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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2011

The cute 'n' kooky world of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, Japan's newest pop idol

A recurring theme in the Strange Boutique column has been the question of what has gone wrong with pop music in Japan. Amid discussions of the pernicious influence of advertising agencies, record industry conservatism in the face of declining sales, and the faceless, self-replicating Eurobeat monstrosity...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 25, 2011

Welfare system not faring well

Ten years ago, in her book "Nickel and Dimed," Barbara Ehrenreich chronicled her own experience as a subsistence-level American wage-earner during a period of relative economic vigor. She found a whole class of workers who lived — and would always live — from paycheck to paycheck. In the afterword...
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2011

Unrealistic promise on Futenma

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda met with the U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time Wednesday in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. While the two leaders agreed to deepen the alliance between Japan and the United States, Mr. Obama urged Mr. Noda to make serious efforts to ensure...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011

In a galaxy not so far away....

"Japanese space engineers could just possibly be the most boring people on the face of the Earth," laughed an aeronautics engineer working for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), during a brief interview with The Japan Times.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 20, 2011

All Hands brings all sorts to Iwate to aid local recovery

Since April 11, around 770 volunteers from 30 countries have clocked up 42,000 hours cleaning up and repairing in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, with U.S.-based NGO All Hands. A partnership with Habitat for Humanity Japan has enabled All Hands to keep this seaside hamlet supplied with a steady influx of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2011

Hong Kongers share postdisaster insights

Most Hong Kongers are enthusiastic about Japan — its fashion and pop culture have been popular for years, hundreds of thousands vacation in the country each year, and more of its food is imported there than anywhere else, with fresh sashimi flown in daily from Narita airport.
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2011

Accelerate reconstruction

Six months after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku Pacific coastal areas on March 11, people there are continuing to rebuild together their lives. In Fukushima Prefecture, people have suffered not only from the natural disasters but also from the disaster at Tokyo Electric Power...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 13, 2011

Eriko Hiratsuka

Eriko Hiratsuka, 26, received her master's degree from Waseda University's Graduate School of Law in 2010. That's no small achievement for anyone, but for Eriko, who has severe hearing loss in both ears, reaching her goals has always required extra effort. Although she can only hear sounds above 80 decibels...
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2011

Not enough whole body counters to go around

The health department in Kashiwa, a city in Chiba Prefecture with multiple radiation hot spots, has received numerous inquiries from worried residents wanting to find out their internal radiation levels.
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2011

With record rains comes misery

Typhoon No. 12 (Talas) has brought heavy rains mainly in western Japan. As of the night of Sept. 5, 37 people had died and 54 others were missing. Among the typhoons that hit Japan since 1989, when the Heisei Era started, the latest one caused the second largest number of deaths and missing victims,...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2011

Working holiday anniversary

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the working holiday system in Japan. The program has enabled 20,000 young Japanese a year to live and work abroad, gaining valuable experience and broadening their point of view, but that number should be more. The re-energized attitudes and global outlooks that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 25, 2011

Red Bull invests in tomorrow's dance-music stars

Thirty-two-year-old Yoshiyuki "Yosi" Horikawa from Ibaraki, Osaka, couldn't believe his eyes when he went online the morning of July 16.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

The Morning Benders

There are lots of summer festivals now. How did you end up deciding to do Summer Sonic?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 18, 2011

Chili Peppers dominate Summer Sonic

It was clear on the second day of Summer Sonic that this year's event belonged to the evening's headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers. A casual stroll around Chiba's Makuhari Messe complex revealed a noticeable uptick from the day before in the number of shirtless dudes sporting tribal-band tattoos.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 14, 2011

Barriers to multiculturalism are as low as they've ever been in Japan

Second of two parts
EDITORIALS
Aug 10, 2011

Pension collection rates falling

The premium-collection rate for the basic pension (kokumin nenkin) for fiscal 2010 was 59.3 percent, down from fiscal 2009's 59.98 percent and a record low. The rate has fallen below 60 percent for two consecutive years and has continued to tumble for five straight years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 7, 2011

Tadanori Yokoo: An artist by design

In conversation, Tadanori Yokoo jumps nimbly between the past and the present. One moment he's watching the sky glow red as bombs rain down on Kobe during World War II. The next he's riding in a taxi with Yukio Mishima. And then he's back in the present, here at his studio in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, discussing...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 31, 2011

Timely film reiterates the 'no nukes' urgings of Barefoot Gen's creator

"Nothing has changed from the time of the atom bombs. ... It stands to reason that people are terrified of what they cannot see. I understand the hysteria. In the end, humans must not resort to the atom that they cannot control. The time has come for the Japanese people to make up their mind."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2011

Gelato master in Kamakura serves it the old-fashioned way

According to Japanese popular wisdom, no matter how small your project or enterprise is, if it's really good people will eventually take notice.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 26, 2011

Chair of the Japanese Association for Suicide Prevention Yukio Saito

Yukio Saito, 75, is the Chair of the Japanese Association for Suicide Prevention and CEO of the Japanese Federation of Inochi-no-denwa (Lifeline), Japan's first and largest telephone counseling service. For the past five decades, Saito has been educating the public and lobbying relentlessly to bring...
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2011

3/11 victims face welfare cuts

Cases have surfaced in which municipalities in Tohoku have stopped welfare payments to victims of the March 11 earthquake-tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2011

Films focus on Japan's nuclear flashpoints

The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 has revealed the danger posed by the storing of spent nuclear fuel in pools at the plant, because after the pools drained partly or wholly the fuel heated up and discharged radiation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2011

UNHCR exec lauds refugee strides, urges more

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is grateful for the support Japan has given to the organization's work over the years, and hopes the government's refugee resettlement program proves successful and continues to expand, the agency's deputy high commissioner said in a recent interview.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2011

The risks of 'disaster nationalism'

A common sight seen throughout Japan these days are signs that read Ganbaro Nippon (translated "Don't give up Japan").
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2011

The courage to rebuild

"The journey of life is not smooth and unimpeded, but may be fraught with difficulties exceeding our worst nightmares," observed Kan' ichi Asakawa (1873-1948), a historian and peace advocate originally from Fukushima Prefecture.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 23, 2011

Suicides upping casualties from Tohoku catastrophe

On June 11, a dairy farmer in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, chalked a note on the wall of his cattle shed. "If only there wasn't a nuclear power plant," the message read, in reference to the damaged Fukushima No. 1 plant just 45 km away, which had effectively ended his livelihood.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 21, 2011

Reported epidemic of elder shoplifting may not be what it seems

Media may be missing the point when it reports on rise in crime among retirees.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 21, 2011

Media grasp for words to sum up post-3/11 grit

The disaster was "divine retribution (tembatsu)," proclaimed Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara just days after the Tohoku earthquake. "The Japanese have become a selfish (gayoku) people. We need to use the tsunami to wash away this egoism."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 16, 2011

Rap artist Rumi stokes nuke fires

If you were in the Tokyo neighborhoods of Koenji on April 10, Shibuya on May 7, or Shinjuku on June 11, you might have seen (or more likely, heard) thousands of demonstrators weaving through the streets, waving signs and chanting slogans in opposition to Japan's atomic energy policies. In the past few...

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