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JAPAN / History
Jul 27, 2013

A drop in the ocean: the sea-dumping of chemical weapons in Okinawa

Accounts by U.S. veterans in the accompanying feature of tons of chemical weapons being dumped off Okinawa in autumn 1969 are the first time such revelations have been made public — but in fact they tally entirely with the Pentagon's standard operating procedures at that time.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 27, 2013

Tight budgets, food safety and eel inflation

The future promise of Abenomics notwithstanding, Japan's white-collar office workers are still being squeezed in terms of their discretionary spending. Results of the annual survey of salaryman kozukai (allowance), released June 28 by Shinsei Bank, noted that this year the average monthly spending money...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Jul 27, 2013

Log-jamming in Shin Kiba

Last month, readers of this column found me frolicking in the sawdust and lumberyards of Shin Kiba — meaning "New Wood Place" — which arose on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay in the 1970s when the city's timber businesses were moved there from their traditional home in nearby Kiba to make way for rapid...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 27, 2013

Yasukuni Shrine: ground zero for unrepentant wartime remembrance

There is considerable speculation about whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to visit Yasukuni Shrine in mid-August. This is an especially sensitive time of the year as it coincides both with the annual Bon festival, when people honor their ancestors, and the anniversary of Japan's surrender in...
Reader Mail
Jul 27, 2013

When will 'experts' get serious?

Regarding the July 23 front-page AFP-JIJI article "Tepco now admits radioactive water entering the sea at Fukushima": What is it about Japan's nuclear village and its continued defiance, lies and arrogant denial in the face of mounting radioactive contamination and the threat of crippling illness or...
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 27, 2013

Hashimoto, Matsui offer to quit but are persuaded to stay

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto and Secretary-General Ichiro Matsui offer to step down 'to focus on their political agenda in Osaka' but other party executives persuade them to stay on.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jul 26, 2013

Pay properly for the music you like, even online

As the music business struggles to reinvent itself for the digital world, the only topic more controversial than what a recording is worth is who exactly should have the power to set its price.
WORLD
Jul 26, 2013

Still rich in other ways

To me, Detroit has always seemed rich. My home town is a city that brims with history. It was the laboratory where Henry Ford would assemble his greatest creation, the automobile, and the city that would forever change how the world got around. We were the arsenal of democracy during the Second World...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Jul 26, 2013

Nagoya commuters get their cycle on

Nagoya is seeing a growing number of "tsukinists," a term coined for those who commute to work by bicycle, pointing to the public's higher awareness of environmental and personal health issues.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 26, 2013

Meiji will buy 15% of Thai Life Insurance

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co., the nation's third-biggest life insurer, said it agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in closely held Thai Life Insurance PCL to meet rising demand in the Southeast Asian nation.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2013

SAC Capital is charged in wire, securities fraud

Federal prosecutors unveiled criminal charges Thursday against famed hedge fund SAC Capital, citing "institutional practices" that encouraged a culture of using inside information to gain illegal profits.
WORLD
Jul 26, 2013

Haiti cholera tied to peacekeepers

A group of scientists who investigated the source of a 2010 cholera epidemic in Haiti that killed thousands of people has concluded that U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal probably introduced the strain into the Caribbean country's population.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 26, 2013

Consumer prices rise at fastest pace since 2008: ministry data

Consumer prices in June rose the most since 2008, 0.4 percent from a year earlier, an early sign that Japan's economy may be starting to shake off deflation, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Jul 25, 2013

Ishizaki planning to continue playing career in Europe

Contrary to some speculative chatter in recent days that guard Takumi Ishizaki is on the verge of retirement, the word out of Germany is that the Fukui Prefecture native has his sights set on extending his overseas career.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2013

China's salami-slice strategy

Beijing's strategy to change the territorial and maritime status quo seems anchored in 'salami slicing,' which centers on a steady progression of small actions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013

'Game of Thrones: Season One'

Language: English
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 25, 2013

Okinawans know how to beat the heat

Now that most of Japan is in the midst of a hot, sweltering summer, it's a good time to take a look at the traditional cuisine of a part of the country that lives with warm weather throughout the year: Okinawa.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 25, 2013

SDP's Fukushima resigns over dual election losses

Mizuho Fukushima, head of the Social Democratic Party for nearly a decade, resigned Thursday to take responsibility for the party's losses in Sunday's Upper House election and the Lower House election in December.
WORLD
Jul 25, 2013

Proposal to restrict NSA tracking fails

A controversial proposal to restrict how the National Security Agency collects Americans' telephone records failed to advance in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin Wednesday, a victory for the Obama administration, which has spent weeks defending the program.
BUSINESS
Jul 25, 2013

¥5 trillion package seen needed to cushion consumption tax rise

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now sitting on the biggest legislative majority in six years, faces the threat of political dissent within months as a planned hike in the sales tax threatens to arrest an economic rebound.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 25, 2013

Fox loses second ad-skipping battle

A U.S. federal court decision Wednesday gave fresh support to a new technology that helps consumers avoid a basic irritant of television viewing — the commercial.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 25, 2013

With planets easy to find, astronomer sets sights on alien spacecraft

In the field of planet hunting, Geoff Marcy is a star. After all, the astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley found nearly three-quarters of the first 100 planets discovered outside our solar system. But with the hobbled planet-hunting Kepler telescope having just about reached the end of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2013

The Pushkin's masterpieces cannot fail to inspire

There are a lot of people who wish that art had simply stopped around 1911 or so. If it had, we would have been spared many of the monstrosities that modern art then proceeded to unleash — urinals in art galleries, randomly distributed paint, pickled animals, cans of the artist's excrement, etc. Of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2013

Supergroup Muddy Apes get album out just in time to rock Fuji

From the beginning, rock act Muddy Apes set a lofty goal for themselves.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight