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Reader Mail
Jun 9, 2013

Vital info for men and women

According to the newspaper, the central government planned to distribute an information booklet about pregnancy and childbirth only to women for the purpose of raising the nation's low birthrate.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 8, 2013

Encouraging, not comparing, accomplishments

Aging Japan. We hear this phrase all the time. The question is, what are they talking about — the infrastructure? The people? Four Roses whisky?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2013

China's troubling core interests

This week Chinese President Xi Jinping appears set to offer his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, an alluring deal for closer economic cooperation.
Reader Mail
Jun 6, 2013

Sense of brotherhood toward all

I was most interested to read Paul de Vries' scathing comments (May 30 letter, "Myth of the 'willing' prostitute") about my "insensitivity" on the "comfort women" controversy. He says my comments "may provide a reason to believe that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is not the most insensitive resident of...
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 5, 2013

Abenomics cannot succeed without cheap nuclear power

Everybody knows that Japan has an energy crisis. We also know that the yen has greatly depreciated, by some 20 percent in just a few weeks. It's time to put these two facts together.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 4, 2013

A term for Abe's ilk? Well, nonliberal

Foreign media and overseas Japan experts largely use 19th- and 20th-century labels to describe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and current Japanese politics led by his Liberal Democratic Party — "right-wing," "hawkish," "conservative" and "nationalist."
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 3, 2013

Liberal hawks mum on U.S. intervention in Syria

For interests on both sides of Syria's civil war, the past two weeks have been the time to increase the pressure. Hezbollah sent reinforcements to the troops of President Bashar Assad, and Russia reiterated its intention to furnish the regime with weapons. At the same time, Republican Sen. John McCain...
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Jun 3, 2013

Join Wall Street, save the world: The rise of the benevolent class

Jason Trigg went into finance because he is after money — as much as he can earn. The 25-year-old certainly had other career options. An MIT computer science graduate, he could write software for the next tech giant. Or he might have gone into academia in computing or applied math or biology. He could...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 2, 2013

Severe sports training methods became taibatsu in time

The martial arts were the inspiration for the famous baseball team at the First Higher School of Tokyo, a late 19th century powerhouse that helped make yakyu, as baseball came to be known, the national sport of Japan.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 2, 2013

Finding ways not to say 'mottainai!' in the woods

The common Japanese term mottainai, meaning “what a waste,” has become an international concept.
Reader Mail
Jun 2, 2013

Mayor's unconvincing retort

The May 28 front-page article "Hashimoto looks to deflect sex slave blame" seems to suggest in some way that Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto has a valid point, when it should be made clear that he does not.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 30, 2013

Obama to pick Bush official to head FBI

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to nominate James Comey, a former senior official in the George W. Bush administration, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as FBI director.
JAPAN / NURTURING PARTNERSHIPS
May 30, 2013

China biggest rival as Japan seeks to tap African resources

When the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami led to three core meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, an atomic calamity that effectively put the nation's remaining 50 reactors out of action, Japan was suddenly faced with an energy crisis unseen since the oil shocks of the early 1970s.
Reader Mail
May 30, 2013

Nature will be last to weigh in

Regarding Kevin Rafferty's May 21 article, "Weep for poor Earth itself": Why weep for poor Earth? It's a planet with a 4-billion-year history despite what evangelical rightwing Christians would have us believe. Earth has weathered far worse than anything a naked, bipedal primate, known as homo sapiens,...
JAPAN
May 29, 2013

Japan and India are 'natural' partners, Singh says in Tokyo

Japan is a "natural and indispensable" partner for India in the economic, defense and technology fields, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday in Tokyo while also urging Japan Inc. to increase investment in his country.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2013

The Sino-American decade

Beyond the bilateral benefits, the rest of the global economy depends on Chinese and U.S. leadership — in terms of growth and global economic coordination.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 28, 2013

Want more out of Japan but face doesn't fit? Be TOFITR

I recently served as a "private sector representative" in a panel discussion before an audience of foreign graduate students at the University of Tokyo. Many of the students will soon be seeking employment in Japan; because I have spent 25 years living in or traveling to Japan, the last 10 or so running...
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
May 26, 2013

U.S. drone program 'tough to dismantle'

The White House is ready to hand U.S. drone operations back to the military from the CIA, but counterterrorism officials are convinced the Pentagon hasn't improved enough yet.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 26, 2013

Kan Yasuda's tactile art brings new life to Bibai

Kan Yasuda's art somehow draws in the landscape, and entices in people, so that it is natural to explore the view through his structures and keyholes, to sit awhile atop a sculpture or to pose within their frames.
LIFE
May 26, 2013

Whatever some say, there's no Japanese-language 'code' to be deciphered

Ever since Japan opened to the outside world in the middle of the 19th century after some 250 years of isolation imposed and enforced by its ruling shoguns, the Japanese language has been widely regarded as a kind of code.
Reader Mail
May 26, 2013

Weighing the costs and benefits

Judging from Chris Flynn's May 16 response, "Secondhand smoke is the enemy," it appears that the debate on the socialization of health care costs is off the table. Flynn states: "The main thrust behind banning smoking in most places is to reduce the harmful effects of secondhand smoke on nonsmokers."...
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
May 25, 2013

Hashimoto in unprecedented crisis

The list of those in and out of Japan, but especially in the United States, who scorn and deride Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader Toru Hashimoto for his justification for the wartime "comfort women" is growing daily, presenting a unprecedented crisis for the once-popular...
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
May 25, 2013

Obama's Gitmo plan still faces huge hurdles

President Barack Obama's renewed effort to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay faces the same steep political climb as in his first term: To make Thursday's announcement work, Congress would have to accept a plan to move some detainees from Cuba to the United States.
EDITORIALS
May 23, 2013

Ms. Park's triumphant U.S. visit

The prospect of a clash over defense policy between South Korea's new president and the U.S. has been diminished by North Korea's own ham-fisted behavior.
JAPAN / Politics
May 23, 2013

As Hashimoto self-destructs, party also reels

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's remarks justifying the wartime 'comfort women' brothel system have caused major parties to distance themselves from his Nippon Ishin no Kai.
Reader Mail
May 23, 2013

Perfect material for bullying

Regarding Kaori Shoji's May 13 article, "It ain't easy being a bilingual girl": I agree that bilingual Japanese face obstacles today as they did 30 years ago.

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