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EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2012

The joy of the Olympic Games

Queen Elizabeth II opens the 2012 Olympics on Saturday Japan time (Friday local time). This is the third time that London hosts the Olympics. This year's Olympic Games mark the 30th modern Olympics since the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2012

When babies were kidnap victims in Argentina

The recent conviction of two former Argentine dictators for their role in baby thefts brings to my mind a meeting I had in 1991 with Adriana Calvo de Laborde, an Argentine physicist who in 1977 had been imprisoned by the military while she was 6½ months pregnant.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jul 24, 2012

Abe, Matsuda stand out among NPB players

With another NPB All-Star Series in the books, Japanese baseball shifts its attention back to the pennant races in the Central and Pacific Leagues.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 20, 2012

Boomer boom: Businesses tapping consumption where they can find it

Retired people are already single-handedly propping up consumption.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2012

'Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (Wolf Children)'

Mamoru Hosoda is a leading contender to succeed Hayao Miyazaki for the title of anime master of masters — the one everyone in the industry, Japanese or foreign, looks up to and steals from.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 15, 2012

Aging Village shows the way with switch to solar

Eighty kilometers from Oi, Fukui Prefecture, is the village of Sanno, Hyogo Prefecture — 11 households, population 42, average age 60 plus.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

High price of the most gorgeous show in town

Note to self: Never be a young woman in Japan. It's just too harrowing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 12, 2012

Fan-sourced funding site seeks followers

Long before American musician Amanda Palmer made her million dollars through Kickstarter, Japanese metal band Electric Eel Shock was raising money from its fans. And now the band's bassist, Kazuto Maekawa, wants to show the rest of Japan how it's done.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 11, 2012

Can Obama avoid losing like Jimmy Carter?

At this point in 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter was on the path to oblivion but didn't know it. President Barack Obama may share Carter's fate if he doesn't change course soon. The 1980 presidential race was neck and neck until the end. It finally broke for Ronald Reagan when voters concluded that...
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2012

Sharp's TV business to remain in the red

Despite its much-touted alliance with Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Group, Sharp Corp. is likely to continue drowning in red ink amid sluggish demand for TVs and persistent high inventories, experts said.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2012

What nobody is saying about Noda's new consumption tax bill

Two weeks ago, the Lower House passed a law to increase the consumption tax to 10 percent by 2015, something Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has been pushing with blinkered, self-sacrificial dedication. Eventual final passage seems inevitable at this point, and so the only aspect deemed worthy of discussion...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 3, 2012

All systems go for happy international campers

Shiro Matsuoka, 39, from Kawasaki, and Zhang Yi, 33, who hails from Changchung, China, first met in 2004 when they were working part-time at a McDonald's in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 3, 2012

The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary

Now fraught with job insecurity and low pay, there was a time when the work was steady and salaries were high for those who taught English in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2012

Two Peace Prize laureates fail to communicate

"The lead interrogator at the Division Interrogation Facility had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned....
OLYMPICS
Jul 1, 2012

Japan's medal count in London hard to forecast

In its past 11 Summer Olympic appearances, dating back to the 1964 Tokyo Games, Japan has collected 275 medals.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 1, 2012

The land where sex fears to tread

No love, no sex, no marriage, no kids — such, in glum outline, is Japan today. It's too bleak a picture, it can't be true! But it can't be false either. If it were, people would be marrying, making babies and having love affairs. Instead, statistics reflecting everything from marriage and childbirth...
Reader Mail
Jun 24, 2012

Okinawan students vet Osprey

Regarding the June 20 article "Okinawa governor opposes Osprey deployment": This semester I am teaching "Current Affairs in English" at Okinawa International University. Almost all of the students in my class are English majors, and many view the U.S. military presence in Okinawa in a positive light....
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2012

Law school enrollment blues

Recruitment failed to meet enrollment goals at 63 of Japan's 73 law schools in 2011. The number of students enrolled was less than half the quota at 35 law schools, compared with only 14 under-filled schools last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 22, 2012

Politics is inescapable at 'Arab Express' exhibition

The Arab Spring may not be all it's cracked up to be. There are clearly problems with a large swath of nations, formerly under various forms of authoritarian regimes, switching relatively quickly to "democracy," at least as it is understood in the West.
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2012

Heed sentiment on Osprey

The government is trying to persuade local governments concerned in Okinawa and Honshu to accept a U.S. plan to station 24 MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to replace the same number of CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters stationed there....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2012

Innovative data delivery firm e-Parcel takes on the big boys

When e-Parcel Corp., an online data delivery service provider, last year sued 13 U.S. Internet-related service firms, including Yahoo Inc., Google Inc., AOL Inc. and Akamai Technologies Inc., for patent infringement, the action meant more than just protecting its intellectual property.

Longform

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