon ... and, in recent years, a most lean bacon it has become. On the weekends his primary pastime is gorone, to wit, snoozing in his clothes during daytime...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2012

Moment of truth for kin of A-bomb decision

When the grandson of U.S. President Harry Truman, who ordered the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and a descendent of the only serviceman to fly on both bombing runs came face to face with some of the survivors, it was a moment of truth.
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 11, 2012

Bolt has put himself on another level with latest run to Olympic glory

Pick a superlative, any superlative, and add two dozen or more synonyms. And still, the total wow factor created by Usain Bolt's Olympic body of work goes beyond what your list of words.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Aug 11, 2012

Import club caters to need for home comfort

The blonde man in shorts and a baseball cap, sporting a lopsided grin and a dangling backpack and parking a rusty bicycle, looked less like a captain of industry than a superannuated college student. Yet American Chuck Grafft, 50, is founder and CEO of Foreign Buyers Club, one of the largest importers...
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Aug 11, 2012

Prize-winning kid's books on display in Hyogo

The Otani Memorial Art Museum in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, will display original paintings from children's picture books that won prizes in a competition in Bologna, Italy.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 10, 2012

1936 water polo medalist enjoying action at 98

It's been said that age is nothing but a number.
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2012

Police asked to intervene in more bullying cases

Amid growing public criticism of the way schools and boards of education handle, or allegedly ignore, cases of bullying, more children and parents are turning to the police, filing criminal complaints or asking for reinvestigations of previously reported instances of physical abuse.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 10, 2012

Nagano artisans put cheese on the menu

My editor at The Japan Times has a very simple policy when hunting for cheese in Tokyo: He checks the label and if it was made in Japan (excepting Hokkaido), he puts it straight back down. To my editor I am now happy to reveal that Nagano is fast joining the elite ranks.
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2012

Sure way to kill economic growth

Regarding the July 31 front-page Kyodo article "New growth strategy to focus on autos, FTAs": It's fine for the government to have a growth strategy, but the best one is just to get out of the way and let Japan's many innovative people and entrepreneurs lead the way.
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2012

A sign of giving up on pacifism

In his Aug. 4 article, "Why Japan should amend its war-renouncing Article 9," Craig Martin tries to make a case for giving in to the demands of Japan's rightwing by ending 65 years of pacifism. Not only do I think that this is a foolhardy idea but also that it couldn't have come at a worse time.
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2012

The threat of nuclear armament

Regarding the Aug. 3 AP article "Nuclear arms advocates get bolder amid energy debate": The specter of a Japan with nuclear weapons is no more threatening than is a litany of other countries with them.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 9, 2012

Japan outlasts China in thrilling five-setter

Poise. Patience. Persistence.

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