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COMMENTARY
May 14, 2012

Consequences of the state's proclivity to tax

Bill Hewlett and David Packard, tinkering in a California garage, began what became Hewlett-Packard.
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2012

Are humans getting better at beating violence?

With daily headlines focusing on war, terrorism and the abuses of repressive governments, and religious leaders frequently bemoaning declining standards of public and private behavior, it is easy to get the impression that we are witnessing a moral collapse.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 13, 2012

Japanese laws make abortion an economic issue

The cost of abortion in Japan shows it is not considered a women's health issue.
Reader Mail
May 13, 2012

Put priority on debating skills

Amy Chavez's May 5 Japan Lite column, titled "English fluency and alligator pits," deals with the very thing that I'm concerned about these days. As someone who is learning English at a university, I often sense the importance of communication skills other than what passes for "fluency" in English-conversation...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 13, 2012

'Where are they now' special; celebrities battle it out; CM of the week: Tokyo Gas

The variety show "Bakuho the Friday" (TBS, Friday, 7 p.m.) expands from an occasional special to a weekly series. The title is a mashup of Bakusho Mondai, the comedy duo who act as hosts, and jōhō, which means information. The theme is in-depth information about showbiz people, in particular those...
Reader Mail
May 13, 2012

Fear and respect before royals

In his May 10 letter, Ambassador of Thailand Virasakdi Furakul says that the king is "genuinely respected and held in the highest regard by his people." But how would he know? When praise of royals is mandated, there is no way to know. Even I stood up at the beginning of a movie in a Thai theater when...
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2012

The sunny side of myopia

A new comprehensive study of eyesight around the world has found that 80 to 90 percent of secondary school graduates in East Asia suffer from nearsightedness, or myopia. The new study, published in the Lancet medical journal recently, found that neither genes nor increased time reading and writing were...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 13, 2012

Surging Yokohama continues amazing season, advances to Final Four

Self-assurance has been a recurring theme for the Yokohama B-Corsairs throughout their inaugural season.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

Tokugawa: the art of governing

PERFORMING THE GREAT PEACE: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan, by Luke S. Roberts. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 263 pp., $49.00 (hardcover)
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 12, 2012

Burrell powers B-Corsairs into Final Four

With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the Yokohama B-Corsairs and Akita Northern Happinets knew nothing would be easy in Friday's high-stakes contest. And both teams displayed a sense of urgency from start to finish in Game 2 of the bj-league's Eastern Conference semifinal series at Yokohama Cultural...
JAPAN
May 12, 2012

Group dumps Tokyo antinuke plebiscite petition on Ishihara

A citizens' group has submitted a petition to Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara demanding he create an ordinance to allow the capital to hold a local referendum on the abolition of nuclear power.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2012

Toyota leaves GM trailing in global sales in first quarter

Toyota Motor Corp. sold the most cars and trucks in the world in the first three months of the year as it made up for production losses caused by natural disasters.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 11, 2012

Hamamatsu, Ryukyu, Osaka favored to make Final Four

The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix have a rookie head coach in Ryuji Kawai, but a veteran nucleus of players that captured consecutive championships in 2009-10 and 2010-11 under Kazuo Nakamura, the bj-league's elder statesman.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / KANPAI CULTURE
May 11, 2012

How I learned to stop worrying and love the shochu

Nearly 10 years ago, shōchū was all the rage in Japan. In 2004, shipments reached an all-time high, and producers were struggling to keep up with the exploding market. Everyone was drinking it — everyone, it seems, but me.
EDITORIALS
May 11, 2012

Long live the crested ibis

Four crested ibises have hatched from eggs laid by two breeding pairs of the endangered birds on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture (three hatchlings to one pair and one to the other pair). They are the first to be born in the wild since 1976. The efforts to return the species to the wild will serve as...
Reader Mail
May 10, 2012

Dosimeters measure our distrust

Regarding the May 4 Jiji article "Last reactor halts Saturday": The measure of the Japanese people's distrust of any government assessment of the country's nuclear power system can be measured literally in becquerels as many members of the public now carry their own compact radiation-measuring devices....
Reader Mail
May 10, 2012

Risks of pushing rehab only

Regarding Nicholas Williams' April 29 letter, "Prison is about rehabilitation": No, Mr. Williams, prison should not be "only about rehabilitation." It should be about keeping some people very securely locked up who are not safe to be at large.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2012

Myth of irreversible decline

Drawn-out wars, economic struggles, exploding debt — it's easy to point to these signs and conclude that America is in an irreversible decline; that after a good run, it's time to hand the superpower baton to China or some other up-and-comer.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
May 10, 2012

Japan selects Suzuki to lead men's basketball team

The Japan Basketball Association officially introduced Kimikazu Suzuki as the new head coach for the men's national team on Wednesday in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2012

Ideology's future after the left-right divide falls

The just-concluded French presidential election seemed to suggest that the old left-right divisions are as potent as they have ever been — and certainly in their birthplace. But are they?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

After flower-vase success, former D-Bros designers set to blossom

If you're the sort of person who likes art museums but loves art museum gift shops, then you're likely to be familiar with the work of Yoshie Watanabe and Ryosuke Uehara, two designers who are currently the subject of an exhibition at Tokyo's Ginza Graphic Gallery.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes