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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 26, 2012

If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?

Watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean from a hotel tucked in among the dry scrub hills of San Diego, I have a chance to reflect on life here in Southern California, on climate changes and on what's in store for future generations.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2012

Trust and insider information

The Financial Services Agency on Aug. 3 ordered Nomura Securities Co., Japan's securities industry leader, to improve its internal controls in the wake of a series of confidential information leaks to clients on upcoming share offerings. The order was based on a special investigation of more than three...
EDITORIALS
Aug 20, 2012

No longer the oldest women

A recent survey of life expectancy around the world found that Japanese women no longer have the longest life span. That honor has been taken over by Hong Kong, where women live on average 86.7 years, according to 2011 data from Japan's health and welfare ministry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 17, 2012

Indoor pool accommodation plan in Yokohama; outdoor terrace sushi dining; Champagne happy hour for ladies

Summer Breeze plan in Yokohama This year, the Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu marks the 15th anniversary of its opening and is offering a special summer accommodation plan called Summer Breeze, through Sept. 30.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2012

Five things Washington could do for Syrians

The United States has a window to facilitate an orderly transition in Syria without deploying military force. But the window is narrowing — and the Obama administration will need to adjust its political strategy to succeed.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 12, 2012

Osaka trial highlights Japan's deficient mental-illness facilities

On July 30, the Osaka District Court sentenced a 42-year-old man to 20 years in prison for killing his sister. That's the maximum term for the crime, but it's also four years more than what prosecutors demanded. The reasoning behind the decision of the court, which included lay judges, has provoked an...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 11, 2012

Supporters helped propel Icho, Obara to gold

Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, is not known for being Party Central. But that changed in a big way when freestyle wrestlers Kaori Icho and Hitomi Obara doubled Japan's gold medal total on Wednesday, making their hometown proud and bringing immense joy to Tohoku.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2012

Candidates want you to forget the Afghan war

Here's some news that both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney would like you to ignore: Tens of thousands of American soldiers are at war this summer in Afghanistan.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 5, 2012

Steamy, sleepless nights grind down the nation

Sleeping-goods manufacturer Nishikawa Sangyo Co. Ltd., founded in Omi Province (modern-day Shiga Prefecture) in 1566, got its start in business selling mosquito netting. The company's Tokyo retail outlet, on the opposite side of the Nihonbashi Bridge from the Mitsukoshi department store, has been in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2012

Fuji Rock gets a blast of sunshine, and a wave of Cool Britannia from Radiohead, Noel Gallagher, The Stone Roses

Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it's not for the weather. If there's one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and hope for more than quality performances from their favored...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2012

Phelps most decorated Olympian in history

The first truly transcendent sports moment of the London Olympics took place around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2012

Justice for all Minamata victims

An important date is approaching for people who are not officially recognized as victims of Minamata disease but have symptoms of the disease, Japan's worst industrial pollution-induced disease caused by methyl mercury contained in waste from Chisso Corp.'s factory in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, and...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2012

Merits of electronic interrogations

In March 2011, public prosecutors offices located in 13 major cities started electronically recording interrogations of suspects on a trial basis. The Supreme Public Prosecution Office's July 4 report on the experiments cites both merits and demerits of the electronic recording reported by public prosecutors...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 22, 2012

Crime-fighting concierge; "We Rent Out Families"; CM of the week: Daihatsu

Atsuko Asano plays the title role in the mystery special "Okinawa Rizoto Konsheruju Gushiken Yoko no Meisuiri Ibitsu-na Misshitsu" ("Okinawa Resort Concierge Yoko Gushiken's Excellent Deduction of the Irregular Locked Room"; TV Tokyo, Wed., 9 p.m.).
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 15, 2012

On the trail of treasures at Kyoto's Toji Temple

The man unfurled the scroll and hung it on the wall of the makeshift tent to reveal a majestic mountain soaring to the heights in bold black brush strokes. It was a scene showing nature in all its grandeur dwarfing a lone human figure halfway up the mountain.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 15, 2012

Aging Village shows the way with switch to solar

Eighty kilometers from Oi, Fukui Prefecture, is the village of Sanno, Hyogo Prefecture — 11 households, population 42, average age 60 plus.
BUSINESS
Jul 14, 2012

Shipbuilders look for big boost in orders

Japan Ship Investment Facilitation Co., a finance consultancy formed by the nation's shipbuilders, said it may help the yards win ¥100 billion in orders in three years by using government-backed funding.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 13, 2012

Miraikan turns comic-book fantasies into high-tech reality

When you were a kid, did you dream of having marvelous tools and supernatural powers like the characters in comics had? If so, your dream might be about to come true. Welcome to "Experience Manga Through Science," a new exhibition at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Miraikan) in...
COMMENTARY
Jul 4, 2012

Reforming Japan's universities

Media reports say Japan's education bureaucrats are considering allowing students with "stellar" academic records to graduate from high school before they turn 18. In other words, the required three-year stint at high school might be cut to two.
Jun 21, 2012

Drone warfare clashes with law, human rights

As in other aspects of human life, the march of military technology has greatly outpaced the laws and institutions to regulate the behavior they make possible. The Obama administration has so greatly expanded the Bush policy of drone strikes as to leave neutral observers queasy about the legal regime...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 17, 2012

Rock on down to a geopark near you

To naturalists and hikers, the renown of 810-meter Mount Apoi near the southern tip of Hokkaido towers mightily above its lowly elevation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 12, 2012

Uniqlo splashes out 'suteteko' as summer wear

Uniqlo has opened a special counter for traditional "suteteko" underwear at its flagship in Ginza, Tokyo, with a lineup of more than 80 designs and colors intended to keep people cool this summer when electricity shortages may keep air conditioning in short supply.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 3, 2012

Koki Mitani: Japan's Mr. Comedy

Koki Mitani is far and away the nation's best-known dramatist. Although theater is quite a niche medium here, most people in Japan — whether male or female, young or not so young, Japanese or not — recognize his face, even if they couldn't name many of his works. Recently, indeed, I was amazed when...
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2012

Time for the Diet to act

There remains less than a month before the current Diet session is scheduled to end on June 21. Deliberations have started in a Lower House special committee on the tax and social welfare reform. Among the bills before the committee are two related to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's plan to raise the...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 28, 2012

Overruling doubt to indict: underbelly of Japan's reform

The April 26 acquittal in Tokyo District Court of former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa signified total "defeat" for public prosecutors in view of the strong possibility, as a journalist on judicial matters said, that the prosecutors had maneuvered a "prosecution inquest committee," an...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 25, 2012

Namizato involvement casts cloud over Golden Kings' win

Ryukyu Golden Kings' 2011-12 championship memorabilia are now proudly displayed throughout Okinawa, what with the team dethroning the Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix in Sunday's title game. At the same time, the long summer of discontent has already arrived.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 18, 2012

Hyatt Regency Kyoto cooking classes

The Hyatt Regency Kyoto is again offering its popular small-group cooking classes this year, through Nov. 21.

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