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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 3, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things — about the Japanese

Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column describing the 10 things he likes about Japan both inspired and depressed me. As a frequent critic of the country's legal system (among other things), his piece made me stop and think of some of the things I like about Japan that are all too easy to take for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 27, 2012

Shonan: What do you think about the government's plan to create citizen ID numbers for tax and other purposes?

Yoshihara, 45
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Mar 25, 2012

Plum nuts about Ikegami

Whether you call the Prunus mume a plum or an apricot (it is related to both), the flowers are plum elegant on their leafless, shiny branches and help cheer us through winter's finale. To enjoy them to the full, I seek out Ikegami Baien Garden in southern Tokyo's Ota Ward, having hopped the Tokyu Ikegami...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 20, 2012

Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya: What have you learned about Japan and the Japanese people from 3/11 and its aftermath?

Mina Jeon, 36 (Tokyo)
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 20, 2012

Fukushima not just about nuke crisis

The Tohoku region continues to struggle beyond the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, particularly Fukushima Prefecture, whose recovery is being greatly hampered by the triple-meltdown crisis at a coastal nuclear plant.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2012

Mistaken presumptions about Assad's Syria

Syria's uprising against President Bashar Assad, which began peacefully in Damascus a year ago, has become increasingly brutal and splintered. As the death toll nears 9,000, calls for international intervention have increased — but what worked in places like Libya won't necessarily succeed in Syria....
Reader Mail
Mar 18, 2012

Get serious about construction

Regarding the Bloomberg article published in the March 14 edition of The Japan Times, "Tokyo has way to go to gird for Big One, consultant says": There should be a new government department created to devise new methods and construction designs and technologies to deal with earthquakes and tsunami.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 13, 2012

New Zealander loses legal fight over crippling med addiction

When Wayne Douglas arrived home in New Zealand from Japan in early 2001, his own mother didn't recognize him at the airport.
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2012

More worries about Afghanistan

Any doubts about Afghanistan's fragility have been put to rest in recent weeks. Reports that copies of the Quran were inadvertently burned at a coalition military base unleashed a spasm of violence, ranging from mass demonstrations to murder. It has torn apart already strained relations between Afghans...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2012

'Henge'

Movie trailers and TV commercials both exist to sell, but unlike ads for toothpaste or instant ramen, trailers offer a direct experience, however manipulated, with the actual product. So websites that post links to trailers are not just shilling for distributors, but also offering their visitors, always...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 26, 2012

Venturing into the zone on Showajima

In his "Meditation XVII," the English Metaphysical poet John Donne wrote in 1623 that "no man is an island, entire of itself." Well, yes — but some islands are entirely more manly than others.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 23, 2012

Is the World Wide Web about to be 'closed'?

Within the tech community, there is much angst about whether the Web is about to be "closed." Will it be controlled by companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google, or will it remain "open" to all?
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2012

America's pivot to Asia is not just about countering China

"All right China, come out with your hands up; we've got you surrounded!"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 17, 2012

'Water for Elephants'

What is it about Robert Pattinson that makes him slightly annoying? Despite his 18-carat movie-star status built on his vampire role in the "Twilight" series, despite the rumor that he's slated as the next Brad Pitt (er, really?) and has the lanky, boyish charm to back it up, Pattinson remains several...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 14, 2012

Economists think about soaking the rich, a little

The government could solve its deficit problems if it taxed savings.
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
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 7, 2012

Questions raised about account of Tokyo cop assault

Some readers' responses to the Jan. 24 Zeit Gist column by Simon Scott, headlined "American claims Tokyo cop assaulted son, 8":
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 7, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things about Japan

The Just Be Cause column has been running now for four years (thanks for reading!), and I've noticed something peculiar: how commentators are pressured to say "nice" stuff about Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2012

Five myths about China's power

As China gains on the world's most advanced economies, the country excites fascination as well as fear, particularly in the United States, where many worry that China will supplant America as the 21st century's superpower. Many ask how China has grown so much so fast, whether the Communist Party can...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2012

Debunking five myths about Barack Obama

The president is a socialist.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 17, 2012

And then there was one?: Japan's right royal crisis

According to the Japanese Constitution, the Emperor is the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people. You could thus say it is symbolic that the Imperial household is now facing an unprecedented demographic crisis, one that may ultimately lead to a succession dilemma and possibly...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 16, 2012

Men can be sexy when talking about themselves

An often misunderstood perception about the Japanese language is that it's long-winded and excessively polite. True, there's an entire lexicon devoted to politeness, called keigo (敬語, the language of reverence) and in Kyoto, there's such a thing as kyūtei kotoba (宮廷言葉, palatial language)...
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2012

Builders tap postdisaster rush for quake-resistant homes

Ken Saishoji, a Tokyo real-estate agent, used to answer questions from potential apartment buyers about the proximity to train stations and prices, but that changed after the March disasters.
Reader Mail
Jan 12, 2012

What do 'experts' know about it?

In the Jan. 7 Kyodo brief, "Ideas on female royalty solicited," we find out that handpicked "experts" will be asked to approve of the government proposal to expand the number of members of the royal family. When will we see a constitutional challenge to this government-by-expert panel?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 30, 2011

Things the telly didn't tell you about Thatcher

Britain in the early 1970s was decayed, ungovernable and globally irrelevant, done in by the cumulative effect of postwar socialist reforms.
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2011

Misconceptions about college

Takamitsu Sawa's Dec. 19 article, "Motivation for college study," shows us what is wrong with the educational system in Japan. The comments made by a university president that are not based on knowledge or statistics are quite shocking. I started out hoping to learn more about motivation and ended up...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2011

Five myths about presidential contender Ron Paul

Ron Paul is the Rodney Dangerfield of Republican presidential candidates. The 12-term Texas congressman ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988 and was widely seen as a sideshow in 2008, despite finishing third in the GOP field behind John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Why, despite a small...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 4, 2011

Tenten Hosokawa: Drawing the blues away

In the last few decades, clinical depression in Japan has emerged from its longstanding obscurity shrouded in shame and guilt to becoming far more openly recognized as a national disease.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?