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COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 26, 2013

I've seen haras . . . haras that you've seen: when 'harassment' goes wild

In response to the article "Blame it on the hara: harassment vocabulary makes us all victims" (The Foreign Element, Jan. 28), we invited readers to come up with their own ideas for new types of "harassment." As you can see, one JT writer got a bit carried away.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 26, 2013

Is the U.S. near a tipping point for government debt?

How much debt can America handle? The question is one of the most fundamental the nation faces, and the answer should determine how the United States handles the delicate task of reducing budget deficits without walloping economic growth.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 25, 2013

Running in circles DPJ's way forward

In the midst of an identity crisis, the Democratic Party of Japan adopts a new policy platform that fails to include any key points or doctrines differentiating it from its rivals.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 25, 2013

NYC condo prices go through the roof

Michael Stern was prepared for a gradual real estate rebound after buying a New York office tower in December 2009, with plans to convert it to condominiums following a housing plunge that sent prices down 31 percent.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 25, 2013

The Japanese traffic light blues: Stop on red, go on what?

Road traffic in Japan is a complicated affair. Apart from those narrow, crooked streets that sometimes end without warning, you have to get used to unclear right-of-way rules and the national fetish for backward parking.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2013

Common sense toward China

With regard to Hisahiko Okazaki's Feb. 20 commentary titled "Japan's step toward normalcy," I'd like to add my two pence worth.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2013

Familiar North Korean hostility

The lamentably hostile language and conduct of the North Korean government remind us of the Japan that stood against the whole world in the 1930s and early '40s. Withdrawing from the League of Nations, invading China and other Asian nations, and then attacking Pearl Harbor, Japan's leaders told us we...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2013

Sportsmanship gone awry

Details of the brutal physical and verbal abuse by the basketball coach of an Osaka high school boy who committed suicide have finally been released. The external independent panel found that coach Hajime Komura repeatedly and consistently used corporal punishment and verbal abuse on the boy before the...
CULTURE / Film
Feb 24, 2013

Recommended reading

Donald Richie was a scrupulous writer who paid finite attention to language and content. The following are 10 outstanding choices — titles that should be on any discerning readers' bookshelf.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 24, 2013

Sharing films with a master critic

Donald Richie was my friend and mentor for more than 20 years and my inspiration before that. When I was preparing to come to Japan for the first time in 1975, I read many books about the place, but Donald's masterpiece "The Inland Sea" was the one that entranced me. My first long trip after my arrival...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 24, 2013

Spring training in Mukojima

It's hard to think of February as springlike, what with snowfalls, freezing winds and a dusting of dead leaves everywhere. But I know from experience that the intrepid Prunus mume, or plum tree, blooms this month, and a trek to see some blossoms seems de rigueur. From the Tobu Isesaki Line, I get off...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 23, 2013

Economic woes provide opening for White House

Japan's economic troubles may be pushing the country toward free-trade negotiations with the United States, a goal long-sought by officials in Washington who see it as a potential boon.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 23, 2013

What's next for Toto? More toilet humor

What is the next logical toilet model for Toto? After one has invented a toilet that welcomes you by lifting it's lid automatically when you walk into the bathroom, cuddles you with a heated toilet seat, washes and dries your bum after you've done the dirty deed, disinfects the toilet, then automatically...
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2013

Metro government's Senkaku donations gathering dust

The ¥1.48 billion that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government collected in donations to buy and maintain the Senkakus is just lying idle, waiting to be used, after the central government nipped in to snag the disputed islets in September.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 23, 2013

LDP spurns merger plea by tiny Kokumin Shinto

The Liberal Democratic Party has rejected a proposal by Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) to merge and instead is demanding that the three-man opposition force disband and the lawmakers be considered individually for membership in the ruling party.
WORLD / Society
Feb 23, 2013

25% of U.S. teens harassed online by partner

In another mark of the increasingly digital life of teenagers, more than 25 percent of those who dated said their love interests threatened or harassed them online or using texts, according to a new study that is touted as the most comprehensive look at the phenomenon.
EDITORIALS
Feb 23, 2013

Campaigning, 21st-century style

The ruling and opposition parties agree to let election campaigns loose on the Internet, but they differ over the extent to which email should be used.
Events / Events In Tokyo
Feb 22, 2013

New play tackles the touchy issue of nationalism

Juvenile delinquency. Intersexuality. Terminal-illness treatment. These are the kinds of social issues theater troupe Fukinkobo has fearlessly tackled over the years, giving it a reputation for having the courage of its convictions to spotlight the predicament of people with marginalized social status....
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2013

Reform panel pulls its punches

It is regrettable that a Legislative Council advisory panel pulled its punches in recommending that a suspect's interrogation be electronically recorded.

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