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EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2011

U.S. remembers trade diplomacy

On the morning of Oct. 14, U.S. President Barack Obama signed three free-trade agreements, one each with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. The trade deals are important steps forward for the United States and its partners. While these deals are economic agreements, they are much more. In particular,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2011

Who will write Asia-Pacific trade rules for Asia?

In the last half century, world trade has grown twice as fast as output and helped to lift the majority of the world's people from poverty — a feat unimaginable a generation ago. When APEC leaders meet in Honolulu next month, they will represent countries that account for half of world trade. Can APEC...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDIA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Oct 24, 2011

India bids for closer East Asia ties for regional integration

India wants to play a role in the economic integration of Asia through closer ties with East Asian powers including China — despite a long history of political hostility — and Japan, journalists and experts from India said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Public paying for Tepco's gamble

Tell me it isn't true! In the Oct. 20 article "Tepco ignored higher probability of tsunami," it was reported that a nuclear energy safety expert warned Tepco in 2006 that there was a 10 percent chance that its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant would be hit by a massively destructive tsunami sometime...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Useful expressions for U.S. visits

On a recent business trip to the United States I chatted with some Japanese passengers next to me on the plane about what would be the most useful expressions for travelers with only a little English.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Opportunity for Tohoku

I couldn't agree more with Roger Pulver's Oct. 16 article "Don't look back, Tohoku." I visited Miyagi Prefecture from Oct. 11-15 for the first time in nearly 20 years. I, too, was shocked by the extent of the impact of the tsunami. But I was equally impressed by the resilience and positive attitude of...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2011

Only the Japanese public's will can raze that lethal 'village'

"Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list," wrote Leuren Moret in a "Power and the people" Timeout special in The Japan Times on May 23, 2004.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 23, 2011

Post-Fukushima, 'they' can no longer be trusted — if ever they could

Every year when I was a child, my parents would take my brother and me from our Los Angeles home to Las Vegas on vacation. Back then in the 1950s, Vegas was still a family-oriented holiday destination. Dad would drop a few bucks at the crap table while the rest of us basked in the sun.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 23, 2011

Rich can afford to jump Japan's sinking ship

If Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Diamond are both right, Japan is in serious trouble.
EDITORIALS
Oct 23, 2011

Releasing psychiatric patients

A recent report by Bloomberg news that the government is planning to reduce the number of patients in psychiatric hospitals signals an important shift in Japan's view of mental health. According to the report, which was not well circulated in the Japanese press, the health ministry set a 10-year timetable...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 23, 2011

Attitude, lifestyle contributed to Irabu's demise

Hideki Irabu was given a king's welcome in New York.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2011

Minister attacked for challenging the 'family system'

Yoko Komiyama is the first woman to ever occupy the post of Japan's minister of health, welfare and labor. As a mother, she may have more insight than her male colleagues into issues her ministry addresses, and from the start of her appointment in August she has stirred up controversy, mainly with her...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 22, 2011

Telling time with animals

There are many ways to tell time: the sundial, the 12-hour clock and the 24-hour clock. But there is a much more interesting way to tell time too, one the Japanese used in ancient times: by animal.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2011

A business-like summit

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Oct. 19 met with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul at the Blue House. By choosing South Korea as the first country to visit as prime minister for a bilateral diplomatic meeting, Mr. Noda signaled to Seoul that he gives importance to the ties between Japan...
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2011

Capcom expects phone games to generate 30% of profit

Capcom Co. expects the proportion of its profit generated by "Smurfs' Village" and other games played on mobile phones to rise to 30 percent as users of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Google Inc.'s Android system download the titles.
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2011

Olympus scandal triggers rampant margin-trading

A record number of shares in Olympus Corp. are being bought and sold through Japanese margin-trading accounts as investors seek to capitalize on volatility amid a scandal over payments to advisers.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2011

Informed decision needed on TPP

Moves to join the talks for the Transpacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) agreement had been put on hold since the March 11 disasters devastated the Tohoku region. But Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is now eagerly pushing for progress.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2011

Time short for euro-zone action

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations met in Paris on Oct. 14-15 in an attempt to prevent Greece's sovereign bond crisis from worsening a European financial crisis. In their joint statement, they called on euro-zone nations to recapitalize euro-zone banks.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011

Our children's future no longer looks so bright

A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children's living standards would exceed their own....
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Oct 19, 2011

Android privacy concerns rise over apps crossing the line

Tokyo-based IT company Milog is known for providing Android-based smartphone apps that let users share information about the apps installed on their phones and rank them by popularity. This small startup, established in 2009, has been supported by notable companies, including receiving a ¥310 million...
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2011

Olympus investors drop ¥250 billion

Olympus Corp. shareholders, including Nippon Life Insurance Co., lost more than ¥250 billion in value of their holdings in the first two trading sessions after the board fired President Michael C. Woodford.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 19, 2011

NBA owners won't give in

Wherever NBA games are played, there are thousands of people who depend on related opportunities to pay the bills, including those employed at the arena, nearby restaurants and hotels and game-day staff.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 18, 2011

How to avoid the trouble of paying double on return to Oz

Gina, an Australian citizen and permanent resident of Japan, is considering heading back to her homeland:
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2011

Insulation maker working to meet growing demand

Mag-Isover K.K., the Japanese unit of French building-material conglomerate Saint-Gobain, is ready to meet growing demand for insulation in the disaster-hit Tohoku region and elsewhere and expects the nation's energy-saving efforts to continue for years to come.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2011

Samsung sues Apple to halt iPhone 4S sales

Samsung Electronics Co. filed suits against Apple Inc. in Japan and Australia to stop sales of iPhone 4S, adding to similar complaints in France and Italy.

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