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COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2011

Arab revolutions unable to waken media to revolutionary discourse

When President Ali Abdullah Saleh tried desperately to quell Yemen's popular uprising, he appealed to tribalism, customs and traditions. All his efforts evidently failed, and the revolution continued unabated.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Aug 1, 2011

Kaio calls it quits, while Harumafuji secures a shot at yokozuna promotion

From Day 1 at the recent Nagoya Basho the vultures were circling. Some went after the admittedly pathetically low attendances on the first few days of the basho as a sign that all is not well with the public's perception of sumo in the wake of the yaocho bout-buying scandal. Two of the first three days...
LIFE
Jul 31, 2011

Most unlikely bedfellows

"How wonderful! How marvelous! From here to the southeast is what the Westerners call the Pacific Ocean and the American states! They must be very close!" — Watanabe Kazan, artist and samurai, in a diary recording a sojourn in Enoshima, an island off Kamakura in present-day Kanagawa Prefecture,...
BUSINESS
Jul 30, 2011

Japan Tobacco buys Sudan firm Haggar Cigarette for $450 million

Japan Tobacco Inc. will pay $450 million for a cigarette maker that operates in Sudan and oil-rich South Sudan, which gained independence this month after a rebellion that lasted almost 50 years.
Reader Mail
Jul 28, 2011

Living near an aging reactor

I wish to commend The Japan Times for keeping up an independence rarely found in journalism by publishing staff writer Jun Hongo's July 20 article, "Brittleness factor of aging reactors key restart criterion." The article mentions risks posed by the aging reactor 1 at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s (Kyu-den's)Genkai...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 24, 2011

March 11: nation transformation?

REIMAGINING JAPAN: The Quest for a Future that Works. Edited by McKinsey & Company; executive editors Clay Chandler, Heang Chhor and Brian Salsberg. VIZ Media, 2011, 464 pp., $38.99 (hardcover) Read any business report on Japan of recent times and there is a familiar theme: economically eclipsed by China,...
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2011

Lay judges deny media influenced Ichihashi decision

The six lay judges who participated in Tatsuya Ichihashi's trial on Thursday denied that the heavy media coverage of the high profile case affected their decision and stressed that they based their ruling strictly on the evidence presented at the trial.
Reader Mail
Jul 21, 2011

More to soccer than statistics

I am a fan of the United States who enjoyed every moment of the World Cup and the Americans' ascension through the tournament. I cheered for the U.S. in the final as well. Sad as it is to see this group of young women lose — as they were on the edge of the championship — I was thoroughly warmed by...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jul 20, 2011

Beef radiation scare recalls mad cow fiasco

The mounting cases of beef containing high levels of cesium recall the 2001 domestic outbreak of mad cow disease, in that slow government action and poor communication have once again been blamed for exacerbating the damage, industry experts say.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2011

Murdoch's malign empire

The resignation of two key lieutenants of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his own full-page signed apology in British newspapers — "We are sorry for the widespread wrongdoing that occurred" — is clearly a desperate attempt to save his News Corporation group from being incinerated in the firestorm...
COMMENTARY
Jul 18, 2011

False report hardly relieves Beijing's paranoia

For a change, the media itself is in the spotlight these days. The scandal over the illegal hacking of mobile phone messages by journalists in Britain has resulted in the closure of a venerable newspaper, the News of the World, and threatens to implicate not just reporters but politicians and the police....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2011

The world according to AuthaGraph

In today's wired world, it's easy to learn about issues anywhere that might affect us or be of interest. So news of a disaster, for example, can be instantly transmitted, shared and discussed by people wherever they might be.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2011

Kissinger blighted millionsas U.S. jockeyed for position

Henry Kissinger has distilled many words of wisdom from four millennia of Chinese civilization, and several centuries of Western diplomacy, including almost half a century of personal experience at the sharp end of power politics. He has captured headlines and captivated some of the world's best commentating...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 15, 2011

Rogge says Pyeongchang win will not affect Tokyo's bid for 2020 Summer Games

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge lauded Pyeongchang, South Korea's victory in the race for the 2018 Winter Olympics as a win for Asian sport.
COMMENTARY
Jul 14, 2011

The blame goes beyond a tabloid

After 168 years of titillating Britons over breakfast, the News of the World has closed. Last Sunday's edition was the tabloid's last. Allegations of police bribery and phone tapping by Britain's best-selling newspaper were met with public outrage. But are these revelations really so surprising?
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2011

GE plan followed with inflexibility

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
Jul 14, 2011

Of course, stress tests are needed

Regarding the July 9 front-page article "Kan under fire from his own team": Perhaps I'm missing something, but I see no reason why Prime Minister Naoto Kan should apologize to anybody, least of all the nuclear industry, for requiring stress tests of nuclear reactors. It is now a matter of public record...
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2011

Fukushima plant site originally was a hill safe from tsunami

First of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / STYLE WISE
Jul 12, 2011

Going gaga for Tominaga, mori girls, eco-fashion, Final Home and the Lady herself

Going Gaga for design In the last few weeks, Lady Gaga used her celebrity influence to bring the world's attention back to Japan and its March 11 disaster recovery efforts with her promotion of the MTV Video Music Aid concert.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 10, 2011

A cross-cultural pas de deux comes to town

Following David Bintley through the corridors of the cavernous New National Theatre, Tokyo — where he is the artistic director of the National Ballet of Japan — is a bit like following Moses across the Red Sea.
Reader Mail
Jul 7, 2011

Manufacturing shift doesn't save

Regarding the July 3 Kyodo article "Toyota plants start weekend operations": I really wish the media would stop referring to what the auto manufacturers are doing as "saving energy." This is inaccurate, misleading, and gives them credit for something they are simply NOT doing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 7, 2011

TCY Radio aims to revive club scene

Aside from being one half of successful J-pop duo m-flo, Taku Takahashi is also one of the most established DJs in Japan's club scene. So when Takahashi talks dance music — people listen. Just as well, as that's exactly what he's doing with his latest project, the online station TCY Radio.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 5, 2011

Lives such as Daniel's deserve to be honored in these pages

I had a shock in May with the death of a close friend, Daniel, a long-term Japan resident in his sixties who had been in bad health. We were close and I'll miss him.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 5, 2011

Disunited 'English-speaking diaspora' bites back

The Community Page received a large number of emails in response to Debito Arudou's June 7 Just Be Cause column, headlined " 'English-speaking diaspora' should unite, not backbite."
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 4, 2011

Today's youth have it hard, but is it worse than before?

Young people the world over are stuck with the world as it is, a world they had no hand in making. From the sidelines they blame their elders for this stupidity and that, and vow to do better when their turn comes, only to find, for the most part, that youthful risōshugi (理想主義, idealism) dies...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2011

Try telecommuting and flex-time

Regarding the June 28 article "Daylight saving: Is it finally time to convert?": While a conversion to daylight saving time would have some advantages, what is really needed is an aggressive push to promote telecommuting and flex-time in Tokyo, thus giving both employees and employers more options on...
Reader Mail
Jul 3, 2011

DST is no shoo-in to save energy

While the June 28 article "Daylight saving: Is it finally time to convert?" does a fair job of presenting the daylight saving time issue, it presupposes that switching the clocks will save energy.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 3, 2011

Have a hideously good time in Tono's past and present

The professor's snoring had kept me up until the wee hours of the morning. When I awoke, the reading light in the hostel's upper bunk was still on and a copy of "The Legends of Tono" lay open at the page where I had dozed off. With that book being full of hobgoblins, ravaging wolf packs and rural satyrs,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years