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Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2012

Revolution was in the air during Japan's Taisho Era, but soon evaporated into the status quo

In the summer of 1918, "rice riots" swept the country. They began in a fishing village on the Sea of Japan in remote Toyama Prefecture. By September, some 2 million people in hundreds of municipalities had taken to the streets. They looted, bombed, demonstrated, struck.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2012

A heavenly retreat amid the bustle of Kyoto

On my first visit to the ancient pond garden of Kajuji, it took me a devil of a time just to locate it. Alighting at Ono, a subway stop on Kyoto's Tozai line, there was nothing to suggest the area might be of interest to visitors, that it could have any serious historical or cultural credentials.
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2012

Testament to a hero's grace

Regarding the July 25 front-page Kyodo article "Mariners deal Ichiro to Yankees": A player of firsts in a sport of records, Ichiro Suzuki elicits exaltation. It's a testament to this man's grace that he, in a matter of hours, took the field that had been his home for 11 years (Seattle Mariners' stadium)...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 29, 2012

Vancouver fest offers a warm (but not humid!) welcome

Summers in Tokyo, indeed in most of Japan except for Hokkaido or Okinawa, are often unbearably hot and humid, with temperatures in the mid to high 30s and humidity reaching as high as 90 percent. This summer, in the wake of last year's Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown, use of air conditioning will...
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2012

The joy of the Olympic Games

Queen Elizabeth II opens the 2012 Olympics on Saturday Japan time (Friday local time). This is the third time that London hosts the Olympics. This year's Olympic Games mark the 30th modern Olympics since the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 27, 2012

Yukata tour to show there's more to Sumida Ward than just the Skytree

The Tokyo Skytree has been hogging the spotlight in Sumida Ward recently. With lineups to get in still pretty long, people in the area want tourists to check out the more historic parts of the neighborhood.
OLYMPICS
Jul 27, 2012

Takeda elected to IOC

As expected, Tsunekazu Takeda now has greater recognition and responsibilities — and gravitas — within the global Olympic community.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Jul 27, 2012

How cheap cuisine can save your town

Shigeru Tamura looks remarkably trim for someone whose hobby is eating fried noodles. Over a lunch at a yakisoba restaurant on the backstreets of Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, the 49-year-old author and law professor admits he dines out as often as twice a day. Then he pushes aside his plate of noodles and pulls...
LIFE / Food & Drink / JAPANESE KITCHEN
Jul 27, 2012

Shaved ice: the traditional antidote to summer swelter

BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2012

Mizuho set to boost overseas loans 30% a year amid European retreat

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to boost overseas lending by as much as 30 percent a year as it targets Asian companies unable to borrow from European banks that are retrenching amid the eurozone's debt crisis.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2012

Toyota takes first-half sales lead from GM

Toyota Motor Corp., rebounding from lost production after last year's natural disasters, is on an annual pace to outsell General Motors and Volkswagen and reclaim its title as the world's top-selling automaker.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2012

Merits of electronic interrogations

In March 2011, public prosecutors offices located in 13 major cities started electronically recording interrogations of suspects on a trial basis. The Supreme Public Prosecution Office's July 4 report on the experiments cites both merits and demerits of the electronic recording reported by public prosecutors...
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2012

Place names defy tradition, distressing the Russian spirit

In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a countrywide campaign of toponymic change brought back many historic names — first of all in Moscow and in Leningrad (which in due course was returned to its proper name St. Petersburg). Soon after, however, these spontaneous activities abruptly...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2012

Female temp ranks rising

More than half of all women working are employed on a non-regular basis, according to the labor ministry's new report released this month. Of the total 22.37 million women in the Japanese workforce, 11.88 million, or 54.7 percent, were non-regular employees. This is a startling contrast to the corresponding...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 23, 2012

Bloom is off decentralization

A number of local political parties have cropped up of late clamoring for further "decentralization," which would shift much administrative and budgetary authority from the central government to local governments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2012

Libyan election another Arab Spring paradox

"We certainly did not expect the results, but ... our future is certainly better than our present and our past," said Sami al-Saadi, the former ideologue of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the founder of the political party al-Umma al-Wasat, which finished third in Central Tripoli during Libya's...
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2012

Aid with strings for Afghanistan

The international community has agreed to continue its support for Afghanistan, committing at a conference on July 8 in Tokyo to provide $16 billion in aid to the embattled government. But donors have adopted a new mindset, demanding that the money be well spent and promising the government in Kabul...
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Put a lid on 'malignant' shills

Regarding the July 16 Kyodo article "Public reactor hearing (Sendai) rocked by alleged government shill": A Japanese seminar or workshop usually has a question-and-answer time at the end for audience members. People are so shy that none wants to ask the first question. An awkward silence may ensue. To...
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Beware a September surprise

As the government of Japan continues to stumble over Nagata-cho politics, fumble away the Senkaku Islands and bumble the introduction of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft to Japan, it may soon find itself isolated from its people, the international community and its only alliance partner, the United States....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2012

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship'

Confrontational, outspoken, feisty and highly focused, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a self-made man determined to redraw the loci of power in Japan. He is clearly using the local platform from which to spring into the national arena. The question on everyone's mind is: Will Hashimoto ever be the prime...
LIFE
Jul 22, 2012

Taxi facts and figures to impress your driver

Next time you're in the back seat and tired of watching the meter clock up, use these ice-breakers to get the conversation flowing in your driver's language.
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Avoid tabloid-style headlines

Regarding the July 15 Kyodo article "Police to grill 300 pupils, parents over boy's suicide": Police to "grill" pupils? Seriously? Are they going to deny them cigarettes and really give them the third degree? Inappropriately dramatic headlines like this always make me visualize gray-haired editors fondly...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

The spirit behind Japanese cohesion

Building Democracy in Japan, by Mary Alice Haddad. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 270 pp., $20.34 (paperback) Mary Haddad seeks to refute those non-Japanese scholars who are dismissive of Japanese democracy because it doesn't measure up to western standards. She argues that they overlook and marginalize...
LIFE
Jul 22, 2012

Talking the talk

Taxi-business jargon is a lingo all of its own. Here's a sample of the way those drivers think:
COMMENTARY
Jul 20, 2012

Overhauling the anachronistic U.N. groupings

Come October, Australia will be competing with Finland and Luxembourg for two of this year's five elected two-year seats on the U.N. Security Council. Why against Finland and Luxembourg and not others also contesting for the total of five seats up for grabs? Well might you ask.

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