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COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2012

Persecution goes on against Chen's kith and kin

Beijing has scored points in its handling of the case of Chen Guangcheng, first by agreeing to guarantee his safety by relocating him and his family to another city where he can study law and then, after the blind activist changed his mind and decided to go abroad, by publicly saying that he has the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 4, 2012

Final ride for the Putin showboat?

Vladimir Putin's new presidential term is just beginning, but it increasingly looks like the beginning of the end.
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2012

Myopic appreciation of history

I find Karen Forde's May 24 letter, "Monuments don't change history" — about the sex slave plaque in New Jersey — to be more than a little myopic. Forde says that since the United States had nothing to do with the "comfort women" of World War II, there shouldn't be any monuments on American soil...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 3, 2012

Homophobic joke goes awry for Beat

On the May 12 edition of the TBS current affairs variety show "Newscaster" comedian "Beat" Takeshi Kitano made a joke about homosexual unions during a discussion of U.S. President Barack Obama's recent comment in support of same-sex marriage. Kitano's mission as the program's resident chief commentator...
Reader Mail
Jun 3, 2012

Talk about a drag on the economy

Regarding the May 31 Kyodo article "Aging population a drag on economy: Shirakawa": Isn't Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa forgetting something? The very same aging demographic whom he bemoans for being a "drag" on the economy built a world-class economy during the 1960s and 1970s!
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2012

Japan's great outdoors becomes Oregonian's office-cum-playground

Gliding through powder across Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture or scanning the surfers at Shonan Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, Gardner Robinson's life and work merge so completely that on the clock and on the slopes are one and the same.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 2, 2012

A 100-mile race — it keeps you runnin'

Paul Walsh has just finished running 156 km. For fun. Around the bottom of Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2012

Yuan-yen trade starts as China seeks to globalize currency

China started direct trading of the yen and the yuan Friday in Tokyo and Shanghai, another step in its efforts to expand the global use of its currency and reduce reliance on the dollar.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2012

Nomura gives top managers hefty pay raise despite drop in earnings

Nomura Holdings Inc., the nation's largest brokerage, raised pay for top executives by 79 percent last fiscal year, even as its earnings and share price plunged.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 1, 2012

Coaching carousel back in full swing for summer

With Ryan Blackwell out of the picture, will the Osaka Evessa hire an experienced, big name coach or hand the reins to another rookie bench boss? Or will the team simply hire from within and promote Blackwell's assistant, 33-year-old Keisuke Hirose, to the top spot?
COMMENTARY
Jun 1, 2012

Russia needs true family policy

The unprecedented upswing of public interest in Russia's presidential elections opened a window of opportunities — quite unexpected but welcome — to see and discuss many socioeconomic problems in a more realistic manner.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jun 1, 2012

The Peninsula Tokyo summer fair

The Peninsula Tokyo is holding a summer promotion at each of its restaurants, offering special menus to maintain one's stamina during the hot season as well as a variety of cool desserts, through Aug. 31.
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2012

Citigroup selling fund for regional banks to hedge their JGB exposure

Citigroup Inc. has started selling a fund for regional banks to hedge against the risk of a decline in the value of their government bond holdings as the national debt swells.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
May 31, 2012

Today's blip: Is Boo Japan's hide-and-seek champion?

Meet Boo, stealth stuffed animal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2012

"Photography Today 4: In Their Persistent Endeavours to Meet the World"

This is the National Museum of Modern Art's fourth exhibition aimed at introducing Japanese contemporary photography through the works of young up-and-coming and mid-career artists.
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2012

Anxiety growing in China about the road ahead

The worrying news from China is that the country appears headed toward an economic and political crash sometime in the next five years, if current trends continue. The somewhat better news is that a large part of the elite grasps that danger, and is talking fairly openly about the far-reaching change...
COMMENTARY / World
May 31, 2012

Setting the record straight on marriage

Late spring is upon us, and with it comes wedding season, the time of year that inspires a peculiar mix of sentimental stories about chance meetings leading to love alongside gloomy commentaries about the chances of marital happiness. Both the sentiment and the gloom are based on misguided ideas about...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 31, 2012

Japanese art history, through the eye of the collector

"Japanese Masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" is not a survey of Japanese art, nor is it representative of the vast holdings of the institution. Rather, it is an exhibition that tells of an understanding of Japanese art formulated in the late 19th century by the collectors and scholars...
COMMENTARY
May 30, 2012

It's time U.S. dropped the college-for-all crusade

The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it's now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education's expansion also ranks as one of America's...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 29, 2012

New feed-in tariff system a rush to get renewables in play

On July 1, a new law takes effect requiring utilities to purchase electricity generated from five renewable energy sources at a fixed price for a set length of time, under what is known as a feed-in tariff system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 29, 2012

Japan's house of the rising sun

What will our lifestyles be like in the future? An international group of students at Chiba University plan to explore the possibilities with their proposal for a next-generation solar house, a futuristic mix of new technology and traditional ways of life in Japan.

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