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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 10, 2011

Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Hiroshi Mizohata

Hiroshi Mizohata, 50, is the Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency. A native of Kyoto and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, Mizohata entered the ranks of the prestigious kanryō, the career bureaucrats who control Japan's top-tier government offices. He worked in various ministries in Tokyo and...
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

The Thai-Cambodian border

With reference to the April 27 editorial, "A temple tests ASEAN": I wish to provide Japan Times' readers with facts about the recent situation at the Thai-Cambodian border, which was started by unprovoked armed attacks on April 22 by Cambodian troops on Thai soldiers and civilians.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 8, 2011

Checking the time on the Doomsday Clock

In 1902, an American science writer named Robert Kennedy Duncan wrote a magazine piece titled "Radio-Activity: A New Property of Matter." Its subject is French physicist Henri Becquerel's discovery, in 1896, of the rays that now bear his name. Duncan's tone is so radiant with hope, so luminous with the...
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Anti-nuclear medical experts

I am very disappointed in the May 3 front-page Kyodo article "U.S. doctors hit Tokyo radiation limit for kids."
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
May 8, 2011

Abdul-Rauf plans to keep playing, imparting wisdom

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf understands what it takes to win consistently, and drastic changes, he insists, are not a recipe for success.
Reader Mail
May 5, 2011

Abomination by any other name

The May 1 front-page photo of the annual "Baby-cry sumo" event at Tokyo's Sensoji Temple is what I had been fearing to see since the new year started: culturally sanctioned child-abuse splashed on the front page like a celebration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 5, 2011

Verbal wants to hit the reset button on pop

In the middle of her recent Japan tour, pop superstar Kylie Minogue surprised her fans by announcing a new song on YouTube. The song, written by Japanese rapper and producer Verbal, is called "We Are One" and is the pair's effort to try to raise donations for Unicef following the March 11 earthquake...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2011

Group helps kids get through grief

In the aftermath of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region, victimized children face an increasing need for help in coping with the death of loved ones, according to an American expert.
SOCCER / J. League
May 4, 2011

Defense sets tone for Marinos in shutout over rival Reds

Yokohama F. Marinos kept up their impressive start to the J. League season with a well-deserved 2-0 away win over Urawa Reds on Tuesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2011

Japan firms ignore foreign media at own peril: expert

Japanese companies need to improve their communication with the foreign media when attempting to expand their presence in overseas markets, says a Tokyo-based expert in corporate public relations.
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

Taiwanese cheering for Japan

Taiwan has always had a special affinity with Japan. Along with strong cultural, historical and economic ties, we both bear the brunt of brutal earthquakes and typhoons. During the 1999 earthquake in central Taiwan and the 2009 flooding of southern Taiwan, Japan was prompt to provide its support.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2011

Wright, Cera get 1-up in 'Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World'

"Scott in the comics almost reminds me of Homer Simpson; you get to see what's going on in his head, and there's not much going on," says Hollywood indie poster-boy Michael Cera when asked about his role as the title character in the adrenaline-soaked action comedy "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World."
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2011

Better food service for evacuees

Regarding Kaori Shoji's April 20 article, "A personal letter from a Miyagi hinanjo resident": Thank you for the very touching comments from a person who survived the March 11 quake-tsunami and who now lives as an evacuee in a gym.
Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2011

Hold the sacrificial offerings

I felt dismay and sadness — but not shock! — when I read of the risk of death faced by the brave Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant ("Nuke workers at risk of overwork death," April 20 article). Why not shock? Because this country has a long-held belief in sacrificing...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 28, 2011

Karakawa strikes out 12 to tame Buffaloes

The wind was wildly blowing in from the shore. Mostly, it troubled the Orix Buffaloes. Meanwhile, the Chiba Lotte Marines took advantage of their home field's trait as they have always done.
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...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’