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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 16, 2012

Snow Revolution's orange shadow

Vladimir Putin's regime is warning Russians that their budding "Snow Revolution" will be as big a mistake as Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004. But, while the similarities between these two popular movements are palpable, their differences are essential, so comparing them might help the Russian opposition...
EDITORIALS
Feb 14, 2012

Higher wages for nursing care

The government will increase payments awarded to nursing care services for the elderly by an average 1.2 percent beginning in fiscal 2012 (from April). These payments will go directly to entities providing the services — not to the individual care workers themselves. Still, the main purpose of the...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 12, 2012

Depression is a national ailment that demands open recognition in Japan

The greatest public health issue facing the people of Japan today is not cancer. It is not vascular diseases than can cause heart attacks and strokes. It is not the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the ever-rising number of the elderly.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 12, 2012

A future free from nuclear energy? Yakushima may be ready

I once took a ferry from Kagoshima on the southernmost tip of Kyushu to Amami Oshima, halfway to Okinawa. Just 60 km out from the massive Sakurajima volcano that dominates Kagoshima City, our ship passed a huge granite hunk of rock some 50,000 hectares, covered in forest.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2012

Emails bare NRC's Fukushima chaos

In the confusion following the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex last March, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was standing by to help.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 7, 2012

Bubble era's aviation legacy: Too many airports, all ailing

Japan has 98 airports, and most of them are operating in the red as a result of exaggerated demand forecasts and rampant, costly and arguably pork-barrel construction projects.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2012

Students' retreat from English

Arecent education ministry survey of third-year middle school students nationwide found most students have an ambivalent and contradictory attitude toward English. Of the 3,225 students surveyed, most felt English was important to study, but few wanted a job requiring English. The disjuncture between...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2012

Retired police chief, 74, arrested after paying two 16-year-old girls for sex

A 74-year-old retired police chief has been arrested on suspicion of paying two 16-year-old girls for sex in Sapporo, a Hokkaido police spokesman said Thursday.
BUSINESS
Jan 28, 2012

Bond yields could soar if Noda's tax hike plan stalls

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says doubling the consumption tax is a necessary remedy to address soaring debt and social welfare costs, and while his opponents don't disagree, they're still not going to let him do it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012

"Jack Goldstein"

When minimalism was at its height during the 1980s-'90s, Jack Goldstein (1945-2003) focused on imagery from movies, books, photographs and magazines. He reworked such materials into paintings and film art, and he is often remembered as one of the artists who helped build the foundation of postmodern...
CULTURE / Art
Jan 26, 2012

"Jack Goldstein"

When minimalism was at its height during the 1980s-'90s, Jack Goldstein (1945-2003) focused on imagery from movies, books, photographs and magazines. He reworked such materials into paintings and film art, and he is often remembered as one of the artists who helped build the foundation of postmodern...
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2012

Conversations with Thaksin, Thailand's prime suspect

THE SHOCKING COUP: "The situation is no good." "It's just a matter of time," a top minister had told him. "We only have a few weeks left before they act." Another had told him: "Our days are numbered."
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012

Typecast 'vulture capitalist' has work cut out

For Mitt Romney, it's the best of times and the worst of times. While his New Hampshire win brings him closer to the Republican nomination, his campaign narrative against President Barack Obama may be unraveling.
COMMUNITY
Jan 21, 2012

Aussie takes slippery slope to Hokkaido

Matt Dening, 44, grew up on sunshine in a small beach town south of Sydney. Like most Australian youths, Dening played "all the regular sports — swimming, cricket, rugby — but not really well."
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2012

New Kimigayo ruling

In lawsuits brought by 171 current and former teachers and other staff members at public schools in Tokyo who were punished for not following orders that principals issued in connection with the Hinomaru national flag and the Kimigayo national anthem at school events, the No. 1 Petit Bench of the Supreme...
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2012

Director uses organic process to tell rural communities' tales

Every person, town or village has a story to tell, whether they are tales of love and friendship or the tragedy of losing a loved one, and they all are interwoven into our lives in complex layers.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2012

Tokyo Gas eyes biggest bond sales in a decade

Tokyo Gas Co., the nation's biggest natural gas distributor, will sell the most bonds in a decade to help fund a ¥2.06 trillion spending plan and take advantage of coupons at an eight-year low.
Reader Mail
Jan 15, 2012

Shedding light on war victims

Regarding John Tirman's Jan. 12 article, "U.S. overlooks the true tolls of its wars" (reprinted from The Washington Post): It is hypocritical of President Barack Obama to praise American troops who served in Iraq when he voted against any invasion of Iraq and criticized the previous administration's...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 15, 2012

Sealing a connection with nature

The cliff-ringed cape known as Notoro Misaki stands as a massive natural breakwater west of the city of Abashiri in northeastern Hokkaido, sheltering it from some of the might of the ocean.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 15, 2012

The other side of world's 'worst battle'

FIGHTING SPIRIT: The Memoirs of Major Yoshitaka Horie and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Edited by Robert D. Eldridge and Charles W. Tatum. Naval Institute Press, 2011, 224 pp., $26.95 (hardcover) Iwo Jima is a tiny sliver of an island 1,200 km south of Tokyo, an unlikely setting for anything historical, let...
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2012

Noda hoping latest reshuffle bucks trend of dismal failures

Cabinet reshuffles are generally called a gamble prime ministers take to reverse dismal approval ratings, but in recent years most of them have failed miserably.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan