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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012

Purity Ring's secret? Start your morning right

How does Fuji Rock compare with other festivals around the world?
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2012

Ozawa vows new party will dethrone Noda's DPJ

Ichiro Ozawa vowed Wednesday to devote himself to expanding the support network for his new party to knock the ruling Democratic Party of Japan off its throne in the next Lower House general election.
COMMUNITY / Issues / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 31, 2012

Debate rages over value of JET program, assistant language teachers

Some readers' responses to letters published in this column on July 10 ("Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary") regarding Patrick Budmar's July 3 Zeit Gist article, "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary":
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2012

Another senseless slaughter

The United States has suffered yet another bloody massacre of its citizens — by one of its own. The immediate reaction to a bloodbath in which 12 people were killed and 58 wounded was shock and horror at the scale and senselessness of the tragedy.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 25, 2012

Wag the dog: Pooch tax more than just a source of revenue

A city in Kansai finds its citizens surprisingly receptive to a tax on dogs.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2012

Wired with technology to fight fear in Mexico

A couple of months ago we visited Juarez, Mexico, a city right across our border — yet so far away.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 22, 2012

Is Rio+20 the way the world ends — with a whimper?

Last month, more than 45,000 people descended on Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
SOCCER / J. League
Jul 21, 2012

Ogasawara learned how sport can inspire in wake of tragedy

Mitsuo Ogasawara has never been a man of many words, but as the J. League takes a break from its normal schedule to host a disaster-relief charity match on Saturday, the Kashima Antlers midfielder is determined to give a voice to those still affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2012

Sham hearings on nuclear power

The government on July 14 began a series of public hearings on the future weight of nuclear power in Japan's electricity generation. They are being held in 11 cities and the last hearing will take place on Aug. 4. Although the government says the hearings are a chance for it to hear what the people have...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 17, 2012

Urbanites urged to head up, not down, to survive tsunami

Sitting across from me at a Naka-Meguro pizzeria, Riccardo Tossani pulled out his iPhone to check his Spyglass app. He glanced out the window to survey the adjacent taller buildings, ignoring the cherry blossoms that were in full bloom.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2012

Better a ban on work drinks than a ban on workers drinking

On July 6, the president of Fuji TV, Ko Toyoda, held a press conference and apologized for a June 9 segment of the variety show "Mecha Mecha Iketeru!" in which a group of celebrities had a drinking contest. Three citizens organizations, including a group of parents of children killed in drunk-driving...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 15, 2012

Life up in the treetops

Imagine strolling through a forest and coming across a hut supported by four trees 8 meters off the ground. With its triangular roof, stained-glass door panels and timber decking, at first sight it's like something in a fairyland.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 12, 2012

Public theater takes on a leading role

Once upon a time, Japanese contemporary theater shared the limelight with youth-cultural movements that were rocking the nation. Back then, in the late 1960s and '70s, the avant-garde works of the angura (underground) theater scene had such an affinity with the radical student movement that they often...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 8, 2012

How astrology and superstition drove an increase in abortions in Japan

I like to think of myself as a rational human being most of the time, but I have to suppress a shudder if someone opens an umbrella indoors, and I'd probably comment if a black cat crossed my path.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 8, 2012

Keeping an eye on TV news coverage of the nuke crisis

In the week immediately after March 11, 2011 — when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku and crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — most Japanese were closely watching TV news programs — amazed that a nuclear crisis was now threatening their lives.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 7, 2012

The price you pay for electronic bells and whistles of businesses

The setsuden (power-saving) campaign is now in full force, as residents all over Japan are being encouraged to conserve electricity so there is enough to get through the high-use summer months. Even on my small island of 609 people, each household received a list of suggestions on how we can help Japan...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 3, 2012

In formulating immigration policy, no seat at the table for non-Japanese

Last month the Japanese government took baby steps toward an official immigration policy. Ten ministries and several specialist "people of awareness" (yūshikisha) held meetings aimed at creating a "coexistence society" (kyōsei shakai) within which non-Japanese (NJ) would be "accepted" (uke ire).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 1, 2012

Author Lesley Downer's romance with Japan is no fleeting affair

British writer, historian and journalist Lesley Downer has been visiting Japan and writing about it for nearly 35 years — beginning in 1978, when she was part of the first-ever intake of the English Teaching Recruitment Program, which evolved into the famous JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program)...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 1, 2012

Ryuichi Sakamoto reminds Japanese what's the score on nuclear blame

"Keeping silent after Fukushima is barbaric," is how composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto recently made clear his proactive stance toward Japan's ongoing nuclear disaster.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 30, 2012

The toad tax and other ways to raise money

Read my lips: no new taxes! Just old ones raised.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jun 20, 2012

Tyler learned many lessons in first NBA season

The Japan Times has published periodic interviews with bj-league players since the fall of 2006. This is the first One-on-One interview featuring a former bj-league player now in the NBA.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jun 19, 2012

Tokyo: What are your memories of the sarin attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995?

Mitsuyoshi Nakamura
COMMENTARY
Jun 18, 2012

State of economic disparity in the age of dashed ideals

During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of countries were ruled by political parties upholding the credo of "market fundamentalism" as their governments vigorously pushed neoliberalism.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 10, 2012

The self-styled 'Land of the Free' nurtures yet another facet of hypocrisy

Last month, two members of the U.S. Senate vilified Eduardo Saverin, the cofounder of Facebook Inc., for doing something that Americans are apparently coming to consider a punishable sin.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 9, 2012

Anti-aging tips for the elderly — don't let the society age you

I can never remember my mother being younger than 50. I'm sure she was born 50, and married my father at 60. Then they went to a store and bought me when they were both 63.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2012

LDP's dangerous proposals for amending antiwar article

The Liberal Democratic Party published its new draft constitutional amendment proposal in late April. The draft reflects a number of significant changes above and beyond those advanced in the proposal unveiled by the LDP in 2005. The proposal includes a complete overhaul of Article 9, the war-renouncing...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 3, 2012

Wood you believe how good school could be . . .

Since 1980, I have made my home in Shinano, a town in northern Nagano Prefecture. However, in articles, letters and speeches, I refer to this area as Kurohime, the name of our local train station and of the great, dormant, densely forested volcano that looks down on us. I prefer to say my home is in...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan