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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

A 'stewpid' time to raise VAT

The International Monetary Fund has joined Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and leading politicians and bureaucrats in laying down a remorseless softening up barrage of facts, figures, argument and just plain determination that the country's consumption tax should rise as quickly as possible.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 22, 2012

Pick of the pixels from this year's CP+ show

One of the highlights of this month's CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2012 in Yokohama was Nikon's new D800 digital SLR camera, aimed at multimedia photographers and videographers. The 36-megapixel monster is once again spurring the debate over how many megapixels is too many megapixels.
BUSINESS
Feb 22, 2012

Panasonic to re-enter European mobile market with its first smartphone

Panasonic Corp. will re-enter the European mobile-device market in April with the company's first smartphone and expand the range of handsets to potentially include tablet computers.
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

Citigroup picks Bakhshi for top job

Citigroup Inc. has appointed a new head for its Japanese markets business as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit seeks to rebuild there after drawing a third bout of regulatory punishment in seven years in December.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

S&P affirms AA- rating, says downgrade likely

Standard and Poor's on Monday affirmed Japan's sovereign-debt rating at AA- while maintaining a negative outlook and warning that a downgrade is likely if medium-term growth prospects weaken.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2012

Media and law enforcement

The revelation last year that journalists at the News of the World, a Sunday paper, owned by News Corp., had been involved extensively in hacking into the mobile phones and the voice mail of celebrities led to the closure of this populist paper. Since such hacking is illegal in Britain, News Corp. has...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 20, 2012

Clean poverty, clean living and love on a shoestring

Okane wa doko ni itteshimattanoka (お金はどこに行ってしまったのか, Where has all the money gone?). Until a few years back, the tone among Japanese business pundits used to go like this — a little humorous and slightly hopeful, almost as if we were all playing kakurenbo (かくれんぼ,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 19, 2012

Surfing the silent waves

As a young documentary filmmaker, Ayako Imamura had been wrestling with feelings of emptiness. Deaf since birth, the 32-year-old Nagoya native has shot about 30 short films documenting the lives of deaf people in Japan since 2000. But at one point in her career, she realized that her creative energy...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 19, 2012

Has anything changed? Americans still feel the need for moral supremacy

When he published his brilliant cartoon in the Washington Post on Dec. 12, 1961, American cartoonist Herblock, may, oddly enough, just as well have been addressing one of the primary concerns of today's political debate in the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2012

Tireless volunteer Fukuda makes a difference in the lives she touches

Julie Fukuda, 75, is a giver — not financially, but physically — who has tirelessly volunteered for various organizations in her community for nearly 50 years in Japan.
BUSINESS
Feb 18, 2012

ANA looking to cut ¥100 billion in costs, expand international services

All Nippon Airways Co. plans to slash costs by ¥100 billion and expand international flights as it gears up for rising competition at home.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2012

'Afuro Tanaka (Afro Tanaka)'

Japanese comics have been translated into English and other languages by the hundreds, but overseas publishers have long overlooked one of the biggest local genres: gag manga. Their usual excuse is that Japanese humor, which relies heavily on untranslatable wordplay and cultural in-jokes, doesn't travel...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Feb 17, 2012

Wake refreshed at the Pan Pacific

The cold, dry winter can be utterly exhausting, so the Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu is offering special accommodation packages for women to have a relaxing time, through March 15.
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2012

Tokyo grain bourse may close as trading volumes plunge

Tokyo Grain Exchange Inc., operator of Japan's second-largest commodities bourse, is under pressure from shareholders to cease operations and transfer the trading of farm futures to rivals because of declining volumes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Feb 17, 2012

New Fish House claims east Ebisu as its oyster

First the sad news: One of Ebisu's finest, friendliest little French restaurants has upped and moved to the far side of town. Now the silver lining: Those selfsame pint-sized premises have reincarnated as a branch of Ebisu's finest, friendliest oyster emporium. Just six weeks since saying au revoir to...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2012

Net malls liable in trademark cases

Kyodo The Intellectual Property High Court has ruled that an Internet shopping mall operator could be required to pay damages if it neglects to delete items that violate trademark rights from its website within a reasonable amount of time.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 15, 2012

Opinions split on moving powerhouse Phoenix to Western Conference

There's a very real possibility that the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix will play in the bj-league's Western Conference next season, as the league's preliminary scheduling blueprint for 2012-13 has shown. It's not official yet, but the expectation here is that it's a done deal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 14, 2012

Vets win payouts over Agent Orange use on Okinawa

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded two more former service members compensation for exposure to Agent Orange while serving on Okinawa during the 1960s and '70s.
BUSINESS
Feb 14, 2012

Manila, Takenaka airport deal near

The Philippine government and Takenaka Corp. are close to agreeing on a "best price" for 23 airport services that the Japanese company can provide at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Transportation Secretary Mar Roxas told reporters Monday in Manila.
Reader Mail
Feb 12, 2012

Mixed messages about manners

For many years, reading manners posters has been one of my commuting pastimes. Others include reading books, sleeping, people watching and, when possible, scenery watching. Sometimes I even try to hold my breath from one station to the next as a kind of fitness check.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 12, 2012

The idol's mom, the underage boy and the media

The recent arrest of the mother of a Japanese pop idol for sex with a minor raises questions on how the media here handles such high-profile cases.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 12, 2012

A glint of copper hints at Fukiya's mining past

Sitting in sublime obscurity in a raised valley one hour by bus from Bitchu-Takahashi, Fukiya Furusato Mura in Okayama Prefecture must surely be one of Japan's most under-appreciated rural destinations. Mention the name even to Japanese travelers and you are likely to draw blank expressions.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012

A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready

I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.

Longform

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The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan