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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 24, 2012

Power industry outlasts DPJ

Nobody was more pleased than the electric power industry when Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made the surprise announcement Nov. 14 that he would dissolve the Lower House and call a general election. The industry hoped that this would clear the way for terminating the rule of Noda's Democratic Party of...
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2012

Tokyo rally seeks to keep alive quest to end nuclear power

With energy policy turning into one of the focal points of Sunday's Lower House election, more than 1,000 people opposed to atomic power staged a march in Tokyo on the eve of the poll to demand a nuclear-free society.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 14, 2012

Dismayed Tohoku faces first post-3/11 poll

A mere 15 minutes before Azuma Konno, a Democratic Party of Japan candidate running in Sunday's Lower House election, was set to make a stump speech in front of JR Sendai Station last Friday evening, a 7.4-magnitude quake struck deep off Miyagi's shore, flooding one coastal district with 1-meter-high...
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2012

The elephant in the room

Despite the catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the issue of nuclear power has been given lower priority in the runup to the Dec. 16 Lower House election. But the launch of a new party, Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party), by Gov. Yukiko Kada of Shiga Prefecture,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2012

Anti-nuclear madness doesn't jibe with concern about global warming

After the loss of 10 million American lives in the Three-Mile Island calamity in 1979, the death of 2 billion in the Chernobyl holocaust in 1986, and now the abandonment of all of northern Japan following the death of millions in last year's Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, it is hardly surprising that...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 4, 2012

Windmills on the poetic mind

FAREWELL TO NUCLEAR, WELCOME TO RENEWABLE ENERGY: A Collection of Poems by 218 Poets. Coal Sack Publishing, 2012, 321 pp., ¥3,150 Japan in many ways is the land of myth, of cozy self-assurances, national delusions and unfounded assertions. Incredulous claims, such as racial homogeneity and the absence...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Nov 3, 2012

U.S. needs Japan to remain nuclear, expert says

A "zero-nuclear" Japan will be a serious concern for the United States as its key ally both from economic and security standpoints, the chief of an influential U.S. think tank said at a recent seminar on Japan-U.S. relations.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 21, 2012

So, fat cats and a blue caterpillar will save Japan from nuclear hell. OK

If you visit the Alice Pavilion at the Shika nuclear power plant in the town of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, you will be happily entertained by Prof. Aomushi (Blue Caterpillar), who, water pipe in mouth, sits in the sun and, together with Alice, "teaches you about radiation."
EDITORIALS
Oct 8, 2012

Nuclear industry steamrolls on

The government's Sept. 14 new long-term energy policy of "mobilizing all available policy resources to reach 'zero operation' of nuclear power plants in the 2030s" contains various contradictions, including the continuation of efforts toward an operational fuel cycle that makes new nuclear fuel from...
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2012

Cabinet reshuffle with no vision

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reshuffled his Cabinet for the third time Monday. Although he changed 10 of the 18 Cabinet members, Mr. Noda has failed to present a long-term policy goal or a future vision for Japan as it faces a rapidly graying population and difficult diplomatic issues.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Nuclear exit to raise LNG demand

Japan's plan to eliminate nuclear power will increase imports of liquefied natural gas by as much as 16 percent, adding demand for ships carrying the fuel, according to Arctic Securities ASA.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ENERGY SEMINAR
Sep 11, 2012

Japan's energy mix requires examining trade-offs

Japan has to face the true trade-offs as the nation gropes to choose a future energy mix in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, an American scholar said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2012

Nuke crisis tested oldest sake brewer

Over its 850 plus years, sake maker Sudohonke Inc. has endured wars, famines, earthquakes, plagues, droughts, storms and everything in between. But the nuclear crisis that started last year at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant was an unparalleled catastrophe that pushed it to the brink.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 15, 2012

Output trumps energy-saving mood

In this summer of idled nuclear plants and energy shortages, corporate Japan is under duress.
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2012

Tepco workers face mental health crisis after cost cuts: counselor

After toiling under hazardous conditions for 17 months to contain the crisis at Fukushima No. 1, the nuclear plant's workers are suffering from work-related stress and unable to get proper counseling due to lack of funding, a communications counselor warned Monday.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2012

Tepco's actions unacceptable

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has started showing to media groups and journalists 150 hours of teleconference footage recorded during the first days of the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. It is deplorable that Tepco did not volunteer to show the footage earlier. At first it refused...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2012

New hearing held to gauge nuke sentiment

The government continued to solicit public opinion on nuclear energy policy over the weekend by holding a discussion-oriented polling session in Tokyo involving about 300 citizens from across the country.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?