Search - community

 
 
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 7, 2006

Twisted legal logic deals rights blow to foreigners

Steve McGowan, an African-American resident of Kyoto, sued an eyeglass shop in Daito City, Osaka Prefecture, for refusing him entry in 2004 on the basis of the color of his skin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2006

Fashionista with attitude

Raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville district, Gene Krell is a self-proclaimed tough guy who cites as one of his heroes a little-known but highly colorful "Dadaist professional boxer" called Arthur Cravan.
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2006

'Gender-free' hard to define, harder to sell

Last year's cancellation of lectures on human rights in Kokubunji, Tokyo, has pitted key feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno and free-speech advocates against conservatives in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government opposed to the use of "gender-free" -- a term whose definition varies but somehow conjures up negative...
EDITORIALS
Jan 31, 2006

The future of local post offices

Japan Post has announced a "master plan to reform postal offices" as the process of privatizing the mammoth state-run entity of 260,000 employees is set to begin in October 2007. The focus of the plan is the reform of the specially designated tokutei post offices, which account for three-fourths of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jan 28, 2006

Yuko Nishimura

"I was lucky, in a way," Yuko Nishimura said. "I did most of the things I wanted. I like what I am doing now."
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2006

Why America needs the U.N.

We have to live in and manage a world in which the threat and use of force remain an ever present reality. The material capacity, economic efficiency, political organization and military skills in the use of force determine the international power hierarchy. Great powers rise and fall on the tide of...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 23, 2006

Regional cooperation with Japan belies focus on Yasukuni problem

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in his first news conference of the year, argued that Yasukuni is not a diplomatic issue, rebutting claims that Japan is being isolated in Asia because of his repeated visits to the war-related Shinto shrine.
Japan Times
Features
Jan 22, 2006

Home from home

The first Doreen Wingate saw of Yokohama was the immigration and customs office next to the now famous Red Brick Warehouse on Shinko Pier. The year was 1952, and Doreen, her husband and 6-month-old son were arriving in Japan by ship, the same way as most of Yokohama's fledgling expatriate community....
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2006

Legions of bloggers, not so many readers

MANILA -- Hardly any other industry has developed as dynamically in recent years as the media sector. The impact of the so-called digital revolution is particularly evident in the way we communicate. Sending and receiving digitized data has become faster and faster; at the same time the costs have fallen...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 27, 2005

Real estate, a good cigar and body wax

Property in Yokohama Shirley, in Monterey, Calif., found an interesting article on buying property in Japan while browsing on the Web, and had a question.
Japan Times
Features
Dec 18, 2005

New chief puts paradise on map

Many dream of traveling the world and setting themselves up in a tropical paradise, but very few people make it happen. Even fewer get themselves appointed village chief of a remote Melanesian island in the process. But that's exactly what has happened to entrepreneur and art collector Ofer Shagan.
Features
Dec 11, 2005

The 'undigested other': Koreans in Japan

Few parents would voluntarily send a son to live in North Korea; Kongsun Yang sent all three of his. In the early 1970s, Yang waved goodbye to his young Osaka-born boys, who later married and started families in Pyongyang. Poor and unhappy, the sons survive today only thanks to support from their parents...
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2005

Over decade after accident, Monju may be reborn

channel 9 and through 26 public address towers set up inside the city limits," said Fumiyoshi Kato, an official in the municipal nuclear power safety section. The evacuation areas are mostly elementary schools and public halls. However, Kato said they do not contain much in the way of emergency supplies....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Dec 6, 2005

Pensions, wills and helplines

Pensions I will be leaving Japan soon -- I've been here for two years -- and have been paying into the National Pension System. How do I go about applying for the refund? I have also heard that there are agencies that do the paperwork for a fee.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2005

Desertification on the march

To the average person, "desertification" likely conjures up images of sandstorms sweeping across the Sahara. While this is one manifestation, desertification is a global process that persistently reduces the benefits people get from nature -- collectively termed "ecosystem services." This happens as...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 23, 2005

Big Money warms to socially responsible investing

Environmentalists have been preaching for decades that true societal change will only happen when the really big-money players, such as multinational corporations and banks, begin to balance profit-making with social responsibility.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 15, 2005

Counseling, cults and Hotteeze

Cults K (who prefers to remain anonymous) takes me to task: "You recommended Yamagishikai for organic food, but left out half the story - such as why it 'came under pressure from a scandal-driven media' during the murder/brainwashing peak of the Aum period. This was less a 'scandal-driven' problem than...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2005

Aussies preparing for worst

SYDNEY -- Tough new antiterrorist laws will soon give troops shoot-to-kill authority when patrolling Australian streets in anticipation of a terrorist attack. But the change will come only after the Australian public has agonized over a claimed loss of civil liberties.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2005

High hopes for Mr. Mitarai

Mr. Fujio Mitarai, president of Canon Inc., has been picked to succeed Mr. Hiroshi Okuda as head of Nippon Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation). He will start leading the organization dubbed as the "commanding headquarters" of Japan's business community in May 2006.
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2005

China needs an independent judiciary

HONG KONG -- China has performed a miracle over the last quarter century, lifting hundreds of millions of people from dire poverty and turning the country into an economic powerhouse. In the process, Beijing has raised people's expectations not only of a better life but of a fairer society.
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2005

Iran must heed the call

The 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) late last month adopted a resolution that criticized Iran's response over its nuclear development problem and, although postponing referral to the United Nations Security Council, warned that the issue might be referred in the future....
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 27, 2005

Time well spent

Living in the world's second largest economy, it's often tempting to forget that there are people and organizations in Japan in dire need of help.
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2005

Global help in Afghanistan remains vital

ISLAMABAD -- Uncertainty over Afghanistan's political future has finally begun to recede with the successful conclusion of the country's first parliamentary elections in years. Although violence continues to plague Afghanistan, its political progress is impressive. In the long run, however, its stability...
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2005

Belfast's Protestants say 'enough'

Belfast, Northern Ireland, has once again been bloodied by protest. This time, however, it is Protestants that have clashed with British forces. This outbreak of violence poses a new challenge to the embattled peace process in Northern Ireland: Protestants make up the majority in the province, and they...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 13, 2005

Counseling, insurance and prints

TELL counseling Tokyo English Life Line (TELL) is accepting applications for the Telephone Counselors Training Program, that begins in September.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Aussies adjust the moorings

BRISBANE, Australia -- While the historical origins and cultural roots of Australia lie in Europe, its primary strategic alliance is with the United States, its pri- mary security focus is on Southeast Asia, and its major trading partners are in Northeast Asia.

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