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COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2011

Hamas must sell a new vision

SEATTLE — "Now it is time to naturalize the flow of history," wrote Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's minister of foreign affairs in the March 16 edition of The Guardian.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 26, 2011

Hey, look! No loot!

People around the world have marveled at the lack of mass-looting in Japan among the survivors of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Many people are still asking: Why was there no mass-looting?
COMMENTARY
Mar 25, 2011

'Protect' the Syrians next?

LONDON — March 18 saw the first nationwide protests against the Ba'ath regime in Syria. If these protests develop into a full-scale revolt, the regime's response may dwarf that of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2011

Japan's moment of crisis

LONDON — Harrowing pictures of the sufferings of the Japanese people and the devastation of towns and villages along the northeast coast of Honshu as a result of the record-breaking earthquake and the unprecedented tsunami March 11 have dominated the British media for nearly two weeks.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 23, 2011

Japan to the fore at SXSW despite disaster at home

AUSTIN, Texas — Minutes after arriving in downtown Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival, I ran into a Japanese friend from Tokyo. While we were catching up, an American woman passing by overheard him mention Japan and instantly stopped to shake his hand. "I'm...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 22, 2011

A dispatch from the disaster zone

I cannot recall ever attempting to take gasoline from a car by sucking through a rubber hose. But on Monday last week there I was, standing in a dirt parking lot while contemplating proper tube diameter to access the tank of our Toyota Belta sedan in the town of Kawasaki, a small suburb just west of...
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
Mar 19, 2011

Quake takes heaviest toll on elderly

RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Pref. — The elderly couple fled their home on foot as the warning sirens blared. But they could not keep up with their neighbors and fell behind as the tsunami rushed in.
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.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 19, 2011

What it means to be 'prepared'

Japan has repeatedly been referred to as the "most prepared nation in the world" for an earthquake or tsunami disaster. The government has been praised for its readiness via earthquake/tsunami drills, for the prompt organization of the Self-Defense Forces, and for its preparedness to send in doctors...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2011

Poetess achieves duality of words, numbers

Statistically, there's no accounting for Jessica Goodfellow's life in Japan. The daughter of an engineer, on a fast track in her early 20s to a Ph.D. in economics at California Institute of Technology, Goodfellow realized something essential didn't correlate: her incalculable love of poetry.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2011

Nuclear power in disarray

Damage beyond imagination is unfolding in the wake of the massive earthquake that hit Japan on March 11. More than 5,000 people are confirmed dead or missing, and the death toll is expected to reach into the tens of thousands. In the Miyagi Prefecture town of Minami Sanriku alone, around 10,000 people...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

Activist fighting for LGBT rights

Harvey Milk is part of U.S. history but Japan has yet to see anyone like him 32 years after his assassination, according to Taiga Ishikawa, an openly gay candidate running for the Toshima Ward Assembly in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

Roos apologizes to Nakaima for Maher's alleged insult

NAHA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos apologized to Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima Thursday over a U.S. State Department official's reported remarks that disparaged people in the prefecture.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2011

A deathly silence grips Pakistan

LONDON — At least with a dictatorship, you know where you are — and if you know where you are, you may be able to find your way out. In Pakistan, it is not so simple.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2011

Adjusting the bar exam

Seventy-four new law schools have been established since 2004 under a reform policy for the legal profession. A new bar exam was introduced for graduates from these schools while the traditional bar exam, open to anybody, was continued. The latter, which had a history of more than 60 years, came to an...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 6, 2011

Japanese families' nutritional values pay dearly for 'progress'

Last year, a gut-wrenching book by Nobuko Iwamura was published by Shinchosha titled "Kazoku no Katte Desho!" ("It's My Kitchen and I'll Do What I Like in It!"). Gut-wrenching because it describes, with the help of 274 highly unpalatable photos, the kinds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners ordinary Japanese...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Mar 5, 2011

Refugee hopefuls hold Nagoya feast to reach out to community

Hoping to give the public an opportunity to learn more about people seeking political asylum in Japan, refugee applicants being processed by the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau held a community outreach party last weekend.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2011

Queensland official pitches TPP

Andrew Fraser, treasurer and minister for state development and trade of Queensland, is grateful for the assistance the Japanese public and private sectors gave to his state after it was devastated by recent flooding and Cyclone Yasi.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 1, 2011

Charisma Men, unite against the identity enforcers

English teachers in Japan get a bum rap. Not always taken seriously as professionals, and often denied advancement opportunities in the workplace, they are seen as people over here on a lark. They get accused of taking advantage of Japanese society to earn easy money, canoodle with the locals, then go...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2011

Don't give up on Japan's kids

Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japan's once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 27, 2011

Nationalism and its discontents

In this wide-ranging feature following a recent visit to Chengdu, China, Jeff Kingston examines Sino-Japanese relations and challenges facing the government in Beijing
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2011

The trouble with today's youth is nothing new

Here we go again. "Young people," frets Sapio magazine, "are rapidly becoming stupid." They can't read, can't calculate, can't communicate. They have no manners, no ambition, no interest in anything; no consideration for other people, no knowledge of world affairs. New technology enabling instant communication...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2011

Aspiring animator comes to Japan to chase her dreams

It's fun to walk down the street or get aboard a train with Tracey Seals and watch how Japanese people react. Once they notice the blue-eyed, bespectacled 21-year-old redhead from Mississippi in their midst, some break out in smiles. And others do double-takes, as if they've just seen an anime character...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 19, 2011

Monk brings global view to Buddhism

At some point or another, a child nibbles at the world of questions: "Why are we here, where did we come from, how did the world start?"
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2011

Beijing's likely lesson? Ratchet up repression

HONG KONG — China, which has been obsessed with political stability ever since it called out its army to crush a massive albeit peaceful protest in Beijing 22 years ago, is likely to step up repressive tactics against its population in the wake of the toppling of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak after...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 8, 2011

Seniors reconnecting to retail

Creative retailers and caregivers are finding ways to empower the growing legions of elderly shoppers.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2011

Less is more for Japan travel buff

Harry Cheng, a globe-trotter who travels about 320,000 km a year, believes a simple list of names is enough to stir people's interest in scenes they haven't seen before. With this belief, he will soon launch a unique travel guide dedicated to recording travel experiences in Japan.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight