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BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2011

Consumer prices dip 0.2%, fall for 23rd month

Consumer prices went south for the 23rd straight month in January as deflation kept its hold on the world's No. 3 economy.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2011

Battling U.S. for huge deal, Eurofighter woos Japan

In a deal that could be worth billions of dollars and determine one of the primary fighter jets in Asia for decades to come, European aircraft makers are trying to get Japan to do something it has never done before — snub America.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2011

' Taiheiyo no Kiseki — Fokkusu to Yobareta Otoko (Oba: The Last Samurai)'

Japanese mass-audience movies about the country's military during World War II are usually melodramatic, sentimental or blatantly nationalistic. But their pure-hearted tokkotai (suicide squad) pilots flying to certain death are hardly representative of the typical Japanese soldier who, as the war entered...
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2011

Deciphering Russian aims

The Russian prime minister's surprise visit to the Northern Territories and subsequent Russian hard position on the territorial issue have triggered a series of reactions in Japan, which in turn have hardened the Russian position and thereby spoiled Japan-Russia relations.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 25, 2011

Craft exhibition thinks pink

Love, work, leisure, study, giving birth and raising kids. These days a lot of responsibilities are heaped on women. It's enough to make even the mightiest of super-women tired.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2011

Artist-curated festival sets new rules

"It's Auschwitz with good music," jokes Nick Cave at the start of "All Tomorrow's Parties," a 2009 documentary released to mark the 10th anniversary of the music festival of the same name. It's a tasteless description for an impeccably tasteful event, one that has become a bastion for left-of-center...
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2011

Steel merger to save ¥100 billion in costs: analysts

Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd.'s deal to create the world's No. 2 steelmaker may shave as much as ¥100 billion off costs as the companies consolidate operations, according to analysts.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2011

Stand by Japan on northern isles

Like many concerned people, I've been following two issues recently with growing concern: the Middle East and aggressive Russian actions concerning Japan's Northern Territories. As for the Middle East: I respectfully ask President Barack Obama not to perpetuate the domination of one kind of Islam over...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2011

Risk from rising global prices

A part from agreeing on a set of indicators to measure economic imbalances, the Group of 20 emerging and developed economies that met in Paris last week shared the observation that rising prices of primary industry commodities including food are becoming a risk factor for the global economy.
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2011

'Morning after pill' approved

The health ministry approved Japan's first emergency contraceptive more than a decade after the so-called morning after drug debuted in Europe.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2011

Futenma issue revisited

Former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's recent interview with Okinawan newspapers on his failed attempt to move U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma out of Okinawa Prefecture has caused strong reactions from Okinawa's people and its newspapers. But his interview sheds valuable light on how and why his...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 22, 2011

Monster in Blackman case still an enigma

Richard Lloyd Parry spoke about his new book, "People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman," with Jeff Kingston. The following draws on this interview and his book.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2011

Expanding the scope of the export sector

NEW YORK — Since the end of World War II, the global economy's trade and financial openness has increased, thanks to institutions like the International Monetary Fund and successive rounds of liberalization, starting with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in 1947.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2011

Swan dive into the strait dividing economic views

Since last April, I've been spending my weekdays in Hikone, a city of Shiga Prefecture located by Lake Biwa. One day, while driving to my university, I was surprised to find four black swans in the outer moat of Hikone Castle.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 21, 2011

JGBs, credit and 'that kind of thing': Kan's known unknowns

T he credit rating company Standard & Poor's downgraded Japanese sovereign debt late last month. With an AA- rating, we are now a notch below Spain, whose possibly looming debt crisis has been unnerving EU financial authorities for some time.
Reader Mail
Feb 20, 2011

Getting the economy to surface

Do the Japanese realize how much whale hunting affects their economy? Many people around the world are so disgusted with Japan for killing these peaceful, beautiful creatures that they protest by not buying Japanese products and by refusing to visit Japan on tours. If Japan were to announce a ban on...
Reader Mail
Feb 20, 2011

Unrequited love for pet owners

In his Feb. 13 eulogy (Counterpoint article) to the sad fate of abandoned pets and his review of author Noriko Imanishi's book on the topic — "Japan's cull of once-loved pets cries out for German-style controls" — Roger Pulvers quotes Imanishi as saying, "It's a given that a society in which animals...
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2011

Japan's ecological catastrophe

With COP 10, the international conference on biodiversity held in Nagoya last fall, still fresh in memory, Japanese residents now face a prime example of the importance of biodiversity in nature — the arrival once again of the hay fever season.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2011

Recollections of an intrepid Meiji traveler

NEW CHRONICLES OF YANAGIBASHI AND DIARY OF A JOURNEY TO THE WEST, by Ryuhoku Narushima. Translated and with a critical introduction and afterword by Matthew Fraleigh. Cornell University East Asia Program, 2010, 392 pp., $49 (paper) The most interesting thing about Ryuhoku Narushima (1837-1884), author...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 20, 2011

'Remote Control': Big Brother is watching you

If you want an all-action, well-written and intelligent novel to read in 2011, then look no further than this excellent conspiracy-theory thriller.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 20, 2011

Mystery author Isaka writes to control his fears

Novelists all have different motivations to write. For Kotaro Isaka, an award-winning mystery writer whose books always rank high on Japan's bestseller list, it's the constant "fear" of something calamitous happening — whether it be a North Korean missile attack or an outbreak of an unknown flu virus...

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