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CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

Territorial disputes don't rain on Asia's largest parade of cinema

There was very little talk at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, Asia's biggest movie event of the year, of the ongoing conflict between Japan and South Korea over ownership of those rocks in the Japan Sea. It so happens that the festival's Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award was being given to...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2012

Quebec vote signals uncertainty for Canada

Political uncertainty shadows Quebec in the aftermath of a contentious provincial election campaign. Since the vote, the specter of separatism has re-emerged in the multiethnic Canadian province where political rhetoric by the French-language-focused Parti Quebecois could bring about the return of economic...
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

Don't fear the Chinese periscope

Regarding Michael Richardson's Sept. 12 article, "New ships give China's navy a stronger punch": No matter how determined China is to modernize and expand its navy/military presence and its influence in the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. Navy is light-years ahead. The Pentagon saw this challenge a long...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 15, 2012

Bone up on your tax audit ninjutsu to fight back

Our island of 602 people has a PA system that is used to make important public announcements. While these announcements usually concern typhoon warnings, ferry cancellations and funeral announcements, the PA system is not limited to these. Temple ceremonies are announced too, such as Buddha's birthday...
COMMENTARY
Aug 15, 2012

Economics of austerity don't add up

Do Europe's budget-cutting austerity-minded planners understand simple math? They say they have to embrace austerity policies to reduce excessive national debt. But those policies inevitably cut tax revenues more than they cut spending. National debt increases rather than decreases. Worse, recovery from...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Aug 15, 2012

Despite flaws, Rakuten is 1-0 against Amazon in Japan's e-book wars

Rakuten, Japan's largest online shopping mall — and a head-to-head rival of Amazon Japan that also hopes to expand its business globally — launched its first e-book reader, the Rakuten Kobo Touch, on July 19, getting the jump on the long anticipated Japanese release of Amazon's Kindle.
COMMENTARY
Aug 3, 2012

Pushing Seoul-Tokyo forward

There is an old Russian proverb that applies to current Japan-South Korea (ROK) relations: "Forget the past and lose an eye; dwell on the past and lose both eyes!"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2012

A heavenly retreat amid the bustle of Kyoto

On my first visit to the ancient pond garden of Kajuji, it took me a devil of a time just to locate it. Alighting at Ono, a subway stop on Kyoto's Tozai line, there was nothing to suggest the area might be of interest to visitors, that it could have any serious historical or cultural credentials.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 22, 2012

Nomura has Carp in playoff picture

How does this grab you?
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 22, 2012

A century of Tokyo taxis

The year 1912 is recorded in Japan both as the 45th year of Meiji Era and the first year of the Taisho Era. After a protracted illness, Emperor Mutsuhito expired, age 61, on the night of July 29 (although the official announcement came the next day). Through the remainder of the summer, the front pages...
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2012

Eroding the no-war principle

A series of recent events have shed light on the hawkish nature of the administration of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. It is taking one step after another to undermine the no-war principle of the Constitution.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2012

'Picking' a winner in Afghanistan

American debates over the war in Afghanistan tend to focus on how fast we can get our troops home and whether we can work with President Hamid Karzai's government to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban. But at least as important to whether the country will hold together, and whether a return of the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 17, 2012

Refugee groups slam Japan's struggling resettlement plan

Much fanfare greeted the arrival at Narita in September 2010 of the first Burmese refugees to take advantage of Japan's decision to join the U.N.'s third-country resettlement program. Japan was the first Asian country to join the program, it was emphasized, under which the country would take in "less...
COMMENTARY
Jul 11, 2012

India's American friends and Iranian partners

The United States recently took the Iran-sanctions monkey off India's back: It granted India an exemption from Iran-related financial sanctions in exchange for significant cuts in Indian purchases of Iranian oil. Nevertheless, Iran continues to cast a pall over an otherwise brightening U.S.-India relationship....
LIFE
Jul 1, 2012

Disabled women speak out on discrimination

Being a woman in Japan often comes with a variety of challenges, but when you are a woman with disabilities here, the scale of hardships you must endure can be overwhelming.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2012

Nuclear redress will never approximate losses

It was 15 months ago that the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant suffered three meltdowns and contaminated a broad circle of countryside and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes, jobs or both.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 22, 2012

Politics is inescapable at 'Arab Express' exhibition

The Arab Spring may not be all it's cracked up to be. There are clearly problems with a large swath of nations, formerly under various forms of authoritarian regimes, switching relatively quickly to "democracy," at least as it is understood in the West.
Jun 21, 2012

What can be done about Syria?

The indiscriminate killing of civilians including women and children in Syria continues. All we seem able to do is wring our hands and denounce the perpetrators.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 19, 2012

Mishmash jumble of systems is recipe for a do-little Diet

Given the momentous fiscal and social problems Japan was facing even before Fukushima, even foreign residents — who can't vote — may be wondering what on Earth Japan's elected officials are doing to solve the nation's many ills.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 30, 2012

Spurs-Thunder clash good as it gets

It doesn't get more captivating than the invincible Spurs vs. the near-impregnable Thunder.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 29, 2012

Photos reunite left-behind parents with lost children, but only on film

If there is no bond deeper or love stronger than that between a parent and a child, then equally, there is no pain greater than when that bond is broken or that love taken away.
COMMENTARY / World
May 21, 2012

Rebalancing eurozone wages and productivity

The eurozone crisis unfolded primarily as a sovereign-debt crisis mostly on its southern periphery, with interest rates on sovereign bonds at times reaching 6 to 7 percent for Italy and Spain, and even higher for other countries. And because eurozone banks hold a substantial part of their assets in the...
JAPAN / 40 YEARS AFTER REVERSION
May 17, 2012

Old deals sowed seeds of unresolved problems

Third in a series Forty years after the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japan after a 27-year occupation, the public agreement ensuring American bases would remain after reversion and the secret agreement allowing the U.S. to reintroduce nuclear weapons continue to create anger in Okinawa and problems for the...
SOCCER / J. League
May 12, 2012

Marquinhos hoping he can give Marinos boost

As secret weapons go, there are few better players a J. League team could call on than Brazilian striker Marquinhos.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
May 8, 2012

The top 10 Zeit Gist articles of the past decade, chosen by the readers

1. Battling a broken system, by RICHARD CORY One day in March, just minutes after my daughter and I returned home from celebrating her graduation from elementary school that morning, her mother, from whom I had filed for divorce in January after 17 years of marriage, lured my daughter out of the house,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 8, 2012

A decade serving the community

Wednesday marks the 10-year anniversary of the Community pages, which have been providing news, analysis and opinion by, for and about the foreign community in Japan since May 9, 2002.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 27, 2012

What to eat when you can't stand the heat

As the weather gets warmer, foods that are served cold and require little to no cooking become more appealing. In Japan the choice of such dishes goes way beyond a plain green salad. One of these is sashimi, a food that defines Japanese cuisine. While it's eaten year round along with its first cousin...
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2012

Surge in fuel imports may come with dire side effect

To make up for its dwindling supply of nuclear power, Japan is on a frenzied but costly hunt for fossil fuels.

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