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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2011

'The Illusionist'

"The Illusionist," Sylvain Chomet's sentimental animated film about a fading vaudeville magician and the young runaway who comes under his wing, is a parable worth viewing, especially in these troubled times. For while it is a film about magic and the illusion that tricks can create, before the curtain...
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2011

'Protect' the Syrians next?

LONDON — March 18 saw the first nationwide protests against the Ba'ath regime in Syria. If these protests develop into a full-scale revolt, the regime's response may dwarf that of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Foreign media pumped up fears

The international media should hang their collective heads in shame at the way they've reported the unfolding tragedy in Japan. It's an old cliche, but now that I live on the other side of the fence, it seems all the more clear: The media are willing to whip up more panic and put more people in danger...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 24, 2011

Koganecho transformed: from sleaze to teas

On a cherry-blossom blessed curve of Yokohama's Ooka River lies Koganecho — the town of gold. For the past 60 years, however, this alluring name has felt like a bad joke to local residents.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 24, 2011

Kitamura shows Japanese women how to be 'Top Girls'

"The play was written nearly 30 years ago, but I feel the situation for women has hardly changed at all. In fact, it hasn't fundamentally changed for 100 years, even though Japanese women got the vote around 65 years ago," said theater producer Akiko Kitamura when asked why she chose to stage the well-known...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2011

Nuclear meltdowns and Japanese culture

Japanese engineers have a much deserved reputation for efficiency. How else could they have created a car industry that could defeat the U.S industry on its home ground? But the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant suggests a partial rethink is needed. When it comes to nuclear affairs, maybe...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 24, 2011

Disaster agency eyed to oversee recovery

A reconstruction agency may be created to oversee disaster repairs, while data showed the central bank pumped record liquidity into lenders as the nation grappled with its worst disaster since World War II.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2011

U.S. no-go zone 'overreaction'

The U.S. government may have overreacted in setting an 80-km radius no-go zone for U.S. citizens near the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, an expert on radiation and cancer immunology said Tuesday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 23, 2011

Images from disaster in Tohoku lend visual wallop to narrative

NEW YORK — Sometimes it's a fast-moving ooze: A street becomes a stream, grows into a river and then a raging mountain of moving debris. Sometimes, it's a wet curtain of water crashing over a shoreline, tossing trees, ships and cars casually aside as a child would a stack of Lego.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 23, 2011

Japan to the fore at SXSW despite disaster at home

AUSTIN, Texas — Minutes after arriving in downtown Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival, I ran into a Japanese friend from Tokyo. While we were catching up, an American woman passing by overheard him mention Japan and instantly stopped to shake his hand. "I'm...
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2011

Rebound hinges on blackouts

The economy will probably see a rebound in the second half of this year after a blow that will be determined by the magnitude of electricity disruptions caused by the March 11 disaster, according to a survey of economists.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2011

Promoting tourism

Can tourism become a force for economic growth? The Japanese government hopes so, making tourism, including medical tourism, one pillar of its new growth strategy adopted last summer.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 21, 2011

Old-style survival skills put local shop owners in disaster limelight

A week after the earthquake and we are still living with the aftershocks, and in more ways than one. While the earth still shakes under us now and again, shakes of a different kind also keep coming: nuclear power plant failures, radioactive contamination fears, rolling power cuts, panic buying and sudden...
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2011

Aussies remember Japan's help

In Australia, we all have great sympathy and feelings for our friends in Japan. Both countries have now suffered at the hands of nature. During our recent floods and bush fires, many messages of support came from Japan, together with rescue teams to help our own. Australians do not forget these things....
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2011

Black ink, red blood

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRESS NETWORKS OF EAST ASIA, 1918-1945, by Peter O'Connor. Global Oriental, 2010, 381 pp., £61 (hardcover) In the pre- and early war years, the big three newspapers at the center of the networks in Japan were The Japan Times, Japan Advertiser and the Japan Chronicle.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 20, 2011

The protocols of freedom

THE ETIQUETTE OF FREEDOM: Gary Snyder, Jim Harrison, and The Practice of the Wild. Edited by Paul Ebenkamp. This is a companion to the film "The Practice of the Wild," directed by John J. Healey, produced by Will Hearst and Jim Harrison with San Simeon Films. Counterpoint, 2010, 160 pp., $28 (cloth/DVD) Snyder...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2011

'Nothing can prepare you to witness this'

It's a relatively minor incident that gets me. I'm at a gymnasium in central Ishinomaki photographing members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) as they unload dozens of corpses from a truck. Each is wrapped in blankets, some with flowery designs far too cheerful for this occasion.
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2011

U.S. Navy could boost power grid

Regarding Jun Hongo's March 16 article, "One certainty in the crisis: Power will be at a premium": One way Japan might increase the production of electricity is to work a deal with the U.S. government. The U.S. Navy has a ready supply of mobile nuclear power plants that can provide enough electricity...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 20, 2011

Sumo seeks to recover from disaster of its own making

If March 13, 2011, had been a normal Sunday in Japan, at around 4:30 p.m. this writer would have popped open a beer, grabbed a packet of shelled peanuts, switched on his TV and watched the first day of the Osaka Grand Sumo Tournament on NHK.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 20, 2011

MLB family reaching out to help Japan

The relationship between Japan and Major League Baseball stretches back over a century with a number of highs and lows dotting the landscape along the way.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2011

Lapses, coverups color public view of nuclear plants

Behind the escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a cozy relationship with government regulators, who are often willing to overlook safety lapses.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 19, 2011

F.A. punishment of Ferguson illustrates just how gutless it really is

LONDON — The five-game touchline ban and £30,000 fine handed to Sir Alex Ferguson by the Football Association for criticism of referee Martin Atkinson ranks alongside five minutes on the naughty step.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2011

Poetess achieves duality of words, numbers

Statistically, there's no accounting for Jessica Goodfellow's life in Japan. The daughter of an engineer, on a fast track in her early 20s to a Ph.D. in economics at California Institute of Technology, Goodfellow realized something essential didn't correlate: her incalculable love of poetry.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2011

Osaka hotel occupancy rate surges as people flood in from Tokyo

Hotels in Osaka are in high demand as residents and companies leave Tokyo to seek shelter amid concerns over radiation leaks after the nation's worst earthquake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 18, 2011

Museums close to cope with earthquake damage and fallout

The tragedy of Friday's massive earthquake and following tsunami in northeast Japan has shaken the nation. And as Japan attempts to assess the damage and send relief, the country's art world is attempting to recover and show support.

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