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May 14, 2025
 

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CULTURE / Books
Apr 14, 2013

Digging for insights on foreigners living in Japan from some of the most prominent figures

Donald Richie, prolific author of more than 40 books and longtime contributor to The Japan Times, died in February at age 88. April 17 was his birthday, so this review pays tribute by sharing some of the insights he passed on during an interview, one of 12 in this book, conducted four years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2013

A dying veteran's assessment of the Iraq War

A letter from a dying U.S. Army veteran to former President George W. Bush delivers a damning assessment of the consequences of the Iraq War.
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Mar 26, 2013

Consensus: Corporal punishment in sports misguided, demoralizing, backward

The following are some readers' responses to the March 12 Foreign Element column by Richard Parker headlined "Right or wrong, corporal punishment can produce winners." See many more in the comment section below the original article.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / CHILD'S PLAY
Mar 20, 2013

This is one museum where kids will have a blast

Once a month, it will be my goal to help you and your kids get the most out of Tokyo. This city is full of opportunities to learn and have fun, and I've been seeking out these opportunities ever since my first-born arrived 10 years ago.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 31, 2012

America's largest mass execution now obscure

Settlers had come from miles around. The hotels were full. And some spectators were camped out in tents and wagons. The giant gallows erected between Front Street and the Minnesota River was a marvel: a perfect square, supported by oak timbers, and able to hold 40 nooses — 10 on each side.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Nov 6, 2012

If bully Ishihara wants one last stand, bring it on

On Oct. 25, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara announced his resignation from office. He now plans to stand for election to the Diet as head of a new conservative party. He suggested political alliances with other conservative reactionaries and xenophobes, including Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Tachiagare...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 26, 2012

If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?

Watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean from a hotel tucked in among the dry scrub hills of San Diego, I have a chance to reflect on life here in Southern California, on climate changes and on what's in store for future generations.
COMMENTARY
Aug 8, 2012

Autopsies shine light on NFL's deadly problem

Are you ready for some American football? First, however, are you ready for some autopsies? The opening of the NFL training camps coincided with the closing of the investigation into the April suicide by gunshot of Ray Easterling, 62, an eight-season NFL safety in the 1970s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2012

'7 Días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)'

Just last week this column trotted out the movie industry's defense — post-Colorado "Batman" shootings — that films don't influence actual behavior. Now along comes "7 Días en La Habana (7 Days in Havana)," a raucous compendium film that features scene after simmering scene of people getting righteously...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jun 24, 2012

Over the top ambitions in Mukogaoka

The neighborhood of Mukogaoka — literally, "Yonder Hill" — huddles under clouds clustered like violet hydrangea blossoms the morning I arrive to explore.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 5, 2012

Much ado, but micro-important

A few weeks ago, as a panelist at a symposium on Japan's accession to the Hague Convention on international child abduction, I found it hard to disguise my ire. One of the speakers was a lawyer opposed to Japan joining the convention, and who refused to even use "abduction" to discuss what she called...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 5, 2012

Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms

Last month's column on "microaggressions" was my most debated yet. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 3, 2012

Wood you believe how good school could be . . .

Since 1980, I have made my home in Shinano, a town in northern Nagano Prefecture. However, in articles, letters and speeches, I refer to this area as Kurohime, the name of our local train station and of the great, dormant, densely forested volcano that looks down on us. I prefer to say my home is in...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 19, 2012

The list of lists

They grace the Internet like snack foods at a cocktail party.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 5, 2012

The word of words

Sometimes students will ask me, "What's your favorite Japanese word?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Feb 7, 2012

Questions raised about account of Tokyo cop assault

Some readers' responses to the Jan. 24 Zeit Gist column by Simon Scott, headlined "American claims Tokyo cop assaulted son, 8":
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 13, 2011

In the wake of the Vikings

At both its western and eastern extremes some 10,700 km apart in France and the Russian Far East respectively, the great, fused supercontinent of Eurasia breaks into fragments, into not quite matching fringes of islands.
Reader Mail
Sep 1, 2011

Small steps to an attractive home

Stephen Hesse's Aug. 28 Our Planet Earth column, titled "Is youth's 'creeping passivity' happening by design?," is a very interesting and well-thought-out piece. I've often had thoughts like these, but will instead offer a contrasting point of view.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2011

Ireland excoriates Vatican over new reports of abuse

In my first few days as editor of The Universe, the leading English-language Catholic newspaper, I had a long conversation with the monsignor who was a member of the board, an adviser to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, and who wrote a religious "Agony Aunt" column for us.
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 / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 26, 2011

Living and loving The Alien from Nagoya

The year 1990 might not seem so long ago, but for many reasons, and in Japan especially, it was a completely different world. There was no Internet. There were no mobile telephones. There was hardly any way to get up-to-date English information on places beyond Tokyo and Osaka except by going there....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 3, 2011

Japan needs to do more than simply 'cope' with stress

What's ailing us? The list is long. In a nutshell: stress. Sixty percent of Japan's work force suffers from it, according to the business magazine Weekly Toyo Keizai.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 19, 2011

Japan's leadership desperately needs some sex appeal

What a pity Aristophanes died c. 388 B.C: That classical Athenian comic playwright knew politics and politicians. They kindled his comic wrath. "O, thou that shavest close thy passionate arse!" he wrote of one politician. Of another: "Noisome was the stench that issued from the brute as it slid forth,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 24, 2011

After March 11, Japan must reconsider its energy options

Viewed from abroad, there is no doubt that Japan is suffering an unmitigated disaster.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 20, 2011

A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident

I never thought at my age, that I would be in this spot. But this is where I am at 74, in the taiikukan (体育館 gymnasium) of a middle school in Miyagi Prefecture, now known as a hinanjo (避難所 evacuation center) for people who lost their homes to the earthquake and tsunami that hit the region...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2011

'Fantastic Mr. Fox'

Wes Anderson, a director known for the laconic preppie chic of "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic," turns his hand to animation with "Fantastic Mr. Fox," an adaptation of an idiosyncratic children's tale by Roald Dahl. Cinema has been kind to Dahl, with inspired adaptations by Henry Selick...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 13, 2011

Study chips away further at humans' uniqueness

Time for some self-love, people: We're pretty damn cool. As animals, we're special.
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 / Media
Dec 26, 2010

Arashi get advice from their 'honey man'

What do you get when you combine the Wales-born, dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman C.W. Nicol with the five squeaky-clean members of Japanese boy band Arashi? Good television, that's what.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Sep 7, 2010

Readers offer their thoughts on jettisoning JET

Following are a selection of readers' responses to the July 27 Zeit Gist column headlined "Ex-students don't want JET grounded" by Eric Johnston and Kanako Nakamura:
Transport ministry issues warning to Haneda Airport operator
The operator of Tokyo's Haneda Airport has been warned by the government over its inappropriate transactions.
Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits a school in South Gate, California, in February 2012. Experts say Xi won big in his standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Nissan shares surge as carmaker set to cut 20,000 jobs in huge overhaul
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars and car parts imported to the U.S. have been painful to most global brands, but crippling in Nissan’s case.
Japan might be playing long game in U.S. tariff talks
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House earlier this year. Ishiba said Monday that farmers won't be sacrificed for automakers in Japan's tariff negotiations with the U.S.
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
Sculpted waves, sleek updos: Showa hairstyles are back in fashion
The larger-than-life hairstyles of Japan's Showa Era are unmistakable — and they're making a comeback.
Consumption tax set to dominate Upper House election debate
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan should produce its own AI defense solutions, Sakana AI CEO says
Sakana AI CEO David Ha speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Nissan gets ‘wake-up call’ with $4.5 billion annual net loss
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa in Tokyo as the company releases its results
Japan set for bigger role in Philippines after SDF’s debut in key drills
Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, who was involved in managing the latest iteration of the Balikatan U.S.-Philippine drills, told The Japan Times that he expects military ties with Japan to surge even further once Tokyo ratifies a key visiting-forces agreement with Manila.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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