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EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2009

Criteria for radiation victims

Health and welfare minister Yoichi Masuzoe has announced that the government would not appeal to the Supreme Court the May 28 Tokyo High Court ruling that recognized 29 of 30 plaintiffs as sufferers of illnesses caused by radiation exposure from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 23, 2009

Farm consultant cultivates seeds of opportunity

The ranks of farmers, crop acreage and yields are all shrinking and Japan's food self-sufficiency rate remains one of the lowest among major developed nations.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 23, 2009

Re: Rumpus on Tokyo campus

Following are some readers' responses to David McNeill's June 9 Zeit Gist article "Rumpus on campus":
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jun 23, 2009

Vested interests to blame for reliance on imported food

Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso,
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 22, 2009

Stakeholder rethink in order as dust settles from GM's collapse

General Motors Corp., which until several years ago led not only the U.S. economy but the global economy as the world's largest automaker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, concluding a corporate history that spanned more than a century.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2009

Puzzling response to coverage

I am grateful The Japan Times covered the student protests at Hosei University in David McNeill's June 9 Zeit Gist article, "Rumpus on campus." I found it to be fair and informative.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2009

Pain of Kashmir blocks realistic relations

HONG KONG — One of the most important, painful, politically controversial but essential tasks for the new Indian government of Manmohan Singh is to get relations with its neighbor and rival Pakistan onto a smoother footing for the sake of both countries, as well as for the peace and stability of the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009

Drawn to the land

Considering that Japan is only 40 percent self-sufficient in terms of its food supply, few would dispute that the country's agriculture is in a deepening crisis.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2009

Sustainable welfare plus profits

MELBOURNE — Something new is happening at Harvard Business School. As graduation nears for the first class to complete their master of business administration since the onset of the global financial crisis, students are circulating an oath that commits them to an "ethical" pursuit of their work; "to...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 21, 2009

'Spotted snakes, with double tongue'

In ages past we humans relied on natural phenomena and omens from nature to guide us in our understanding of seasonal events and our attempts to make predictions about the uncertain future.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jun 21, 2009

JAPAN TIMES GONE BY

100 YEARS AGO
CULTURE / Books
Jun 21, 2009

Eleventh-century lord cracks Kyoto crimes in the worst of times

In Shamus Award-winning mystery author's I.J. Parker's previous work, "Island of Exiles," Heian Period (794-1185) official Sugawara Akitada embarked on a harrowing undercover investigation of a suspicious death on Sado Island. Assuming the guise of a convict, the scholarly Akitada soon found himself...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009

Comedy with a sting in its tales

As a reporter, I don't particularly enjoy being swamped with breaking news to cover. That's when the pressure really becomes intense to get all the quotes and check all the facts in as short a time as possible.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

Immigration revision set to be passed

The ruling and opposition camps have revised a contentious set of immigration bills in a way that increases government scrutiny of both legal and illegal foreign residents while extending additional conveniences, according to a draft obtained Thursday by The Japan Times.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

An organ in U.S. won't be cheap

Japanese who traveled to the United States to get new hearts were charged as much as about $1.63 million for the operation in 2008, or five times higher than in previous years, medical sources well-versed in organ transplants said Thursday.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2009

'Shugo Tenshi'

Salaryman comedies go back the prewar days. Even Yasujiro Ozu portrayed the tragicomic trials of the salaryman in such films as "Tokyo no Chorus" ("Tokyo Chorus," 1931) and "Umarete wa Mita Keredo" ("I was Born but . . .," 1932), though the genre reached its popular peak in the 1960s, when Hitoshi Ueki...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jun 19, 2009

Pair seek POW apology from Aso

For the first time since the end of the war, Australian Joseph Coombs stepped onto Japanese soil, bringing back bitter memories of his days as a prisoner of war forced to work for the mining company run by Prime Minister Taro Aso's family in Fukuoka Prefecture.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 19, 2009

A chance to grab a bargain

Antique lovers will have a bargain-hunting opportunity at the 129th Heiwajima Antiques Fair, the oldest and the biggest fair of its kind, to be held in Tokyo's Heiwajima district from June 19 through June 21.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2009

'Man on Wire'

The hallic urge to build towers — from the mysterious "round towers" of ancient Ireland through the Crusaders' Krak des Chevaliers and hypercapitalist monuments like the Shanghai World Financial Center — as concrete symbols of power and virility, has been equalled only by the opposite, castrating...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 19, 2009

'The Reader'

Between Kate Winslet and the (as yet) little known David Kross, who shovel coal into the veritable steamship that is "The Reader" and keep it running, full speed ahead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 19, 2009

Collectors pleased with Art 40 Basel fair

The consensus among the 61,000- odd dealers, collectors, museum curators, media and art lovers who descended on the Swiss town of Basel for the 40th edition of the annual Art Basel fair on June 10-14 is that the art market is surprisingly healthy despite a global economic recession.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2009

Tokyo property rebound expected

The Tokyo property market is poised to rebound as easier credit and low prices entice overseas investors, according to Kazuo Tanabe, president of Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2009

Dark side of buying a Mumbai flat

Regarding Caroline Boin's June 14 article "Neither charity nor bulldozers prevent slums": The root cause of corruption in Mumbai is land and housing. Titles to land are often not clear, and builders sell flats to hardworking middle-class people who have dreamed of owning one in the city. Later, when...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2009

Refugee treatment under spotlight

Nongovernmental organizations in the Asia-Pacific region supporting asylum seekers say they are watching with great interest how Japan will handle the resettlement of people from Myanmar starting next year, because it will influence their nations.
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 18, 2009

The safety nets for would-be suicides

Every time the National Police Agency comes out with new suicide statistics, media reports tend to focus on the fact that the annual suicide count has reached a new high or has topped the psychologically significant 30,000 threshold for yet another year. (The latest figure available was 32,249 in 2008.)...
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jun 18, 2009

Shichimi

Dear Alice, Based on my forays into Japanese restaurants in North America, I was under the impression that Japanese cuisine didn't feature any spicy flavorsat all. Then, on my first trip to Japan, I wandered into a restaurant that specializes in soba noodles. When my order came, the waitress drew my...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 17, 2009

Tough to compare Jackson to Auerbach

ORLANDO, Fla. — Records were meant to be broken, Sam Jones philosophized several days before Phil Jackson went from NBA Title IX to sporting a flashy yellow X cap following the Lakers systematic suppression of the Magic Kingdom.
JAPAN
Jun 17, 2009

Tokyo bolsters sanctions on Pyongyang

The Cabinet approved new sanctions Tuesday against North Korea that reinforce previous restrictions on financial and people exchanges with the hermit state.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 17, 2009

A new, faster generation of wireless Internet

Maximum range: WiMax is a form of wireless Internet that operates in much the same way as Wi-Fi, but offers greater range, in theory up to 40 km from a central transmitter, and faster speeds than its sibling. It is also just starting in Japan, whereas Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. As part of a concerted push...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb