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Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2011

Disaster analysis you may not hear elsewhere

The seemingly limited information being provided by both the government and the operating company, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), about the ongoing disaster at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is a source of widespread public concern.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2011

'Nothing can prepare you to witness this'

It's a relatively minor incident that gets me. I'm at a gymnasium in central Ishinomaki photographing members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) as they unload dozens of corpses from a truck. Each is wrapped in blankets, some with flowery designs far too cheerful for this occasion.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 20, 2011

The Bronze Bonze

Yoshiyuki Yoneda had a problem. As chief priest of a temple in Kyoto, he ministered to the spiritual and ritual needs of his local community. But like many other clerics in Japan's ancient capital, he also wanted to attract fee-paying tourists to his temple.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2011

Prefectures open shelters for tsunami survivors

SAITAMA — Governments in the Kanto region opened shelters Thursday for people who have evacuated from northern Japan.
Reader Mail
Mar 17, 2011

Sense of community must survive

When last Friday's earthquake hit our city (Fukushima) around 2:40 p.m., I was preparing for a Chinese class. At first I thought it was a usual quake, but it was much stronger and lasted longer than usual. Then a bookshelf fell and I panicked!
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2011

Fukushima nuclear plant alert

The situation at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s No. 1 Fukushima nuclear power plant, damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami, is worsening. Following hydrogen explosions in the No. 1 and No. 3 reactors Saturday and Monday, respectively, serious accidents occurred in the No. 2 and No. 4 reactors Monday...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Mar 16, 2011

The mobile-Internet is a lifeline for people in postquake confusion

When the earthquake hit northern Japan on Friday, voice calls from mobile phones became immediately unavailable in order to leave room for emergency calls. However, in the Kanto area, mobile Internet connection was mostly kept on, and many people turned to the Web to exchange information.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 15, 2011

Kicking up a stink over ink in Kobe

You might want to avoid Suma Beach this summer if you are inked or have even a temporary sticker tattoo. The powers that be in Kobe City are considering ways to ban the display of tattoos on the beach.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2011

Matsuzawa quits, backs Ishihara

Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa said Monday he will not run in the April 10 Tokyo gubernatorial election and will instead support incumbent Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 13, 2011

Of goldfish and food demons

A RIOT OF GOLDFISH, by Kanoko Okamoto. Translated by J. Keith Vincent. Hesperus Press, 2010, 136 pp., £8.99 (paper) Between 1929 and 1932, the poet Kanoko Okamoto traveled through Europe and the U.S. with her husband, the cartoonist Ippei Okamoto, her son and two male retainers. The group visited the...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Mar 13, 2011

Has rice farming passed its expiry date in Japan?

Atsuo Aoki doesn't appear to be an irrational man. At 52, he works in the banking division of the Japan Agricultural Cooperative (JA) in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, an old castle city at the foot of the Japan Alps about three hours by rail north of Tokyo. He lives there with his wife and three children...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 12, 2011

Smoke gets in your eyes

"If you could pick five great places to smoke a cigar, where would you choose?"
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 12, 2011

Giant earthquake rattles players, fans at ballpark

There was nothing amiss at Yokohama Stadium.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 12, 2011

A possible cure for memory loss

Gumonji is a Shingon Buddhist practice that is easy to explain, difficult to imagine, and nearly impossible to carry out. You still want to try it? Well, OK.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2011

Tomioka Silk Mill ranks as Meiji Era industrial gem

In his youth, Shinji Takahashi was a featherweight boxer. Today, working with his two younger brothers in a family legal practice based in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, he is a heavyweight lawyer and committed activist.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 11, 2011

The National break past indie's borders

Formed in Brooklyn, New York, via Cincinnati, Ohio, The National have taken an equally oblique route to success. Twelve years into a career where every strand of recognition has been painstakingly hard-earned, The National's exquisite melancholy has resonated long enough to transform any cult-status...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2011

How big is China's economy?

HONG KONG — There was much fanfare last month when Beijing reported that China had overtaken Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world. But this celebration was bogus — because the reality is that in real terms China has already become the biggest economy in the world, edging slightly...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Mar 9, 2011

A brighter side: amateur sumo

Given the dark days for the world of professional sumo and the suspension of the Haru Basho, Sumo Scribblings is turning its focus the amateur sumo season, which is just getting underway. To learn more about the landscape, we spoke with Katrina Watts, who serves as a board member of the International...
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2011

Who'll report on worker abuse?

Regarding the March 2 article "English big business, and growing": Please don't make it sound as if all these private companies are doing a good thing. Some pay unfair wages and do not enroll their teachers in insurance or provide other benefits. They break labor laws and no one reports on that.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 6, 2011

Winter's end and the coming spring

I've just finished packing my bag for a visit to the Ogasawara Islands, a boat trip down, a boat trip back, and I seriously doubt if there will be any snow. It will be my first time to those rather remote islands 1,000 km due south of Tokyo (though administratively part of the capital), and I am looking...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 4, 2011

Kuriyama trades her blades for a song

She's died on screen almost as many times as she's killed. Western movie fans will know her as Gogo Yubari, the spiked-ball-and-chain-wielding schoolgirl who disembowels men for fun before crying tears of blood in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1." In Japan, she's been an actress since the age...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 4, 2011

Survival on top of agenda for J. League's lower half

The following is the first of a two-part J. League preview for the upcoming season. Team-by-team previews of the nine lowest-ranked teams competing in the first division are listed.
COMMENTARY
Mar 1, 2011

'Horizontal mobility' staves off revolt in India

CHENNAI, India — Now that President Hosni Mubarak has finally relinquished power in Egypt and the military has taken control, the question in India is whether such a people's revolt can possibly happen there.

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