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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2012

What lies behind our love of clothes?

There's something counter-intuitive about photographic artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. While most artists are happy to achieve a distinctive style and enjoy the rewards that this brings, Sugimoto is forever reinventing the wheel by developing, then abandoning, one style after another.
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2012

Boosting agriculture opportunities

The Cabinet on May 24 endorsed a white book on agriculture for fiscal 2011. It gives priority to reviving agriculture in the coastal areas of the Tohoku region devastated by the 3/11 disasters. The region suffered damages amounting to ¥2.426 trillion, about 27 times that caused by the 1995 Kobe earthquake....
LIFE / Digital
May 30, 2012

Video-game characters time-travel to the Edo Period

When most people in the know look at Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong, they picture them in action in the video games that made them famous. But not Jed Henry. Instead, the 28 year-old American artist imagines how these game characters would have looked if they were around in the days of Japanese woodblock...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 29, 2012

New feed-in tariff system a rush to get renewables in play

On July 1, a new law takes effect requiring utilities to purchase electricity generated from five renewable energy sources at a fixed price for a set length of time, under what is known as a feed-in tariff system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 29, 2012

Japan's house of the rising sun

What will our lifestyles be like in the future? An international group of students at Chiba University plan to explore the possibilities with their proposal for a next-generation solar house, a futuristic mix of new technology and traditional ways of life in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 29, 2012

Tokyo: What do you think of the move by two hotels at Tokyo Disney Resort to offer same-sex marriage ceremonies?

C. Sakai
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 29, 2012

Nakata stars as Fighters beat Giants

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters fans who bought tickets for Monday night's game came hoping to see a good show.
SUMO
May 29, 2012

Kyokutenho: the first Japanese yusho in six-plus years . . . sort of

In recent years it has been possible to start the regular post-basho article several days before a tournament wraps up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 29, 2012

Photos reunite left-behind parents with lost children, but only on film

If there is no bond deeper or love stronger than that between a parent and a child, then equally, there is no pain greater than when that bond is broken or that love taken away.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
May 29, 2012

Manjiro, patron saint of eikaiwa, watches over English teachers

It can be tough teaching English in Japan. The chain school grind of late hours, noisy kids and boring middle-aged office workers takes its toll. Uppity teachers at public schools treat ALTs with contempt and all English instructors feel the humiliation of being looked down upon by their foreigner brethren...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 28, 2012

Unmachinable, unreformable, but necessary

One recent topic for The Wall Street Journal's front-page space set aside for stories other than the daily shenanigans of business, politics and wars was the community in Florida created for retired letter carriers. ("In Florida, These Retirees Deliver a First-Class Protest," March 27.)
COMMENTARY
May 28, 2012

The politics of victimhood

When a group of gay activists engaged in an angry confrontation with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who was having dinner with a major columnist in a Melbourne restaurant, the journalist noted how those demanding tolerance of diversity had shown an ugly face of extreme intolerance uncharacteristic of...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

Cost-cutting pathology at work

In his May 20 letter, "Stupidity of planners and builders," Paul Gaysford is distressed that tsunami victims' homes are being rebuilt without proper, sensible insulation. He is criticizing a unique Japanese tradition.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

Biblical vs. modern ideas of love

Regarding Catherine Wallace's May 13 letter, "People aren't compelled to love": I agree that love is genuine when chosen freely and not forced, but I don't see how this describes love in the Jesus story. Wallace stops short of identifying the "inevitable consequences" of choosing not to love Jesus: everlasting...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

A roughshod run over contracts

Regarding the May 23 Kyodo article "Hashimoto: Answer tattoo survey or else": The debate surrounding tattoos on public employees in Osaka can evoke a lot of emotion, so it is helpful to approach it from clearly defined principles.
JAPAN / Media
May 27, 2012

Nuke documentary experiments with online fundraising

At one point or another, every filmmaker, producer or journalist has dreamed about freeing themselves from the financial restraints of media production. The team behind "We Are All Radioactive" — a documentary about a community of surfers and fishermen in the small tsunami-stricken town of Motoyoshi...
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

Devalue the euro to help Europe

In his May 21 opinion article, "Rebalancing eurozone wages and productivity," Kemal Dervis only describes the link between the debt problem and high wages in southern European countries. The article fails to put forward how to tackle the debt problem.
CULTURE / Books
May 27, 2012

Japan through the monster's eye

THE MONSTER MOVIE FAN'S GUIDE TO JAPAN, by Armand Vaquer. ComiXpress.com, 2010, 48 pp., $15.00 (softcover)
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2012

Another kind of municipal link

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's demand this month that all city workers reveal in a survey whether they have tattoos followed an alleged incident in which a city worker showed off his tattoo to children at a welfare facility.
Reader Mail
May 27, 2012

The road to a volunteer culture

Regarding the May 18 editorial "Helping people help NPOs": With more companies concerned about corporate social responsibility, this is a great time to start encouraging companies to cooperate with the operations of nongovernmental organizations. I just came back from Japan after living there through...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 27, 2012

Japan's Everest timeline

Japan has had a tumultuous, and at times controversial relationship with Mount Everest. Its history features the first woman summiteer, a heated race to claim the crown of oldest person to the top, a disastrous early expedition — and one of the mountain's most infamous casualties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 27, 2012

Junko Tabei : The first woman atop the world

Almost exactly 37 years ago, on the morning of May 16, 1975, then 35-year-old Junko Tabei and her Sherpa guide Ang Tshering reached the 8,763-meter South Summit of Mount Everest — their final halt before pushing on to the 8,848-meter peak itself.
JAPAN
May 26, 2012

Toxin in Kanto tap water laid to waste-disposal firm

A Gunma-based industrial waste disposal firm is suspected of dumping the toxic liquid that polluted part of the Kanto region's water system last week, the Saitama Prefectural Government said Friday.
SOCCER / J. League
May 26, 2012

Taking road less traveled has worked out for Tanaka

Last year may have been a dream come true for Kashiwa Reysol, but forward Junya Tanaka is determined to prevent 2012 from turning into a nightmare.
BASKETBALL
May 26, 2012

Ex-Evessa star's spouse released from custody

Longtime Osaka Evessa star Lynn Washington's wife, Dana, was released by Osaka Prefectural Police on Friday, sources, including Ryan Blackwell, who coached the team over the past two seasons, said. Her release — in the aftermath of her arrest on drug charges in February — completes a long saga that...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2012

Desperate Kurd plays final asylum card

The 42-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker's wife and four children fled back to Turkey more than a year ago, terrified about the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, but he stayed on, in limbo, hoping beyond hope that he would be permitted to remain in Japan.

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’