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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 2, 2010

Attorney glut may hit foreign firms

COLIN P. A. JONES One of the interesting things about being part of Japan's new law school system and its role in greatly increasing the number of Japanese attorneys is this: Nobody seems to have bothered asking the Japanese people if they actually need more attorneys. The original target of increasing...
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2010

Why the oppressed must tell their own story

SEATTLE — When American historian Howard Zinn died recently, he left a legacy that redefined our relationship to history. Professor Zinn dared to challenge the way history was written. He defied the conventional construction of historical discourses by the pen of victors or elites.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2010

Cancer-thwarting lifestyles

Cancer has been the No. 1 cause of death for Japanese since 1981, accounting for one-third of Japanese deaths. One's lifestyle is closely related to the contraction of cancer and one can avoid developing cancer to a large extent by changing one's lifestyle. Thus education can play an important role....
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 22, 2010

Government housing allowance ignores market realities

To aid laid-off workers, the government has been offering rent subsidies, but clearly the money isn't reaching the right people.
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2010

Taiwanese perspective on Sino-U.S. relations

LOS ANGELES — Unless they somehow manage to entwine us in World War III with China, our friends in Taiwan truly are our friends.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 20, 2010

Artists push their own snow festival

Among the intricately carved sculptures at the Sapporo Snow Festival this year, three Dutch artists and a polar bear could be seen luring passersby with ribbon-wrapped blocks of compacted snow in an attempt to promote an alternative festival that makes better use of the city's most prominent resource....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Feb 16, 2010

Instinct key for singer-entrepreneur

For a musician and entrepreneur with many professional faces, Australian Donna Burke is surprisingly wary of constantly taking work-related calls.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 14, 2010

Tiger of the snows

White flakes slip delicately down. Dusting the glow of graceful moss-clad forest relics rotting back into the ground, they illuminate the few giants still standing — majestic Japanese yew and lofty Korean pine. The ancient trees are silent; the only sound is from the hustle of our camouflaged legs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 12, 2010

The magical mystery tour of 'media artist' Yuri Suzuki

The youngest artist showing at "Cyber Arts Japan," 29-year-old Yuri Suzuki, is among the generation that grew up immersed in the culture that informs so much of new media art today. He has received honorable mentions in Ars Electronica's interactive art division for two pieces — "Prepared Turntable"...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 7, 2010

Film series reveals more than just foreign take on Japan

Many people still think Japan is inscrutable. It's a cliche reinforced on the Japanese side by another cliche that says Japan is "unique," and which is further reinforced by the tendency to explain cultural aspects as if they were museum exhibits. Much of NHK's English language content falls into this...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2010

Both sides of the story

Japanese and Chinese academics on Jan. 31 released a 549-page report on their joint studies of ancient, medieval and modern history involving both countries. Release of the report, originally scheduled in 2008, was delayed because of political considerations on China's part. In addition, the postwar...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 2, 2010

Children's rights, judicial wrongs

Last in a two-part series
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 31, 2010

Dysfunctional hairs of a vaunted democracy

NEW YORK — Three recent developments in a span of two days reminded me how dysfunctional and uncivil America's vaunted democracy has become.
JAPAN
Jan 28, 2010

Victim of Akihabara rampage reaches out to defendant

Until June 8, 2008, Hiroshi Yuasa led an ordinary life, one of thousands of taxi drivers who work Tokyo's streets. But just after noon on that rainy Sunday, as shoppers thronged the streets of Akihabara, he witnessed an event that changed everything.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

'The wartime leaders of Japan were heroes'

General Toshio Tamogami, 61, was the chief of staff of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force between March 2007 and November 2008 despite having a history of lobbing verbal missiles at "leftists," China and Japan's so-called war-renouncing Constitution. In 2008, he pulled these and other themes together in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 22, 2010

Theater star brings new tricks to the stage

In the summer of 2008, a shockwave hit the world of Japanese theater when Keishi Nagatsuka announced he was taking a yearlong break from the stage to take a government-sponsored sabbatical in London.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2010

Poverty remains endemic

NEW YORK — Last year the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization announced that the number of hungry people in the world increased over the last decade. In 2008, the World Bank announced a significant decline in the number of poor people up to 2005.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jan 17, 2010

Some detect a racist theme in 'Avatar'

PHILADELPHIA — Near the end of the hit film "Avatar," the villain snarls at the hero, "How does it feel to betray your own race?" Both men are white — although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 2.75-meter-tall, long-tailed alien.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 12, 2010

Wannabe comics find their voices in Tokyo

"Everyone likes a laugh now and then, right?"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 10, 2010

Danger lurks when self-restraint segues into media self-censorship

If I had to choose a word that characterized a good deal of Japanese social behavior it would probably be jishuku.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 5, 2010

Minors in own category but never above the law

Jan. 11 marks Coming of Age Day, an annual holiday to celebrate people who have reached legal adulthood.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2009

Do more to prevent suicides

The number of suicides in 2009 has already topped 30,000 for the 12th straight year (since 1998). According to the National Police Agency, the suicide figure through the end of November reached 30,181, or 445 more than for the same period last year. This translates into about 90 suicides a day on average....

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