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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 15, 2012

Readers vent over 'Bread and becquerels'

Some readers' responses to the April 17 Zeit Gist column by Gianni Simone, "Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously":
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2012

And then there were two

Mr. Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, has virtually claimed the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. President Barack Obama in the November election. He prevailed in a grueling battle that took a toll on the candidate. Now, he must lick his wounds and refocus his energies on defeating...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 13, 2012

Born of disaster, modern architecture is itself now an ongoing disaster

In the French writer-director Jacques Tati's superb 1967 film "Play Time," people are like prisoners condemned to roam about in and amid the glass cages of high-rise office blocks. They are lost, both to the world and themselves. In the world of Tati, who died in 1982 aged 75, all cities look alike;...
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 8, 2012

The best of Views from the Street

A pick of some of best —and the rest — of the vox pops over the years, in chronological order:
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
May 8, 2012

Issey Miyake's innovations beat the Brits to win the Design Museum of London fashion award

Colloquially called "The Oscars of Design," the Design Museum of London Design Awards are prestigious accolades given in six categories to the most innovative and inspiring designs of the year — and this year's top honors in the fashion category went to Japan's own Issey Miyake and his team of boundary-pushing...
BUSINESS
May 8, 2012

Buffett eyes opportunities to expand across Asia

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he's pursuing more opportunities in Asia after boosting reinsurance sales and expanding the Iscar Metalworking Co. unit on the continent.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 6, 2012

Richard Collasse: Sold on brand Japan

In Tokyo's high-end Ginza district, the Chanel Building stands out among the luxury fashion boutiques and global brands' emporiums thanks to its shining black-glass exterior.
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2012

Getting weary of austerity

The results of the first round on April 22 of the French presidential election underlined that France's economic stagnation caused by the 2008 Lehman Brothers shock and the eurozone sovereign debt crisis was an important factor. They point to people's strong dissatisfaction with the austerity policy...
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2012

Driving eligibility for epileptics

A minivan driven by an epileptic man crashed into pedestrians on a street in Kyoto's popular Gion tourist district April 12, killing two men and five women, and injuring 11 others. The 30-year-old driver also died. He apparently suffered an epileptic attack while he was driving.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 23, 2012

Capitalistic consensus moved Brazil investors

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Washington earlier this month offers an occasion to consider how some once-poor countries have broken out of poverty, as Brazil has. Development institutions like the World Bank have advocated improving business law as an important way to do so. Are they...
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2012

Japan to cancel 60% of Myanmar's debt

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda announced Saturday that Japan will resume yen loans to Myanmar and cancel about 60 percent of the debt and overdue charges it is owed to assist the country's recent moves toward democracy.
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2012

Mr. Ishihara's ill-considered plan

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced in Washington last Monday that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is in the final stage of negotiations to buy most of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from the landowner Mr. Kunioki Kurihara, a resident of Saitama. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda reacted...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 20, 2012

'Waga Haha no Ki (Chronicle of My Mother)'

Masato Harada, who once directed Hollywood-style entertainments such as 1989's sci-fi actioner "Ganheddo (Gunhed)" and the America-set 1993 road movie "Painted Desert," has since made a specialty of dramas about Japanese men at work. Based on true events and packed with incident, they made life in a...
JAPAN / Q&A
Apr 19, 2012

Tokyo's intentions for Senkaku islets

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara's plan to have the metropolitan government purchase the Senkaku Islands continued to cause ripples Wednesday, with both China and Taiwan quickly issuing statements criticizing the move.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2012

Japanese art still struggles in China

Japanese photographer inri was just 27 when she saw RongRong's photographs for the first time. As she wandered between the stalls of a 1999 Tokyo art fair, a series on traditional Chinese wedding dresses caught her eye. One image, with a man and a woman completely hidden in the folds of yellow silk robes,...
CULTURE / Art
Apr 19, 2012

Japanese art still struggles in China

Japanese photographer inri was just 27 when she saw RongRong's photographs for the first time. As she wandered between the stalls of a 1999 Tokyo art fair, a series on traditional Chinese wedding dresses caught her eye. One image, with a man and a woman completely hidden in the folds of yellow silk robes,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 14, 2012

Canadian black-belt takes pride in action not words

For Robert Hughes, the shortest answer is doing. From his early determination to procure a traditional Japanese sword to his more recent work with Japanese students in the poverty-stricken streets of the Philippines, Hughes, 54, has spent over 30 years in Japan allowing his actions to speak eloquently...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 10, 2012

Rape victim marks 10 years on lonely crusade for justice

It surely isn't very often that elite Japanese bureaucrats hear the words to the national anthem quoted at them — by a foreigner. Earlier this year, Australian national Catherine Fisher says she pulled the words of "Kimigayo" from her head during a frustrating meeting with officials from the ministries...
BUSINESS / ASEAN-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Apr 7, 2012

ASEAN members see mixed future; ties with Japan entering new phase

Southeast Asia has emerged from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis with a robust economic expansion that, along with China and India, makes up a new growth center of the world economy. Still, major countries in the region foresee a mixed picture in the years ahead.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 3, 2012

Keene should engage brain before fueling 'flyjin,' foreign crime myths

Congratulations to Donald Keene, who was granted Japanese citizenship last month with great media fanfare. At 89 years young and after a lifetime contributing to world scholarship on Japan, he truly deserves it.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2012

10th anniversary of the ICC

Winston Churchill said, "History is written by the victors," but justice may be decided that way, too. In the 10 years since its inception, the International Criminal Court has found detractors who claim the court is biased. Supporters of the court argue that a permanent international criminal court...
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 1, 2012

Woodland therapy yields Tohoku school 'dream'

When our Afan Woodland Trust came into being in 2002 (after 16 years of hard work to purchase the land and begin restoring abandoned forest to healthy biodiversity), we started a program to invite disadvantaged, neglected or abused children into these living woods.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan