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EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2008

Prevention of suicides

The Diet in 2006 enacted a basic law to help prevent suicides. And in 2007 the Cabinet adopted the goal of reducing the number of suicides per 100,000 people by 20 percent by 2016 from the level of 2005.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 17, 2008

Death is big business in Japan

Like it or not, we will all die one day.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2008

Street players give hoops diplomacy a shot

On one sunny Sunday afternoon this spring, dozens of people of various ages and nationalities converged on the basketball courts at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Juking, dunking, shooting and scoring, they played with grit as their competitive juices flowed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 14, 2008

Kutcher gets lucky — in Vegas and in life

Model turned actor and TV producer Ashton Kutcher is the first to admit he's a very lucky man. In the mid-1990s he auditioned for several U.S. TV series before joining "That '70s Show," which in 1998 launched his career as a nationally known face.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Aug 12, 2008

Jimmy Choo, Mickey Mouse, Fred Perry and more

Fashion mouse Disney has inspired a lot of people, from little girls to Superbowl champions. Even designer Vivienne Tam has now taken inspiration from her childhood and decided to pay tribute to the famous mouse with a capsule collection of playful dresses for this fall/winter season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Aug 10, 2008

Fiat's 'Bambina': a 'small car with a big heart'

Japan makes plenty of fun little cars, but it is far from having a monopoly on the aesthetic.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2008

Stop criticizing China, it has come so far

BEIJING — When I was at school, sports lessons included an exercise where we threw hand grenades (made from wood topped with metal to resemble the real thing) against a wall over which a red slogan had been stretched offering the reason for such a militaristic pastime: "Exercise our bodies and protect...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 5, 2008

What aspects of other cultures would you like to see Japan adopt?

COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 5, 2008

Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin'

Gaijin. It seems we hear the word every day. For some, it's merely harmless shorthand for "gaikokujin" (foreigner). Even Wikipedia (that online wall for intellectual graffiti artists) had a section on "political correctness" that claimed illiterate and oversensitive Westerners had misunderstood the Japanese...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 3, 2008

The obsession over those dumbed down cute mascots

Japan is overrun with cute mascots. They represent everything from chain stores to police departments, and for the past decade or so there has been a marked increase in the popularity of one species of mascot called "yuru-kyara." The second half of this word stands for "character," while "yuru" is from...
COMMUNITY
Jul 26, 2008

Psychic travels world to save lives

Professor Jucelino Nobrega da Luz was 9 years old when he had a dream that scared him half to death.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2008

Deadly escapes from society

The fatal stabbing Tuesday of a bookshop clerk in Hachioji, Tokyo, brings to mind the senseless killing of seven people in Akihabara on June 8. The man who crashed a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians in the world's largest electronics shopping district and started stabbing people was quoted by...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2008

Public explosions in China

Explosions on two buses during the morning rush hour Monday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China, killed two people and injured 14 others, as Chinese authorities were tightening security ahead of the opening of the Beijing Olympics in less than three weeks. Both the Kunming public...
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Jul 23, 2008

Veteran sheds hatred, finds Japan now like second home

21st in a series
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008

Fly fanboys in the living room

Parents the world over would surely prefer their children not to throw things about. It's just plain bad manners, among other things. But Atsushi Kikuchi, a serious-looking father of two boys, positively encourages it. And, he evenmaintains, his sons' ballistic behavior has produced considerable benefits...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 15, 2008

Human rights — strictly personal, strictly Japanese?

Go figure. Just a few weeks after I wrote about how Japanese courts try to avoid doing anything dramatic, on June 4 the Supreme Court ruled that a section of the Nationality Law was unconstitutional. Such rulings being so rare, I steeled myself for a big helping of highfalutin' Japanese legalese and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 12, 2008

Relationship coaching over the phone

It is easy to spot Jack Ito and his wife Toshie. They're walking hand in hand around the lobby of the Prince Hotel in Shinagawa, looking as much culture-shocked as in love.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 10, 2008

Asian stars united by earthquake disaster

'When it has to happen, it will happen," declares a bullish Judy Ongg, a Taiwan-born actress, singer and novelist based in Japan. "When you think it has to be done, you have to do it yourself."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 8, 2008

Japan's last frontier took time to tame, cultivate image

Hokkaido, where the Group of Eight summit is taking place in Toyako, is known for its hot springs, ski resorts, seafood and magnificent scenery.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2008

Cardboard coffins boast eco-merit

As more consumers pursue environmentally friendly lives, businesses are introducing products and services catering to those quests.
COMMENTARY
Jul 7, 2008

Work traditions worth keeping

When I had a chance to meet with a group of students, I asked them for what purpose each would do the job that he or she got in the near future. A majority replied "something that makes work worth doing and life worth living," although some did say "for money."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2008

A wave of migrating brains and barbarians

MUNICH — Europe is experiencing a huge wave of migration between east and west. This movement resembles the Great Migrations (Volkerwanderung) of the fourth to sixth centuries.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 1, 2008

Low key, off key, but anyway it's your way

Born in Japan three decades ago, karaoke has evolved into a global fixture.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2008

Akihabara killer followed plot mapped by the media

After serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was hanged on June 17, some death-penalty opponents wondered out loud if Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama had signed the execution order as a response to the indiscriminate murders of seven people on the streets of Akihabara nine days earlier. Of course, Hatoyama didn't...

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