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BUSINESS
Nov 28, 2009

Exporters face 'breaking point' over strong yen

Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp. are among Japanese exporters that may miss their forecasts as the yen strengthens more than they anticipated, eroding their earnings from televisions and cars sold overseas, investors said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Nov 27, 2009

Society's whiskies hit the high notes

I've found a new whisky to love. It's a 26-year-old single malt from Hokkaido's Yoichi distillery. It's got oak and a gentle, sweet smokiness, a touch of leather, cherries, toasted almonds and I'm just making this up now, because after "oaky" and "a bit smoky," I ran out of vocabulary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2009

'Black Gaisha ni Tsutometerundaga mo Ore wa Genkai Kamo Shirenai'

Films about Japanese organization men, from bureaucrats to salarymen, have long broadly divided into two categories — the serious ones, that portray work life as a sort of holy war, fought by loyal, self-sacrificing blue-suited soldiers, and the comic, whose characters range from pompous idiots to...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 26, 2009

Taiyaki: the people's choice during hard times

Business would appear to be good for vendors of taiyaki, the cheap, sweet street food. And this isn't Japan's first taiyaki boom.
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2009

Worries about deflation

In its economic assessment for November, the government announced that the Japanese economy is in a state of mild deflation — the first time since June 2006 that the monthly report has referred to deflation. The very mention of it indicates the government's sense of crisis over a possible rise in unemployment...
COMMENTARY
Nov 24, 2009

An able, nonpolitical civil service

LONDON — In Britain and Japan, civil servants are supposed to be nonpolitical and to give unbiased advice. But their independence is threatened by some politicians who want posts to be filled by what Margaret Thatcher used to call "one of us" — people who share the same aspirations as the governing...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2009

Southeast Asian economies look to return to growth in 2010

Southeast Asian economies hit hard by the global crisis expect to return to positive growth in 2010 as signs of recovery started to emerge in recent months following massive government stimulus measures, veteran journalists from the region told a recent symposium.
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2009

Two smart guys trying to figure it all out

LOS ANGELES — The two looked over the precipice and gasped at the steepness of the drop. They looked down at a desert of dashed hopes and old skeletons, scraping the bottom of the canyon.
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2009

Deflation concern rises even as growth quickens

The acceleration of the economy to its fastest pace of growth in more than two years masked a slide in prices of goods and services that threatens to temper the recovery.
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2009

Strengthen budget scrutiny

The Board of Audit has found that government offices and central government-funded corporations improperly spent or handled ¥236.45 billion in public money in 717 cases in fiscal 2008 — a record amount and nearly double the ¥125.36 billion in fiscal 2007. Some ¥12.3 billion in 593 cases was spent...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Nov 17, 2009

Showbiz means to an end, not goal

Chuck Wilson, 63, is a fitness trainer. But he was — and arguably still is — far more famous as a funny foreigner who speaks in a defiantly casual and blunt manner to TV personality bigwigs.
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2009

Transparent universities

All Japanese universities may soon be required to provide students with key statistics about their employment and dropout rates and other quantifiable facts, if a new proposal is accepted by the Central Council for Education. The list of items to publicly divulge is divided into five areas the education...
EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2009

Teens get funny

Teenagers always think their jokes are funny, but are they? Apparently, at least one is — from a first-year high school student of Hyogo Prefecture, Yugo Sagawa, who won the first-ever comedy contest for high school students. A panel of judges from the Kansai Comic Scriptwriter Association chose Sagawa's...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2009

Young unemployed taste life in corporate fast lane

A group of unemployed young people participated Thursday in a one-day job-hunt support program in Tokyo organized by JPMorgan and Sodateage-Net, a Tokyo-based nonprofit organization.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 13, 2009

The northern lights from Italy

In 1966, after graduating from Tokyo's Tama Art University with a degree in interior design and doing a few odd jobs, Hidetoshi Nagasawa got on a bike and cycled out of Japan.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2009

Re-energizing America's role in trade talks

International trade has been an engine of growth for many Asian countries, enabling them to create jobs and raise living standards faster than in countries elsewhere in the world that were unready to take advantage of surging trade opportunities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2009

U.S.-Japan collaboration on high-speed rail

PRINCETON, N.J. — Traveling at up to 300 kph and boasting an impeccable safety record, the Shinkansen exemplifies Japan's technological prowess. It could also become a new frontier in the U.S-Japan partnership.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2009

Pollution fears don't dent coal's popularity

Asia's rebound from the global economic slump is cheering the world with its promise of more growth, jobs and trade. But the revival is bad news for the environment because it is largely driven by a production and transport system addicted to fossil fuels, especially coal and oil. This helps explain...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2009

Undeclared income haunts Hatoyama

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama faced a new scandal Monday when it was revealed he failed to declare income from stock sales, giving the opposition ammunition heading into a three-day Lower House Budget Committee session.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2009

Rewards for medical workers

Every other year the Central Social Insurance Medical Council (Chuikyo) determines how much health insurance societies must pay to medical institutions for medical treatments. The 165,000-member Japan Medical Association, which includes private and hospital doctors and traditionally has supported the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 1, 2009

Ministry insider speaks out

Health ministry bureaucrat Moriyo Kimura made headlines in late May just after the H1N1 flu outbreak sparked a massive mask-buying spree across the nation. Appearing before a Diet committee as an expert witness, the 44-year-old quarantine officer sharply criticized her own ministry — and especially...
LIFE
Nov 1, 2009

Symposium hears of new 'pan-Asian' trend

"It's been years since Japan, in the eyes of outside observers, entered the phase of "Japan Nothing." This followed an era of "Japan Bashing" during its 1980s economic heyday and then "Japan Passing" in the post-bubble '90s.

Longform

Growing families are being priced out of Tokyo’s condo market, forced to choose between downtown convenience and suburban space.
Is living in central Tokyo still affordable?