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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...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2011

Meet a smoking new rock band

Formed in Fukuoka in 2005, The Cigavettes knew it would only be a matter of time before they relocated to Japan's capital. After years of discussing it, the melodic rockers finally packed up their instruments, along with their Beatles- and Rolling Stones-inspired catalogue of catchy, radio-friendly pop-rock,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 15, 2011

There are oppositions that attract

Japan's limited progress at Tohoku's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant after damage from the Great Eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami makes the March opening of this Taro Okamoto exhibition seem apocalyptic. Okamoto's unique avant-garde style was deeply influenced by the West. He found contradictions...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 15, 2011

Silent bids for Tohoku

The Kiyosumi art gallery complex of prominent commercial galleries, including Taka Ishii Gallery, ShugoArts, Kido Press, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Ai Kodawa Gallery, Miyake Fine Art, SPROUT Curation and Tomio Koyama Gallery, is holding a charity silent auction to raise money for the Great Eastern Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2011

Safer alternative bears on dollar

BERKELEY, Calif. — This is the season for international monetary conferences. In March, national leaders assembled in Nanjing, China, to speechify on exchange and interest rates. And, in early April, leading thinkers and former policymakers met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the birthplace in 1944...
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2011

Nuke plant escalation fails to dent rebound expectations

An escalation in Japan's nuclear crisis has failed to dissuade analysts from forecasting an economic rebound starting next quarter, an outlook that hinges on a recovery in business and household confidence.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 15, 2011

Blazers pass on Swift after tryout this week

The Tokyo Apache's season is finished, but big man Robert Swift's goal of returning to the NBA lives on.
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2011

Fisheries hit by safety fears

The nuclear crisis has spread fear among people all over the world, but fishermen in areas around the Fukushima No. 1 atomic plant say the perception of danger is unfairly affecting their livelihoods.
JAPAN / Q&A
Apr 14, 2011

Why so many aftershocks? Why so large?

A record number of powerful aftershocks have continued to jolt the already battered prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki after the 9.0-magnitude March 11 earthquake.
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 2011

China's human rights record invites criticism

HONG KONG — The United States has released its latest reports on human rights practices of countries around the world, with Chinese officials being severely cited for cracking down on activists, limiting internet access and repressing minorities.
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2011

Almost as bad as Chernobyl

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission on Tuesday provisionally raised the severity level of the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant from level 5 to the maximum 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale — the same level...

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