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JAPAN
Jun 21, 2011

Justice Ministry plans to ditch refugee role

The parliamentary secretary of the Justice Ministry said Monday that the Democratic Party of Japan-led government will aim to establish a new organization to deal specifically with refugee issues and eliminate that function from the ministry.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jun 21, 2011

Coping with diseases can go beyond medication

If you are diagnosed with a chronic disease, the shocking news can often lead to confusion and depression. Just the thought of the illness indefinitely affecting various aspects of your life can be overwhelming. And yet at the same time, you'll find there is so much you need to do: learn about the illness,...
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
Jun 20, 2011

Tepco report reveals lack of preparedness

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has released a 41-page timeline detailing its initial actions in the first days of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis, and experts said it reveals a lack of preparedness and severe difficulty in coping with the world's worst atomic accident since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown....
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2011

Living with national universities

In fiscal 2004, the state-run national universities in Japan were given the status of "corporations." The initial six-year "medium term" after this shift to "national university corporations" ended in fiscal 2009. The current fiscal year is the second year of the second medium term.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Objective defense of why some things matter

Can moral judgments be true or false? Or is ethics, at bottom, a purely subjective matter, for individuals to choose, or perhaps relative to the culture of the society in which one lives?
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2011

Japan should consider the personal touch in its policy toward Middle East uprisings

Various internal and external factors have prompted Japan to keep its involvement profile in the Middle East as low as possible for the past four decades.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 20, 2011

Let one character lead to enlightenment and civilization

Many of Japan's admired historic figures were adulated for being "warrior scholars," since they were equally adept at leading armies and composing poems. This ideal is referred to as 文武両道 (bunbu ryodō). Bun refers to writing and by extension the literary arts. Bu relates to martial or military...
Reader Mail
Jun 19, 2011

No shame in doing like Germany

Two of the Axis powers of World War II have declared their intention of shutting down all their nuclear power plants. I wish to congratulate Germany and Italy for their decisions. Unfortunately the remaining country of the old tripartite war alliance hesitates to do the same.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 19, 2011

Oh, where is the city of dreams?

Illuminated manuscripts, Persian and Mughal miniatures, Victorian novels enriched by illustrations from the likes of Cruikshank and Phiz: Illustrated texts have a long, rich and varied history.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 19, 2011

Summer's joys in snow country

If you'd only ever experienced Niseko under a four-meter blanket of snow, you'd barely recognize Hokkaido's most cosmopolitan winter-sports resort in summer — in the best way possible.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 19, 2011

Strong workouts likely make Tyler a first-round pick

You already know that Japanese basketball's significance on a global scale is minor in comparison to most nations. And yes, most of this nation's residents can tell you that Yuta Tabuse was a trailblazer for Japanese basketball by becoming the first Japanese to play in the NBA.
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2011

CO² emissions on the rise

The International Energy Agency's latest report, released at the end of May, underlines the uphill struggle the international community faces in its efforts to limit global warming. Although carbon-dioxide emissions dipped in 2009 due to the financial crisis, in 2010 they smashed the 29.3 gigaton record...
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2011

BOJ can avoid more stimulus: Muto

The economy can recover from the March earthquake without additional asset purchases by the central bank because the slump isn't too severe, former Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Toshiro Muto said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 18, 2011

American woman pours self into noh

According to Rebecca Ogamo Teele, an American instructor, performer and mask carver for noh, falling asleep is a perfectly respectable response to attending such plays.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2011

Foreign investors bearish on property since quake

Global investors, who favored Japanese real estate earlier this year, are holding off investments following the March 11 calamity and nuclear crisis, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jun 18, 2011

Reysol, Vegalta continue to impress in season of unpredictability

An impressive start from the less-fancied teams while the big guns struggled gave the early J. League table something of an upside-down appearance. Few expected it to last, but with almost a third of the season played, the underdogs continue to bark the loudest.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jun 17, 2011

Uniforms flying economy class

Newly launched budget airline Peach flies in a detour around frisky flight attendant uniforms and plays it straight with jeans for all cabin staff.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 17, 2011

SPAC says the show must go on in Shizuoka

Satoshi Miyagi, the artistic director of the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC), admitted during a press conference in April that he had thought about calling off the center's international theater festival following the March 11 disasters that hit Japan's northeastern Tohoku region. Finally, though,...
BUSINESS
Jun 17, 2011

Takeda's diabetes drug Actos tied to bladder cancer risk: U.S. FDA

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s diabetes drug Actos may raise bladder cancer risks in patients who take the medicine for more than a year, U.S. regulators said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 17, 2011

'127 Hours'

Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," released in 1960, famously terrified audiences to the point where a generation was checking the door locks before taking a shower. Stephen Spielberg's "Jaws," released in the baking summer of 1975, kept many people on the beach and out of the water. Now along comes "127 Hours,"...
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Act of kindness worth living for

"Mi casa es su casa." "What are friends for?" "My pleasure" — these are all sayings we use to express our gratitude to those we know. But what about the people we don't know?
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Bin Laden was no rogue deer

Regarding the June 12 Kyodo article that states that 54 percent of the Japanese public "preferred arrest for bin Laden" to U.S. commandos' killing him during a surprise raid on his compound in Pakistan on May 2: You got to be kidding me.
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Inexcusable advice to producers

Regarding the June 11 Kyodo article "Shizuoka tells tea retailer to conceal radiation info": If confirmed as reported, this revelation has implications of almost incomprehensible magnitude.
Reader Mail
Jun 16, 2011

Disappointing antinuke coverage

Regarding the June 12 front-page article "Three months marked since killer quake, tsunami": I was very disappointed by The Japan Times so-called coverage of the worldwide demonstrations against nuclear power held June 11.

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