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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 27, 2009

Zen Buddhist monk aids peace efforts in native Belfast

When the Zen monk Dogen Zenji returned to Japan from China in 1227 with the ideas that would become the Soto school of Zen, could he have imagined that centuries later, on the other side of the world, those very ideas would be used by people to try to overcome their society's deeply rooted conflict?...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2009

Pattern found when stars of love align

When people searching for love find their perfect mate, they often liken the convergence to "chemistry" — that special something that brings one certain individual to the head of the class.
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2009

Criteria for radiation victims

Health and welfare minister Yoichi Masuzoe has announced that the government would not appeal to the Supreme Court the May 28 Tokyo High Court ruling that recognized 29 of 30 plaintiffs as sufferers of illnesses caused by radiation exposure from the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Among...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2009

Dealing with a flu pandemic

With the World Health Organization having raised the alert for the H1N1 flu pandemic to its highest level — Phase 6 — the government needs to take a coolheaded approach by carefully monitoring how the pandemic evolves.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jun 10, 2009

Just Hungry, Just Bento

The kitchen has long been used as a portal to distant places and times, and Just Hungry and Just Bento are two blogs by Makiko Itoh that put all the wonders of Japanese cuisine within a cutting-board's reach. For Makiko, cooking has been a way to re-create comfort foods from Japan while living abroad...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2009

Pandemic test eyed for cell phones

A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 6, 2009

Nepalese 'VIP' advocates investing in disability

Nepalese Kamal Lamichhane chuckles when he describes himself as a VIP. "As I told the audience at Manchester Metropolitan University last month, I really am a VIP — a visually impaired person. Unlike those people who become very important because of what they achieve in life, I have been a VIP since...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jun 2, 2009

Group offers healthy change of pace

Not many people would argue that sports aren't a great way of connecting people. The proof can be found at Namban Rengo, an international running club that meets every Wednesday near Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
May 31, 2009

Don't blame me, but I did do my bit

Born a son of a Japanese trading- company executive, and exclusively educated in Britain, Tetsuya Ishikawa got his first taste of life in the financial industry in the summer of 1998. That was during his pre-university "gap year," when he worked on the foreign-exchange trading floor at the Tokyo branch...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 31, 2009

A slight unmasking of Japan's flu 'pandemic'

While traveling through Scandinavia two weeks ago, I had scant opportunity to monitor Japan's anxiety over the sudden increase in confirmed cases of H1N1 flu that led to closings of schools in the Kansai region. Europe seemed barely concerned about the new flu and when I caught BBC World in hotel rooms...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 24, 2009

Students share hopes for nation's future environment

Each year on May 5, Japan celebrates Children's Day with waves of young families flooding local parks, playgrounds and amusement centers.
JAPAN
May 20, 2009

Pace of H1N1 spread in Kansai seen slowing

OSAKA — Although the tally of confirmed swine flu infections in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures surpassed 190 on Tuesday, the pace of growth in the number of new cases appeared to be slowing, and some of the patients were reportedly recovering.
JAPAN
May 19, 2009

Virus could reach Tokyo anytime

With more than 130 new cases of swine flu detected in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures, an expert on infectious diseases warns the new virus could reach Tokyo within days.
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2009

A story line to push the economy

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Since hitting bottom in early March, the world's major stock markets have all risen dramatically. Some, notably in China and Brazil, reached lows last fall and again in March, before rebounding sharply, with Brazil's Bovespa up 75 percent in May compared to late October 2008, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 10, 2009

A death from human kindness

On April 21, the body of former pop singer Yukiko Shimizu was found in a cemetery in Oyamacho, Shizuoka Prefecture, in front of her father's grave. Police assume that she committed suicide on the spot by inhaling hydrogen sulfide fumes and had probably also tried to kill her 80-year-old mother, who was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 8, 2009

Pop impresario turns Arab dance belly up

There surely aren't too many people out there who can talk about hanging out with The Sex Pistols in one breath and taking calls from then-United States Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the next. Miles Copeland, however, is one such person.
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2009

Tuberculosis remains a threat

Tuberculosis (TB) was once dreaded in Japan, with fatalities reaching a peak of 171,474 in 1943. Recent news about new TB cases, including a midwife in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture, and Ms. Haruka Minowa of the popular female comic duo Harisenbon, has reminded people and medical professionals that TB...
COMMENTARY
May 2, 2009

Jackie Chan wears a political jester's hat, too

LOS ANGELES — You might have already known that kung fu comic and actor Jackie Chan was crazy, but is he certifiably insane? Just the other day this legendary does-his- own-stunts man asserted that the Chinese people do not need Western-style freedom and democracy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2009

Sean Penn 'Milk' star is cream of the crop — again

'Y ou know, just to get one of them is something most actors don't get to do, and for a long time I didn't think I'd ever get one, let alone two."
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2009

New flu finds Japan feeling unprepared

The swine-avian-human flu outbreak in Mexico has killed more than 100 people and sparked a worldwide panic. Around 20 people in the United States, others in Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Israel are also suspected of being infected with the new strain.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2009

Pay cuts not pink slips help ease recession

Toshio Taniguchi is one of about 10,000 workers at Tokyo-based Renesas Technology Corp. who accepted a pay cut last month to keep the company alive.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 19, 2009

Pedaling for the planet

One recent early morning, Franz-Michael S. Mellbin, the Danish ambassador to Japan, was to be found preparing for an important diplomatic mission at a rather unlikely venue — on the Tama River cycling track just by the Futakobashi Bridge linking Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and Kawasaki.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Apr 14, 2009

'Sour Strawberries' spotlights plight of non-Japanese 'trainees'

The plight of foreign "trainees" in Japan, who often provide cheap labor at factories and in farm fields with no access to labor rights protection, is usually not something you discuss leisurely over a cup of coffee or a mug of beer. But people who showed up last month at Ben's Cafe in Tokyo had an opportunity...
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2009

Restricting online drug sales

The health and welfare ministry has plans to prohibit in principle mail-order and Internet sales of some drugs from June 1. Such sales reportedly totaled about ¥80 billion in 2007. It is true that using these methods to sell drugs can pose safety issues. On the other hand, some people benefit from mail-order...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 4, 2009

Golden Week travel on rebound as fuel fees fall

Overseas travel during Golden Week is expected to increase as low fuel surcharges attract consumers even amid the recession.
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2009

Suicide crisis continues

As the employment situation worsens in the midst of the deepening economic crisis, it is feared that more people may commit suicide. In 2007, the latest year for which annual suicide statistics are available, 33,093 people killed themselves, making it the 10th consecutive year that suicides topped 30,000....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 10, 2009

Big winners in 'jury' system may be judges, bureaucrats

With notices having already gone out to the randomly selected citizens who may have to serve as lay judges (saibanin) in serious criminal trials starting later this year, authorities are concerned that yakuza gangsters may end up being chosen. Oh well, at least they made sure to exclude law professors....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2009

Gay rights in Japan blurred on TV

When Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk two weeks ago, he used his acceptance speech to rail against supporters of California's Proposition 8, which last November repealed a State Supreme Court ruling extending marriage rights to same-sex...

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