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Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 3, 2011

Undressing the myth behind Goya

On first appraisal, it might seem that the organizers have brought the wrong Maja to Japan for the exhibition "Goya: Lights and Shadows" at Tokyo's National Museum of Western Art.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2011

Hashimoto bows out amid controversy

Toru Hashimoto finished his term Monday as Osaka governor, resigning three months early to run for mayor of the city of Osaka on Nov. 27.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Nov 1, 2011

The costly fallout of tatemae and Japan's culture of deceit

There is an axiom in Japanese: uso mo hōben — "lying is also a means to an end." It sums up the general attitude in Japan of tolerance of — even justification for — not telling the truth.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2011

All too familiar signs of state paralysis in Thai crisis

Like the Japan tsunami, flooding in Thailand will have a global impact on the supply and price of rice, cameras, computers and cars.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 28, 2011

'Fair Game'

The Japan release of "Fair Game" comes nearly 12 months after the U.S. opening and a week after the death of Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi. For a story all about U.S. involvement in Iraq and that other infamous depot, Saddam Hussein, the timing could be right on the money. Still, a sense of discomfort...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2011

Neighbors warily eye a more muscular Turkey

The recent surge in Turkey's military actions against the Kurds in northern Iraq is an indication that, somewhat surprisingly — but not entirely unpredictably — Turkish foreign policy has undergone a 180-degree turn in less than two years. The Turkish offensive is also an indication that these changes...
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2011

A call for improved national crisis management policy

More than seven months have already passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. Industrial production in the affected areas has bounced back to pre-disaster levels, but the recovery of agriculture and fishery is lagging and nearly 70,000 people remain in evacuation facilities. On top of that,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 23, 2011

Only the Japanese public's will can raze that lethal 'village'

"Of all the places in all the world where no one in their right mind would build scores of nuclear power plants, Japan would be pretty near the top of the list," wrote Leuren Moret in a "Power and the people" Timeout special in The Japan Times on May 23, 2004.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 23, 2011

Rich can afford to jump Japan's sinking ship

If Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Diamond are both right, Japan is in serious trouble.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2011

Minister attacked for challenging the 'family system'

Yoko Komiyama is the first woman to ever occupy the post of Japan's minister of health, welfare and labor. As a mother, she may have more insight than her male colleagues into issues her ministry addresses, and from the start of her appointment in August she has stirred up controversy, mainly with her...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 22, 2011

Al Jazeera: Qatar's promoter of the Arab Spring

During the 15 years that it has broadcast from Qatar, Al Jazeera has served as far more than a traditional television station. With its fearless involvement in Arab politics, it has created a new venue for political freedom, which has culminated in its unreserved support for Arab revolutions.
COMMENTARY
Oct 14, 2011

The volatile politics of rice

A campaign promise that helped bring Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her political party to power in July elections is roiling the global market for rice, Asia's staple food that is now eaten by nearly half the world's population.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2011

A chance to do more than rebuild Tohoku

Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai stands before a gathering in Tokyo of 300 representatives of the nation's biggest companies and community organizations.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2011

Public ways and means justify individual ends

Elizabeth Warren, Harvard law professor and former Obama administration regulator (for consumer protection), is modern liberalism incarnate. As she seeks the Senate seat Democrats held for 57 years before 2010, when Scott Brown impertinently won it, she clarifies the liberal project, and the stakes of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011

Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again

Second of two parts
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 9, 2011

Women warriors of Japan

"Ah, for some bold warrior to match with, that Kiso might see how fine a death I can die!"
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Oct 8, 2011

Where have all the heroes gone?

Sound cannot travel in a vacuum and perhaps that explains the growing silence in the Japanese spirit.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2011

Ex-East Bloc states reflect on the Arab Spring

A seamless political thread running through the current U.N. General Assembly debate has been that of the Arab Spring, the movement that has shifted the political sands throughout the Middle East.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2011

Imagining a euro-less world

For the fathers of the euro, the end of the Cold War in 1990 was a time for worry as well as celebration. As they looked to the future, they were also obsessed with the continent's bloody past.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2011

JFK showed reluctance in acknowledging aide's help in crafting words for a generation

The recently released 1964 interviews of Jacqueline Kennedy by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. make for fascinating reading. But if the one subject on which I have some detailed knowledge is any indication, historians will need to be careful about putting too much stock in what Mrs. Kennedy said.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 2, 2011

Japan's leaders still don't get it — but whither that 'heretical' 1960s spirit?

Upwards of 2,000 demonstrators clash with riot police. Sections of trains are set alight, the fire spreads into the station and trains don't start running until late in the morning. In the middle of the night, some 450 people are arrested.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Oct 2, 2011

Meticulous ode to love and fate

It is rather disconcerting to read a novel that opens with the assertion that "I've already slid right on past the big five-oh — a milestone no one thinks is very pretty and few are eager to reach — to become a man of fifty-one," particularly when this reviewer reaches that milestone this coming...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 29, 2011

Sage of Omaha could help Obama

President Barack Obama sure has been talking about Warren Buffett's taxes a lot lately. At his speech before a joint session of Congress this month, the president said that the billionaire shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than his secretary, a point Buffett has often made. The secretary's tax rate, and...
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 29, 2011

Small hydropower plants keep it local

Among renewable energy advocates in Japan, one often hears the phrase "chisan chissho," or "local production, local consumption." In the past, it referred the promotion of local-level agriculture. But it's now becoming a call to reduce municipalities' reliance on electricity from fossil fuel and nuclear...
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2011

Europe must break a vicious cycle

"We are back in a danger zone," says a top economist at the International Monetary Fund. Though an understatement, it captures the central paradox of this year's annual meeting of the International monetary Fund and World Bank.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2011

Aussie pronatal policy is not a model for Japan

Since reaching a total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.57 in 1989, Japan has been deeply concerned about demographic trends and future prospects. Below replacement fertility — measured as less than 2.1 children per woman — has been a feature of Japanese demography since 1974.

Longform

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Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years