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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 30, 2011

Less acclaim, more fun for Japan's Ig Nobel Prize winners

Since Hideki Yukawa in 1949, a total of 16 Japanese nationals have been named recipients of Nobel Prizes. In 2010, when the most recent Japanese winners were announced to receive prizes for chemistry, NHK interrupted its scheduled programming with a nyuusu sokuho (breaking news) announcement.
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2011

How Bush got his history wrong

In regard to the Oct. 28 movie review "Fair Game," it might interest some readers to know that the flawed reasoning behind U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was partly influenced by professor John Dower's historical study of Japan's defeat in 1945 and the seven-year U.S....
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 30, 2011

Irabu spent final days lost, without purpose

For the late pitcher Hideki Irabu, the surname Irabu had come from Hideki's mother. It was her surname, and Hideki's stepfather, Ichiro Irabu, had been a common-law husband.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2011

'Fair Game'

The Japan release of "Fair Game" comes nearly 12 months after the U.S. opening and a week after the death of Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi. For a story all about U.S. involvement in Iraq and that other infamous depot, Saddam Hussein, the timing could be right on the money. Still, a sense of discomfort...
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 23, 2011

One woman's Hyakumeizan

As I thumb through the tattered pages of my decade-old hiking guidebook, a sense of satisfaction coupled with disbelief takes over.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2011

Briton aims to restore poets' peak to former glory

Nineteen university students and civic-minded Kyoto residents squat on a mountain pass on a cloudless afternoon in early October as a tall British poet, Stephen Gill, 58, reads from a collection of haiku.
COMMENTARY
Oct 22, 2011

TPP key to America's future economic success in Asia

The United States has engaged Asia for most of the time since the end of World War II with unquestioned economic strength as well as unrivaled military power. That has been changing in recent years, as China and other emerging Asian economies rise and their military clout increases.
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2011

A business-like summit

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Oct. 19 met with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul at the Blue House. By choosing South Korea as the first country to visit as prime minister for a bilateral diplomatic meeting, Mr. Noda signaled to Seoul that he gives importance to the ties between Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 21, 2011

Nara chefs pick up stars in new Michelin guide

The glitterati of the Kansai culinary world gathered at the Nara Prefecture New Public Hall in Kasugano, Nara, on Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the "Michelin Guide Kyoto Osaka Kobe Nara 2012." In particular they were there to welcome the historical host city's entry into the exalted company of Michelin-endorsed...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 20, 2011

BBQ Chickens "Crossover and Over"

Ken Yokoyama must be feeling rather nostalgic these days. One of Japan's more prominent punk figures, in September the guitarist reunited with his 1990s band, Hi-Standard, and this month he's put out new music with his early noughties project BBQ Chickens. Formed shortly after Hi-Standard's demise, BBQ...
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2011

Time is running out to avoid civil war in Syria

Back in 1989, when the communist regimes of Europe were tottering, almost every day somebody would say "There's going to be a civil war." And our job, as foreign journalists who allegedly had their finger on the pulse of events, was to say: "No, there won't." So most of us did say that, as if we actually...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 18, 2011

Auditor hired by fired Olympus chief smells rotten acquisition

Olympus Corp. should investigate payments made to advisers in connection with an acquisition, according to an external auditor's report.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 14, 2011

Staving off the bulldozers for one more round

Tokyo is roughly divided into styles and cliques. Neighborhoods delineate and categorize, often in keeping with the cool factor of their inhabitants: Omotesando, Aoyama and Harajuku for fashionistas; Shibuya for party kids; Koenji for earthy music fans; and Shimokitazawa for the vintage-tint rock-star...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2011

Millionaires don't have it made

President Barack Obama has been trying to sell his new "millionaires' tax" to the Rust Belt. "What's great about this country is our belief that anyone can make it," he said in Cincinnati on Sept. 22, praising "the idea that any one of us can open a business or have an idea that could make us millionaires."...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2011

Sage of Omaha could help Obama

President Barack Obama sure has been talking about Warren Buffett's taxes a lot lately. At his speech before a joint session of Congress this month, the president said that the billionaire shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than his secretary, a point Buffett has often made. The secretary's tax rate, and...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2011

Libyan effect on protection

The invocation of the responsibility to protect (R2P) in Libya has drawn surprisingly intense criticism.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2011

Aussie pronatal policy is not a model for Japan

Since reaching a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.57 in 1989, Japan has been deeply concerned about demographic trends and future prospects. Below replacement fertility — measured as less than 2.1 children per woman — has been a feature of Japanese demography since 1974.
BUSINESS
Sep 27, 2011

Delays over, Boeing has high hopes for slick 787

Boeing Co. was to hand over the first 787 Dreamliner on Monday to end more than three years of delays for a plane the company says will become a benchmark for decades in terms of technology and passenger amenities.
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 / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 20, 2011

Restructuring for the future, not rebuilding the past

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2011

Stronger defense for region

Although the original version of this article was written for a Japanese daily, I initially had American readers in my mind as the main target of my argument.
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2011

Kill the jokes about spiders

Regarding Amy Chavez's Sept. 10 Japan Lite column, "The power of spiders in rural Japan": In July 2003, a spider killed my 7-year-old daughter, Ana. Now, I don't just hate spiders; I've sworn to exterminate them from the face of Earth.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 18, 2011

Is permanent connectedness really something we all need?

An Associated Press report of Apple Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs' resignation last month stated, "Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home." This testifies to Jobs' genius but fails to raise what seems an obvious question: Is it a change for...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’