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Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2012

Phelps most decorated Olympian in history

The first truly transcendent sports moment of the London Olympics took place around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Aug 1, 2012

Housewives go DIY in attack on insects

Japanese women are turning to essential oils instead of chemicals for insect repellent.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 31, 2012

Gawking children are tolerable, but adults have no excuse

Belated readers' responses to "Parents, please keep your kids away from me at feeding time" by Christy Bridgeman (Hotline to Nagatacho, May 22) and J. Bradley Bulsterbaum's letter on the subject, "Cut gaijin-gawking children some slack — it's how they learn" (Have Your Say, June 26):
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2012

China's gunboat diplomacy

There is a saying in international diplomacy: Watch what countries do, rather than what they say.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 30, 2012

Tokyo bid committee unveils plan

Less than 24 hours after London's blockbuster Opening Ceremony at Olympic Stadium, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid Committee revealed its plan for its own main stadium, one that would be trend-setting.
OLYMPICS
Jul 30, 2012

Recognizing a giant of the industry

Thousands of journalists are filing stories from the Main Press Centre (MPC) during the London Olympics. All of them would be wise to list John Rodda as an admirable figure, a role model in this cut-throat business of scoops and deadlines.
OLYMPICS / LONDON POSTCARD
Jul 29, 2012

Sports pub provides for a delightful night

There are — believe it or not — a few instances of non-Olympic routines on display in England.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 29, 2012

Who can we vote for to avoid the worst-case scenario?

"Japan's Worst-Case Scenarios" — that's the title of the lead feature in the July issue of the monthly Takarajima. No one writing on such a theme need fear a shortage of material. The magazine easily fills 40 pages analyzing catastrophes and catastrophes-in-waiting: Tokyo leveled by a magnitude 9 quake;...
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2012

China deepening aid and trade ties with Africa

Having overtaken the United States as Africa's biggest trading partner two years ago, China is continuing to cement its relationship with the continent, with President Hu Jintao pledging $20 billion in loans over the next three years at a meeting in Beijing attended by leaders from 50 African countries....
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2012

Myanmar's budding miracle

More than three months ago, on April 21, amid great fanfare, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at a Japan-Mekong summit pledged $7.4 billion in development aid to five Southeast Asian nations in an effort to promote cooperation with countries in the Mekong region. The prime minister also said Japan...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2012

Nagai taking over as Nomura CEO signals global retreat

Nomura Holdings Inc.'s appointment of domestic brokerage head Koji Nagai as the new chief signals a retrenchment into its home market as Japan's biggest investment bank reels from the insider-trading scandal and losses abroad.
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Jul 27, 2012

London will launch dreams for millions

You can't put a price tag on dreams. And that alone has created worldwide fascination for the Olympics for decades now.
Reader Mail
Jul 26, 2012

Adults accountable for bullying

The July 24 Kyodo article "Ministry to establish team to battle bullying" once again highlights our failure to act in due time and respond to the small acts. We once again chose to wait for the extreme to happen before taking serious action to curb or prevent such situations. We are always reactive,...
Reader Mail
Jul 26, 2012

'Gun nut' got what he wanted

The Japan Times' decision to run the picture of the U.S. gunman with the July 22 front-page story about the movie theater attack was regrettable. It rewarded him for murder, giving the gun nut exactly what he wanted.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2012

Azumi rattles intervention saber over 'one-sided' gains in the yen

Finance Minister Jun Azumi on Tuesday indicated increased concern about the yen's advance, reiterating his resolve to take action against abrupt and speculative movements in foreign exchange markets.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2012

Place names defy tradition, distressing the Russian spirit

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a countrywide campaign of toponymic change brought back many historic names — first of all in Moscow and in Leningrad (which in due course was returned to its proper name St. Petersburg). Soon after, however, these spontaneous activities abruptly...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 24, 2012

100 years of Summer Games

When the 293 Japanese athletes compete in the London Games that start Friday, they will represent a century of the participation in the Summer Olympics, starting with marathoner Shiso Kanakuri and sprinter Yahiko Mishima in Stockholm in 1912.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 24, 2012

Noriko Hama, Japanese economist and Dean of Doshisha Business School

Noriko Hama, is a Japanese economist, the Dean of Doshisha Business School in Kyoto and a contributor to The Japan Times. Well known for her candid television commentaries, popular columns, she is completely absorbed in the world of economics, and utterly unfazed by its ups and downs. Hama has never...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 23, 2012

Bloom is off decentralization

A number of local political parties have cropped up of late clamoring for further "decentralization," which would shift much administrative and budgetary authority from the central government to local governments.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2012

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship'

Confrontational, outspoken, feisty and highly focused, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a self-made man determined to redraw the loci of power in Japan. He is clearly using the local platform from which to spring into the national arena. The question on everyone's mind is: Will Hashimoto ever be the prime...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 22, 2012

Is Rio+20 the way the world ends — with a whimper?

Last month, more than 45,000 people descended on Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
BASEBALL
Jul 21, 2012

JPBPA unanimously votes to boycott WBC

The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association decided against participating in the next edition of the World Baseball Classic during a meeting on Friday in Osaka.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2012

A telling tale of two Koreas

What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the "Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies" handbook. Kim Jong Un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the world's last communist states, is removing powerful people who were loyal to his father and replacing them with men...
BASKETBALL
Jul 21, 2012

Nash named Toyama's new coach

Former NBA and ABA forward Bob Nash, who guided the Saitama Broncos in 2010-11, was hired to fill the Toyama Grouses' coaching vacancy, the bj-league team announced on Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 21, 2012

Raw beef liver not alone in Japan's big menu of extreme foods

The ban on serving raw beef liver at restaurants in Japan is a small victory for the bovine community. The question now is, will this cause a black market to fill the gap? Could mere cow tipping turn into liver-stealing? Will we have little yatai restaurants inside pastures with cows on display the way...
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Jul 20, 2012

It all stacks up: tumbler bento

The tumbler bento turns the lunch box into a lunch cup.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years