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Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Northern hub for international aid

While Aomori Prefecture was spared the brunt of catastrophic damage from the March 11 quake and tsunami, the port of Hachinohe including many factories and businesses, hundreds of homes just north in Oirase town, and the port area of Misawa further north suffered major damage that has destroyed the livelihoods...
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2011

Enough, Mr. Gadhafi

Last Friday the United Nations Security Council agreed to impose a no-fly zone in Libya, after weeks of negotiations. There are fears that it may be too late to protect civilians or stop the forces of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from crushing the armed revolt against him. Nevertheless, it does provide...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 23, 2011

Place your bid to help Japan

When the world bears witness to tragedies on the scale of Japan's recent disaster, it affects everyone, and it is natural to feel powerless. Many find themselves asking the question: "What could I possibly do to help?" While for most the answer is not at once apparent, for Japanese American ceramic artist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 18, 2011

Indie scene aims for normalcy in unusual situation

As I write this on Tuesday afternoon, four days after the earthquake that hit northeastern Japan on March 11 and with the continuing drip, drip, drip of nerve-shaking news from the damaged nuclear reactors in Fukushima forming background noise to life in Tokyo, I see on the BBC news feed that Canadian...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2011

Longtime Arab myths versus today's realities

WASHINGTON — With Hosni Mubarak's ouster in Egypt — widely considered to have one of the region's most stable regimes until only recently — and Col. Moammar Gadhafi clinging to power in Libya, there is no clear end in sight to the turmoil sweeping across the Arab world. Protests have already toppled...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Briton excels at helping foreign women adjust

Japan got a little better last year in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum: It moved up in the rankings to 94th place out of 134 countries, from 101st in 2009.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 8, 2011

Domestic child abuse in spotlight

The Fukuoka District Court in January sentenced a 34-year-old mother to six years in prison for causing bodily injury resulting in her daughter's death, casting the spotlight anew on child abuse.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 6, 2011

'Galapagos' has evolved as an analogy for Japan

English naturalist Charles Darwin put Galapagos on the map, having visited the group of islands, situated in the Pacific Ocean some 970 km west of continental Ecuador, in 1835, during the voyage of the HMS Beagle. His impressions and observations of the islands' unique biosystem contributed to his 1859...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 1, 2011

Solving parental child abduction problem no piece of cake

The Way of Cake is mysterious and paradoxical. A master of the Way can make his neighbors feel they have filled themselves with tasty cake without ever cutting off a piece. The Way allows its disciple to step outside the boundaries of rational thought by partaking of cake while continuing to possess...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 1, 2011

Charisma Men, unite against the identity enforcers

English teachers in Japan get a bum rap. Not always taken seriously as professionals, and often denied advancement opportunities in the workplace, they are seen as people over here on a lark. They get accused of taking advantage of Japanese society to earn easy money, canoodle with the locals, then go...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2011

Libyans stage anti-Gadhafi Tokyo protest

Members of the Libyan community in Japan and others staged a demonstration Wednesday in Tokyo calling for the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi and an end to his regime's bloody crackdown against protesters seeking an end to his 40-year rule.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 22, 2011

Monster in Blackman case still an enigma

Richard Lloyd Parry spoke about his new book, "People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman," with Jeff Kingston. The following draws on this interview and his book.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 18, 2011

Visit Tokyo's 'Frontline' for Japan's contemporary art

Shigeo Goto, director of Tokyo Frontline, a new art fair to start in Tokyo this year, calls himself an "outsider," meaning he considers himself not quite inside Tokyo's commercial "art scene."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2011

The world needs more elephant mothers

MELBOURNE — Many years ago, my wife and I were driving somewhere with our three young daughters in the back, when one of them suddenly asked: "Would you rather that we were clever or that we were happy?"
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 15, 2011

Remembering a supporter of refugees; discrimination a part of human nature

In memoriam: Father Kasuya Beloved Catholic priest Father John Koichi Kasuya passed away on Feb. 9 at a house for retired Catholic clergy in Japan, aged 87.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 15, 2011

Japan, be confident!

On the day of his departure from Hokkaido on April 16, 1877, at the end of his tenure as the first president of what later became Hokkaido University, William Smith Clark left his charges, and Japan, with a parting message: "Boys, be ambitious." For the next century plus, Japan was ambitious, creating...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 12, 2011

Japan urged to beef up business ties with India

Japan has yet to explore the potential of its economic relations with India, even though the strategic importance of Tokyo-New Delhi ties has repeatedly been emphasized, Indian scholars and experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Feb 1, 2011

Naturalized Japanese: foreigners no more

In Dec. 28's Japan Times, Charles Lewis wrote a respectful Zeit Gist column asking three fellow wise men (sumo wrestler Konishiki, musicologist Peter Barakan and Diet member Marutei Tsurunen) about their successful lives as "foreigners" in Japan. Despite their combined century of experience here, the...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2011

U.N. envoy vows to press North on abductions

A special rapporteur for the United Nations on human rights in North Korea urged Pyongyang on Friday to resolve the long-standing abduction issue and deal with wider matters relating to humanitarian and human rights regarding its people.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jan 25, 2011

So you want Japan to be a true Asian business hub?

Dear Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda: Last month your ministry published "Current Policies to Make Japan Asia's Center for Business."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2011

Borders of India's latest outreach to Iran

LONDON — As India takes its seat on the U.N. Security Council as the new nonpermanent member after nearly a two-decade hiatus, its latest move vis-a-vis Iran has signaled New Delhi's desire to be viewed as a responsible rising power and a potential permanent member of the Security Council.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 18, 2011

U.S. NPO seeks 'social entrepreneurs'

A U.S.-based nonprofit organization that has helped "social entrepreneurs" around the world opened a Japanese office this month, its first branch in East Asia, with the goal of creating a similar community in a country where the concept itself is little understood.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 15, 2011

Authentic slice of Japan preserved in South Florida

The first two weeks of the new year are over, and Tom Gregersen, 61, is putting away the kine and usu, the traditional wooden mallets and mortars used in the mochitsuki (rice-cake pounding) event held as part of the O-shogatsu Festival at The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011

'The Social Network' wins friends among film critics

The Japanese tagline for "The Social Network" translates as "Genius, backstabber, dangerous guy, billionaire." Probably not the kind of sentiment a website trying to connect friends wants to be associated with. However, for a film — it's damn sexy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2011

The chaotic birth of South Sudan

MADRID — The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that was reached in 2005 between mostly Christian southern Sudan and the country's Muslim North ended one of the bloodiest civil wars in modern times. Lasting 22 years, the war left more than 2 million dead. Now the CPA is facing its most vital test:...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2011

Middle East peace, not process

RAMALLAH — The United States should stop pushing for the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Doing so might be the best way to achieve peace — a paradox that reflects the huge gap between a peace process and achieving genuine peace.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 10, 2011

North Korea's forgotten crisis

North Korea's lack of concern for upholding the international commitment to human rights and security became clear once again after it rained an artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23, killing four South Koreans including two civilians.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight