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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2012

In the realms of true love and devotion, few could fault Akiko Koyama

On Feb. 21, 1996, Akiko Koyama, the actress wife of renowned film director Nagisa Oshima, received a phone call at her home in Kugenuma Kaigan, Kanagawa Prefecture. It was from an official at the Japanese Embassy in London.
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2012

Lighten the Emperor's workload

Two weeks have passed since the Emperor underwent coronary-artery bypass surgery at the University of Tokyo Hospital on Feb. 18. We sincerely pray that his recovery will go smoothly and that he will be able to return to his normal daily life free from health concerns. Now 78, the Emperor had been saddled...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 24, 2012

Kōji — Japan's vital hidden ingredient

The development of Japanese cuisine owes much to the humble kōji or kōji-kin. A type of fungus or mold, it is used in all kinds of foods and beverages. It's as important in Japan as the fungi, bacteria and yeast that give character to cheese, yogurt, wine, beer and bread are in the West. The difference...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

At the end of a loved one's life, why is it so hard to let go?

I know where this phone call is going. I'm on the hospital wards, and a physician in the emergency room downstairs is talking to me about an elderly patient who needs to be admitted to the hospital. The patient is new to me, but the story is familiar: He has several chronic conditions — heart failure,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 19, 2012

From Aboriginal land to Japan's nuclear reactors

Peter Watts, co-chair of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, was recently in Japan as one of some 100 speakers at the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World held in Yokohama on Jan. 14 and 15. During an interview with The Japan Times, Watts — who is a member of the Arabunna people, one...
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2012

DPJ unveils 'hidden' tax estimate of 17.1% to sustain pension system in 2075

2075 scenario: The consumption tax is 17.1 percent just to keep the pension system afloat.
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

JMA doesn't speak for hospitals

Regarding the Jan. 23 Kyodo article "U.S. won't breach 'mixed treatment' medical insurance rules in TPP talks": It would seem to me that the Japan Medical Association (JMA), which consists of mainly nonhospital physicians, should seek the opinion of citizens and hospitals before making pronouncements...
Reader Mail
Feb 9, 2012

Wider road to family medicine

Regarding the Jan. 10 editorial "Improving medical services": In order to achieve better medical services, Japan needs to create an effective family medicine system. Because of (1) distorted medical school curricula that place too much weight on specialization and (2) an educational system that enables...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2012

What an Obama or Romney win means

Successful political candidates try to implement the proposals on which they ran. In the United States, President Barack Obama and the Democrats, controlling the House of Representatives and (a filibuster-proof) Senate, had the power to do virtually anything they wanted in 2009 — and so they did.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 3, 2012

Are poorer families succumbing to the American lifestyle?

Low income families increasingly falling victim to bad health habits.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 31, 2012

Facing up to alcoholism in foreign land can help or hinder recovery

A reader has a query about alcoholism in Japan: "How is it generally perceived and what kind of help is available for foreign alcoholics who speak little to no Japanese?"
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2012

Turning to Okinawa and its rituals in search of a happier new year

Without a shred of a doubt, 2011 stands out to me — in a way that hopefully will never be surpassed — as the most catastrophic I have ever known.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 15, 2012

Kabuki workout helps students to stand out in a crowd

Looking for an enjoyable way to get back into shape after gaining a few pounds over the festive season? Well, look no further than kabuki — or learning a few moves basic to this traditional Japanese theatrical form, to be precise.
BUSINESS
Jan 14, 2012

Medical firms see high sales potential in China

Japanese manufacturers of medical devices are counting on a China sales surge to lead growth as the economic rebound fades and the domestic market continues to shrink as the population ages.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2012

U.S. overlooks the true tolls of its wars

As the United States officially ended the war in Iraq last month, President Barack Obama spoke eloquently at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, lauding troops for "your patriotism, your commitment to fulfill your mission, your abiding commitment to one another," and offering words of grief for the nearly 4,500...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 7, 2012

Confessions of a beer lover on the New Year

So, how's your New Year's resolution coming along? "The what?" you say? Given up already, have you? Well, I haven't given up mine. And so enthusiastic am I that I've already completed three weeks of my resolution even though we're only one week into the New Year. And I don't even consider myself an overachiever....
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2012

New year could prove daunting for Noda

In the four months since winning the Democratic Party of Japan presidential election, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has survived by taking a cautious approach to governing, managing to compile the 2012 budget and several bills to finance restoration of the disaster-hit Tohoku region.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Dec 26, 2011

Postal execs crack the whip

Japan faces disarray in its mail delivery service as post offices, especially those in major cities and the Tokyo metropolitan area, struggle with mounting workloads following the dismissal of a large number of nonregular employees by Japan Post Service Co. (JPS) since September. And the situation could...
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2011

Vaclav Havel, eternal dissident

The death of North Korea's supreme leader, Kim Jong Il, has obscured the passing of a truly heroic figure: Vaclav Havel. The Czech writer and dissident who became his country's first postcommunist president died Dec. 18. Mr. Havel was Mr. Kim's worst nightmare — an incorrigible and irrepressible dissenter,...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past