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EDITORIALS
May 7, 2011

Softening the housing shock

More than 124,000 people are still housed in some 2,000 temporary shelters in 18 prefectures in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Providing them with temporary housing is an urgent task for the central and local governments.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 3, 2011

It's innovate or die in today's mad mag world

In few countries are the most vital political, economic and cultural activities as geographically concentrated as in Japan. All the main institutions can be found in Tokyo — one can only shudder to think what will happen not only to this city, but to the whole country if and when a massive earthquake...
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2011

What to do with the debris

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami caused a big loss of lives and property. It also left a large amount of debris, creating a headache for local governments in the devastated region. An estimated 24.9 million tons of debris exist in the three most affected prefectures — 16 million tons in Miyagi,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2011

Way to institutionalize a system of integrity

When a career bureaucrat with a corruption charge pending against him was chosen to be the chief vigilance commissioner, the Supreme Court nullified the appointment to protect the "institutional integrity" of the CVC.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 1, 2011

Explore Seoul's hidden heart

Just two weeks after the March 11 triple-catastrophe in Tohoku, and a mere 90 minutes after leaving Haneda Airport in Tokyo, it was almost unreal to be standing in Kimpo International Airport just outside Seoul and listening to excited Japanese tourists chatting about what and when they will eat and...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2011

No time for political games as Japan tries to rise again

Japanese people who have been hit by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident have been — rightly — praised worldwide for their courage and resilience. In many other places, even one such disaster would have triggered widespread looting if not rioting.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2011

Evacuee mayor's community torn

Katsutaka Idogawa, the 64-year-old mayor of Futaba, Fukushima Prefecture, is standing at a crossroads.
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2011

Living with risk

Just about a year ago, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, triggering one of the largest oil spills in history. A year later, the full impact — economic, social, psychological and environmental — remains unknown. But the BP disaster, like the unfolding catastrophe at the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 28, 2011

The well-organized rites of spring

Time to head out into the sunshine Though the sakura (cherry blossom) festivities have just passed, spring is still in the air, and as the weather warms up we can expect brighter skies. With that comes lots of sunshine, which means for those of us with sensitive skin it's that time to search out the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 26, 2011

English mags approach milestone, crossroads

Those members of the expat community in Japan who are addicted to their weekly or monthly fix of English-language magazines will have surely noticed all the changes going on lately. These are troubled and exciting times and, just as it has in the past, the local media world is trying to rise to the challenge...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2011

Tokyo toy museum joins relief operations

Thousands of colorful donated toys from Japan and overseas were brought to the Tokyo Toy Museum in Shinjuku Ward on Sunday to be packed by nearly 100 volunteers for distribution in the disaster-hit Tohoku region.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

Mikura: Tokyo's island of natural wonders

Last week, while much of the metropolis continued to reel from aftershocks following the March 11 megaquake, and worries about radiation leaks from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactors lurked in most people's minds, there was a part of Tokyo blissfully removed from all that madness.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

A place of refuge for exiles and foreign wayfarers

The 21-sq.-km island of Mikura has a distinctive history remembered and shared well by villagers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 24, 2011

Gaming Moto Azabu

Rather than dwell on the dark side of life at this time, I decide to get my game on by heading to a store just off Azabu-Juban's main shopping street in central Tokyo's Minato Ward. Max Game, at the foot of Kurayamizaka (Dark Slope), is surrounded by kids of all ages sitting at tables, strategizing and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2011

Disaster expert seeks better tsunami defense

A town hall located several kilometers inland was the designated disaster evacuation site in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Tohoku on the afternoon of March 11, a young town employee broadcast an urgent evacuation order to local residents. Her broadcasts...
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2011

Tepco's road map

Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Sunday announced a road map for actions to bring the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant under control. It is expected to take three months to steadily decrease the release of radioactive materials while cooling the reactors (Step 1), and additional...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 21, 2011

Orimo still chasing Olympic dream

Forty-year-old star shooter Takehiko Orimo has achieved pretty much everything he could've possibly hoped for in his stellar career in the Japanese hoop scene.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 18, 2011

In a globalized world, beware the lonely going to war with the only

Only one or lonely one. This may be the question that nations start asking themselves in the aftermath of Japan's threefold disaster.
COMMENTARY
Apr 17, 2011

The confidence to look out again

The tragic events in Japan continue to attract general sympathy here, and contributions toward relief of the sufferers are still pouring in. But even the problems at the Fukushima nuclear reactors have ceased to be front-page news. Attention in Britain has focused on Libya, problems in Syria and other...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 17, 2011

The unnatural state of Japan's self-restraint

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, Japanese television started covering the disaster full-time. As things returned to some sort of version of normal, the spaces where commercials were supposed to run were first filled with public service announcements provided by the Ad Council...
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...
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2011

Hitachi, Boehringer face evac closures

Hitachi Chemical Co. and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH may abandon factories largely unscathed by last month's Japan earthquake and tsunami as the nuclear plant radiation crisis continues.
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.
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...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 13, 2011

Eagles chairman Mikitani enjoys day at the park

Golden Eagles chairman Hiroshi Mikitani is a widely known top entrepreneur in Japan. But Tuesday, he was so emotional as his ballclub finally opened its 2011 season after the massive earthquake hit the franchise's home city, Sendai.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan