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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2010

Facing a time of many tests

LONDON — This is a tough time to be a decision-maker. We live in an era of low predictability. The world appears in constant flux. The challenges are immense. And most of all, there is in many instances a clash between the correct short-term politics and the correct long-term policy.
BUSINESS
Jan 6, 2010

Tourism 'czar' aims high, targets Chinese

The newly appointed commissioner for the Japan Tourism Agency said he wants to raise the number of foreign visitors to more than 10 million annually during his two-year term, with special emphasis on the Chinese market.
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2010

Budget to be government's top priority

Passing the fiscal 2010 budget and averting a double-dip recession will be the government's top priority heading into the new year, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 5, 2010

Minors in own category but never above the law

Jan. 11 marks Coming of Age Day, an annual holiday to celebrate people who have reached legal adulthood.
JAPAN / LOOMING CHALLENGES
Jan 4, 2010

Universities must look abroad to reverse Japan's brain drain

Japan appears to be suffering from brain drain. Examples include chemist Osamu Shimomura and physicist Yoichiro Nambu, both of whom won Nobel Prizes in 2008 for research conducted in U.S. universities.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2010

Checking out affordable resort condos in Chiba

If you're willing to look beyond the more well-known areas, a second home in Japan can come at quite a bargain.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 3, 2010

Bad boys take a beating in TV ads

When discussing Tiger Woods' fall from grace following revelations of extramarital hanky-panky, the American media make a point of distinguishing his talent from his newly soiled image. Whatever his sins, these media say, they can't take away from his accomplishments on the golf links. However, the damage...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2009

Memories of Okinawa in the '60s

I found Jon Mitchell's Dec. 27 Timeout article, "Koza remembered," rather one-sided. I had the pleasure of being in Okinawa on many occasions between 1962 and 1969 as a young U.S. Air Force noncommissioned officer. I was struck more by the anti-Japan sentiment of the Ryukyuan natives than by any prejudice...
Reader Mail
Dec 31, 2009

One big difference is in renting

I couldn't help but laugh at Michiko Goff's Dec. 27 letter, "Act intelligently to make friends." She complains about discrimination in the United States without giving a single specific example, then proceeds to tell foreigners in Japan that any discrimination against them is not real — that Japanese...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2009

Is Britain really breaking London's bankers?

NEW YORK — The plot of the morality play set in motion by the United Kingdom's announcement of a 50 percent tax on bankers' bonuses has now taken form. And it is a play that holds an important lesson about how politicians are managing — or mismanaging — demands for financial reform.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Dec 30, 2009

Need to know those buzzwords to follow Japan's big hit products

Of all the jobs I've held in Japan, by far the most challenging was the four years I spent during the baburu keizai (バブル経済, bubble economy) as a trend watcher for a market-research company.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 30, 2009

SMFG to 'examine' possible share offering

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. will consider whether to sell more stock after regulators have called for tighter capital standards and larger rival Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. raised ¥1 trillion.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2009

The past year of newness

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation's annual kanji of the year for 2009 is, appropriately, " " (shin), meaning "new." This kanji, chosen by national ballot and announced in December at Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple, reflects the win of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which ended a half-century...
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2009

Persuading China to put the screws to Iran

SINGAPORE — Will the world's leading powers act in a more united way on Iran's nuclear program than they have so far over climate change?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 29, 2009

Stray observations on booming pet culture

Pets are big business these days. Cat and dog cafes, animal accessory shops, dog hotels and even aesthetic salons for animals are easy to find. On weekends, in the large park near my house, I see people walking what appear to be entrants in a pedigree dog competition: dachshunds in mini-sweaters promenade...
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2009

Lowly Nikkei still has upside to offer

The Nikkei 225 stock average, the world's worst performer in the 20 years since it set its highest level, offers a cheap way to bet on emerging markets, according to Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009

Koza remembered

It's October 2009, and I'm sitting in the parking lot of a convenience store in Koza city, taking photographs of the sidewalk. I've been here for close to an hour — surrounded by a dozen old photographs, four maps and reams of photocopies all weighed down with chunks of brick to stop them blowing away...

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