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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 12, 2011

Mutant rabbits, economic meltdowns and nuclear tourism

In the first week of June, media attention shifted briefly from the Fukushima reactor calamity to skirmishes on the floor of the National Diet, where the government headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence vote.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 6, 2011

What will Japan learn from the Fukushima meltdowns?

Can Japan afford nuclear power? Can Japan afford to dispense with nuclear power? If the answer to both questions is no — as, in the wake of the Fukushima reactor meltdowns, it appears it may be — we are at a fukurokōji (袋小路, impasse). What to do?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 15, 2011

Media starting to tally the economic effects of foreigner flight

News reports immediately following the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant accident of panicked foreign residents lining up for the first flight home — in many cases advised to flee by their own governments — had the initial result of helping to feed the sense of angst among Japanese that...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 1, 2011

Tohoku charity a minefield for Japanese celebrities

One of the worst-kept secrets on television is the location of Dash Village, a remote farm that was built by the boy band Tokio in the late 1990s. It has since been maintained by the quintet as part of a running feature on their Sunday night Nihon TV variety show "Tetsuwan Dash," and in order to discourage...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Apr 30, 2011

3/11 renders tax-cut advocates' poll momentum a distant dream

When candidates from the new local group Genzei Nippon (Tax Reduction Japan) led by Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura won the triple elections held in Aichi Prefecture in February, the group's tax cut initiative seemed to have gained momentum.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 24, 2011

Decentralizing Tokyo may save the nation

The concentration of money and power in Tokyo is to a degree unthinkable in the United States. — Edward Seidensticker
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...
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2011

End game in Ivory Coast

In most elections, the person who collects the most votes is declared winner and takes the office that was contested. Not in the Ivory Coast. There, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to leave office after losing to former Prime Minister Alessane Ouattara.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 3, 2011

Renewed national pride will shape Japan's future

Spring dawns on a shattered Japan. "Not since World War II" is a recurring phrase, and no wonder. Mass destruction accompanied by radiation — what other analogy is big enough?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 3, 2011

Japanese antinuclear voices are still struggling to be heard

On March 26, NHK covered an antinuclear power demonstration in Germany that attracted thousands of protesters. The report pointed out that the demonstration was sparked by the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactor. The next day, there was a march by Japanese antinuke protesters in Tokyo. Though...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 20, 2011

The sticky subject of Japan's rice protection

Twenty-five years ago, Japan was a very competitive manufacturing country, and much of its economic policy since then has been in response to trade friction with the United States, which demanded greater access to Japanese markets for American agricultural products in order to offset Japan's trade surplus....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 6, 2011

The bitter pill of Japan's high-cost medical treatment

When NHK's in-depth news program, "Closeup Gendai," addresses a pressing social issue, it usually offers possible solutions articulated by experts. Two weeks ago, however, the show covered a problem that seems to have no solution. The subject of the opening segment was a middle-aged man who was diagnosed...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 12, 2010

Kabuki's golden boy knocked off his pedestal — for now

TBS's Dec. 4 edition of "Newscaster" aired a long report on the run-in that kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo had with a man at a Tokyo bar in the wee hours of Nov. 25, a dustup that resulted in Ebizo's hospitalization with a fractured cheekbone and broken teeth. Elaborating on the principle of "it takes one...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 12, 2010

Can Nissan start weaning the auto industry off petroleum?

On Dec. 3, BBC News reported that the prices of petroleum on both sides of the Atlantic hit their highest levels since the financial crisis, with Goldman Sachs forecasting an increase to $100 per barrel in 2011.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2010

Privacy is losing its very meaning

Words come and words go. Times change, language evolves.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 5, 2010

A relaxed approach makes news understandable for young and old

Two weeks ago, NHK announced that its popular half-hour series, "Shukan Kodomo no News" ("Weekly News for Children"), will be ending on Dec. 19. According to an article in the Sankei Shimbun, an executive at the public broadcaster explained the cancellation by saying that the show, which was launched...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 28, 2010

Trans-Pacific Partnership for a cheaper bowl of beef and rice

The APEC summit in Yokohama earlier this month was a key event by any standard. Leaders of 21 countries came to discuss how to integrate the world's most dynamic region in terms of trade.
EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2010

Manga-friendly Japan

Manga sales might be falling, but manga and anime as well as cute mascot characters permeate Japanese society. The new virtual koban "Keisatsucho Fureai Koban," launched this month by the National Police Agency, has its mascot character "K-ta-kun" answering common questions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 31, 2010

Japan's Afghanistan news blackout in the spotlight

Veteran freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka was finally freed last month by kidnappers after five months of captivity in Afghanistan. Though the Japanese media reported the kidnapping when it happened last April, and then Tsuneoka's release on Sept. 6, any details about his confinement or what he was...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2010

Seiko Noda's most coveted post: motherhood

At age 50, Seiko Noda's ardent wish to become a mother looks on track to come true.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 3, 2010

Why not put a little fun into your funeral?

It's your funeral. What's your pleasure?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2010

Domestic media hangs on Chiba's every comment

In July, Justice Minister Keiko Chiba signed execution orders for two death row inmates and then attended their hangings. Many people were puzzled because Chiba, an attorney, had been opposed to the death penalty. She said that she was under no pressure to sign the orders and that there weren't any political...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 12, 2010

Aging through the ages

"If only, when one heard That Old Age was coming One could bolt the door Answer 'not at home' And refuse to meet him!" (Anonymous, "Kokinshu" Imperial poetry anthology, 10th century)
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2010

When a baby can't come naturally

Seiko Noda, a Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, surprised the public late last month by revealing in a magazine article that she got pregnant at age 49 through artificial insemination using a donated egg from a third person.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2010

Fertility issue pregnant with discord

In 2004, Diet lawmaker Seiko Noda wrote a book titled "Watashi wa Umitai" ("I Want to Give Birth"), which chronicled her years of infertility treatments and the subsequent pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Two years later she ended her six-year relationship with fellow politician Yosuke Tsuruho, who...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight