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BUSINESS
May 8, 2012

Nakamura named Sumitomo CEO

Sumitomo Corp., Japan's third-most profitable trading company, named Kuniharu Nakamura its new chief executive officer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2012

'Hidden children' of politicians no hurdle to success

Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa was acquitted last week of conspiring to file false financial reports for his political group. He can now return full-time to the job he was elected to do, but the sense you get from the mainstream media is that he's through as a politician. The press has...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
May 5, 2012

Anyone for French toast ... cooked with mayo?

Some new Japanese spins on an old breakfast favorite.
Reader Mail
May 3, 2012

The chance to remake one's life

Nicholas Williams' insists that "prison should only be about rehabilitation" (April 29 letter, "Prison is about rehabilitation"). My biggest argument with "rehabilitation" lies with its confusion of punishment with absolution. After fully serving their sentences, offenders remain guilty. That is irrevocable....
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2012

Costs of being too responsive to the public will

The Washington of conventional wisdom and the real Washington are two entirely different places.
JAPAN
May 3, 2012

Conservative group wages war on Article 9

The war-renouncing clause to the Constitution is a threat to national security that leaves Japan vulnerable to foreign invasion and cyber-attacks and should be revised as soon as possible, a conservative citizens' group said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2012

China's time to cut the cord

This week Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi and a large Japanese delegation will join some 4,000 participants gathering in Manila for the 45th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank. By tradition led by a Japanese — typically a former Ministry of Finance official —...
JAPAN
May 2, 2012

Fatigue problem for bus drivers: poll

Years before Sunday's fatal highway bus crash in Gunma Prefecture killed seven, a survey conducted by the internal affairs ministry illustrated that the sector was not immune to severe accidents, especially if drivers are fatigued.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2012

Lightening the load on businesses

The Bank of Japan on Friday announced that it will boost the size of its asset purchase program by ¥5 trillion. The decision follows an earlier decision in February to add ¥10 trillion to the program. As a result, the total size of the program will be raised to ¥70 trillion.
BUSINESS
May 2, 2012

Isuzu eying alliances, even with GM

Isuzu Motors Ltd., Japan's largest maker of trucks, said Tuesday it's considering forming business alliances with companies including General Motors Co.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 1, 2012

It's just because . . . foreigners know best

You seldom see the sight these days of pairs of crew-cut white males in pressed white shirts and ties pedaling around cities in Japan. The sight is from a bygone age, largely relegated to history: The white man with a burden to educate and enlighten the natives, in this case about the one true religion,...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2012

Slow but steady economic recovery

Japan's economic prospects are not very bright due to the effects of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the stronger yen. But it is not that the prospects are completely gloomy. The government's monthly assessment of the economy for April released in mid-April by the Cabinet Office shows continued modest...
COMMENTARY
Apr 30, 2012

Fact-checking Japan's critics

The better U.S. media now use fact-checkers and truth meters to debunk outrageous claims by politicians. Maybe Japan should do the same toward its critics.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 29, 2012

Konami staffer's victory not a game-changer

There is no shortage of laws in Japan stating that working women should be given the same employment protection and rights as their male counterparts.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2012

Officials find Oi split on reactor restarts

Officials from the central government announced they made progress on convincing residents that it is safe to restart two idled reactors at Oi's nuclear plant during a meeting Thursday evening.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 28, 2012

Manchester derby for all the marbles

Since Manchester City became potentially the richest club in the world following their takeover by the Abu Dhabi-based business group, each time it plays Manchester United these days it is billed as "the biggest derby ever."
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2012

Metro government, Tepco's top investor, demanding sweeping changes at the utility

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government flexed its muscles Friday as the top shareholder in besieged Tokyo Electric Power Co. by demanding that Tepco carry out extensive reforms, including slashing operating costs and making its management transparent.
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2012

METI official talks up Oi reactor restart in Fukui

A visiting official from the industry ministry on Thursday apologized to the town of Oi, Fukui Prefecture, over the government's failure to create a new nuclear watchdog by April 1, but stressed that the town's idled atomic reactors have passed all the requisite safety tests to resume operations.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2012

'Last Night (Japan Title: Koi to Ai no Hakarikata'

You know how it goes: An attractive married couple go out to a party one night wreathed in smiles but return some hours later in stony silence. The shot of the two of them in bed, backs turned toward each other and mutual profiles radiating dissatisfaction in the dark as sirens blare from the street,...
COMMENTARY
Apr 26, 2012

Winds of change in France

"My true adversary does not have a name, a face or a party," said Francois Hollande, France's next president. "He never puts forth his candidacy, but nevertheless he governs. My true adversary is the world of finance."
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2012

Changing Tepco from the inside

The government on April 19 picked Mr. Kazuhiko Shimokobe, a bankruptcy lawyer with vast experience in corporate restructuring, as chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. He headed the decision-making body of the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, a public entity that injects funds into Tepco to...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2012

Reinventing the Sino-U.S. relationship

China and the United States are in the grip of major structural changes that both dread will end the halcyon era when China produced low-cost goods and the U.S. bought them. In particular, many fear that if these changes lead to direct competition between the two countries, only one side can win.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2012

Sharp, NEC bond losses pulling down tech index

Losses on bonds sold by Sharp Corp. and NEC Corp. are dragging an index of Japanese technology companies to its worst return in 17 months, as competition from South Korea eats away at earnings.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2012

Cosmo cuts Iranian crude volume

Cosmo Oil Co. reduced the amount of crude it buys from Iran in a contract renewal for the fiscal year that started in April, according to two sources.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past