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Japan Times
WORLD
Apr 1, 2020

Over half of Americans are postponing their weddings as industry reels

One of the last weddings performed in public in Las Vegas was on St. Patrick’s Day. The groom wore a dark suit. The bride wore a rockabilly-style black halter dress. The minister was Slash from Guns N’ Roses — or, rather, a licensed officiant performing as the shaggy-maned, top-hatted guitarist....
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2020

Coronavirus pandemic fuels trend toward smaller funerals in Japan

From dispatching Buddhist monks to connecting grieving families with affordable funeral homes, Osaka-based end-of-life startup Uniquest Inc. is among the many firms that have been capitalizing on the growing preference toward simple, cheaper funerals and greater efficiency and personalization of services....
BUSINESS / EXPLAINER
Mar 29, 2020

A closer look at Kansai Electric and its gift-giving scandal

Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by Kepco's investigative panel...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2020

Japanese hotels lose out on Olympic bet as coronavirus spreads

The Osaka Corona Hotel has been eerily quiet and empty the past few weeks.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 28, 2020

Face masks can foster a false sense of security

What’s happening in Japan is written all over our faces — our blank, expressionless, masked faces. Never before, it seems safe to say, have so many people gone about masked.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHY DID YOU LEAVE JAPAN?
Mar 28, 2020

Mitsukuni Baba: Japanese culture blossoms in the Windy City

As executive director of the Japan America Society of Chicago (JASC), Mitsukuni Baba plays an integral role in introducing Japan to the people of Chicago in terms of business, politics, education and culture.
CULTURE / Books / RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS ABOUT JAPAN
Mar 28, 2020

'The Salaryman' review: Spilling the secrets of Japan's everyman

Alongside its humor, Michael Thuresson's recent memoir, "The Salaryman," provides an insightful look at Japan's corporate workforce. In 2008, Thuresson was a 32-year-old product manager at a small LA software startup who suddenly landed a high-paying job with a Japanese corporation of over 50,000 employees....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Mar 27, 2020

Fukui looks back at prefecture’s first nuclear reactor

Japan’s first commercial light-water nuclear reactor started operations in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, on March 14, 1970.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Mar 26, 2020

Springtime cuisine with a French twist

Springtime cuisine with a French twist Dishes prepared by executive chef Masahiro Ishihara of Blanc Rouge at The Tokyo Station Hotel speaks of elegant, high-end modern French cuisine. The acclaimed chef sources his produce from all over Japan with menus typically skewing toward prime meats and seafood....
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2020

The plague: A few changes

COVID-19 is not going to change the world forever, but it is going to change quite a few things, in some cases for a long time.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2020

The ethics of shopping in a pandemic

We have to make choices about what to take, leave and ask others to get for us.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Mar 23, 2020

U.S. raids unlikely to crack Mexican capo's drug empire

A major bust by U.S. drug authorities targeting Mexico's fastest-growing gang will likely do little to stem the rise of the ultraviolent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and its shadowy leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, alias 'El Mencho.'
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2020

Why what does not kill us makes us panic

No one knows where or how fast a new virus will spread. We cannot calculate the risks with confidence, and we will know only in hindsight whether we overreacted or underreacted. Given this uncertainty, how we respond to a viral outbreak is as crucial as the nature of the pathogen. And how we respond...
Japan Times
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2020

Keeping the elderly in the labor market longer

Legislation that has been approved by the Lower House will oblige employers to "make efforts" to secure job opportunities for their employees until they turn 70 if they wish to keep working. A key part of the social security reform pursued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the measure aims to make up for...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Mar 18, 2020

Japan's exports fall, imports from China slump as virus impact widens

Japan's exports slipped for a 15th straight month in February as U.S. and China-bound shipments declined, suggesting a cooling of business activity in the world's third-largest economy due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 17, 2020

Vanishing YouTube videos: Google expects AI errors as coronavirus empties offices

YouTube could see a jump in videos erroneously taken down for content policy violations as the company relies more on automated software during the coronavirus pandemic, Alphabet Inc's Google warned on Monday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2020

Nine years after Fukushima, Japan can't quit its coal habit

A return to coal has left Japan with long-term climate goals that are unambitious — and increasingly, the subject of international censure.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 15, 2020

'Social distancing' in a pandemic: What does it mean in practice and for society?

As fears over COVID-19 grow and health authorities worldwide urge or even force people to isolate themselves, "social distancing," or shakai kyori senryaku in Japanese, has become a buzz phrase online.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Mar 14, 2020

The panic buying of toiletries: It's like 1973 all over again

Where are all the masks? And where's the toilet paper? Nikkei Business (Feb. 28) suggested that panic buying in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, which also occurred in eastern Japan following the catastrophic earthquake of March 2011, may be influenced in part by people's collective memory — particularly...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 14, 2020

Tokyo's Takanawa Gateway Station opens to public as Shinagawa development marks milestone

Takanawa Gateway Station opened its doors to the public on Saturday, becoming the latest addition to Tokyo's Yamanote and Keihin Tohoku lines and marking a major milestone in a decadeslong project to transform a large part of the Shinagawa district into a global transportation and business hub.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 14, 2020

Bill Gates leaves Microsoft board to focus on philanthropy

Bill Gates is stepping down from the board of Microsoft Corp., the company he co-founded in 1975 and built into the world's largest software maker, to devote more time to philanthropy.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 12, 2020

Coronavirus won't sink the cruise industry

Travelers tend to have short memories, and the ships' key demographic won't give up their sail-away cocktails.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 11, 2020

Coronavirus conference canceled because of coronavirus

So much for keeping business rolling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Longform

Construction equipment sits idle in a park near Shiba Toshogu shrine in Tokyo's Minato Ward. While Japan has a history of treating its trees with reverence, green coverage is said to be lacking in most of the major cities.
Do Japan's trees no longer occupy the sacred space they used to?