Search - community

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 7, 2016

'Sweetest' town clings to Hershey, adding to takeover hurdles

The town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, calls itself the "sweetest place on Earth."
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 27, 2016

Learning to embrace the halal industry

With an increasing number of Muslims residing in and visiting Japan, local governments and businesses in the private sector are eyeing ways to target the potentially lucrative market
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
Jan 31, 2016

NPO founder fights to reverse plight of Asia child sex victims

When Sayaka Murata visited Cambodia while in university, she was shocked to see a little girl around 5 or 6 years old among those who had been rescued after being tortured by electric shock and forced into the sex trade.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / AEC SPECIAL
Jan 29, 2016

Contributing to Southeast Asian development

ASEAN is currently attracting much attention as a major growth center in the global economy. With a market of more than 600 million people and an abundant young labor force, whose working-age population will peak in the second half of the 2040s, ASEAN has achieved remarkable economic growth with its...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Jan 17, 2016

'Being black can be more fun than being gay'

A look at the experience of two black men in the LGBT community in Tokyo, a 'minority of a minority of a minority.'
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 30, 2015

Gauging Abe's 'proactive contributions to peace'

While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has talked a good game about Japan playing a bigger international role, his track record so far shows little has changed.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2015

Upcoming session will decide the U.N.'s future

The 70th commemorative session of the General Assembly, which begins next week, should be an occasion for providing much-needed hope that the world organization can remain relevant in the coming decades.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 2, 2015

Tokyo craft store meets demand for LGBT rainbow goods hard to find in Japan

At first glance, Nijiiro Komachi (Rainbow Beauty) looks like any craft shop, with colorful handmade earrings, necklaces, illustrated postcards and metal badges adorning the shelves and walls. The store in Tokyo's Kichijoji district, however, has a unique mission: to support sexual minorities in Japan....
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 16, 2015

Yemen's last Jews reluctantly eye exodus after Islamist militia takeover

A few worried families are all that remain of Yemen's ancient Jewish community, and they too may soon flee after a Shiite Muslim militia seized power in the strife-torn country this month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jan 30, 2015

Building social change after the earthquake

In 2011, the devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami forced Japanese architects to rethink their understanding of architecture at a fundamental level — to consider closely society's systems and the affect buildings had on not only the life of, but also the psyche of the people.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2015

ASEAN captain Malaysia prepares to set sail into maritime disputes, 'democratic recession'

As Malaysia takes over the ASEAN chairmanship for 2015, it faces the challenges of intractable territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the 'democratic recession' in the region.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 12, 2014

Shonan complex offers a curated lifestyle

A discreet black sign, concrete floors, industrial-style ceilings, wooden shelves filled with design toys and gourmet treats. This may sound like the minimal interior of an urban lifestyle store in some hip corner of Tokyo, but the reality is more surprising. It is, in fact, a new branch of one of Japan's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / BLACK EYE
Nov 28, 2014

A world away from Ferguson but feeling the flames

I went through an entire day in Yokohama without a single person mentioning that my country was on fire. Of course, they knew, but what could they have said, anyway?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 19, 2014

DeafJapan opens up the world to the hearing-impaired

DeafJapan provides opportunities for hearing-impaired people in Japan to enjoy activities in English while also linking them up with the global community.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Aug 25, 2014

Use them or lose them: There's more at stake than language in reviving Ryukyuan tongues

With the last speakers of the Ryukyuan languages dying out, an identity is vanishing too.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Aug 18, 2014

Ferguson police fail to learn from past incidents of racial unrest

Ignoring lessons of past civil disturbances such as the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, police inflamed tensions that have fueled more than a week of unrest in a St. Louis suburb where an officer shot to death an unarmed black teenager.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society / DEALING WITH DEMENTIA
Jul 4, 2014

Assistance for vulnerable elderly on the rise

Last in a three-part series
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2014

ASIJ admits honored teacher sexually abused students

The American School in Japan reveals that teacher Jack Moyer, a renowned marine biologist, sexually abused students while employed by the institution between 1963 and 2000.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Feb 27, 2014

Status as benefactor and folk hero made 'El Chapo' elusive prey

Alfonso Lara says the only person who could keep him safe from crime was the most notorious drug lord in the world.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
Nov 17, 2013

U.K.'s Roma 'excluded, ignored, neglected'

The headquarters of Britain's biggest Roma charity is a large building beside a major thoroughfare in east London, yet its official address is a P.O. box. The fear of reprisal against Britain's Roma community, even in London's most multicultural borough, remains real.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2013

Myanmar-North Korea link

With investments by Japanese, American and European companies on the rise, it is worth asking how much the once-pariah state of Burma has really changed since the days of military rule.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Sep 23, 2013

The PTA: a survival guide for foreign parents

PTA — the mere mention of the three initials is enough to elicit a scowl from many a Japanese mother. So how do foreign women cope in such an environment?
Japan Times
WORLD
Aug 18, 2013

For Obama, racial progress tied to economic woes

President Barack Obama has only occasionally used his bully pulpit to confront racial inequality in the U.S., even if race inherently has been a backdrop of his tenure as the nation's first black leader.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 21, 2013

Obama gives voice to what it still means to be black in U.S.

President Barack Obama's comments Friday about the killing of Trayvon Martin were remarkable in many respects, but not least because of the distance he has traveled since the equally notable speech he delivered in 2008 during the controversy about his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2013

Can two U.S. senators' bipartisan bill finally halt 'Too Big to Fail' mantra?

Last month, an unlikely pair of senators — Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican — introduced a non-binding resolution calling for the end of the implicit subsidies that "too big to fail" (TBTF) banks enjoy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Apr 27, 2013

Trendsetting restauranteurs succeed in bringing bit of Bohemia to Osaka

You're in a breezy, open space, bathed in light. Frothy indoor plants and burnished wood surrounds vibrant splashes of azure. While sipping a "green fairy," that traditional spirit of artists around the world, someone passes you a shisha, or water pipe, and you inhale sweet, fruit-soaked tobacco. You...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 24, 2013

Be inspired: One person can help foster sustainable lives for millions

Last month, this column introduced Bangkok-based Midori Paxton, who is currently a regional technical adviser for biodiversity and ecosystems with the United Nations Development Programme — and who, I'm delighted to say, was a model student of mine here in Japan more than 20 years ago.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Mar 23, 2013

Photography buff behind Japan Camera Hunter thrives in Tokyo, the capital of cameras

Bellamy Hunt's name is part of his business: Japan Camera Hunter, a one-man enterprise supporting film photo buffs around Asia and the world. His work mainly involves hunting down vintage cameras, whether an elusive early model Nikon or a classic Leica.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 30, 2013

With Medicaid rolls set to grow, Oregon bets it can slow costs

In 2011, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber faced a vexing problem: The state had a $2 billion hole in its Medicaid budget and no good way to fill it.
COMMUNITY / Issues / LIGHT GIST
Dec 25, 2012

The year in quotes: 25 windows on the way things were in 2012

It was a year dominated by Japan's spats with its most powerful neighbors, China and South Korea, over tiny specks in the sea, and by national soul-searching over nuclear power and the calamity that struck Japan in March 2011. It ended with the stunning political resurrection of the Liberal Democratic...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past