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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 17, 2011

Tweets fuel drive to aid stricken north

Marriott Hotel, Ginza, Tokyo. On a chilly March morning less than a week after the earthquake and tsunami, a group of almost 60 people were brought together through Twitter. The purpose of this 7:50 a.m. hotel-front gathering was to collect donated goods to be taken up north to areas devastated by the...
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2011

Religious fundamentalism after the uprisings

Most analysts would agree that al-Qaida has not played a significant role in the revolutions sweeping the Arab world today, while remaining largely silent about the remarkable political transformation that is taking place.
BUSINESS
May 17, 2011

Hitachi Construction bounces back from quake

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., the world's biggest maker of giant excavators, said it expects to fully recover from Japan's worst earthquake as early as this week after the calamity halted factories and parts supplies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 17, 2011

Dutch architect making a difference

Right after the earthquake hit northeast Japan on March 11, the small Pacific coastal town of Yamada, Iwate Prefecture, was almost wiped out by the massive tsunami. Hundreds of its residents were killed, while many of the survivors lost family members, their houses and jobs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 17, 2011

Tokyo: What lessons can Japan learn from the disasters of March 11?

Darren ScaifeTeacher/musician, 39 (British)Japan could use this (Fukushima No. 1 nuclear) incident as an impetus for advancing research into and development of safer and greener energy sources.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2011

Rebel conductor making music for peace

He has been called "a real Jew hater" and a "real anti-Semite" by former Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat. However, few musicians have done as much for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as Daniel Barenboim, the noted Argentine-born Israeli orchestra conductor. It will be only through efforts...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 16, 2011

Old proverbs should be minded even in tough economic times

Recent news of the restaurant chain Yakiniku-zakaya Ebisu serving contaminated raw beef to its customers makes me think of an old Japanese proverb. It tells us that "poverty breeds stupidity." All old proverbs are invariably wise. They also tend to be true most of the time.
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011

When prevention is more effective than relief

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in March, Brian Tucker was in Padang, Indonesia. Tucker was working with a colleague to design a refuge that could save thousands of lives if — or rather, when — a tsunami like the one in 1797 that came out of the Indian Ocean, some 1,000 km southeast of...
COMMENTARY / World
May 16, 2011

Bin Laden bled U.S. of a cool trillion

Osama bin Laden must be laughing from his watery grave. In announcing a new policy of "bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy," he mockingly declared in a 2004 video that "It is easy for us to provoke and bait. ... All that we have to do is to send two mujaheddin ... to raise a raise a piece of...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 16, 2011

BOJ chief sees only bubbles on horizon

With his nation's economy contracting under disaster damage of as much as ¥25 trillion ($310 billion), Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa is signaling that his biggest worry is inflation.
Reader Mail
May 15, 2011

MAD: If not broken, don't fix it

Regarding Project Syndicate writer Sergei Karaganov's April 30 article, "The end of mutually assured destruction": The doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was the best American policy initiative to come out of the 1960s. It represents realpolitik at its finest with an emphasis on maintaining...
CULTURE / Books
May 15, 2011

Natsume Soseki: mining a literary treasure

THEORY OF LITERATURE AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS, by Natsume Soseki. Columbia University Press, 2009, 287 pp., $50 (hardcover) Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) is said to rank among the world's great 20th-century writers. Many consider him Japan's greatest modern novelist. His books, from the comic "I Am a...
JAPAN / WEEK 3
May 15, 2011

Author's fiction turns horribly real

The Pacific Ocean a few kilometers off the coast of a city in the Tokai region of central Honshu turns white. Hundreds of curious holidaymakers caught in a traffic jam on the seaside road get out of their cars and jump up onto the sea wall for a better view of the strange sight — only to realize that...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 15, 2011

Japan's mammalian riches

I came across my first bumblebees of the season as they were busily draining the nectar from a broad swath of Blue Corydalis. The delicate flower stems nodding in a light breeze looked delightful in the sunshine, while above them frothy willow catkins were yellow with pollen and here and there birches...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 14, 2011

Finding fulfillment the hard way through NGOs, activism

The tiny Amnesty International Japan headquarters is hidden on the fourth floor of a nondescript building in a dull business district not far from Ochanomizu, in central Tokyo.
BUSINESS
May 13, 2011

Surplus in current account shrinks 34%

The current account surplus narrowed more than expected in March as a record earthquake disrupted the nation's supply chain, curbing exports.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Photographs of Children and War"

Bringing together a collection of photographs from an impressive lineup of Japanese and international individualistic photographers, this exhibition portrays how images of children during times of war have been used to provoke reaction and emotion in viewers. The range of documentation styles also offers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 13, 2011

"Sharaku"

Toshusai Sharaku's active career lasted a mere 10 months sometime in the years of 1794-95. Despite this brevity, his work has been acclaimed for its minimal and abbreviated but stylistic appearance. The mystery behind Sharaku's true identity — which is still unknown — also continues to fascinate...
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

What goes around comes around

Regarding the May 8 editorial "Trusting imports from Japan": In the fall of 2003, Japan banned all imports of North American beef based on a single case of BSE (mad cow disease) found in a herd of cattle in Washington state.
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Obama trapped by his rhetoric

As the father of a surviving victim of 9/11, I felt relief at the news that the mass murderer Osama bin Laden is dead. Yet, I am not unsympathetic with the view of The Japan Times' May 5 editorial, "Death of bin Laden," and Jayna Tokie Tanaka's May 8 letter, "Bin Laden's execution disappoints," both...
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Case of misdirected sympathy

Jayna Tokie Tanaka's May 8 letter, "Bin Laden's execution disappoints," reminds me why it's so hard to take leftists and their misdirected piety seriously. Twisting logic into rhetorical pretzels to defend murderers, and not the victims, is the hallmark of leftist thinking. Osama bin Laden instigated...

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