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COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Oct 7, 2013

Fukushima, suicide and nihongo fluency: readers' mails

A grab bag of readers' mail in response to recent Community articles.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 2, 2013

Tin Man's throne: the rise and fall of a Roppongi royal

Gilbert Otaigbe is the current owner of Black Horse bar and nightclub in Roppongi. At the height of his success in the mid-2000s, he owned at least seven bars, clubs and restaurants.
Reader Mail
Aug 21, 2013

Unbelievable front-page choice

The Aug. 18 front-page Kyodo article "Anti-Japan protests mark anniversary" was ridiculous. I would like an explanation, and I'm sure many others would, too. This was not news. It simply reminded people that protests in China occurred one year ago. And, unbelievably, above the article, there was a photo...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 28, 2013

Fukushima: evolving fear into fact

Misinformation and flawed reporting about Fukushima radiation levels and reactor stability persisted even when scientific data had become readily available.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 23, 2013

'Hate speech' in the media, but not the legal code

This writer, on previous occasions, has expressed irritation over the recent tendency for the vernacular media to rely heavily on English borrowings for neologisms with socially negative connotations, such as sexual harassment, stalking and domestic violence — to name three examples.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Mar 12, 2013

Do dire predictions for Japan factor in a rush for the exits?

Within two hours of the massive earthquake that jolted Japan at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, the Japanese government received notice that an “Article 15 event” had occurred at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Oct 16, 2012

Labor law protects expectant and new mothers — to a point

I had a labor consultation with a woman who said: "The other day I told my company I was pregnant. My boss asked me to quit because the firm can't afford to give me time off. One of my coworkers once resigned before giving birth but I want to stay on. Do I have to quit now that I am pregnant?"
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 25, 2011

Are digital newspaper subscriptions worth it?

Japanese newspapers still have cold feet when it comes to embracing their digital editions.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 15, 2011

Media starting to tally the economic effects of foreigner flight

News reports immediately following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant accident of panicked foreign residents lining up for the first flight home — in many cases advised to flee by their own governments — had the initial result of helping to feed the sense of angst among Japanese that...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 27, 2011

Local media react to the events of March 11

For Japan's vernacular media, the March 11 disaster and its aftermath is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla that engulfed coverage of most other news. The items that follow give some idea of the scope of reporting over the past two weeks.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2010

Hearing China's take on Senkakus

The most recent territorial dispute over the Senkaku (Japanese name)/Diaoyutai (Chinese name) Islands, located southwest of Okinawa (or north of Taiwan if you prefer), was triggered on Sept. 7 when a Chinese trawler attempted to ram two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The blurry details of the collision...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 10, 2010

Weeklies, tabloids hawkish over China

On Saturday, Oct. 2, over 2,670 demonstrators carrying Hinomaru Japanese flags marched in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park to protest the Kan government's soft handling of a long-running territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands (known in Chinese as Diaoyutai), which was rekindled on Sept. 7 when the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2009

Movie JAL doesn't want you to see snubbed by media

Big-budget movies need all the help they can get recovering their production and promotional costs at the box office, so advertisements stating that the 3 1/2-hour epic "Shizumanu Taiyo" ("The Sun That Doesn't Set") is a "big hit" should be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, every movie released...
CULTURE / Books
Oct 18, 2009

Classic tales of newsprint noir

While a senior at Tokyo's Sophia University, 23-year-old Missouri native Jake Adelstein was heading home from a Shinjuku cinema when, on a whim, he dropped into a game arcade and popped u00a5100 into the slot of a fortunetelling robot for some mystical career advice.
COMMENTARY
May 4, 2008

A chance for Beijing to take a stand on health

LOS ANGELES — As matters now stand, accredited, professional journalists from Taiwan are once again being denied press passes by U.N. authorities to cover the annual World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization. This year's event takes place in Geneva on May 19. The topic is "A Safer Future:...
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2007

'Sakura Papa' sues publisher, ex-girlfriend

Democratic Party of Japan member Yoshiro Yokomine, elected last month to the Upper House, filed a damages lawsuit Tuesday against publisher Shinchosha Publishing Co. and his former girlfriend for defamation of character over a recently published article.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 15, 2007

Surrender spared a young, doubting kamikaze

If Masamichi Shida, 80, had known a bit more about the world back in 1942, he might never have become a kamikaze.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 25, 2006

Who needs a trial when the media has hanged, drawn and quartered the accused?

Cynicism comes naturally to members of the tabloid press, who report sensational news in a sensational way and rarely think about what exactly it is they're doing. All they care about is the gory details. However, their coverage of the murder of a 7-year-old boy last month in Akita Prefecture and the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2006

Japan Times wins award for animal rights coverage

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) today announced that The Japan Times is this year's winner of its prestigious International Genesis Award, given in recognition of its Nov. 30, 2005 "breakthrough expose" headlined: " 'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 18, 2005

Sinister stats suggest southpaws should swap sides

I am very depressed by the news these days. But, believe me, it's not what you think. It's all because I'm left-handed, an extrovert and a writer of poetry.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2002

Soga's husband, daughters request her prompt return

The husband and two daughters of Hitomi Soga, one of five Japanese abducted by North Korea who are now back in Japan, have said they want her to return to Pyongyang as soon as possible, officials of a Japanese weekly magazine that interviewed the trio said Thursday.
COMMENTARY
May 20, 2002

Too early to fete a new day for Myanmar

HONG KONG -- On May 7, Vietnam inadvertently hindered 50 million Myanmarese from learning that "at last Aung Sang Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest." The Myanmar government's authoritarian habits prevailed at the very moment when hopes of future democracy were reborn.
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2001

Ministry denies role in pro-MBM report

The farm ministry on Monday defended itself against allegations by a weekly magazine that it encouraged farmers to feed cattle with meat-and-bone meal in the mid-1990s.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 30, 2001

Is yellow journalism in vogue again?

Why do so many foreign commentators feel they can get away with anything they say about Japan?
JAPAN
May 4, 2001

Constitution turns 54 as battle lines drawn up for and against reform

Groups for and against revision of the Constitution held rallies in Tokyo on Thursday to mark the 54th anniversary of the supreme law amid increasing calls for its revision from political leaders, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2000

China clamps down on Hong Kong press

SYDNEY -- While the rest of the world debates the terms under which they might engage China, Beijing is busy trampling on its agreement with the British over Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty. In the handover agreement, both parties agreed upon Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, as...

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.