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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2013

New Washington lineup will await Abe visit

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to the U.S. next month for a meeting with President Barack Obama, he will find new secretaries of state and defense.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2013

Hamada hits DPJ deflation inaction

Koichi Hamada, one of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's special advisers, on Friday condemned past governments led by the Democratic Party of Japan for not pressing the Bank of Japan to conduct enough monetary easing steps to fight the country's prolonged deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

Sign of the Financial Times: Will it sell independence?

Too many years ago, this young reporter was about to move from one of Britain's biggest newspaper groups to a paper with a daily sale of fewer than 200,000 copies. A hard-bitten veteran, who had spent years reporting for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph pleaded with me over farewell drinks not...
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2013

Osaka pushes incendiary tsunami debris plan

Despite fears of radioactive contamination, Osaka Prefecture is finalizing plans to begin incinerating 36,000 tons of tsunami debris from Iwate Prefecture next month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Jan 8, 2013

From Taiji to Okinawa, readers dissect some issues of 2012

In the first of our new Community Chest letters columns, we bring together a selection of mails received in response to some of the final Community stories of 2012.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 4, 2013

Cleaning 'angels' reinforce positive image of Japanese workers

Train cleaning crews are the new heroes of Japanese commerce.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2013

Wait out passions of the moment when touching up the Constitution

Now that the Liberal Democratic Party and their allies have won a large majority in Japan's House of Representatives, the issue of constitutional revision is on the table.
EDITORIALS
Jan 4, 2013

Russia's orphans as political pawns

Russia has closed the year with one of the more odious and misguided acts of public policy in a long time. On Dec. 28, President Vladimir Putin signed a law that bans Americans from adopting Russian children and imposes other sanctions in retaliation for a new U.S. human rights law.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Dec 30, 2012

The wonderful worlds of 100 waka

The scene: England, Boxing Day 2012. The archetypical Carters are relaxing after a cold turkey lunch (with bread sauce) and are watching the Royal Family's latest sonnets being read on the goggle-box. Time for a game!
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2012

LDP mulling U-turn on Takeshima Day

The Liberal Democratic Party may not sponsor an event to mark Takeshima Day on Feb. 22 despite pledging to do so during its election campaign, an LDP executive said Friday, in another apparent effort by party chief Shinzo Abe to improve strained ties with South Korea.
COMMENTARY
Dec 13, 2012

New gas resources raise regional energy stakes

North American natural gas companies, in the midst of tapping vast new reserves from underground shale rock, are looking to energy-hungry Asia as the main future market for the cleanest burning fossil fuel.
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2012

Perpetuation of U.S. 'occupation'

Regarding the Dec. 9 article "Okinawa takes base row into its own hands": One plank of the platform on which the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) is campaigning is that Futenma air base must not remain at its present site. That's fine. In this regard, the LDP and the Democratic Party of Japan...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Dec 4, 2012

Envoy puts focus on people-to-people ties

To serve as the United States ambassador to Japan is obviously not an easy task — not by any stretch of the imagination. That's the position John Roos was assigned in August 2009 even though he didn't have previous diplomatic experience or hold a political office.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2012

Sacred India's Chinese flavor

More than a billion small lamps lit the evening sky and hand-held sparkler fireworks added to the dancing light, while firecrackers boomed almost as if a war was going on. In hundreds of millions of homes, people chanted the sacred mantras and called upon the gods to help good defeat evil, and light...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 3, 2012

Ishihara nuke flip-flop puts party in crisis

With the kickoff of the Dec. 16 Lower House election campaign just one day away, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) is in chaos after party leader Shintaro Ishihara declared Friday that he would revise a promise to abolish nuclear power by the 2030s.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 2, 2012

LDP book hints ploy to divert sales tax yield to public works

In October, a group of influential Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers led by former transport minister Toshihiro Nikai published a 746-page book that remains little known to the public. The story: the hidden pump-priming plan the LDP might adopt should it return to power in the Dec. 16 House of Representatives...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

Vows DPJ made to get in sounded too good to be true

Goshi Hosono, the handsome policy chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, is one of the few politicians who has retained his popularity despite predictions the party is headed for a crushing defeat in the Dec. 16 Lower House election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Nov 27, 2012

I have a dream: a 'young first' Japan that works for all

It is a political season. Barack Obama was recently re-elected president of the United States, China has anointed Xi Jinping as its new leader, and Japanese politicians are jockeying for position in advance of a general election to be held on Dec. 16.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 16, 2012

Flatiron: Flavor and flair combine in miraculous chemistry

Whenever an exciting new restaurant is launched in Tokyo, usually it's all over the foodie magazines within days. Not so with Flatiron. Though it's been up and running since September, it's been flying well under the radar.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 11, 2012

To Kagoshima in search of a great samurai unbowed

Flying into Kagoshima from Tokyo across the volcanic landscape of Kirishima and Ebino Kogen, I feel as if I'm arriving in another country. The air is moist and warm, the light sharper, the sky bluer and the foliage intensely green, sprawling exuberantly over the rugged hills.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2012

Foes: Noda vow to call poll 'soon' not soon enough

Opposition parties pressed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda again Thursday to immediately dissolve the Lower House for a snap election, but he snubbed their demands, saying he will do so based on his own judgement.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Oct 24, 2012

Fujitsu aims at women; Huawei targets Japan

Fujitsu tends to get left out of the conversation when it comes to the world's top PC-makers these days, but it's still an important player in its home market of Japan — where it holds about 15 percent of the market, placing it second behind the NEC Lenovo Group. And in an effort to maintain that position,...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 23, 2012

Think 'white South Africa,' not 'Black Ships'; in unions' defense

Japan must play by the rules Re: Edward Moreno's letter "Bring back the Black Ships?" (Have Your Say, Oct. 2) in response to "Our mixed-race children deserve better than this, so why bother with Japan?" by Colin P.A. Jones (Zeit Gist, Sept. 4):

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell