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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 30, 2010

New mind-sets needed for growth

Japanese firms will need to focus on high-growth markets such as China and India while also putting greater emphasis on domestic demand as post-"great recession" world economies appear to become less globalized.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jun 29, 2010

Schools in Japan need to give lessons in empathy

Dear Minister of Education Tatsuo Kawabata, recently I was told a deeply disturbing story by one of my students: A car hit a cyclist outside of her house. She immediately telephoned emergency services, but as she was doing so, she was horrified to see the driver reverse his car over the body of the hapless...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 29, 2010

No need to know the law, but you must obey it

A few months ago I met with some Western diplomats who were looking for information about Japanese law — in particular, an answer to the question, "Is parental child abduction a crime?" As international child abduction has become an increasingly sore point between Japan and other countries, foreign...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 27, 2010

Asahiyama's natural touch

Ivan the polar bear has been having relationship problems recently.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2010

Try to imagine if nuclear deterrence failed

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES — Before the catastrophic BP oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico, there were environmentalists who warned that offshore drilling was fraught with risk — risk of exactly the type of environmental damage that is occurring. They were mocked by people who chanted...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 15, 2010

A light of hope for abused children

In the dock, Katsuyuki Okuno cut a strange figure as he listened baby-faced, chubby, graying, frightened and seemingly unable to understand what he had done.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 14, 2010

Tap water gains for economic not environmental reasons

Tokyo has gone to great lengths to make its tap water more drinkable ... so why do most people still buy bottled water?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 12, 2010

'Child of sin' finds friends worldwide

Three heart attacks since January, having difficulties with his parents and living in fear that his visa will expire is just the beginning of what 24-year-old Takumi Tanaka is coping with.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2010

No letup in suicide rate

The National Police Agency announced last month that 32,845 people took their own lives in 2009, a rise of 596 from the previous year. This marks the 12th consecutive year in which the number of suicides has topped 30,000 — a sad persistent trend in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 10, 2010

Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani

Toru Iwatani, 55, is the designer of Pac-Man, the classic video game that virtually kick-started the world market for the video-gaming industry. Released by Namco in Tokyo on May 22, 1980, Pac-Man made history as the first video game that appealed to both genders and to all age groups. Idea-man Iwatani,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 6, 2010

E-books look set to swamp us just as microwave ovens once did

The "microwave phenomenon" is with us again. I use this term to describe a product that arrives on the market before its time, then disappears for a while before returning with a vengeance to strike at people's hearts and wallets.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2010

Thailand is on the brink

HONG KONG — Graphic pictures from Bangkok last week told the grim story of bloodshed, death and destruction, of democracy challenged and mortally wounded. But they cannot convey the smell of burning, the terror of chaos in the center of a supposedly civilized modern capital city, or the human, moral...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 23, 2010

Experts fear Taiji mercury tests are fatally flawed

On May 10, in a front-page lead story headlined "Taiji locals test high for mercury," The Japan Times reported the results of tests by the National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) that found "extremely high methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2010

Broaden your vision with identity economics

BERKELEY, Calif./DURHAM, N.C. — A great strength of economics is its ability to examine how decisions are made from the point of view of decision makers. For example, economics can explain in this way why consumers buy what they do. It also offers a perspective on why employees work for some employers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 14, 2010

On tour: Molice thunder through Vietnam

It was a typically hot and humid day as we walked down a busy street on our way to visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Convoys of bicycles, scooters and motorcycles passed by, blasting us with dust, exhaust smoke and air horns. Some bore so many baskets of goods that they seemed like shops on wheels. One...
EDITORIALS
May 9, 2010

Apology for Minamata disease

On May 1, 1956, a local public health center in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, reported the occurrence of a "rare disease of unknown cause" afflicting four people who showed symptoms of an unexplained brain disorder. This was the first official recognition of Minamata disease, Japan's worst industrial...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 9, 2010

To realize its cultural potential, Japan must celebrate its strengths

Europe received a cultural shock of major proportions during the last quarter of the 19th century. The exquisite shikisai kankaku (sense of color), the startling spatial and compositional elements and the sublime craftsmanship of the Japanese arts took the continent by storm. Many well-known collectors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 7, 2010

Julian's stroke of genius

Fresh off the stage in Denver, Colorado, Julian Casablancas is contemplating the cyclical nature of his forthcoming Japanese shows. The release of his solo album "Phrazes for the Young," subsequent tour and news of The Strokes' recent reconciliation have ensured that the next six months will be busy....
JAPAN
May 5, 2010

Secondhand market grows

When Chie Matsumoto buys anything — from a DVD player to golf goods to a telephone — she now chooses secondhand goods because brand-new items aren't necessarily what she needs.
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2010

Untold ties of friendship exist between Okinawa and the U.S.

The baseball team from Konan High School, Okinawa, emerged from the dramatic final game as the winner of the annual National High School Baseball Championship for spring 2010. There is an untold story behind this victory.
COMMENTARY / World
May 2, 2010

Life or death for Suu Kyi's party?

The incumbent regime in Myanmar is asking all interest groups, until Thursday, to form political parties and register within 60 days. All unregistered parties will cease to exist under the new election laws. The National League for Democracy (NLD) party has openly boycotted the election laws, and has...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 25, 2010

Gods are on boom

An eighth-century lacquered sculpture of Ashura, the Buddhist deity of war, reached superhero status last year when it was taken from Kofukuji Temple in Nara to be displayed at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, then later at the Kyushu National Museum in Fukuoka.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 24, 2010

American expat finds Sierra Leone heritage

To some in Japan, the word "expat" is often associated with negative images — isolation, language and culture barriers, and a general lack of interaction, connection, acceptance and/or understanding. For California native Francesca Conate, however, the life of the expatriate means opportunity — the...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 20, 2010

Japan's vulnerability to tsunami

Rollers from the giant earthquake in Chile in February and the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 are still fresh in the world's memories, but in Japan giant tidal waves have never been far from thought.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 18, 2010

Let's Carnaval!

Dressed in green and pink costumes and topped off with Afro wigs, eight Japanese people, including this writer, gathered in the lobby of a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's samba capital, at midnight on Feb. 15.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 10, 2010

Navigating the Seto Inland Sea ferry services

Someone wrote to me and, rather emphatically, told me to give them the ferry schedule for Matsuyama (population 420,000), Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku to Shiraishi Island (population 659) where I am. I was sorry to have to tell him that swimming would be faster.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Apr 6, 2010

Japan, U.N. share blind spot on 'migrants'

On March 23, I gave a speech to Jorge Bustamante, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, for NGO FRANCA regarding racial discrimination in Japan. Text follows:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 6, 2010

'Non-Japanese only' Okinawa eatery turns tables

Okinawa Prefecture is home to three-quarters of America's military bases in Japan. The vast majority of these, including Kadena Air Base, Torii Station and the contentious Marine Corps installation at Futenma, are located in the central part of the main island.

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