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EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2012

Support foreign health professionals

Thirty-five Indonesians and one Filipino have passed Japan's fiscal 2011 national qualification test to become certified care workers. The Indonesians came to Japan in 2008 and the Filipino in 2009 under Japan's economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with their countries. Despite all being professionally...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2012

India and the Iran sanctions

Writing in The Diplomat on Feb. 20, R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state in the Bush administration, lamented the fact that India was going to continue to purchase oil from Iran.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2012

Institutional intolerance in Osaka

In June 2011, Osaka Prefecture became the first prefecture to enact a by-law to make it obligatory for teachers at prefectural schools to stand up and sing the national anthem, "Kimigayo," at school ceremonies, although it did not provide for punishment. Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka reform association),...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2012

Reconstructing Tohoku to fit today

The official and unofficial memorial ceremonies marking one year since the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the Tohoku region of Japan, killing some 16,000 people, are now past. The question remains though: Will Japan's politicians and bureaucrats come together and heed a simple...
Reader Mail
Apr 1, 2012

The failure to tend to animals

Regarding the March 28 front-page Kyodo article "Noda draws on Fukushima lesson": I would like to add to the series of flashy remarks made by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Reader Mail
Apr 1, 2012

Overcoming digital disconnect

Regarding the March 28 editorial "Challenges for electronics makers": Things have only just started to change in Japan, so I'd like to believe that this is just a confusing transition phase that will be overcome after much debate and hard bargaining.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 1, 2012

'Gon' anime; teachers' drama 'Blackboard'; CM of the week: Orangina

Among the newest additions to Japan's anime menagerie is the eponymous star of "Gon" (TV Tokyo; Mon., 6 p.m.), a cute dinosaurlike critter who is totally instinctual, which, in the world he inhabits, makes him (her?) even more of a troublemaker than your average anime character.
BASKETBALL
Apr 1, 2012

Phoenix continue march toward top spot in East

The scintillating hunt for the top spot in the bj-league's Eastern Conference is still, technically, up for grabs. Though it doesn't look like the reigning champs have any intention of relinquishing their hold on the top spot.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 1, 2012

Sky Tree to offer world's highest bungee jump

Tokyo's newest and biggest visitor attraction, the 634-meter-high Tokyo Sky Tree in Sumida Ward, will open to the public on May 22. And if 11th-hour contract negotiations bear fruit, visitors to the Sky Tree may soon have the opportunity to plummet 430 meters (over 1,400 feet) toward terra firma, in...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2012

Cherry blossoms set to lift national mood

The nation was too stunned last year to partake in the national ritual of "hanami" cherry blossom viewing after the March 11 disasters left more than 18,000 dead or missing, but now people are in the mood.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 31, 2012

Takamatsu's plight reflects poorly on league

The Takamatsu Five Arrows are awful, so bad that they don't even pretend to be a cheap imitation of a mediocre franchise.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 31, 2012

Singer finds fusion in Japan's cultural dichotomy

Japan's fusion of the traditional and modern fascinated musician Yara Eddine as a young child when she learned about the country at a school in Canada. Fifteen years later, Eddine witnessed this integration firsthand.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 30, 2012

Streamlined offerings from new adult anime titles

The packages get a little smaller for adult anime.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 30, 2012

Marshall injury deals fresh blow to beleaguered Evessa

Already without two-time MVP Lynn Washington, the face of the franchise and the most famous player in league history after his March 13 arrest on suspicion of smuggling marijuana into Japan, the Osaka Evessa now are coping with the loss of center Wayne Marshall for an estimated four weeks.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 30, 2012

Helping Tokyo menus to get found in translation

One of the longtime complaints of English-speaking foreigners visiting restaurants in Japan is that few of them offer menus in English. Well, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is doing what it can to help eateries translate their menus into English and other languages, to help them become more hospitable...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2012

Oil consumption hits four-year high as LNG use peaks to cover reactors

Japan is consuming the most oil in four years as it runs out of capacity to use liquefied natural gas as a stopgap for idled nuclear power plants.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 30, 2012

'The Help'

The Help" could be a lot more thorny than it is, but as a tale of bigotry and racial prejudice set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s, its contours are surprisingly smooth. It doesn't have the high rage factor of, say, 1988's "Mississippi Burning," nor the intense, provocative drama of 1990's...
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

'Overstayers' a boon to society

Regarding the March 27 article "Visa overstayers rally to maintain privileges after immigration revision": At a time when we need people in Japan who are contributing to society, why would we want these people to leave?
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2012

Firms furious over Tepco rate hike

Businesses are displeased to say the least with Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s rate hike taking effect April 1, as it will put an extra burden on their operating costs, especially in those industries that use a large amount of power.
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Imbalance in Japan's economy

Regarding the March 4 Kyodo article "Food must be cleansed, Chernobyl expert warns": Many Japanese citizens are skeptical about the safety of products suspected of having been [irradiated by substances] released from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. Many are losing their jobs as demand for these products...
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Tap the ocean for energy

I was very interested in the March 26 article reprinted from Sentaku magazine titled "Tapping into oceanic energy." Since the 3/11 accidents at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, several alternative-energy substitutions have been proposed:
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Infantile use of 'racism' label

In two AP articles published March 21, "Police see racist motive behind French shootings" and "British teacher used Nazi antics to rile neighbors," we see once more the common misuse of words.
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Painful to see payoffs to U.S.

Regarding the March 25 Kyodo article "Japan asked to shell out extra $1 billion over [U.S. Marines'] transfer to Guam": As a long-term resident of Japan, it is painful to see Japan taken to the cleaners. Japan signed a peace treaty a long time ago, meaning that Japan has full sovereignty over its own...
Reader Mail
Mar 29, 2012

Hope for 3/11 survivors

The March 11 article "Time has stopped for parents of dead and missing children" caught my eye. Many parents and guardians who lost children are still digging their way through the mess in Miyagi Prefecture, searching for the bodies of their sons and daughters. They say the task keeps them going, that...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 29, 2012

Fighters keen to emerge from Darvish's shadow

An enterprising bookie could probably make a killing taking wagers on what will be bigger this year: the number of reporters covering Yu Darvish or the number assigned to his former team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2012

Japan's tall stories of great towers in the city

Perhaps because we are upright, vertical animals, towers have always held a special fascination for us. The artist Taro Okamoto expressed this attraction in anthropomorphic terms when he designed the centerpiece of the 1970 Osaka Expo, the 70-meter-tall "Tower of the Sun" with its three faces, including...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 29, 2012

Japan's tall stories of great towers in the city

Perhaps because we are upright, vertical animals, towers have always held a special fascination for us. The artist Taro Okamoto expressed this attraction in anthropomorphic terms when he designed the centerpiece of the 1970 Osaka Expo, the 70-meter-tall "Tower of the Sun" with its three faces, including...

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?