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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 21, 2013

Mercury still threat, Abe assurances or not

Earlier this month, delegates from over 130 nations gathered in Kumamoto to launch the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The U.N.-brokered treaty aims to limit mercury use and emissions. It comes at a time when the U.N. Environmental Program warns half of all global anthropogenic mercury emissions come...
WORLD / Politics
Oct 21, 2013

How much did the shutdown cost? Billions

Shutdowns aren't cheap. This year's closure, which ended Thursday, has probably cost the government and the economy billions of dollars, according to economists and policy analysts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 20, 2013

Whether Tepco fails or not, it's taxpayers' tab

The final tab from the meltdowns at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 plant will be huge, and the public will end up paying it, either through taxes or utility bills.
JAPAN / NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
Oct 20, 2013

Experts play down fish radiation fear

Given the flood of radioactive water gushing into the Pacific from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 complex, how safe, or dangerous, are fish caught off northeast Japan?
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 20, 2013

Political winds buffet NHK

An NHK insider warns that the quality of Japan's public broadcasting system is threatened by a poor personnel appointment for which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pulling the strings.
EDITORIALS
Oct 20, 2013

Improving disaster responses

Although it was known early on that a powerful typhoon would strike Tokyo's Izu-Oshima Island, disaster plans stalled and the storm left 49 people dead or missing.
LIFE / Language / WELL SAID
Oct 20, 2013

Taichō, daijōbu na-no?

Today, we will introduce the proper use of u3060u3044u3058u3087u3046u3076, which is frequently heard in daily conversation. u3060u3044u3058u3087u3046u3076 means 'all right' or 'no problem,' and is used to express one's physical and mental condition. u3060u3044u3058u3087 u3046u3076 can be used to express the condition of things such as machines, buildings or the weather.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Oct 20, 2013

Disaster prevention day

On Sept. 1, the Day of Disaster Prevention, training was carried out in many areas. This is the 90th year since the Great Kanto Earthquake. In some places, participants had to prepare to face many dead bodies in the worst situation, and in other places they sought for ways to deal with a coming crisis by setting up various situations.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2013

Banish the notion of a military solution in Syria

Some people now warn of a 'Lebanonization' of Syria — its partition into quasi-independent regions — which could call the entire post-World War I Middle Eastern state system.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 19, 2013

Sado Island: Iconic birds, gold mines, magic caves and art

"The people in our town, they died without ever seeing the ocean."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 19, 2013

Countryside campaigner for us all

In the mid-1970s, Souichi Yamashita, a farmer in northern Kyushu who also writes books about rural Japan, got to know a young man named Yutaka Une.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

On the beat with a cultural detective

The recent success of Barry Lancet, first time author and resident of Japan for over 25 years, reads like a bar-stool fantasy for any wanna-be writer, and Lancet's definitely enjoying the dream-like reality. With the TV rights optioned by Hollywood, positive reviews surging in across the globe, six countries...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 19, 2013

The Little Book of Japan

Covering a broad range of topics for the first time visitor, yet comprehensive enough for the truly Japan-obsessed, "The Little Book of Japan" is certainly not small in scope. Sectioned into four chapters — Cultural Icons, Traditions, Places and Spiritual Life — this book includes 44 essays from...
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2013

Japanese justice sure to surprise

Regarding the Oct. 13 editorial "Revising Status of Forces Agreement" and, specifically, the statement in the editorial that "A new agreement should oblige the U.S. to turn over suspects with the provision that they be accorded the same legal treatment in Japan as they would be given in the U.S." (the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2013

Imagining civil servants who actually serve

As a comedy, Nippon TV's 'Dandarin' not only pokes fun at bureaucratic privilege, but also wags its finger at Japan's storied management style, which succeeds on the backs of put-upon employees.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Oct 19, 2013

Will Olympic glory carry beyond Tokyo?

If Tokyo's reaction to winning the 2020 Olympics, especially among the cash-strapped TV stations and other media types who rely on bread and circuses-type events to pay the bills, made you feel like Alice in Wonderland or a character in a Samuel Beckett play, you're not alone.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2013

Profit quest leads big pharma down wrong road

As prescription drug sales in the U.S. stagnate, the drug industry is relying more on markets in China and African countries. But expansion often is tainted by unsavory business practices.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Oct 18, 2013

Kyoto shrine ready for Kurama Fire Festival

The Kurama Fire Festival, considered one of the strangest festivals in Kyoto, will take place Tuesday at Yuki Shrine.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 18, 2013

Sugano basks in glow of Game 2 brilliance

Tomoyuki Sugano stood on the mound at Tokyo Dome in the top of the ninth inning of his first postseason game with a three-run lead, over 45,000 people screaming — Yomiuri Giants fans in support, Hiroshima Carp fans in opposition — and the bases full of other team's players.
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2013

Japan P.M. sends offering to war-linked shrine

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dedicated a "masakaki" decorated wooden stick offering used in Shinto rituals to Yasukuni Shrine, but did not visit the war-related shrine for the major autumn ceremony that began Thursday.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji