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EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2012

U.S. Fed keeps hoping

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Sept. 13 announced a third round of quantitative easing to stimulate the national economy. The previous round of easing had lasted from November 2010 to June 2011.
Reader Mail
Sep 20, 2012

Let Israel identify its own lines

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called on the international community to lay down some "red lines" regarding Iran's nuclear program.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Japanese companies become protest targets in China

As anti-Japan protests in China rage with no end in sight, Japanese businesses there are seeing their operations disrupted, while government officials seek to limit the damage to economic ties.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

Shilling for our side over the Senkakus

Akihiro Suzuki does not think war will come, but if it does, he believes Japan will prevail.
LIFE / Language
Sep 17, 2012

Going with the flow, in water we trust

In the Tokyo area, August was a month of hideri (日照り, brutal sunshine), the effects of which were accelerated by the setsuden (節電, energy-conserving) mood. Many of us trudged through the streets under a blazing sun, clutching a towel in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2012

Greatest lib-con showdown in America since the 1960s

The presidential election in the United States is less than two months away. The Republican Party has nominated Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, to run against the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama.
Reader Mail
Sep 16, 2012

Worse off for reading the news

Regarding the Sept. 13 Kyodo article "Fukushima finds first child thyroid cancer after 3/11": What shameful journalism. Everyone with whom I've shared this article and who read only the headline assumed that a link had been proven between the nuclear reactor disasters at Fukushima and higher rates of...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 16, 2012

Getting food on tables is increasingly difficult

The cover of Nikkei Business of Aug. 27 carried a photograph of a sirloin steak atop a sizzling platter. The meat was artfully trimmed to form the shape of the Japanese archipelago.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2012

Charming short stories about man's tarnished imperfections

The Beautiful One Has Come, by Susan Kamata. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2011, 212 pp., $15.00, (paperback) Long-term Japan resident and writer Suzanne Kamata juxtaposes the charming and the unappealing in an understated elucidation of flawed humanity with her collection of short stories, "The Beautiful...
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2012

Educating educators

A recent survey found that more than half of Japan's graduate schools in education are short of students for the 2012 academic year. More than 40 percent of schools had failed to meet their quotas for the past five years.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 15, 2012

Fast-food joints hail relaxed rules for U.S. beef, signal end of the world

U.S. beef will be back in a big way come the new year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2012

'This is Not a Film'

I met Iranian director Jafar Panahi back in 1996, shortly before his debut feature film "The White Balloon" picked up the Gold Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival — one of many prizes that film garnered. My interview has been lost to the sands of time (hard to believe, but there was a...
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2012

Beijing as Tokyo-Seoul mediator

Regarding Ralph Cossa's Sept. 8 article "Tokyo-Seoul : enough is enough!": As a frequent caustic critic of Cossa's views, it is only fair that I congratulate him on his wise and heartfelt insights in this article. Of course, I do have a few quibbles — such as that his main concern about deteriorating...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 13, 2012

MLB scouts keeping their eyes on quartet of potential Japanese free agents

This season there are a few NPB players who have fulfilled the requirements for international free agency (meaning they are free to negotiate with any team, domestic or abroad) and may attempt to follow in the successful footsteps of Yu Darvish and Norichika Aoki and make a move to the major leagues...
Reader Mail
Sep 13, 2012

Managing a symbol of unity

Japan and South Korea are too closely connected, and have far too much in common, to quarrel over the Takeshima/Dokdo islets. Simply put, the risks of dragging the conflict out are too great. There are many possible solutions to the problem.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2012

"The Osaka Best Art: Our Collection, Our Selection"

From April to July, Osaka Prefecture asked its citizens to vote on their favorite paintings from 100 masterpieces owned by museums in the area. The project attracted ballots from 8,371 people, who voted the most popular work to be "Postman" by Yuzo Saeki (1898-1928), a renowned Japanese painter from...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 13, 2012

Nintendo recovery may hinge on Wii U sales

Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata is convinced the future of gaming still centers on handheld and TV-based machines. He'll get his answer by Christmas, in the number of new Wii U consoles that get bought.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2012

Volatile risks accompany North Korea's reforms

Reports of unusual activity have been emerging from North Korea. Farmers were told in early July that, going forward, the state would take not their entire harvest but only 70 percent, and they would be allowed to keep the rest. The military's economic role was partially curtailed last month when some...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / NOTEBOOK
Sep 12, 2012

Japanese language research fellowship; buy lip balm for charity

ANNOUNCEMENTS
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Sep 11, 2012

Troubled waters, bad bridge

A South Korean journalist in Seoul warns that Japan should not make light of the recent series of tough actions taken by Seoul against Tokyo because they represent the beginning of a sharp turn in South Korea's policy toward Japan.
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2012

Let posterity see how the Iraq war was created

When the Iraq War Inquiry Group (of which I am a member) issued a public call for an inquiry into the decision-making that lay behind Australia's participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, members of the then-Howard government dismissed it in effect as yesterday's news.
EDITORIALS
Sep 11, 2012

Democrats stake their claim

Party conventions in the United States are rallies for the faithful. Three days of speeches and pageantry are crafted to move from one emotional peak to the next, to fire up the troops, and provide the intellectual and policy framework for the campaign that will follow. Putting the conventions back to...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 10, 2012

Home centers forcing JA to improve its game for farmers

Home center Komeri has become a potent challenge to JA's farm-sector retail dominance.
Reader Mail
Sep 9, 2012

Better ways to spend ¥2 billion!

Regarding the Sept. 6 front-page article "Government seen sealing Senkaku deal at ¥2.05 billion": All that for a few small, more-or-less useless islands?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 9, 2012

Joy among the clouds and shadows

Yoko Sakata was an ordinary "office lady," not earning much and not aspiring to much, when she began suspecting her boyfriend of having an affair. She hired a private detective, who confirmed her fears and then paid her a compliment: "You have good intuition." He offered her a job. She grabbed it. That...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 9, 2012

Roadside view of a tasty, tasty world

THE WORLD'S BEST STREET FOOD: Where to Find It & How to Make it, Lonely Planet, 2012, 224 pp., $19.99 (paperback)
Reader Mail
Sep 9, 2012

Root cause of Japan's conflicts

Regarding Yoshio Shimoji's Sept. 2 letter, "Best venue for settling dispute": Shimoji points out that the International Court of Justice must prepare for the opportunity to discuss disputes such as the Japan-China territorial row over the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu in China) before the problem...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell