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BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2011

LG to release tablet PC as scheduled

LG Electronics Inc. still plans to introduce an Android-based tablet computer in Japan this month, even as the country grapples with the aftermath of its strongest earthquake on record.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2011

Japan's immense challenge

HONG KONG — Prime Minister Naoto Kan rightly called it the worst disaster to hit Japan since World War II. But the question now for Japan is whether the massive earthquake and tsunami that smashed the country on Friday can prove to be the earthmoving event that wakes up Japan's politicians to set the...
Reader Mail
Mar 17, 2011

Hurting for those half-a-world away

I should be thinking about my work, but all my thoughts are for a people thousands of miles away. I hurt so much inside for these people I have never known, from a place I have never been. All the fear, hurt and sorrow they must have, losing so many they loved. Great towns and villages washed away in...
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2011

Demand for imported grain not to decline: U.N.

Grain demand in Japan, the world's largest corn importer, is unlikely to decline even after Friday's earthquake and tsunami damaged some of the nation's ports and disrupted deliveries, the United Nations said. The country, struck by its strongest earthquake on record Friday, faces power blackouts and...
BUSINESS
Mar 17, 2011

Lithium-ion battery, substrate markets said among hardest hit

The global supply of lithium-ion batteries, substrates for chips and power-supply capacitors may be the technology industries hit the hardest by the Tohoku catastrophe, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. said.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 16, 2011

Through the shaking, Japan comes together

For centuries, Japan had operated on the unvoiced logic that the only certainty in this world is disaster — specifically, tensai (天災, heavenly disaster). Four centuries ago, Edo (江戸, Old Tokyo) citizens said to each other that they had four major things to fear: jishin (地震, earthquakes),...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 16, 2011

Toyota output reduction may top 40,000 vehicles amid power crisis

Toyota Motor Corp. may lose output of at least 40,000 vehicles after Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake damaged factories and crippled nuclear power plants, which led to electricity shortages.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 15, 2011

Are Japanese people hard-wired to hoard?

In the wake of the Tohoku-Kango earthquake, consumers can't help but help themselves to everything in sight.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 15, 2011

Kicking up a stink over ink in Kobe

You might want to avoid Suma Beach this summer if you are inked or have even a temporary sticker tattoo. The powers that be in Kobe City are considering ways to ban the display of tattoos on the beach.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 15, 2011

What do you think of the proposed tattoo ban at Suma Beach from this year?

Ai Yamamoto
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2011

The environmental link to economic growth

WASHINGTON — The worldwide drive for higher incomes in the face of mounting environmental destruction has heightened the tension between growth and the environment.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2011

Buffett drops Fukushima trip

Billionaire U.S. investor Warren Buffett has canceled a trip next week to attend a plant opening ceremony for Tungaloy Corp. in Fukushima Prefecture following the nation's strongest earthquake.
BUSINESS
Mar 15, 2011

Nikkei plummets more than 6%, biggest fall since 2008

Stocks fell 6.18 percent, the most in more than two years, after the nation's strongest earthquake on record, and massive tsunami, snarled production lines and shut factories, raising concerns that economic growth will stall.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2011

Neocon 'shock and awe': the rise of redefined Arabs

SEATTLE — A pervading sense of awe seems to be engulfing Arab societies. What is under way in the Arab world is greater than simply revolution in a political or economic sense. It is, in fact, shifting the very self-definition of what it means to be Arab, both individually and collectively.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2011

Helpful websites, phone numbers

Locating family and friends:
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2011

Yudhoyono's shaky coalition drifts along

SINGAPORE — It has been common in recent years to praise Indonesia as Southeast Asia's primary democratic success story. Vital achievements include a successful campaign against Islamist terrorism and the end to three decades of futile military oppression of Aceh province.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Mar 13, 2011

Seabed split; quake tilted Earth's axis 10 cm

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that jolted northeast Japan was caused by a tectonic upheaval that created offshore faults stretching for hundreds of kilometers from Iwate Prefecture to Ibaraki, seismologists said Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 13, 2011

Japan's future is hardly predictable

So this is how history is made. An astonishing phenomenon. Suddenly we are all lifted as by a whirlwind out of our individual, quotidian, petty concerns, into something larger, much larger. Only one name does it justice: Revolution.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 13, 2011

Study chips away further at humans' uniqueness

Time for some self-love, people: We're pretty damn cool. As animals, we're special.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2011

Centennial for an artist

Japanese artist Taro Okamoto died in 1996 at the age of 84, but his ever-young artworks and attitude toward life are gathering new attention 100 years since his birth in 1911. What would have been his 100th birthday on Feb. 26 was commemorated with a Google-logo homage to Okamoto, original music at an...
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 13, 2011

Japan as a rice culture? Not so quick, says anthropologist

What could be more Japanese than rice? Without the pearly white grain there would be no mochi (rice cakes) at New Year's or sake at shrines, no sushi, no lunchtime onigiri (rice balls), no verdant paddies to mark summer in the countryside.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 12, 2011

Aichi firm unmasks its potential

A venture firm in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, has developed technology to produce a mask bearing a shocking resemblance to the person ordering it, and they're taking off as gifts and for stage performances.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 12, 2011

Smoke gets in your eyes

"If you could pick five great places to smoke a cigar, where would you choose?"
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2011

Harvesting rare-earth metals

Rare-earth metals are called "vitamins for industry" because the addition of trace amounts to such metals as iron, copper and aluminum boost their quality, making them stronger, more pliable or more viscous. They are used in many products, including cell phones, electric cars, medical treatment devices,...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’