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COMMENTARY
May 19, 2012

How to right what's wrong in East Asian manufacturing

East Asia's manufacturing industry, with its remarkable growth in recent years centering on China, South Korea and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has come to be called "the Factory of the World."
Reader Mail
May 17, 2012

Business entities do not qualify

Is Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plan for returning to profitability — restarting nuclear power plants to raise enough cash to pay off the damage caused by their inability to properly manage nuclear power plants — supported by government officials?
BUSINESS
May 17, 2012

Tepco halts dividends, so metro buses to run red ink

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's bus operations, running in the black since 2003, probably lost money for the first time for fiscal 2011, and the major reason is the dividends from Tokyo Electric Power Co. shares have dried up.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 16, 2012

Kansai braces for summer heat without reactors

News that the Kansai region will be asked to cut summer power consumption by at least 15 percent and that plans are afoot for outright restrictions on electricity use, including rolling blackouts, was greeted calmly by area political leaders and residents.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 16, 2012

Tokyo Green Space

What do you see when you look at Tokyo? Hypermodern constructions of steel and concrete? Cubic, characterless office buildings? Jared Braiterman sees green ... in the back streets, in the small cracks of dirt on the sidewalks and on his balcony. He finds patches, slivers and swaths of nature that tourists...
BUSINESS
May 15, 2012

Tepco pays dearly for disastrous year

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday it posted a ¥781.6 billion group net loss for fiscal 2011 after incurring massive costs from the meltdown disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, compensation for the victims and fuel costs for reverting to thermal power.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 13, 2012

Born of disaster, modern architecture is itself now an ongoing disaster

In the French writer-director Jacques Tati's superb 1967 film "Play Time," people are like prisoners condemned to roam about in and amid the glass cages of high-rise office blocks. They are lost, both to the world and themselves. In the world of Tati, who died in 1982 aged 75, all cities look alike;...
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
BUSINESS
May 12, 2012

Tepco asks for permission to hike household rates 10.3% from July 1

Tepco submitted an application Friday to the industry ministry to hike household electricity rates by an average of 10.28 percent from July in its Kanto service area, the first such move in 32 years.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 11, 2012

Mandarin Oriental stands by Japan produce

Every day, crates from Japan filled with still-wriggling live fish, coral-colored lobes of uni (sea urchin) and seafood fastidiously wrapped in paper smeared with wasabi (to discourage bacteria) arrive at the Michelin-starred French restaurant Amber at Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Executive chef...
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....
JAPAN
May 9, 2012

Cellphone users default on payments

Cellphone users are increasingly failing to meet installment contract obligations for the devices and are thus damaging their credit ratings, a Tokyo-based credit information firm told The Japan Times Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 6, 2012

Japan's women are increasingly taking the future into their own hands

Sara Blakely's story is inspirational. The 41-year-old Floridian began her working life as a door-to-door fax-machine salesperson. Then one day she looked in the mirror — but not at her face.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 6, 2012

Weeklies take a look at faiths, (misplaced) hopes and charities

Which religious groups were most successful in raising funds for earthquake victims in the devastated parts of Tohoku? In its Golden Week double issue, Flash (May 8-15) ran an article about the heretofore unreported nexus between last year's disaster and religion. The most generous donor by far, which...
EDITORIALS
May 5, 2012

Rushing for constitutional changes

Japan marked the 65th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution on Thursday, and 60 years have passed since the San Francisco Peace Treaty went into effect on April 28, 1952, ending Japan's occupation by the Allied Powers. Until that day, decrees issued by the occupation forces headquarters...

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?