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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 8, 2011

Communication skill, beyond language, called key necessity

When Mark Rubiner drove tens of thousands of kilometers from Arizona to Mexico and through South America when he was only 21 years old, his high school Spanish skills became a key tool for survival.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 4, 2011

Japan needs less ganbatte, more genuine action

Ganbatte kudasai!
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 2, 2011

Press miss the point at antinuke demo

Three weeks after Japan's biggest antinuclear demonstration, there is still some dispute over how many people actually attended. The organizers estimate 60,000 and the police say about 30,000. Except for the Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers, which accept the police figure, the mainstream vernacular media...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2011

Agenda of imperatives for 7 billion

Late next month, a child will be born — the 7 billionth citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2011

Genius lurks in this dangerous czar

There is one incontestably great actor on the world stage today, and he has no interest in following our script.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Sep 30, 2011

Average Joes become champions on 'Sasuke'

"Pole dancer! Pole dancer!! Pole dancer!!!" From the bellowing announcement thumping through the speakers, you might think we're in a night club. We're not. But, without doubt, the location is just as fabled as many nocturnal haunts, and the atmosphere is just as electric.
Reader Mail
Sep 29, 2011

Don't belittle individual efforts

I am a foreign resident who usually doesn't watch the Sunday morning talk shows, so I was not aware that Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and other political party leaders appeared on an NHK broadcast Sept. 11 to discuss the national government's response...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2011

Israel must act, not react, before it's too late

Despite their long-established relations, at least on the official level, Egypt-Israeli affairs have never faced fatal threats as they do in 2011.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2011

Summer energy savings

As the Japanese summer turns to cooler weather and the peak energy use months of June, July and August pass, Japanese can congratulate themselves on one success — saving energy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 24, 2011

Fukuoka publisher offers discerning readers range of translated genre fiction

The Japanese publishing industry is facing a historic crisis, with total sales now only two-thirds of that in 1997 and hundreds of bookstores nationwide shutting down every year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2011

Tohoku students share tales of disasters on global stage

Global leaders who gathered last week in Dalian, China, for the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Asia's premier global business forum, had a rare chance to hear Japanese high school and university students' firsthand experiences of the March disasters.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2011

Stronger defense for region

Although the original version of this article was written for a Japanese daily, I initially had American readers in my mind as the main target of my argument.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 17, 2011

Why you shouldn't worry about receiving a pension

Worried about all those years you have, or haven't, contributed to the Japanese pension system? Worry no more! The good news is that you won't need a pension from the Japanese government anyway. In honor of Respect for the Aged Day, I'll explain why.
COMMENTARY
Sep 16, 2011

New prime minister must restore confidence in politics

Yoshihiko Noda, taking over from Naoto Kan as president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, was elected the 95th prime minister on Aug. 30. He is the 18th prime minister in 25 years and the third since the DPJ came to power two years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2011

New mayor's warnings fell on deaf ears

When the March 11 quake struck, mayoral candidate Yutaka Ikarigawa was preparing for a speech on the streets of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 13, 2011

Swede on mission to help Japan seniors

Gustav Strandell believes that if there is something good about his home country, Sweden, that he can bring to Japan, it's the concept and some of the technical skills of its social welfare system developed over its 100-year-plus history as an aging society.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 11, 2011

Local governments crack down on health insurance scofflaws

As the tax base gets poorer fewer people pay their national health insurance premiums, and local governments are doing something about it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 10, 2011

Swiss tries to bring foreign tourists back to Japan, a step at a time

The undulating sea observes the solitary walker. A triangular bamboo farmer's hat shades his face as the infinite horizon stretches ahead, marking out his path.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 10, 2011

The power of spiders in rural Japan

Although I have lived in Japan's countryside for well over a decade, I have only recently come to understand the power of spiders.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 9, 2011

Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake

Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country's biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider the meaning of the festival in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2011

(M)otocompo's theater challenges stale indie scene

Shuffling onto the stage in a flurry of robotic jerks come three men wearing glazed expressions and identical striped tops. In time with the retro-futurist synthesizer chirps and bleeps, they then lurch into a kind of clockwork dance routine, while a fourth man, wearing a construction helmet and mask,...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Shockwaves from the West

A nervous calm has returned to the streets of England after last month's widespread riots, arson and looting across London and other cities sent shockwaves around the world. As far away as Japan people were asking if Britain was safe any more, and one German politician suggested moving next year's Olympic...
COMMENTARY
Aug 31, 2011

China's economy not a model for emulation

At a time when the United States and Europe are beset by economic crises, it is natural that the Western model of economic development, including a democratic political system, should be viewed with some skepticism while China's growth model is greatly enhanced.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2011

Sendai's jazz festival keeps the beat

For the past 20 years, the streets of Sendai have resonated with live music during the annual two-day Jozenji Streetjazz Festival, gathering crowds of hundreds and thousands from across the nation in what has become a staple mid-September feature in the city of 1 million.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 24, 2011

1991 USSR coup attempt's steep cost

Twenty years ago this weekend, a group of Communist Party Politburo members and Soviet government officials attempted a coup d'état. They created an unconstitutional "committee on the state of emergency," isolated the Soviet president and removed him from power.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 23, 2011

All in the family: Keeping inheritances is a tricky business

Many people hide inheritances to avoid paying taxes, which is relatively easy to do.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2011

Emergency escape routes: Publisher maps the best way home

The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 brought death and destruction on an horrific scale to a vast area of the northeastern Tohoku region.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 18, 2011

There's gold in them there wardrobes!

More people are mining closets and wardrobes for the precious metals they might contain.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear