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EDITORIALS
Oct 1, 2010

Epaulets to rule North Korea

Mr. Kim Jong Un, the third and youngest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, has joined the leadership of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea. Party delegates on Tuesday elected him as a member of the party's Central Committee and as a vice chairman of the party's Central Military Commission, a position...
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 26, 2010

Recruit founder revisits a scandal that shook the nation

Remember the infamous Recruit scandal of the late 1980s that brought down a government, tarnished the reputations of Japan's movers and shakers and left the public convinced that the government was rotten to the core?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 25, 2010

The off-season and other things that go off

Now that the summer is officially over, and we've entered the off-season in the Seto Inland Sea, you're probably thinking there is not much to do here on these sun-kissed islands. Actually, you'd be surprised.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

Hard-knock life leads to magic music

In 2004, Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye ditched their respectable jobs in France and headed to Kinshasa. In the ruined capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country just emerging from one of postcolonial Africa's worst conflicts, they felt strangely at home. "We were like mad dogs in...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2010

Exposure abroad key to success for youths

As universities struggle to enroll more foreigners and internationalize their student bodies, some are raising concerns about a growing number of Japanese who are choosing to stay closer to home rather than studying abroad and tackling new challenges.
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 22, 2010

How did the missing elderly slip through the cracks?

The Justice Ministry announced this month that it can't confirm the whereabouts of 230,000 centenarians listed in "koseki" family registers.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 21, 2010

Inquest bodies give public a voice

Political observers say one of the reasons Ichiro Ozawa lost the Democratic Party of Japan's presidential election Sept. 14 was the negative image of his alleged involvement in false financial reporting by his political fund-management body, Rikuzankai.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 18, 2010

The pot of gold and the expat rainbow

Life as a foreign resident has its trials. Some problems are giant-size, such as issues with communication, while others are more mundane, like how to deal with bugs. Which in Japan can also be giant-size.
EDITORIALS
Sep 16, 2010

Mr. Kan keeps his job

Prime Minister Naoto Kan saved his job by beating Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, former secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, in Tuesday's election of the DPJ president. In a big win, he got 721 points from DPJ Diet lawmakers, local assembly members, and registered party members and supporters against...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 12, 2010

Late P.E.N. Club president sets tone of Tokyo global writers' meet

This month, The Japan P.E.N. Club hosts the annual International PEN Congress, whose wide variety of lectures, readings and symposia will feature guests from Japan and overseas.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 12, 2010

Nara legends, myths and other weird tales

From May 1974 until March 1985, Kenji Inui wrote the column "Hometown Legends" for the prefectural news magazine Kensei Nara.
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2010

234,000 centenarians listed in registries missing

The Justice Ministry announced Friday that the existence of 234,354 centenarians listed as "alive" in family registries can't be confirmed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 9, 2010

Endocrine surgeon Dr. Koichi Ito

Dr. Koichi Ito, 52, is an endocrine surgeon and the best-known and most sought-after Japanese authority on the management of thyroid diseases. He is also the third-generation owner of Ito Hospital, ranked as Japan's most progressive thyroid-care medical center. Physicians all over Japan refer their...
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2010

Mr. Kan vs. Mr. Ozawa

After some meanderings, the campaign for election of the next president of the Democratic Party of Japan officially started Wednesday, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan and former DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa vying for the post.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 28, 2010

Putting true community back in theater

Throughout the Western world, community theater spices the dramatic arts.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 27, 2010

U.S. sake lovers spread some joy

For the first time ever, The Joy of Sake, the biggest sake tasting soiree outside of Japan, will bring its American brand of culture-crossing conviviality to Japan. On Nov. 2, the event, which originated in Hawaii, will be celebrating its anniversary in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 27, 2010

In the absence of information comes greater imagination

The 1990s saw the rise of what at the time seemed an important generation of Japanese female photographers. This included Junko Takahashi, HIROMIX, Rika Noguchi, Mika Ninagawa and Tomoko Sawada. While much of this new wave — most notably the narcissistic soft-porn of HIROMIX and the cosplay outings...
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2010

When scores of centenarians fall off radar

Japan prides itself on the world's longest life expectancy but is struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic — revelations that hundreds of people listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven't been heard from for decades.
LIFE
Aug 22, 2010

Uneasy neighbors across the sea

August 22 is the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Annexation between Japan and Korea that came into effect on Aug. 29, 1910 — commemorated now in North and South Korea as a day of shame.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 20, 2010

In search of society's true affluence

"When I was 40, my father died. When he died, he was working on a project for a children's campground on the island of Naoshima. When I returned from Tokyo to Okayama to lead the family company, I inherited the project. As I lived and worked with the locals, my thinking went through a 180-degree reversal....
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2010

Flickers of hope for nuke abolitionists

HIROSHIMA — In Hiroshima, this place where a fearful age was born one fiery instant 65 years ago, the Flame of Peace still flickers on, awaiting the day when the world is rid of nuclear weapons.
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2010

Avoiding the hot spots

This summer is unusually hot. From May 31 to Aug. 1, ambulances took a total of 21,032 people to hospitals for heat stroke; 98 of them died shortly after arrival. The death toll is expected to rise significantly as those who died later are added. The frequency of ambulance dispatches is higher than in...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 8, 2010

Discerning Japan's future journey through the prisms of its past

LAST IN A THREE-PART SERIES — T he French revolution in 1789 revolutionized more things than one. It changed the very definition of the word "revolution," which until then — as can be guessed from the literal meaning of its root words, "to turn back again" — meant to revert to something that existed...
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 8, 2010

Crumbling relics tell of life and death — and of rebirth, too

There's an area in Miyagi Prefecture called Kejonuma that's home to an arresting legend.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 18, 2010

Will Edo Castle's tower rise again?

What does Tokyo have as a genuine landmark?
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 9, 2010

Music workshops to teach amateurs about instruments

A fun workshop for 100 music lovers will take place at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, in the Expo Park in Suita City, Osaka, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on July 11.

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