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EDITORIALS
May 26, 2011

Helping hands to Mr. Kan

The perseverance that people in northeastern Japan have shown after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated their communities March 11 has impressed many people around the world.
COMMENTARY
May 25, 2011

Risky business, IMF style

We need to have a clear understanding about what is happening with the International Monetary Fund. Do not for a minute believe the current scandal is just one of those more or less happening things. It may not be the total end of the world for the IMF, but if the world's largest money-granting bureaucracy...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 24, 2011

Japanese adults need an education in dealing with difference

To the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 24, 2011

Travel firms feel pinch, pitch in after disasters

Every spring, as the wave of blossoms sweeps up the archipelago from south to north, washing up from the coasts into the higher altitudes, travelers flood into Japan. Rivaled only by the cool autumn months that redden maple leaves across the country, March and April are high season for tourism in Japan....
JAPAN
May 23, 2011

Kan, Wen, Lee bolster disaster plans

Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Chinese and South Korean counterparts agreed Sunday to enhance cooperation on a range of programs — including nuclear safety and disaster management — in light of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2011

Tamura residents challenge hot zone for short trip home

Residents of Tamura, Fukushima Prefecture, were allowed to visit their homes in the nuclear no-go zone for two hours Sunday.
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

Can't beat interactive approach

Regarding the May 16 article: "Study: It is not the teacher but the method that matters": I have been a teacher of English for nearly 12 years. My specialty is early childhood education, though I now mainly teach junior high and high school children.
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

Put the effort into renewables

Looking at Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers struggling to solve what seem like unsolvable technical difficulties; damaged nuclear reactor emissions contaminating the air, land and sea; dairy people draining precious milk into a ditch; farmers unable to sell vegetables in the market; fishermen unable...
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

'Edo Period' energy outlook

Regarding Eriko Arita's May 14 article, "": I find the comments of Tetsunari Iida (executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies) very interesting, but I have the following questions:
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

Queen's visit celebrates ties

Last week Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh made a state visit to Ireland. The visit was a historic event in relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom—the first such visit since Irish Independence in 1921 changed political relations on these islands....
Reader Mail
May 22, 2011

Village mayor with foresight

Regarding the May 18 AP article "How one village defied the tsunami": How is it that the tiny fishing village of Fudai in Iwate Prefecture could anticipate the threat of a major earthquake/tsunami? How did this tiny fishing village have the resolve and foresight to build a sea wall and floodgates at...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 22, 2011

U.S. court victories show how to get rid of nuclear plants

Lawyer Tom Twomey knows far more than most of us about the importance of citizen participation in making energy policy. That's because Twomey has spent four decades keeping a watchful eye on electric power suppliers in New York — and he's learned that what we don't know can hurt us.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2011

Iejima: an island of resistance

During the 30-minute ferry ride from Motobu on mainland Okinawa, Iejima reveals itself in stages. First, Mount Tacchu emerges above the waves like a chunk of the peanut brittle for which the island is renowned. Next, the wind-blown scent of countless thousands of hibiscuses sweetens the stink of the...
BUSINESS
May 21, 2011

Fund managers hunt for bargains amid losses

The worst Japanese earnings season in two years is spurring top fund managers to scoop up shares of drugmakers, car companies and telephone operators.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 21, 2011

Fusing aikido and language studies a potent combination

Literally across the globe, martial arts fans flock to their favorite dojos and disciplines, thanks to the fluid strength and cool demeanor of the activity's many superstars. Equally as important to fans are the philosophies behind the physical aspects of martial arts.
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2011

Folly of official obfuscation

Politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen never seem to have learned that they will not be trusted if they repeatedly lie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2011

'Freakonomics'/'The Red Baron'

Darren Aronofsky, whose "Black Swan" is now showing here, debuted with the cult flick "Pi" (1997), about a slightly mad math whiz who was convinced there was a pattern in stock market fluctuations that could reveal the markets' movements. As the film's hero put it, "Mathematics is the language of nature;...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2011

'Contamination,' 'exposure' differ

Some news stories do not seem to distinguish between "contamination" and "exposure" when referring to radioactive matter leaking from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. A May 11 Kyodo dispatch ("Evacuees briefly return home in no-go zone") stated that evacuees returning to Kawauchi in order to...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2011

Okinawa issue and aid don't mix

In his May 8 letter, "Better use of the U.S. Marines," Yoshio Shimoji mentioned the hundreds of deaths from tornadoes in the United States recently and suggested that the U.S. Marines based at Air Station Futenma in Okinawa might be put to better use if they were returned to the U.S. There was no suggestion...
Reader Mail
May 19, 2011

More Tepco-government victims

Regarding the May 13 article "Kan orders slaughter of all livestock in 20-km hot zone": At first the government had said that farm animals would be transferred to other prefectures after they were decontaminated. Was that just a lie?!
COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2011

Top vacancy looms in IMF

The International Monetary Fund will be looking for a new managing director sooner than anyone imagined, and in the most bizarrely depressing circumstances.
JAPAN
May 18, 2011

Reactor worker error comes to light

The emergency cooling system for reactor 1 at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant may have been shut down manually before the tsunami hit March 11, according to a Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman and documents released by the utility.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 18, 2011

Happinets show Pierce the door after first season with expansion team

The Akita Northern Happinets fired coach Bob Pierce on Monday night, clearing the path for a possible titanic shift in the bj-league's coaching landscape.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 17, 2011

Tweets fuel drive to aid stricken north

Marriott Hotel, Ginza, Tokyo. On a chilly March morning less than a week after the earthquake and tsunami, a group of almost 60 people were brought together through Twitter. The purpose of this 7:50 a.m. hotel-front gathering was to collect donated goods to be taken up north to areas devastated by the...

Longform

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