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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2012

Public wary of official optimism

Ambition can sometimes be measured by the amount of deference paid to the established order, so the recently published book "Genpatsu Kiki to Todai Waho," which irreverently analyzes the "parlance of the University of Tokyo" as it was utilized during the early days of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2012

Cambodia experience facilitated aid effort in the Tohoku region

Cathy Hirano says it was "so painful to feel powerless in the face of such a huge disaster," recalling the day a year ago that the Pacific coast of Tohoku was hit by the huge earthquake and tsunami.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2012

Mental health must match post-3/11 recovery

Over the past year, the tsunami-ravaged coastline of Japan's northeast has undergone a cleanup never seen before in history for its sheer scale and speed.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 6, 2012

Ardiles ready to face new challenge

The coming J. League season will be a voyage into the unknown for Machida Zelvia, but the newly promoted second-division side couldn't wish for a more experienced hand on the tiller than manager Osvaldo Ardiles.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 5, 2012

Stojkovic focused on task despite distractions

Not much has changed for Nagoya Grampus ahead of the new J. League campaign, but after a troubled winter away from soccer, manager Dragan Stojkovic is thankful to return to a stable environment.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2012

Tommy February6 makes a heavenly return

The pop music industry — it's enough to turn anyone into a schizophrenic. And Tomoko Kawase is perhaps J-pop's most fragmented personality of all.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2012

'The People vs. George Lucas' / 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams'

Don't ever say it's just a film! It's not just a film!" So rages one super-size fanboy in the documentary "The People vs. George Lucas," which delves into "Star Wars," its huge impact on popular culture and the rabid fans it has spawned like so many clone troopers from a Kamino lab. Beyond the movies...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 19, 2012

Feeding tube politics an awkward subject

On Feb. 6, Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, recounted on a BS Asahi talk show a visit he recently made to a medical facility where patients were hooked up to gastric feeding tubes, or irō. He said it reminded him of the 1979 science fiction-horror movie "Alien,"...
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2012

Reform means the world for Todai

When Japan's leading university announced in January that it intends to shift undergraduate enrollment from spring to autumn in line with colleges worldwide, the plan created waves far beyond the academic world.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 17, 2012

Shimura steps up as Sendai stays on course for playoffs

It's a bye week for the Sendai 89ers, and the perfect time to take stock of their season through 32 games.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 10, 2012

'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'

On one level, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is simply an Agatha Christie story for Nine Inch Nails fans. You may think I'm joking, but think about it: an isolated island full of disgruntled relatives in a wealthy family, an unsolved murder with loads of potential suspects, and a sleuth who uncovers...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Feb 10, 2012

Obuchi's return to form gives Evessa more firepower

For Masashi Obuchi, an innate scoring sense and recognition of when and where to take shots served him well during his early days in the bj-league.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 8, 2012

A strategy for Russia's budding snow revolution

Nonviolent revolutions do not always remain nonviolent, as the examples of uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria in the Arab Spring have shown. But peaceful movements for regime change often do succeed. They have toppled illegitimate rulers, as with the post-Soviet "color revolutions" in Georgia and Ukraine,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 5, 2012

Our woods may be home to a 'new ' spider species

An apparently new species of spider has been found in our woods, even though the creature has probably been around since long before humans came to Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 3, 2012

'The Hunter' / 'Poetry'

One of cinema's most constant motifs is the flawed, morally corrupt character who in the last reel listens to his conscience and decides to do the right thing. There's a good reason for this: Audiences know all too well how easy it is to be a "good German," and desperately wish it weren't so. You often...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jan 31, 2012

Culture ensnares Czech Japanophile

Petr Holy, who over the past two decades has spent a considerable amount of his time learning the Japanese language and culture, is now in return trying to spread the culture of his home country, the Czech Republic, throughout Japan.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jan 30, 2012

Royal challenge awaits Noda

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appears strongly committed to revising the Imperial Household Law to let female members of the Imperial family remain in the royal family even if they marry commoners. The Imperial family is the oldest royal family in the world and Chapter 1 of the Japanese Constitution...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 23, 2012

It's Murphy's Law if you don't get the joke in Japanese

If you miss the punch line to a Japanese joke, don't feel bad. It's simply unrealistic to use something as elusive as humor to measure your ability to understand a foreign language.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 22, 2012

Changing self and systems for a leaner and greener Japan

Year in, year out, it never ceases to amaze me what a difference a day makes.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2012

In war, desecration of the enemy is all too common

The video that emerged in recent days appearing to show four U.S. Marines urinating on several dead Taliban fighters has outraged many people in this country. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have condemned the act, the military has promised an inquiry, and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 5, 2012

Bo Ningen bend it like the Brits on new EP, 'Henkan'

How might typical Japanese music fans look if they stopped worrying about social norms? Take a look at British-based psychedelic-rock band Bo Ningen and you may find the answer.
COMMENTARY
Jan 5, 2012

Why Obama will (won't) win re-election in 2012

Could 2012 turn conventional wisdom on its head? Here's the conventional wisdom: U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election is vulnerable to the weak economy and high joblessness. Here's what might happen: The economy gradually improves, and although unemployment stays high (exceeding 8 percent), what...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 4, 2012

A look back at the best games of 2011

It's that time of year again: Time to look back at all the games that were released in 2011 and sort out the best of the best. Which games won over gamers and stood out from the pack?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 1, 2012

Media awards: Tokyo powers down as idols power up

Media Figure of the Year: Tepco A fact of modern life that the Occupy Wall Street movement brought home to the average person is that corporations are nominally "persons," meaning they have been granted the same "rights" as individuals, at least in the United States. In Japan, such legal definitions...
JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

What 2011 means for Japan in 2012 and beyond

We asked three long-term foreign residents to give their thoughts about Japan's past year and the coming year.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 31, 2011

Used bookstores turn to Internet sales for a lift in turbulent times

Last of two parts
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 31, 2011

Just when you think nothing can go wrong

You've heard it . . .
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 29, 2011

Shonen Knife celebrates 30 years

Today we celebrate 30 years under the Knife. Yes, it was on Dec. 29, 1981, that three teenage girls — Naoko Yamano, her sister Atsuko and their friend Mitchie Nakatani — entered an Osaka rehearsal studio for the first time. They emerged as Shonen Knife.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2011

What will become of North Korea?

According to North Korean state television, the heart attack that killed Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17 was "due to severe mental and physical stress from overwork."

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers