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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2009

How Japan can regain its vitality

Last November, two months after the inauguration of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, I predicted, in an opinion piece for the American magazine Science, that a sweeping change in Japanese government was imminent.
Reader Mail
Oct 18, 2009

Obama's prize decided early on

Regarding the Oct. 14 editorial, "Nobel invests hope in leadership": The Japan Times, like any other newspaper in the world, certainly has a right to express its editorial opinion for or against the selection of U.S. President Barack Obama as the recipient of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Such opinions...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 18, 2009

Professor, schoolgirl share victim status in grope case

Last April, the Supreme Court reversed a Tokyo High Court decision that found Masahiro Nakura, a professor of medicine at the Self-Defense Forces University, guilty of being a chikan (groper) after he was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old high school girl on the Odakyu train line in 2006....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2009

After fast start, it's crunch time for Cabinet

The Democratic Party of Japan-led Cabinet heads into its second month Friday, after coming out quickly to usher in a new political era in the wake of the Liberal Democratic Party's long domination.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2009

Police interrogations on video

The Democratic Party of Japan's election manifesto calls for all interrogations of criminal suspects by investigators to be recorded on video, to (1) prevent prolonging a trial because of differences in opinion between public prosecutors and defense counsel members over the reliability of the record...
Reader Mail
Oct 8, 2009

An impossible situation for her

Regarding the Oct. 5 article "Rally for (Christopher) Savoie at D.C. (Japanese) embassy": Was it illegal for Noriko Savoie to take her children back to Japan? Apparently, according to reports of what the Tennessee court paper say.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2009

Time to acknowledge benefits of migration

BANGKOK — Amid the economic recession, lost jobs and ever greater burdens on health care and other public services, migration has become a hotly debated issue in many of the countries that attract migrants.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009

Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming

As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 4, 2009

Japan's gender equality may be 'insufficent,' but it's surely coming

As the vast majority of societies worldwide are male dominated, one of the most contentious issues they face as they evolve centers on the status of women.
COMMENTARY
Oct 3, 2009

Hopes and tasks for the DPJ

In a Yomiuri Shimbun opinion survey conducted just after the election, 72 percent of those polled had an optimistic view of the Democratic Party of Japan, reflecting a favorable popular response to the outcome of the Aug. 30 general election.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Oct 1, 2009

Chiba lays out new justice policies

Justice Minister Keiko Chiba says she will aim to submit a bill next year to the regular Diet session that would revise the Civil Code to enable married couples to have different surnames.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Sep 30, 2009

Where maids get slap happy ... for a price

Now you too can be slapped by an Akiharabara maid in the privacy of your own rented 'cute room.'
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2009

Irish voters weigh the Lisbon Treaty again

MAYNOOTH, Ireland — On Oct. 2, Irish voters go to the polls for a second time to decide whether to adopt the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. The mood in EU capitals is one of nervousness as polling day looms, with the future of the EU in the hands of Ireland's unpredictable voters. On two of the last...
OLYMPICS
Sep 30, 2009

Igaya says final presentations key

Japan's highest-ranked sports official in the Olympic movement, Chiharu Igaya, believes the four cities bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games are "neck and neck" entering the home straight.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 25, 2009

Kitazawa vague on support options for global antiterror role

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Thursday repeated that Japan will continue to make antiterrorism contributions after the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean is terminated, but stopped short of outlining possible alternatives.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 25, 2009

There's a new maestro in town

The New York Philharmonic led by conductor Alan Gilbert, who debuted as its new music director at the opening gala concert on Sept. 16, heads off for an Asian tour in October, with Tokyo as the first stop.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 24, 2009

Asahi Breweries advisor Takanori Nakajo

Takanori Nakajo, 82, is the honorary adviser of Asahi Breweries Ltd., one of Japan's leading beer and beverage makers. From "boy Friday" in 1952, Nakajo worked seven days a week until his official retirement as chairman in 1994. He poured all of his energy into beer-making and miraculously dragged the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 24, 2009

Asahi Breweries advisor Takanori Nakajo

Takanori Nakajo, 82, is the honorary adviser of Asahi Breweries Ltd., one of Japan's leading beer and beverage makers. From "boy Friday" in 1952, Nakajo worked seven days a week until his official retirement as chairman in 1994. He poured all of his energy into beer-making and miraculously dragged the...
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2009

Lessons of Lehman Brothers

On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers, a venerable international financial firm, went bankrupt. Its collapse set off a chain of events that triggered a global financial crisis that is estimated to have caused more than $1.6 trillion in losses and cost millions of jobs. A year later, we are still assessing...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2009

Presidential candidates call for LDP makeover

The three candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency on Saturday called for a complete makeover of the party in the wake of last month's devastating general election defeat.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 20, 2009

Chances for Sojourner to play this season look dim

After a decade in Japan, much of it devoted to spreading his love of basketball to the masses, Isaac Sojourner is without a team for the upcoming season.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2009

Japan's harmonious drift

PARIS — Forget what you have heard about the hardworking Japanese salaryman: Since the early 1990s, the Japanese have slackened their work habits.
Reader Mail
Sep 17, 2009

Universal support for social net

There have been recent newspaper advertisements labeled "opinion" from a group calling itself the Free Choice Foundation. From the name it seems the person listed as founder and chairman is non-Japanese yet wants to tell the Japanese government and people what to do with its social security net.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past