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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 3, 2009

Manabu Miyazaki: Outsider looking in

Born the son of a yakuza boss in Kyoto, Manabu Miyazaki is now a best-selling author. His life may read like fiction, but he raises social, political and media facts in a manner that's as frank as it is hard-hitting
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 2, 2009

Creating a catalyst for self-reflection

"One of the hardest missions for people is to face themselves in the mirror, to criticize themselves, to ask themselves really basic questions," says ex-Israeli soldier Avichay Sharon. "No one wants to touch sensitive nerves, no one wants to go underneath, scratch underneath within himself." Sharon is...
BUSINESS
May 2, 2009

March jobless rate hit four-year high

The nationwide jobless rate jumped to its highest in more than four years in March while household spending continued to slide, underscoring the ongoing pain being inflicted on the world's second-biggest economy. Prices also fell, fueling deflation worries.
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2009

South Africa votes for Mr. Zuma

There was never any doubt about who would win parliamentary elections held in South Africa last week. The African National Congress (ANC), which has dominated the country's politics since the apartheid era ended, was certain to prevail. The only question was the ANC's margin of victory and whether it...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 1, 2009

Araiya: Celebrating beef by the Yokohama bayside

Down in Yokohama they're partying like it's 1859. It's been exactly 150 years since Japan's largest port — indeed the country itself — was fully opened to foreign trade. Earlier this month we went down to the old Red Brick Warehouses to marvel at massive mechanical spiders, France's contributions...
BASKETBALL
Apr 30, 2009

Tabuse shooting for spot on national team

After a nearly 20-month absence from action, the Japan men's basketball team is back with a big attraction in Yuta Tabuse, and is trying to move on to the next level with the one-time phenom.
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2009

Rengo-staged May Day rally draws 36,000

Expressing solidarity at a time of employment crisis, nearly 36,000 regular and temporary workers turned out Wednesday for the 80th annual May Day rally organized by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 30, 2009

Architects Klein, Dytham find freedom and fun in Tokyo

Within three weeks of stepping off the plane at Narita, 26-year-old Astrid Klein and 24-year-old Mark Dytham found themselves holed up in an Ikebukuro love hotel, using hastily acquired T-squares to draw up plans for a hair salon in Ginza — one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world....
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 26, 2009

Recalling 'the fall of the Yasuda Auditorium' and the end of Japan's student movement

At a friend's Easter Sunday dinner party, I asked, "What do you think the student movement of the '60s in the U.S. accomplished?" One guest answered, "Obama's election." Unexpected but true: in this country, the opposition to the Vietnam war went hand in hand with the movement that culminated, in federal...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 25, 2009

Environmentalist David Suzuki has words of warning for ancestral homeland

Long before baseball's Ichiro moved to the northwest coast of the United States of America, another Suzuki had made a name for himself higher up, across the border in British Columbia, Canada. Dr. David Suzuki, environmentalist, scientist, TV producer and writer, was voted, in a nationwide poll in 2004,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2009

Resignation not enough

Mr. Noboru Okubo and his eldest son have resigned respectively as chief director and vice director of the Kyoto-based Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation over irregularities related to its operations, including the accumulation of unusually large profits for a public-interest corporation and opaque...
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Apr 23, 2009

Unorthodox Morimoto could be remedy for Japan's ills

On the face of it, Catania striker Takayuki Morimoto's recent comments that he has no interest in playing for Japan should give national team supporters cause for concern.
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2009

Ailing JAL seeking ¥200 billion loan from DBJ

Japan Airlines Corp., Asia's biggest carrier, has applied for a ¥200 billion loan from the Development Bank of Japan after the global recession sapped demand for international travel.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 21, 2009

The past, present and future of fortunetelling

From the traditional "omikuji" — sacred lots — people draw at shrines and temples to learn their New Year's fortunes, to the horoscopes displayed on commuter train video screens to distract strap-hangers, Japanese society is immersed in fortunetelling.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 21, 2009

Terakawa, Irie lead charge as Japan names swimming squad for worlds

Aya Terakawa and Ryosuke Irie will headline the 37-member squad for the FINA 2009 World Swimming Championships in Rome, the Japan Amateur Swimming Federation announced Monday.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 21, 2009

Kaneko's streak gives Fighters double vision

If Nippon Professional Baseball is serious about speeding up games this season, it should stop Makoto Kaneko from batting.
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2009

Raising the bar at law schools

In April 2004, 68 law schools were established in accordance with the nation's legal reform. Since then, the number has increased to 74. Earlier this month, about 5,800 people enrolled in these schools. Those who have not studied law at undergraduate level will have to complete a three-year course and...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2009

Printing helps preschoolers learn

Regarding the April 12 story, "First 'Japanese' international school debuts": Maria Montessori wrote, almost a century ago, that 3- and 4-year-old preschoolers will learn to read spontaneously if they get "sufficient" practice forming alphabet letters. Although boldly claimed in her book, "The Montessori...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 19, 2009

Chiba's governor may soon be whisked away to his home planet

In the latest installment of Suntory's series of TV commericals for Boss canned coffee, the extraterrestrial Tommy Lee Jones, who has been sent to Earth to study the human race, runs for governor of an unnamed prefecture and wins by a landslide. The excitement is short-lived, though, as his inappropriate...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2009

Study of iPS cells draws nearer to finding cures

Jason Burnett and his 10-year-old son, Andrew, both born with a genetic defect, have been recruited into an experiment designed to transform bits of their skin into stem cells that may someday hold the key to a cure.

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