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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2011

Nuclear power debate heating up

The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident has sparked an unprecedented public debate on the nation's energy policy, and prominent figures are weighing in.
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2011

Welfare state wins this budget war

With so much financial turmoil, it's important to grasp what last week's budget deal does and doesn't do. Note, for starters, that it won't create much "fiscal drag" on the economy. The spending cuts are simply too small in a $15 trillion annual economy. The deal might shave one-tenth of 1 percent off...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2011

A key lesson from America's first debt crisis

The West is ensnared in a debt crisis. The United States, as everyone knows, came perilously close to defaulting on Aug. 2, and Standard & Poor's downgraded U.S. debt from AAA on Aug. 5.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 9, 2011

Decent man Kan dealing with LDP's fallout

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Aug 9, 2011

Top blogger illustrates Chinese wife's struggles

W ith his winning of the prestigious Alpha Blogger Awards 2010, Tokyo-based cartoonist Junichi Inoue is now recognized as one of the most influential Japanese bloggers.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 8, 2011

Goro-awase system spins off numbers you won't forget

One boast you'll never hear from me is that I have a good head for numbers. I'm all right up to two figures beyond a decimal point — I know that 3.14 approximates to the 円周率 (enshūritsu, Pi, i.e., the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) and likewise 2.54 cm is approximately one...
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2011

Dating restrictions

High school students were long restricted by parents and schools when it came to dating, but a new survey shows that more than one-third of female high school students are now prevented from dating by their boyfriends.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Blaming China sets bad example

Regarding Kei Horikawa's July 31 letter, "Where are the rewards for effort?": Although I have sympathy for Horikawa's family as I run my own business here, too, I cannot see why Horikawa has to mention China as a reason why his family cannot make a decent living as woodworkers? Are Chinese people buying...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Alternatives to a 'lethal reality'

Prime Minister Naoto Kan did not avoid "nuclear reality," but rather bit the nuclear bullet in his stand against having more nuclear plants built in Japan. Why is it that, 50 years ago, genuine clean energy was unattainable and that, half a century later, it remains an "unattainable ideal"?
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Borderline junk food nation

As the Aug. 3 Kyodo article "High price of watermelons may put favorite fruit beyond reach" rightly points out, very few people can afford to buy watermelons in Japan. But what I'd like to know is, what happens to the watermelons when it becomes clear no one is going to buy them? Do stores wait until...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Emerging economies could help

As for high prices putting watermelons beyond the reach of many Japanese consumers, it would be easy for any international produce supplier based in Japan to reverse this situation by establishing a rich and safe supply line from any one of the many emerging economies in or around the equator.
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Japan no match for aftereffects

The only problem with True Spence's implication that a modern Japan cannot exist without nuclear power ("Kan's escape from nuclear reality," July 31) is that the corollary is not so certain. Serious future meltdowns and nationwide radiation excesses could well mean that nuclear power or its effects could...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Failure of idealized relationships

In my opinion, the July 31 editorial, "Rise in single-member households reflects concerns about income," has highlighted only one side of the problem. Today's society has seen a manifold increase in our expectations and ambitions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 7, 2011

Tadanori Yokoo: An artist by design

In conversation, Tadanori Yokoo jumps nimbly between the past and the present. One moment he's watching the sky glow red as bombs rain down on Kobe during World War II. The next he's riding in a taxi with Yukio Mishima. And then he's back in the present, here at his studio in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, discussing...
Reader Mail
Aug 7, 2011

Kan's vision is commendable

In the July 31 letter "Kan's escape from nuclear reality," True Spence writes that "Renewable sources may someday offer practical alternatives, but not in our lifetimes, barring major breakthroughs." Maybe "not in our lifetimes" is an appropriate turn of phrase for someone living in an old-age home,...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2011

Next nuclear watchdog needs teeth: Hosono

Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of preventing further atomic power plant accidents, revealed Friday a proposal to fold nuclear-related functions now scattered among different ministries into a new authority.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2011

Ozawa ex-aide tapes inquisitor, talks up don

On May 17 last year, lawmaker Tomohiro Ishikawa, arrested for allegedly falsifying a political funds report but free on bail, walked into the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office with a mission — to record his pending interrogation.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2011

Cracks in the Chinese wall

In the face of a spreading ethnic Uighur rebellion, authorities in Chinese-ruled Xinjiang have alleged that a prominent Uighur separatist they captured had received terrorist training in Pakistan, China's "all-weather ally."
BASKETBALL
Aug 6, 2011

All-Star Aoki to play for Evessa

Longtime Tokyo Apache point guard Cohey Aoki will suit up for the Osaka Evessa this season, a league insider told The Japan Times on Friday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 6, 2011

Uncovering your hidden ninja

If you're wondering where all the ninja are these days, I can tell you. They're hiding within the bodies of people you'd never suspect, such as your next door neighbor.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2011

Italian reporter caught in media glare

Pio d'Emilia, an Italian journalist and long-term Tokyo resident who has been Prime Minister Naoto Kan's friend for about 20 years, has suddenly been put in the spotlight of the Japanese media for reportedly influencing Kan's position on nuclear power and his remote connection with an extreme leftist...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Aug 5, 2011

Aoki, Joho unsigned with training camp on horizon

Five-time All-Star Cohey Aoki hasn't played a bj-league game since March 10, the day before the Great East Japan Earthquake, when the Tokyo Apache and Akita Northern Happinets squared off at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 2.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 5, 2011

Help children's summer assignments

The Royal Park Hotel in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo is offering special activity-based summer accommodation plans through Sept. 30.
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2011

Situation in the Horn of Africa

The Aug. 1 AP article "Hungry Eritreans suffer in silence" is a deliberate distorted tutorial prepared on the prevailing situation in the Horn of Africa. It is important to set the record straight.
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2011

Parents don't need alarmists

In the July 31 article "Fukushima teacher muzzled over radiation," Chris Busby, a professor who visited Fukushima recently, is quoted as saying, "When you bring out the (Geiger) machines, you can see everything is sparkling and everyone is being bitten by invisible snakes that will eventually kill them."...
Reader Mail
Aug 4, 2011

Dumb statistic on foreign exodus

The July 31 Kyodo article "10% of foreign residents have left disaster-hit prefectures" is a rather poor example of journalism, as it fails to provide the full context. Yes, perhaps 10 percent of foreigners left the prefecture, but in the bigger picture, how many Japanese also left the prefecture?

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear