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COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 6, 2011

'Sexlessness' wrecks marriages, threatens nation's future

In its cover story last month, The Economist newsmagazine looked at the issue of "Asia's lonely hearts: Why Asian women are rejecting marriage and what that means." It offered many reasons — including economics, education level, changes in family structures and gender roles, divorce difficulties, and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Aug 30, 2011

Mascots on a mission to explain the mundane

It is often said that the Japanese have a unique attitude towards law. Many explanations have been offered for why this is so, and in what circumstances:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 30, 2011

Japan's 'silent tsunami' severs parental ties, wrecks children's lives

To the next Prime Minister,
Reader Mail
Aug 28, 2011

Tragic adult behavior on river

Regarding the Aug. 19 Kyodo article "Trio still missing in boat sinking": I know this will probably conflict with the knee-jerk reaction that most people have to this tragedy (on the Tenryu River in Shizuoka Prefecture), but I do not lay blame on the tour company or the boat skippers. I believe it falls...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 25, 2011

Tsuneo Enari Exhibition — Japan and its Forgotten War: Showa

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography Closes Sept. 25.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2011

U.S.-China economic stage

In conventional mass media and online of late, one can discover abundant information describing the unprecedented scale and intensity of industrial cooperation and capital migration between the United States and China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 12, 2011

'Ichimai no Hagaki (Post Card)'

Kaneto Shindo is, at 99, the oldest film director in Japan and, after Portugal's centenarian Manoel de Oliveira, the world. As a scriptwriter active since the 1930s, he has worked on many commercial films, but as a director, starting in 1951 with "Aisai Monogatari (Story of a Beloved Wife)," he has taken...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 7, 2011

NPB, MLB clubs make moves to prepare for stretch run

Now that the July 31 deadline has passed for Japanese teams to sign new foreign players this season, here is a review of players acquired since the beginning of the year by Central and Pacific League clubs in an effort to bolster their rosters for the run toward the Climax Series.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Aug 2, 2011

Embassies, educational groups get 'stamp' of approval from students

If you're a Japanese student interested in studying at a foreign university, it might be best to start preparing early.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 24, 2011

What chance a 'free market' would cure all the world's ills?

An old friend is a successful investment banker who makes more money in a year than I will make in my lifetime. Like many people, though, he would like to make even more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 19, 2011

Japan's Nigerians pay price for prosperity

The Nigerian Union in Japan is the central civic organization for immigrants from Africa's most populous nation. It has foundered twice in 21 years and its current incarnation is less than a year old. Its mixed history is a reflection of the social and economic turmoil Japan's Nigerian community has...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 17, 2011

Green is good for you — and the Earth

My work often takes me away from my home in Hokkaido, and with every absence I am irked to be missing out on some part of the inexorable seasonal advance. So, each time I return I make a beeline for my local forest to reacquaint myself with the resident and migrant birds, to trace the tracks and signs...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 10, 2011

Salvation through baffling wisdom

PURIFYING ZEN: Watsuji Tetsuro's Shamon Dogen. Translated by Steve Bein. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 174 pp., $24 (paper) Zen is baffling: You find yourself wrestling with thoughts such as "It is easy to grasp body-mind. The world is like rice or flax or bamboo or bulrushes."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Jul 8, 2011

Kusuda makes NZ wine his own way

Pinot Noir is one of the world's most challenging grapes: Sensitive to frost and rot, this thin-skinned varietal really tests the limits of a winemaker's skill. But tenacious winemaker Hiroyuki Kusuda wouldn't have it any other way. This Japanese national has fought against the odds to set up his own...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 28, 2011

Kanazawa: What's the one thing you couldn't live without?

Yasushi TakaEnglish teacher, 22 (Japanese)It has to be comedy. I watch comedy almost every day on TV or on YouTube. I especially like Japanese manzai, but that's only one kind that I'm a fan of. I'm always exhausted when I go home, but comedy always makes me feel better. I think laughter is the most...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jun 21, 2011

Memory of Japan Series glory lives on for all-time saves leader Iwase

Moments after becoming Japan's new all-time saves leader, Hitoki Iwase took a brief trip down memory lane.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 14, 2011

Fearing radiation, family quits Japan

The ripples from the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been felt across the globe, drawing offers of sympathy and support for Japan, provoking debates about nuclear power and its alternatives — even sparking complete rethinks of energy policy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2011

Students credit survival to disaster-preparedness drills

March 11 started out as another ordinary Friday at Kamaishi East Junior High School, which stands by the mouth of the Unosumai River that runs through the city into Otsuchi Bay. Classes were over for the day and students were about to start their after-school club activities when the magnitude 9.0 earthquake...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 3, 2011

'Bedge Pardon' rethinks famed Soseki sojourn

"Bedge pardon?" Was a phrase that literary giant Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) scribbled into his diary while studying in London. He was describing how it sounded when a servant woman said "I beg your pardon" to him. But far from mocking the woman he nicknamed "Miss Bedge Pardon," Soseki's descriptions...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 2, 2011

Chasing dreams in gold and silver

You've probably heard of Japan's quaint custom of designating some people as Living National Treasures. Usually it's applied to exponents of a traditional art, craft or performing art in their twilight years. Luckily, nobody has ever come up with the idea of "stealing" these national treasures. While...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 28, 2011

CARE official helps Tohoku after a career of hot spots

Futaba Kaiharazuka, an assistant program director with the aid organization CARE International Japan, remembers clearly the first time she visited a refugee camp in Pakistan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 27, 2011

ALT returnee: Fukushima stable

Bidding family and close friends farewell is never easy, but American Travis Hauan said his parents and girlfriend were "pretty cool" about it — even though he was heading thousands of kilometers away to Fukushima Prefecture amid the ongoing nuclear crisis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 22, 2011

Iejima: an island of resistance

During the 30-minute ferry ride from Motobu on mainland Okinawa, Iejima reveals itself in stages. First, Mount Tacchu emerges above the waves like a chunk of the peanut brittle for which the island is renowned. Next, the wind-blown scent of countless thousands of hibiscuses sweetens the stink of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2011

Depp adds more gold to his treasure chest

Johnny Depp is wrestling with a monster. No, it's not one of the numerous sea monsters from "Pirates of the Caribbean" — it's the franchise itself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 12, 2011

Inspired by the West and re-made in Japan

Staging famous Western works, or those from well-known foreign playwrights, is an established feature of contemporary theater in Japan, with Japanese dramatists often adapting or reworking plays so they resonate more with domestic audiences.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2011

Children's Day and Japan's future

Japan's Children's Day on May 5th had less to celebrate this year than ever before. The number of children in Japan dropped for the 30th straight year to a record low, according to a report from the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry on May 2. Children under 15 now make up only 13 percent of...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years