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COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Entering uncharted territory of broken models

We live in a world of broken models. To understand why world leaders can't easily fix the global economy, you have to realize that the economic models on which the United States, Europe and China relied are collapsing. The models differ, but the breakdowns are occurring simultaneously and feed on each...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 1, 2012

Sexual policies and politics during the occupation of Japan

Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan, by Sarah Kovner. Stanford University Press, 2012, 240 pp., $50.00 (hardcover) Love, Sex and Democracy During the American Occupation, by Mark McClelland. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 252 pp., $85.00 (hardcover) Six decades after the U.S. occupation...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 24, 2012

Adventures and danger in the land of smiles

Vulture Peak, by John Burdett. Knopf, 2012, 304 pp., $25.95 (hardcover) A World of Trouble, by Jake Needham. Marshall Cavendish, 2012, 356 pp., $5.09 (Kindle) "Vulture Peak" is the latest installment in John Burdett's ongoing saga of Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep. Whatever impression readers...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 15, 2012

England must end jinx against Sweden

It seems to be an unwritten law in football that in competitive matches England does not beat Sweden. In seven meetings at the World Cup and European Championship there have been five draws and two Swedish victories.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jun 14, 2012

Bolt hungry to take star to new level during Olympics

Has anyone, anywhere, had a greater love of the camera than Usain Bolt? Maybe Marilyn Monroe.
EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2012

Bottom line of welfare

A weekly magazine in April reported that the mother of an entertainer earning an annual income of ¥50 million has been receiving public livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection). Through a blog of a Diet member and other media, the entertainer was identified as TV...
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2012

Signs of a slowdown in China

The People's Bank of China on June 7 lowered banks' one-year lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 6.31 percent and one-year deposit rate by the same margin to 3.25 percent — the first full-scale monetary easing by China since a similar move in December 2008 in the wake of the Lehman Brothers...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 9, 2012

Chance for Hodgson to silence critics

When Roy Hodgson was unveiled as the new England manager a month ago, he admitted he would have to grow a thicker skin.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2012

Wanted: round-trip freedom for China's dissidents

Western media describe my friend and colleague Chen Guangcheng as a blind activist who made a flight to freedom when China allowed him to journey from Beijing to the United States. What is essential about Chen is neither his blindness nor his family's visit to the U.S., but the fact that he upholds a...
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2012

Europe faces a grim choice

Europe is at the abyss — again. Its turmoil is rattling global stock markets and stoking fear and bewilderment. The obvious question is, what's the solution? The answer is, there is no solution. Europe faces choices, some bad and others worse.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Jun 2, 2012

Sculptor Sato's works at Sagawa Art Museum

The Sagawa Art Museum in Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture, is hosting an exhibition of sculptor Churyo Sato through June 24. Sato, who died last year at age 98, was a diligent artist, working from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for 70 years.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / SPORTS SCOPE
May 31, 2012

Yoshida returns focus to Olympic three-peat after rare defeat

Incredibly long winning streaks come as natural to Saori Yoshida as enjoying ice cream cones on hot summer days for the rest of us.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2012

Time for the Diet to act

There remains less than a month before the current Diet session is scheduled to end on June 21. Deliberations have started in a Lower House special committee on the tax and social welfare reform. Among the bills before the committee are two related to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's plan to raise the...
LIFE / Language / KANJI CLINIC
May 28, 2012

Get your motor running for the JLPT

During its nearly 30-year history, the number of examinees tackling the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) (日本語能力試験) has exploded worldwide from 7,000 in 1984 to 750,000 in 2009. Japan Educational Exchanges and Services (JEES, www.jlpt.jp) now administers the test in 39 prefectures...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2012

New JICA chief wants aid profile lift

If Japan wants to maintain its international influence, it should increase, not pare, official development assistance because South Korea, China and other countries are boosting economic aid to key developing states, the new Japan International Cooperation Agency chief says.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2012

Enabling Asia's women to fulfill their potential

Everyone's eyes are on Asia's rise. China, once dismissed as poor and backward, is now the world's second-largest economy. India, with its huge population, scientific prowess and entrepreneurial vitality, is another powerful engine of Asian growth.
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 11, 2012

Entertainers to hit the streets

For moms in Osaka, a family getaway to Midosuji Boulevard may turn out to be a pretty good gift this Mother's Day weekend. Expect plenty of fun when the area holds its annual festival.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

Sintok festival brings Singapore's growing movie scene to Tokyo

How long does it take to develop a unique national culture? Perhaps the answer can be found in Singapore. The "Lion City" has been independent for just half a century and maybe, judging from the splash the country has made at international film festivals in the last couple of years, its film directors...
Japan Times
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
May 3, 2012

Sumo's dohyo starting to level out

If Hakuho wins the upcoming Grand Sumo Tournament (May 6-20) it will be the 50th time a Mongolian has won the Emperor's Cup.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2012

China's time to cut the cord

This week Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi and a large Japanese delegation will join some 4,000 participants gathering in Manila for the 45th annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank. By tradition led by a Japanese — typically a former Ministry of Finance official —...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2012

A crisis of capital flight as TARGET debt grows

For a while, it looked as if the European Central Bank's €1 trillion credit program to pump liquidity into Europe's banking system had calmed global financial markets. But now interest rates for Italian and Spanish government bonds are on the rise again, closing in on about 6 percent.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 22, 2012

Espionage and mystery in modern-day China

Don't Cry Tai Lake, by Qiu Xiaolong. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012, 272 pp., $24.99 (hardcover) An American Spy, by Olen Steinhauer. St. Martin's Minotaur, 2012, 400 pp., $25.99 (hardcover) Qiu Xiaolong's mystery novels, featuring Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department, have largely...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 20, 2012

Hokkaido's diverse cuisine recognized by Michelin

Hiroshi Nakamichi dreamed of becoming a great one-star restaurateur when he went to Lyon, France, with a Michelin guide in his hands, to work at Michelin-starred restaurants. More than 30 years later, his dream came more than true when his "bible" gave three stars to his Sapporo-based French restaurant...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami