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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011

'Heartbreaker'

You can take a French boy out of France, but you can't take France out of the French boy. Usually — but this time, the formula doesn't apply, because nifty French romance "Heartbreaker" has all the trappings à la Française but ends up being a glossily plasticized Hollywood-style product.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2011

What is in store for Russian Asia?

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, a large number of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking and Russian-cultured peoples remained outside the borders of the Russian Federation — creating, in the short run, many acute and complicated problems but, in the long run, eventually facilitating a revival...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Oct 19, 2011

Android privacy concerns rise over apps crossing the line

Tokyo-based IT company Milog is known for providing Android-based smartphone apps that let users share information about the apps installed on their phones and rank them by popularity. This small startup, established in 2009, has been supported by notable companies, including receiving a ¥310 million...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Oct 19, 2011

NBA owners won't give in

Wherever NBA games are played, there are thousands of people who depend on related opportunities to pay the bills, including those employed at the arena, nearby restaurants and hotels and game-day staff.
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
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Oct 15, 2011

Golden Kings, Evessa class of the West again

Almost nothing remains the same in the Eastern Conference, as all 10 head coaches this season are in spots that they didn't occupy at this time a year ago.
Reader Mail
Oct 13, 2011

Why tobacco taxes must rise

Joseph Jaworski, in his Oct. 2 letter "Downside of higher tobacco tax", states that, "In a free society, is being unhealthy a legitimate life choice? For a country with socialized health care, critics would say 'no.' Yet, where is the limit? Virtually anything can be consumed in an unhealthy way. Why...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2011

Up from the heritage of monsters

They didn't invite the city fathers of Ferrol, the birthplace of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, the bloody tyrant who ruled Spain from 1938 to 1973, so the conference can't just have been about fascist dictators.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2011

Public ways and means justify individual ends

Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and former Obama administration regulator (for consumer protection), is modern liberalism incarnate. As she seeks the Senate seat Democrats held for 57 years before 2010, when Scott Brown impertinently won it, she clarifies the liberal project, and the stakes of...
Reader Mail
Oct 6, 2011

Doubts about Japan predate 3/11

I don't want to cross swords with Donald Wood, as I agree with most of what he says in his Oct. 2 letter, "Japanese leaders will find a way," but not with all. He misses the point of my Sept. 25 letter ("Mixed American views of Japan").
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2011

James Blake

The British media quickly championed James Blake as the poster boy of dubstep's entry into mainstream outlets. Along with artists Untold and Joy Orbison, Blake rode into the scene with a mishmash of melancholic chord sequences and manipulated vocal samples taken from 1990s R&B — characteristics that...
Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2011

It'll take more than social media

Regarding Mihoko Matsubara and Yang Yi's Sept. 29 article, "Chinese social media reshape image of Japan": We don't have to be in China to know how evil and cruel Japanese soldiers were when they occupied and pillaged our country in World War II.
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...
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2011

Arms sale that angers Beijing

The United States has approved the sale of an arms package to Taiwan, a move that has outraged the government in China. Although Washington did not agree to provide the items that top Taipei's wish list, that has not mollified Beijing.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2011

Noda, Aquino agree to counter China sea claims

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Philippines President Benigno Aquino III agreed Tuesday in Tokyo to forge closer maritime security ties to resolve disputes with China in the South China Sea.
Japan Times
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 27, 2011

Geothermal trove lies mostly untapped despite energy crisis

Deep in the mountains of Aso-Kuju National Park, which straddles the border of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, it's easy to believe you are in central Hokkaido rather than in central Kyushu. It's July, but the daytime temperature is in low 20s and evenings are, depending on your preference, either comfortably...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 27, 2011

A compact guide to guidebooks on Japan

Despite the Internet revolution and resultant websites and blogs offering information about every conceivable aspect of any country you'd care to name, many people make sure a copy of their favorite guidebook is in their $500 suitcase or $5 backpack before boarding a plane.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 27, 2011

Words of wisdom from JFK to Japan's new chief

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 25, 2011

Now is the time for a 'brand Japan' that creates and inspires

On Sept. 19, just as this column hit deadline, news outlets reported that a massive demonstration was taking place in Tokyo, rallying tens of thousands of people against nuclear power.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2011

Thinking the unthinkable in Europe

To resolve a crisis in which the impossible has become possible, it is necessary to think the unthinkable. So, to resolve Europe's sovereign-debt crisis, it is now imperative to prepare for the possibility of default and defection from the eurozone by Greece, Portugal and, perhaps, Ireland.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2011

The economic morality play

World attention focuses on the problems of the Greek economy — no doubt with a large helping of schadenfreude added: There, but for the grace of God, go the rest of us is the thought.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2011

Leadership toward compromise

An extraordinary session of the Diet in which Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda gave his first policy speech was first scheduled to end last week but has been extended to Sept. 30. Originally the session was to be only four days, but Japan now faces serious problems: the effects of the March 11 earthquake...
Reader Mail
Sep 18, 2011

LDP can't knock prime minister

Regarding the Sept. 15 front-page article "LDP slams Noda over ministers' miscues": While I agree that remarks by former trade minister Yoshio Hachiro were out of place at best, I don't believe that Liberal Democratic Party President Sadakazu Tanigaki or his opposition party are in a position to slam...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2011

Political elite can't stand outsiders

Yoshio Hachiro's stint as the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the new Yoshihiko Noda administration was not the briefest cabinet assignment on record, but it was certainly one of the most controversial. News outlets reported that it was "public outrage" over two remarks he made which forced...
Reader Mail
Sep 15, 2011

Fewer liberties for this generation

Sadly everything that was written in Doug Bandow's Sept. 10 article, "U.S. now less secure, less free," is true. In the 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, civil liberties in the United States have been reduced and many people have adopted the neoconservative or war-hawk attitude that many in the Bush administration...
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2011

Discussions on tax hike go into full swing

Government discussions over a looming tax hike hit full throttle Tuesday as the Democratic Party of Japan's tax panel kicked off its first meeting to discuss how to gather financial resources to reconstruct the Tohoku region.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2011

High profile case highlights the delicate issue of foster care in Japan

On Aug. 20, police arrested voice actress Shizuka Suzuike at her home in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of causing injuries that led to the death of 3-year-old Miyuki Watanabe in August 2010. At the time of her death, Miyuki had been in Suzuike's foster care for almost a year. The suspect denies...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 10, 2011

Fujimura eyes review of national strategy

New Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Friday the government is planning to set up a panel to discuss a comprehensive national strategy, including the controversial right of collective self-defense and the ban on arms exports.

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