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Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 23, 2011

Experience has taught Nakamura how to persevere

If the J. League is looking for inspiration as it prepares to restart the season on Saturday, Shunsuke Nakamura knows more than a thing or two about triumph over adversity.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Apr 22, 2011

NHK hopes for a home run with new anime

It's a quintessential scene of Japanese youth: Young boys out in baseball uniforms jog across their school grounds, the white and maroon of their gear contrasting with a clear blue sky. In the bleachers, an earnest-looking high school girl named Minami, in a jersey that matches the team's uniforms, eyes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 22, 2011

Children's voices soothe Iwate survivors

As survivors from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sat in evacuation centers across Iwate Prefecture on March 19, support came from a surprising source. Amid the steady flow of information from the radio, a children's choir began singing.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 22, 2011

Lack of action makes it tough for Albirex BB

The Niigata Albirex BB will enter the postseason after a remarkably light schedule in recent weeks. So light in fact that it's easy to forget when the team actually played games in back-to-back weeks.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Apr 22, 2011

Japanese music fans need the shows to go on

Last month I wrote a hastily conceived piece for this column documenting the immediate reaction of the music scene in Tokyo to the Great East Japan Earthquake. It was a difficult article to write because the situation was still unfolding and so much was unresolved; however, a month later, a picture of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 22, 2011

Subtleties that shine through the shadows

Recently, thanks to the power cuts caused by the damage to the Fukushima nuclear reactors, many of us have been rediscovering exactly what light is again. Instead of something to be taken for granted, unvarying and instantly available at the flick of a switch, it has once again become altogether more...
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2011

Dangerously unstable technology

I would like to add my voice to that of other readers who recently have expressed their opposition to nuclear power generation. Ever since disaster struck the Fukushima plant, the industry cheerleaders have been in full damage-control mode, reassuring us of the safety and benefits of nuclear energy....
Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2011

Consider a land deal with Russia

I loved my visit to Japan. I traveled all over the country and enjoyed the ryokans, department stores, shrine cities, bullet train, dolls, Noh and Kabuki, tea ceremony, and, most of all, the people. I love Japan! It grieves me that Japan is suffering all these earthquakes and that the country is ruined...
COMMENTARY
Apr 21, 2011

Gas: the rising star of engery

As many countries become wary of nuclear power following Japan's atomic disaster, they are looking to natural gas as the best alternative for generating electricity.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2011

Fukushima No. 1 and derivative meltdowns

Financial commentators have likened Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe to derivatives' role in the 2008 financial meltdown. The resemblance is clear enough: Each activity yields big benefits and carries a tiny but explosive risk. But the similarity between the two types of crisis ends...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Apr 21, 2011

Setsuden

Dear Alice, Everywhere I go now I see signs for setsuden (conserving electricity). There's a notice at my local convenience store explaining that the lights are down for setsuden. My post office has shortened its hours for setsuden. And the subway is running with fewer trains — you guessed it — for...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 20, 2011

A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident

I never thought at my age, that I would be in this spot. But this is where I am at 74, in the taiikukan (体育館 gymnasium) of a middle school in Miyagi Prefecture, now known as a hinanjo (避難所 evacuation center) for people who lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the region...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 20, 2011

Win 'Stepping Higher'

With the 2011 world championships in Moscow just days away, The Japan Times is offering several readers the chance to win a copy of the recently released Japanese book "Saranaru takami-he" (Stepping Higher) about two-time world champion Mao Asada's life story.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2011

Hatakeyama, Ishikawa lift Swallows past Dragons

Tuesday turned out to be unexpectedly cool in Japan's capital city, but the Tokyo Yakult Swallows may have finally started to heat up.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2011

Robots detect dangerous spike in reactor 3 radiation

Robots sent in to explore the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have found high radiation levels in three reactor buildings that may seriously hinder efforts to bring the plant under control, Japan's nuclear watchdog said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011

EU road map to improving the lives of Roma

The European Union, at long last, is taking a significant step toward improving the lives of Europe's millions of Roma. Rather than proposing a grand plan for EU-level action, the European Commission's recently released "EU framework for national Roma integration strategies up to 2020" calls on each...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011

The only panacea for Indonesia's troubles

Is there any idea of the rule of law in the Indonesian Constitution? What is the notion of the rule of law in the context of Indonesia?
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2011

A blow to the rule of law

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has abandoned plans to try several terrorists, including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in civilian courts. Instead, it will use military tribunals to administer justice. It is a sad decision. The United States should be leading...
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2011

Carmaker's Miyagi investments stand

Toyota Motor Corp., the automaker most affected by the March 11 disaster, plans to build a new engine plant in devastated Miyagi Prefecture and will transfer a subsidiary's production operations to the region.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 18, 2011

In a globalized world, beware the lonely going to war with the only

Only one or lonely one. This may be the question that nations start asking themselves in the aftermath of Japan's threefold disaster.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Give the foreign experts a chance

Regarding the April 13 article "Fukushima crisis now at Chernobyl level": It is somewhat terrifying that the severity level of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis level has been raised to level 7.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Bogus claims against wind power

Regarding Minoru Matsutani's April 12 article, "Offshore windmills weather crisis": Sonic waves from wind turbines do not make people feel ill. Studies in Canada, the United States and Australia have shown that the sound is safe.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Sensationalist headline and photo

What's with the sensationalist headline and lurid photo of the April 13 front-page article "Fukushima crisis now at Chernobyl level"?! The front page lead story, together with the photo editor's choice of what appears to be a possibly out-of control, post-explosion, burning reactor enclosure — actually...
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Were meters used instead of feet?

My apologies if I am incorrect about questions regarding Jun Hongo's April 12 article, "Nation's unpreparedness ahead of disaster is blasted." My current understanding of the data presented by the world community, including Japanese television, specifically relating to the events on March 11, has been...
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Unsafe radiation levels questioned

I'm curious about the math in the April 12 article "High radiation well past no-go zone: Greenpeace." It begins by describing an exposure rate of 4 microsieverts/hour, which it says amounts to 5 millisieverts/year. If that math is correct, reasonable comparisons would be a mammogram (3 millisieverts...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’