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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2010

Mika Tsutsumi: Spotlight on the States

Mika Tsutsumi is a spirited journalist and writer whose work turns a spotlight on the widespread hardships and poverty caused by official policies and the behavior of businesses in the United States.
JAPAN / ARRIVAL OF E-READERS
Apr 3, 2010

Publishers don't see iPad revolution anytime soon

Many in the U.S. publishing industry feel Apple's release of the iPad, a multipurpose tablet computer with a built-in electronic reading device, will revolutionize the way consumers read and push the market into the digital age — just as the firm's iPod and iTunes did with music.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'Kakera (A Piece Of Our Life)'

Sexual orientation is often defined in black-and-white terms: You're either straight or gay — or kidding yourself. Author Gore Vidal has famously objected to this binary classification, claiming that there's no such thing as homosexuality, only homosexual acts.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2010

'Old' diplomacy needed now more than ever

FLORENCE, Italy — There is much talk in the air — especially in Britain and the United States — about reinventing diplomacy for the 21st century. Both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the British Tories' leader, David Cameron, have spoken recently of a new synthesis of defense, diplomacy...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2010

A 'great leap forward' for Chinese 'anime'

Yoko Komazawa had been at the Tokyo International Anime Fair for nearly six hours when she fell in love with a brown-and-white stuffed panda — a character in one of the fair's featured cartoons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 28, 2010

Our man, Mr. Pound

On May 15, 1939, readers of The Japan Times were introduced to a new correspondent — although, in literary circles, at least, he needed no introduction. He was Ezra Pound, then a 53-year-old American Modernist poet who could boast accomplishments that included having launched the career of T.S. Eliot....
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 28, 2010

Letter from Rapallo

Aug. 12, 1940
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 22, 2010

Climate change battle demands cooperation, not new appliances

The Japanese economy posted growth in the last quarter, but I would like to make a few observations about the components of the growth.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 21, 2010

Who ever could make war if they saw it through children's eyes?

The misery of war remains for many long years as scar tissue in the minds of children deeply traumatized by it. And yet, there are not many works of fiction or nonfiction that have conveyed the confusion and pain felt by such children.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2010

Savoring the beauty of winter's final fling

An indefinable quality in the light somehow signals the air temperature. Airflows from the north and northwest have, for many days this late February just gone, kept Hokkaido frigid. An intangible crispness in the atmosphere combines with the luminosity to forewarn of seriously subzero temperatures....
CULTURE / Books
Mar 21, 2010

Distilled drama from a society in ferment

Think of gin and one thinks of England. Think of tequila and Mexico, vodka and Russia, brandy and France. Think of sake and one thinks only of Japan.
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2010

Revising the art of defense

LONDON — How much should a nation spend on defense and its armed forces?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2010

Wishful thinking fuels Kremlin's temptation

PARIS — What is the significance of France's recent sale of four powerful Mistral-class landing assault ships to Russia? Was it business as usual or an irresponsible move contributing to a dangerous shift in the balance of power in the Baltic and Black Seas?
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Mar 15, 2010

1000 Things About Japan/Japanese Snack Reviews

When Shari Custer arrived in Japan with her American husband, the original plan was to stay for "five years." That was 20 years ago. During her extended time in Japan, Custer wanted to chronicle some of the little things that many overlook, and her ongoing list comprises one of her blogs: 1000 Things...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 12, 2010

'Sherlock Holmes'

As with most other things in the modern world, "Sherlock Holmes" is kindly adapted to fit the "it's for everyone" format — you don't have to be an expert on Victorian London, on the whereabouts of Baker Street, on who Dr. John Watson was — or any of those elementary issues. (By the way, that famed...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 12, 2010

Family-friendly exhibit celebrates mammals

From Ueno Zoo's giant panda, Ling Ling, to a 2.5-meter-tall polar bear, around 280 stuffed specimens, fossils and skeletons of mammals will go on display at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo from March 13. Titled "Mammals: Diversity in Terrestrial Life," the exhibition examines the evolution...
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Mar 9, 2010

Internet Go BOOM: Visual Kei's Deep Throat

In a long interview with Tokyo Damage Report, an anonymous music executive familiar with the Visual Kei scenes lights a short fuse.
COMMENTARY
Mar 9, 2010

Intolerance in India putting artists to flight

CHENNAI, India — Indians have always taken pride in being a tolerant and understanding society, and the country's predominant religion, Hinduism, has often been described as a way of life that never relies on conversions, force or violence. These virtues, however, appear to be fading.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2010

New device apt to kindle greater interest in reading

The first thing that catches your eye when you open the yousho (imported books) section of Amazon Japan's home page is an advertisement for the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device. The Kindle DX ad, which first appeared last summer, claims that a reader can perform a wireless download of any of more than...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 7, 2010

Propagation of a perfect storm

In Japan, often the only way to deal with history is to forget it. This defective resort deprives some people of the opportunity not only to learn from history but also to be absolved of it. Akira Yoshimura's novel about the American campaign to capture Okinawa deftly reflects the quandary faced by many...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 5, 2010

Renowned dramatist to bring Kafka to life

An international stage collaboration is on hand as renowned English dramatist Steven Berkoff directs a Japanese cast in his own adaptation of "The Metamorphosis," a novella by Czech author Franz Kafka.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2010

Europe's contested regions

BRUSSELS — What is the most important source of disagreement today between Russia and the West? It is not the issues most often in the news, Iran and Afghanistan. It is Europe's contested neighborhood — the future of those countries between the eastern border of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 28, 2010

Is the Atsugi tragedy finally drawing to a close?

During the 18 years I have been writing this column, few stories have haunted me as much as that about the Japanese-owned incinerator that, for more than a decade, fumigated the U.S. Naval Air Facility at Atsugi in the Kanagawa Prefecture cities of Yamato and Ayase.
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Feb 26, 2010

Communication breakdown at the top

A lack of crucial information in the top ranks of Toyota Motor Corp. may have prevented the world's largest automaker from swiftly responding to many defect claims and accidents overseas before massive recalls.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2010

Three lessons from Copenhagen

The world now accepts that protecting our atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere and even cyberspace — the "global commons" — is the responsibility of all countries. Enforcing that norm is proving the difficult part.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 23, 2010

No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage

Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration's push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo, with opposition logic...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2010

Not the time to junk the factories

HONG KONG — While President Akio Toyoda and his Toyota Motor Corp. search for the vehicle pedal that says "damage control," economists and political commentators are increasingly speculating whether the multimillion vehicle recall by Toyota presages the beginning of the end of Japan's mighty manufacturing...
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2010

Can 'prince' Toyoda cut the mustard?

Toyota President Akio Toyoda, known as "the prince" in Japan, was groomed for years to head the automaker his grandfather founded.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami