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BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 10, 2009

Annals of cheap: Gyoza no Osho

While others struggle to make ends meet amid the economic downturn, there's no stopping Gyoza no Osho, a late-night favorite for cheap Chinese eats.
Reader Mail
Sep 10, 2009

Agricultural 'trainees' a godsend

Regarding Shinogabu Chiba's Aug. 31 letter, "Trainees a burden in these times": I, too, think the government's program for foreign trainees is inappropriate, but from a different perspective. I assume that most of the "trainees" are here to earn money and not to be trained.
Reader Mail
Sep 10, 2009

Common-sense policies dismissed

In his Sept. 3 letter, "Rightwing hawks an easy target," Dean Geoff says I went to excess in criticizing "rightwing hawks" in my Aug. 26 article ("First ban the hawks, then the bomb"), in which I argue that people who want to get rid of nuclear weapons need first to get rid of the hawks and hardliners...
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2009

Words of wisdom from Hatoyama

It was just this side of comical. The leader of the new ruling party of Japan barely finishes acknowledging his Democratic Party of Japan's landslide win and a public relations disaster strikes. The result: an ignominious international climb-down.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

Women lack confidence, ambition for Diet: experts

Although last month's election brought an unprecedented number of women into the Lower House, female lawmakers both at home and abroad are still subject to double standards and lack the ambition to take the stage in national politics, experts said at a recent symposium.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

DPJ, two allies agree to form coalition

Leaders of the Democratic Party of Japan and two minor parties agreed Wednesday to form a coalition government, laying the groundwork for the launch of the new administration on Sept. 16.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

Bureaucrats may fret but DPJ win has world's attention

Foreign Ministry bureaucrats have yet to fully grasp the policies of the Democratic Party of Japan, but some are welcoming the level of attention the party is generating overseas, especially in the United States, saying there is strong interest in Japan's diplomacy for the first time in decades.
Reader Mail
Sep 10, 2009

Writing about a minority group

After reading Debito Arudou's Sept. 1 article, "Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown ," I am not sure what Arudou is more upset about: Mr. James as a threat to foreign identity in Japan, or foreigners who refuse to join Arudou in his dramatic outrage. I would like to suggest that Arudou's writing does more harm...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

Hatoyama tries to tread line between change, status quo

OSAKA — When Yukio Hatoyama makes his international debut as the new prime minister later this month at the United Nations and in Pittsburgh at the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit, he'll be discussing Japan's new policies on everything from the environment to the global economy with President Barack Obama...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Sep 10, 2009

Time for openings, a night out and second-hand style

THE opening ceremony
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2009

Shionogi eyes '10 for flu drug sale

Shionogi & Co. forecast that its experimental treatment peramivir will earn annual sales of about ¥5 billion in Japan on demand from hospitals for patients critically ill with influenza, including swine flu.
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2009

Shape of DPJ rule emerging

Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister-in-waiting, has moved to fill key party posts and the next Cabinet with political heavyweights. He wants his party as a unit, rather than individual politicians, to play the leading role in developing policy, thus taking the initiative...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 9, 2009

A soft spot for the good old/bad old Showa days

One vice I can't rid myself of is listening in on conversations between JK (an abbreviation for joshikōsei, 女子高生, or high school girls) on commuter trains. This has become easier these days due to the introduction of joseisenyōsharyō (女性専用車両, women-only cars) on almost every major...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 9, 2009

Fashion company to retail 200 items for ¥990

GOV Retailing Co. announced Tuesday that one-third of its g.u. brand's fall-winter collection, or 200 of the 600 items, will retail for ¥990.
JAPAN
Sep 9, 2009

LDP picks stand-in for Diet vote

Liberal Democratic Party members decided Tuesday they will vote for former farm minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi in the Sept. 16 Diet session to choose the next prime minister.
EDITORIALS
Sep 8, 2009

Rising unemployment rate

Japan's unemployment rate climbed to an all-time high of 5.7 percent for July, 0.3 percentage point higher than for June and topping the former record high of 5.5 percent in April 2003. The fact that Japan's unemployment rate remains the lowest among the Group of Seven industrialized countries is small...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2009

DPJ seeks coalition balancing act

With a little more than a week to go before Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama is elected prime minister, media attention is focused on whether the DPJ will be able to create a unified policymaking system while building a stable relationship with two smaller allies.
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2009

Effect on Burmese living standard

In his Sept. 3 letter, "Sanctions don't impoverish Burma," Donald Seekins takes issue with Brahma Chellaney's Aug. 29 article, "U.S. should engage Burma," over the particular point of whether sanctions impoverish the Burmese people or not. (Seekins said it would be premature to drop all economic sanctions.)...
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2009

Good reasons for a little paranoia

Regarding Gautaman Bhaskaran's Aug. 28 article,"American paranoia insults Muslims' dignity": People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, and that is something Bhaskaran should pay heed to. First, it has been said in various circles that the recent detention of Indian movie star Shahrukh Khan at Newark...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 6, 2009

Money: the root of all optimism

A New Development Model for Japan: Selected Essays 2000-2008 by Akira Kojima. The Japan Journal, 2009, 362 pp., ¥2,625 (cloth) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens in the opening passage of his famous novel "A Tale of Two Cities." Although written 150 years ago,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Sep 6, 2009

Mikuni documentary brings actor full circle

Rentaro Mikuni is one of those people whose every virtue is matched by a vice. For each endearing, admirable act he can recall from his 86 years of life, he seems to have a sin to match.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 5, 2009

How to become a gaijin that can say no

I wish I could say, "No." I wish I knew how.

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