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Reader Mail
Apr 21, 2011

'Trashing' Kan serves no purpose

Regarding the April 10 article, " 'Kan the Destroyer' needs his fire back": I must register my near total disagreement with Michael Hoffman's trashing of Prime Minister Naoto Kan. While he speaks of "dithering" by the current administration and its "pathetic irrelevance" in the aftermath of the accident,...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 21, 2011

Fukushima No. 1 and derivative meltdowns

Financial commentators have likened Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe to derivatives' role in the 2008 financial meltdown. The resemblance is clear enough: Each activity yields big benefits and carries a tiny but explosive risk. But the similarity between the two types of crisis ends...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2011

Nuclear crisis and Japan's image

Immediately after the March 11 quake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, Japanese victims were praised by the foreign media for their calmness, orderliness and perseverance in the midst of unprecedented suffering. But the positive image of Japan is turning into a negative one because of the government...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2011

Hatakeyama, Ishikawa lift Swallows past Dragons

Tuesday turned out to be unexpectedly cool in Japan's capital city, but the Tokyo Yakult Swallows may have finally started to heat up.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2011

Bicycle sales triple as 3/11 haunts Tokyoites

Tokyo residents haunted by the memory of how the March 11 earthquake shut the world's busiest subway system are returning to bicycle travel, tripling the sales of retailer Asahi Co. in the area last month.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 19, 2011

Students choose failure over uncertainty

"Could you please fail me?" As a university lecturer, it is by no means unusual to have seniors drop by to check if they have sufficient credits to graduate. However, I was flabbergasted by this recent visitor who wanted not reassurance - she was on track to graduate - but rather my cooperation in failing...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 19, 2011

Japan pension answers often case-specific

JM has a question about the Japanese national pension system: "I am an American citizen and permanent resident of Japan and have been living and working in the country continuously since 1988. During most of this time, I have been employed as a "local" hire by my company, and contributed to the Japanese...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Apr 19, 2011

Who pays for nuclear nightmare?

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Apr 19, 2011

Summer electricity shortage countermeasure: Make your own

Nuclear power? Who needs it, when you've got this free and safe sun and the wind? Right? Right?
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011

EU road map to improving the lives of Roma

The European Union, at long last, is taking a significant step toward improving the lives of Europe's millions of Roma. Rather than proposing a grand plan for EU-level action, the European Commission's recently released "EU framework for national Roma integration strategies up to 2020" calls on each...
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2011

Clinton meets with Matsumoto

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on Sunday in Tokyo, where she expressed Washington's sympathy and solidarity with Japan's attempts to rebuild from the deadly quake and tsunami that claimed more than 13,000 lives.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2011

Portugal has a lesson if the U.S. is watching

Portugal is far along the primrose path to economic bankruptcy, following in the steps of Greece and Ireland. While the Portuguese debt crisis is not nearly as acute as that of Greece and Ireland, it nonetheless serves as a warning to other European Union countries, as well as the United States, that...
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Give the foreign experts a chance

Regarding the April 13 article "Fukushima crisis now at Chernobyl level": It is somewhat terrifying that the severity level of the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis level has been raised to level 7.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Bogus claims against wind power

Regarding Minoru Matsutani's April 12 article, "Offshore windmills weather crisis": Sonic waves from wind turbines do not make people feel ill. Studies in Canada, the United States and Australia have shown that the sound is safe.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2011

Convenience in Tohoku

One of the few signs of things returning to normal in Tohoku is the reopening of convenience stores. In the six prefectures making up Tohoku, and in Ibaraki Prefecture, a third of the 3,700 stores closed after the quake-tsunami due to power, water and infrastructure failures.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 17, 2011

Japan's food crisis goes beyond recent panic buying

The neon lights of Ginza flickered out, leaving Tokyo's favorite playground in ominous darkness. Drivers fumed while waiting in long lines to purchase gasoline. Goods disappeared from supermarket shelves, sending housewives on forays into neighboring prefectures in search of everyday items such as toilet...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2011

Tepco to meet 95% of demand

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Friday it will be able to raise its power-generating capacity to 95 percent of demand this summer instead of 85 percent. Tepco is planning to increase capacity to 52 million kw in July and 50.7 million kw in August compared with 46.5 million kw announced on March 25.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2011

Hiromi Uehara

Among young jazz pianists, Hiromi Uehara has an undeserved reputation for being noncerebral. Because of her bubbly personality and antic stage demeanor, some people see in her a musician who gets by exclusively on instinct and spur-of-the-moment inspiration. For sure, she loves to show off, and her live...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’