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JAPAN
Aug 3, 2012

Kids' safety key worry in Fukushima

A year and half after the start of the nuclear crisis, many who attended the government's latest public hearing on energy policy in Fukushima on Wednesday still expressed concern about the impact of radiation on their children.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2012

Promoting entrepreneurship

A fiscal 2012 white book on the economy and state finances endorsed by the Cabinet on July 27 stressed the importance of entrepreneurship to accelerate innovation, an important factor for economic growth as Japan faces a declining birthrate and the graying of the population.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2012

Ozawa vows new party will dethrone Noda's DPJ

Ichiro Ozawa vowed Wednesday to devote himself to expanding the support network for his new party to knock the ruling Democratic Party of Japan off its throne in the next Lower House general election.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 2, 2012

Media at the crossroads of profits and politics

On July 24, seven key News International personnel in the United Kingdom and one contracted private investigator were charged with 19 counts of conspiracy to hack mobile phone voice mails between 2000 and 2006. At long last, the allegations will be tested in court.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Jul 29, 2012

A heavenly retreat amid the bustle of Kyoto

On my first visit to the ancient pond garden of Kajuji, it took me a devil of a time just to locate it. Alighting at Ono, a subway stop on Kyoto's Tozai line, there was nothing to suggest the area might be of interest to visitors, that it could have any serious historical or cultural credentials.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 29, 2012

Who can we vote for to avoid the worst-case scenario?

"Japan's Worst-Case Scenarios" — that's the title of the lead feature in the July issue of the monthly Takarajima. No one writing on such a theme need fear a shortage of material. The magazine easily fills 40 pages analyzing catastrophes and catastrophes-in-waiting: Tokyo leveled by a magnitude 9 quake;...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2012

Billionaire's tax to help the poor

In searching for new sources of funding, the United Nations this month called for a tax on billionaires to raise money for poor countries. According to the assessment in the U.N. World Economic and Social Survey, an annual tax on the world's super-rich would yield almost $400 billion a year.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2012

China deepening aid and trade ties with Africa

Having overtaken the United States as Africa's biggest trading partner two years ago, China is continuing to cement its relationship with the continent, with President Hu Jintao pledging $20 billion in loans over the next three years at a meeting in Beijing attended by leaders from 50 African countries....
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2012

China, Russia and Syria: the ghost of Gadhafi at the U.N.

China and Russia have cast three vetoes so far on draft U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions aimed at tougher international responses to the Syrian's government's brutal crackdown on protestors and rebels.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 24, 2012

'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan: some readers' responses

Responses to Patrick Budmar's June 12 Zeit Gist article, " 'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan:"
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Beware a September surprise

As the government of Japan continues to stumble over Nagata-cho politics, fumble away the Senkaku Islands and bumble the introduction of the MV-22 Osprey aircraft to Japan, it may soon find itself isolated from its people, the international community and its only alliance partner, the United States....
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

Written out of history: a female Edo master's story

The Printmaker's Daughter, by Katherine Govier. Harper Perennial, 2011, 512 pp., $14.99 (paperback) In this story of Katsushika Oei, the little- known daughter of the late Edo Period printmaker Hokusai, the author examines not only the constraints of politics and censorship under which artists worked,...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

The spirit behind Japanese cohesion

Building Democracy in Japan, by Mary Alice Haddad. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 270 pp., $20.34 (paperback) Mary Haddad seeks to refute those non-Japanese scholars who are dismissive of Japanese democracy because it doesn't measure up to western standards. She argues that they overlook and marginalize...
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2012

A telling tale of two Koreas

What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the "Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies" handbook. Kim Jong Un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the world's last communist states, is removing powerful people who were loyal to his father and replacing them with men...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 19, 2012

The fortitude of Prussian character

It is becoming increasingly common for Japanese art museums to host exhibitions bearing the names of famous overseas art venues. If the source institution is famous enough, this will give a show of otherwise disparate works of art instant glamour and an identity.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2012

Why 'Burma' should remain the country's name

Myanmar's electoral commission has told opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to stop calling the country Burma and instead call it Myanmar, its official name.
Reader Mail
Jul 15, 2012

Leveling field should be in court

Regarding Sarah Fuidio's July 5 letter, "Leveling the field for women": July 4 was the 236th birthday of the United States, which relentlessly upholds its original constitution and the amendments. I take this occasion to express my great admiration for the U.S. Supreme Court for defending the constitution's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2012

Thomas Jefferson's view of equality under siege

A week after the 236th anniversary of the birth of the United States — which was squalling to the world in its very first utterance that all men were created equal and endowed with unalienable rights — the essence of our politics is still about who are those people who are self-evidently equal and...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 8, 2012

The sorry state of affairs in Japan is enough to turn WGs into FGs

Many years ago I coined a phrase — "Frozen Gaijin" — to describe a particular kind of foreigner living in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi and the art of compromise

Chief Justice John Roberts last week did something that, in polarized Washington, may turn out to be more important than saving Obamacare.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2012

Power shifts outstrip reforms

The international institutional structure has remained largely static since the mid-20th century rather than evolving with the changing power realities and challenges. Reforming and restructuring the international system poses the single biggest challenge to preserving global peace, stability and continued...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 3, 2012

Strong winds linger from the microaggressions tempest

Readers' responses to Debito Arudou's May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down," his followup June 5 JBC column, "Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms," and Colin P.A. Jones' counterarticle, "Much ado, but microimportant"...
Reader Mail
Jul 1, 2012

Compulsory voting is no remedy

I object to the idea of making voting compulsory, put forth by Bloomberg writer Peter Orszag in The Japan Times' June 25 Op-Ed, "For a better democracy, have everybody vote."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 1, 2012

A lesson in respecting river life

I recently had the pleasure of my eldest daughter, Miwako, coming to stay at my Kurohime home in the Nagano Prefecture hills together with her partner, Don McCubbing, and their 4-year old twin daughters Aila and Zanti.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2012

Rough start for Egyptian democracy

It took longer than anticipated, but there is finally a victor in Egypt's first truly competitive presidential elections. Mr. Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, prevailed over former Gen. Ahmed Shafik. The outcome is symbolic on many levels, but most significantly because it is not...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 24, 2012

Mutombo using stature to make a difference in world

Dikembe Mutombo commands attention, and it's not because he towers over people at 218 cm, or the fascinating fact that he speaks nine languages (including five African dialects) or blocked 3,289 shots during his 18-season NBA career. Simply put, the big fellow has lived a remarkable life.
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2012

Tepid vote for Europe in Greece

Greece and Europe have gained some breathing room — but not much — after Sunday's parliamentary elections in Greece. A victory by the conservative New Democracy (ND) party offers hope that the country will support a government that backs the existing austerity program, permitting Greece to stay in...
Jun 20, 2012

Helping Myanmar transform

Across the Mideast, and now in Myanmar, one of the great questions of contemporary global politics has resurfaced: How can countries move from a failing authoritarianism to some form of self-sustaining pluralism?
Jun 20, 2012

Japan's tale of two stockpiles

Mount Fuji stands as a powerful eco-symbol in Japan, invoked frequently to describe elements of Japanese nature and culture. According to Japanese writers and others, Mount Fuji's towering summit-cone and elegantly balanced slopes convey the remote majesty of nature, the essence of purity, a trove of...

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