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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 12, 2012

Fan-sourced funding site seeks followers

Long before American musician Amanda Palmer made her million dollars through Kickstarter, Japanese metal band Electric Eel Shock was raising money from its fans. And now the band's bassist, Kazuto Maekawa, wants to show the rest of Japan how it's done.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2012

Kepco to boost bond sale fivefold

Kansai Electric Power Co. is planning to sell ¥100 billion in bonds Thursday, five times the amount originally planned, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 12, 2012

Public theater takes on a leading role

Once upon a time, Japanese contemporary theater shared the limelight with youth-cultural movements that were rocking the nation. Back then, in the late 1960s and '70s, the avant-garde works of the angura (underground) theater scene had such an affinity with the radical student movement that they often...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 11, 2012

Mizuno confident Tokyo has what it takes to host 2020 Olympic Games

Persuasion is a powerful tool, especially when the stakes are high.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 10, 2012

Osprey deployment heightens safety worry

The United States last month announced that the MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft will be deployed to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa as scheduled in October.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 10, 2012

Japan's battered men suffer abuse in silence

As in many surveys, numbers and percentages are abundant. But for me, it was that little 3.4 at the bottom of page 21 that stood out more than any other: 3.4 percent of married men in Japan say that their spouses have forced them to engage in sexual relations against their will. And that is down from...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 10, 2012

Being in the doghouse is not always a bad thing

Joseph Kosuth, an American artist famous for conceptual, text-centric works, just put one of his good friends — Joni Waka — in the doghouse.
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Most people suffering in silence

I think the interesting argument made by Michael Hoffman in his June 24 article — that depression from the workplace can lead to a desire to join a doomsday cult — makes some sense.
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Show of restraint spurs tyranny

The July 3 editorial "Show restraint over Senkaku Islands" expresses apprehension over Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to have the Tokyo government buy most of the Senkaku Islands from their private owner. China also claims the islands in the East China Sea.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 8, 2012

Okinawa's first nuclear missile men break silence

In October 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union teetered on the brink of nuclear war after American spy planes discovered that the Kremlin had stationed medium-range atomic missiles on the communist island of Cuba in the Caribbean, barely over the horizon from Florida.
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Biomass: a question of viability

Regarding the June 19 Kyodo article "Biomass town shining amid Fukushima taint": As nice as it sounds, biomass will not meet Japan's power needs for the foreseeable future. ... Does the city of Maniwa (Okayama Prefecture) seriously think that harvesting trees will meet its energy needs, and for how long?...
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Ishihara should focus elsewhere

The July 3 editorial "Show restraint over Senkaku Islands" states that Japan's claim to sovereignty over these islands is clearly legitimate under international law. Is this true?
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2012

New religions in the land of the rising sun

CELEBRITY GODS: New Religions, Media, and Authority in Occupied Japan, by Benjamin Dorman. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 296 pp., $42.00 (hardcover)
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2012

Russia's counterproductive move

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday visited Kunashiri Island, one of four islands known collectively as the Northern Territories whose sovereignty is disputed by Japan and Russia.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 7, 2012

In wake of 3/11 disasters, successful Italian helps those who helped him

After 21 years in Japan and for most of that time working 15 hours a day, Calabrian restaurateur Elio Ermanno Orsara has achieved a certain measure of success.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

Barclays ex-chief tries to deflect blame in rate-fixing probe

Fallen banking titan Bob Diamond on Wednesday described regulators on both sides of the Atlantic as partly complicit in a scandal involving the manipulation of a key interbank lending rate, telling a British parliamentary committee that government watchdogs had failed to act after his bank, Barclays,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 6, 2012

Swallows pound Dragons

Lastings Milledge ended his home-run trot with a salsa dance in front of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows dugout.
BUSINESS
Jul 6, 2012

Kobe Steel's bond risk skyrockets to three-year high

Kobe Steel Ltd.'s bond risk jumped to its highest level in more than three years last quarter as Japan's fourth-largest steelmaker faces increased competition at home and the rising yen erodes profitability overseas.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2012

Rokurinsha: A ramen line-up worth dipping into

Even in the middle of the afternoon on a gray, rainy-season Monday, the queue in front of us is the best part of an hour deep and moving at snail's pace. Only to be expected at Tokyo Skytree, you might say. Except we're not lining up for the observation deck: We're there for the new branch of the legendary...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 6, 2012

World Beer Museum: Having a few drinks beneath the Skytree

If the view from the top of Tokyo Skytree leaves you hungry for more down-to-earth pleasures, there's no shortage of eating options in the Tokyo Solamachi mall at the foot of the tower. The ground floor arcade offers snacks and souvenirs, including a branch of one of Tokyo's most enterprising sake specialists,...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 5, 2012

Today's J-blip: Line's Birzzle

Angry Birds + Bejeweled + Tetris + a free sticker? We have a winner.
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Immigration issue gets covered

Regarding Philip Brasor's Medix Mix column July 1, titled "Often-ignored immigration issue raised in new film": Immigrant labor and the education of the children of immigrants have NOT been ignored. There was substantial television and newspaper coverage of the issue following the 2008 financial crisis....
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Dubious claim about cesium

Regarding the July 2 Kyodo article "Cesium found in urine of Fukushima children": Tokyo University honorary professor of food safety Hideaki Karaki is quoted as saying that "the level of cesium (from the samples) is lower than that of potassium, and it definitely has no effect on the human body."
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Advice that defies a solution

Regarding Ray Andrews' July 1 letter, "Safest bet is to skip having kids": This view, while perhaps purposely exaggerated for rhetorical effect, doesn't help solve problems. Not having kids, encouraging defeatism and hopelessness, and generally being a complete downer are not something that will improve...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Victory for a regular salaryman

Regarding the July 1 AP article "Whistle-blower defeats Japan Inc. for first time": I would like to congratulate Masaharu Hamada on his win and on his dedication and courage in continuing to press for restitution and remedial action for his 2008 suit (in which he alleged that Olympus Corp. took reprisal...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Adding English-acquisition points

Regarding the June 30 article "Rakuten's English drive ready to take full effect": I have a suggestion for making Rakuten Inc.'s drive to force employees to speak and write English at work more successful. Much research concludes that the ability to speak and write is the result of acquiring language,...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Leveling the field for women

When I first read the July 1 article "Disabled women speak out on discrimination," I was so angry that I read it again — just to be sure about what I'd read. The first question that came to me: What would it be like if there were no women in the world?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 5, 2012

The Beauty "Love in the Heart of the World Shout" / Faron Square "Willys Heartbeat"

At this time last year, Tokyo's Cuz Me Pain label was a collection of artists recording dark and dreamy dance tracks from their bedrooms, and that got them a smattering of overseas attention from various music blogs. In 2012, a lot has changed. Various projects under the imprint's umbrella have signed...

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’