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LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
Apr 26, 2011

Electric bikes highly charged and geared for commuting

Frequent quakes makes commuters rethink their modes of transportation and the worth in investing in an electric bike.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 26, 2011

Tokyo: What magazines do you read here in Japan?

Jenny Wright
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2011

Disaster darkens fisheries' decline

The wreckage of a 379-ton tuna boat blocks the road to the deserted fish market in Kesennuma, once Japan's largest port for bonito and swordfish. Even after the debris from last month's tsunami have been cleared away, the industry may never recover.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 24, 2011

Office ladies, our fresh-faced saviors

Slowly the nation wakes from its nightmare. Tokyo Disneyland reopens. A semblance of normality returns, at least to areas outside the stricken zone.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 24, 2011

Gaming Moto Azabu

Rather than dwell on the dark side of life at this time, I decide to get my game on by heading to a store just off Azabu-Juban's main shopping street in central Tokyo's Minato Ward. Max Game, at the foot of Kurayamizaka (Dark Slope), is surrounded by kids of all ages sitting at tables, strategizing and...
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Apr 20, 2011

In the battle with smart phones is i-mode dead?

Ever since 1999, when the Web-service/portal known as "i-mode" first appeared on Japanese keitai (cell phones), Japan has been hailed as the world leader in mobile phone technology — until recently that is.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2011

Bicycle sales triple as 3/11 haunts Tokyoites

Tokyo residents haunted by the memory of how the March 11 earthquake shut the world's busiest subway system are returning to bicycle travel, tripling the sales of retailer Asahi Co. in the area last month.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 19, 2011

'Nuclear plants on tofu,' 'Debito's drivel': readers respond

Some readers' responses to our stories and letters on Japan's nuclear crisis and Debito Arudou's "Letting radiation leak, but never information" (April 5):
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Some seem to lack introspection

Regarding Kazuo Ogoura's April 8 article, "Politics of crisis leadership": Ogoura's statement that a commitment to "public responsibility" by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) management has not been "clear and manifest in the eyes of the general public" is an understatement. To speak of Tepco's "privacy"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2011

Bags of fun recycling old JTs

In Japan, English-language newspapers are great sources of news and views and such (some more than others, of course). But a new use for them has lately arisen, with patrons of mini-trucks selling baked yaki-imo (sweet potatoes) in upscale Tokyo office districts thinking it trendy to receive their hot...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2011

The enemies of a digital universal library

Scholars have long dreamed of a universal library containing everything that has ever been written. Then, in 2004, Google announced that it would begin digitally scanning all the books held by five major research libraries. Suddenly, the library of utopia seemed within reach.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2011

'Mahler on the Couch'

How lucky that Gustav Mahler and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never moved in the same social circle (though they both took Vienna by storm, Mozart preceded Mahler by about a century) — it's likely they would have engaged in a battle of spitballs. By all accounts, Mahler was a sour fuddy-duddy (his nickname...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2011

'Dancing Chaplin'

Comic W.C. Fields once said of Charlie Chaplin: "He's the best ballet dancer that ever lived, and if I get a good chance I'll kill him with my bare hands." Fields, who started his career as a vaudeville juggler, knew something about movement. He was also, perhaps only half-jokingly, envious of Chaplin's...
Reader Mail
Apr 14, 2011

Don't second-guess Russian aid

First of all, I would like to express my sympathy to the Japanese people following the March 11 natural disaster.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 13, 2011

Start learning the golden rules about kin and kane

Television broadcasts of last February's political upheaval in Egypt were regularly interspersed with scenes of the pyramids at Giza. Seeing them, I was reminded that the word for pyramid in Japanese is 金字塔 (kinjitō, "a tower in the shape of the character kin [金]"). (Note the similarity, if...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 12, 2011

Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa

In the late 1960s, James Spencer was a United States Navy longshoreman on Okinawa's military docks. "During this time, we handled all kinds of cargo, including these barrels with orange stripes on them. When we unloaded them, they'd leak and the Agent Orange would get all over us. It was as if it were...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 12, 2011

Classics scholar seeks to repay debt

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast on March 11, Robert Campbell, an Irish-American scholar of Edo Period to early Meiji Era literature, was in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 12, 2011

'Judge not,' 'fly-jin' and saving electricity: views from readers

Some readers' responses to Roberto De Vido's "Judge not, lest you be judged" (March 22), Darek Gondor's " 'Fly-jin' face fallout from decision to go" (April 5), and Darryl Magree's March 29 letter:
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 10, 2011

Japan's seismic nerve center

The Earthquake Phenomena Observation System, located inside the Japan Meteorological Agency in Tokyo's central Otemachi district, is usually operated by five teams of seven who work in rotating shifts that span every minute of the year. But at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 this year, all that changed. In an...
BASKETBALL
Apr 9, 2011

Player concerns may force Final Four move

Voices of opposition have emerged to the bj-league's possible plans to hold this season's Final Four at Ariake Colosseum, and this could force the league to move the final playoff rounds to another region, possibly Kansai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2011

Okinawa comic duo show less is more

On Dec. 26, as the curtain came down on the 10th and final M-1 Grand Prix — an annual comedy competition aired live on TV Asahi — there was a distinct feeling that something special had been witnessed, that the performance of one duo in particular heralded the beginning of something new.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2011

Ex-governor blasts Tepco's cozy ties

Earthquakes and tsunami are unavoidable natural events, but the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was induced by "human errors" stemming from cozy ties between bureaucrats and Tokyo Electric Power Co., former Fukushima Gov. Eisaku Sato told The Japan Times on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2011

They already lost homes, boats — now they may not be able to fish

Fishermen who lost their homes and boats on March 11 now fear radioactive water gushing into the Pacific from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant could cost them their livelihoods.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2011

End game in Ivory Coast

In most elections, the person who collects the most votes is declared winner and takes the office that was contested. Not in the Ivory Coast. There, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to leave office after losing to former Prime Minister Alessane Ouattara.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Apr 5, 2011

'Charisma Men' and temps: readers' views

Some readers' responses to last month's Just Be Cause column by Debito Arudou, headlined " Charisma Men, unite against the identity enforcers" (March 1):
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2011

Portable generators sell out after quake

Portable power generators made by Honda Motor Co., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Yamaha Motor Co. are running out after the March 11 disaster crippled production while simultaneously stoking demand.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 3, 2011

Tragic echoes from the past

Prior to the Tohoku-Kanto earthquake and tsunami of March 11, two similar seismic events — both followed by tsunami — have recently wrought destruction on the northeastern coast of Japan's main island of Honshu. This week and next, we dig into the archives of The Japan Times and a forerunner later...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 1, 2011

Satterfield acquisition a big move for Evessa

After all of the unexpected changes this season over the past few weeks, this is no surprise: The Osaka Evessa and Ryukyu Golden Kings will play a meaningful series in April, one that could have a significant impact on the playoff picture.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear