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Reader Mail
May 7, 2014

Storm in a Pinteresque teacup

The attention that Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers National Basketball Association team, got during the week of April 28 over publicized racist comments he made to his girlfriend really tried my patience with this American fetish. American culture pushes its obsession with race to...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 5, 2014

'Ordinary' billionaire behind canal project

Wang Jing, the enigmatic businessman behind Nicaragua's $50 billion Interoceanic Grand Canal, shrugs off skepticism about how a little-known entrepreneur can be driving a huge transcontinental project, insisting he is not an agent of the Beijing government.
Japan Times
WORLD / Society
May 4, 2014

How consumerism turns babies into monsters

If you have been planning a shopping trip with the kids, you might not want to read any further, because teaching your children consumerism is helping to turn them into selfish, immoral creatures without a streak of empathy, according to a new study.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 4, 2014

Drinking in Japan: Sober words to help you socialize

Drinking in the United States is so relaxed and so much fun that sometimes I forget how important it is as a social ritual in Japan. And like any good Japanese ritual, drinking has a bevy of lovely words that float around it, providing a lesson in language as well as culture.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 3, 2014

Oysters offer pearls of wisdom within

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, our C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust, based in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, has been helping to relocate an elementary school in Miyagi Prefecture that was destroyed by the huge tsunami that followed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
May 3, 2014

Akira

"Kanedaaaa!" "Tetsuoooo!" For a generation of teenagers growing up in the 1990s (this writer included), Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira" was our gateway drug to the imaginative excesses of Japanese pop culture. With its immaculately rendered visions of high-tech chaos, psychokinetic battles, revolutionary sects...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
May 3, 2014

Japanese-Style Management

Shigeo Shimizu, former managing director of Toray Industries and a life-long veteran of Japan's management culture, was so troubled by the financial scandal that brought down Olympus Corp. in 2011, that he decided something needed to done to avoid such scandals being repeated.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2014

China starts, loses unprovoked Twitter war

China loses an unprovoked war on Twitter after a semi-retired Twitter account of mostly Sinophiles suggests that a solemnly worded Twitter message fron the People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, is a parody.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 2, 2014

Rethinking Japan's whaling

Although many Japanese seem indifferent to the question of whether they can get whale meat, pro and con reactions in and out of Japan will affect those who still live by whale hunting on a local scale.
JAPAN
May 1, 2014

Medical mishaps hit highest since 2005

Japanese hospitals recently reported the most medical near misses and blunders since 2005, but the tally didn't include private practices.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
May 1, 2014

U.K. scientists hope for graphene revolution

It is mega-strong, ultralight and superstretchy, and if things work out, the wonder material could change many aspects of human existence — starting with people's sex lives.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 1, 2014

Hula into the long weekend

Hawaiian culture experienced a bit of a boost recently as the denizens of Tokyo's trendy Harajuku neighborhood began snacking on the U.S. island's foods.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2014

To boost economy, recruiting stay-at-home dads

Manabu Tsukagoshi, a Tokyo-based consultant, took a month of paternity leave after his second child was born. That prompted his wife, a homemaker, to get a full-time job in the financial industry.
JAPAN / Media
Apr 30, 2014

Advisers assess Japan Times performance after INYT tie-up

Now that The Japan Times is being distributed together with the International New York Times, the advisory board members agreed that there should be a newsroom shift toward even more coverage of Japan.
JAPAN / Media / NET NEWS WATCH
Apr 28, 2014

AKB48 may be the pop the economy needs: ex-chief cabinet secretary Edano

In Yukio Edano's essay “Popular Songs Change with the Times; Yasushi Akimoto, the AKB strategy and the Japanese Economy,” the Democratic Party of Japan Lower House member of Japan argued that AKB48's business strategy “could be effective for the economy in general.”
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Apr 28, 2014

Five activists win court fight but battle against Tokyo university is not over

The Tokyo High Court recently upheld the acquittal of the 'Hosei Five' on charges under the Law for the Punishment of Acts of Violence in a case that became a rallying point for students across Japan.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Apr 27, 2014

The exodus from Everest

The Everest circus is leaving town. With the decision to cancel climbing this year, Sherpas from the 39 expeditions camped at the foot of the mountain are dropping tents and packing gear. Helicopters fly over the Icefall that leads into the Western Cwm, recovering equipment stashed there before the tragic...
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Apr 27, 2014

Japan whaling future in doubt

The future of whaling in Japan was thrown into doubt after the International Court of Justice ruled March 31 that the nation's annual hunt in the A ntarctic was not really for scientific purposes, as Tokyo had claimed, and ordered it halted.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Apr 26, 2014

Lucy Birmingham: 'Don't give up on your dream no matter how many people tell you it's wrong'

'The world can learn a lot from the Japanese about how to get up and start over again despite unimagineable tragedy.'
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2014

Skin divers turn to tourism to stem the tide

At the Sea People restaurant in Shima, a coastal hamlet in Mie Prefecture, sea diver Machiyo Yamashita wants a piece of a tourism industry dominated by the cities that sapped her town's vitality by luring away its youth.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2014

Late but handsome apology to Sephardic Jews

Spain isn't just saying sorry for expelling its Jews 522 years ago; it's offering to give their descendants back their citizenship. And Spanish citizenship is practically citizenship in all 28 EU countries.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 24, 2014

Premium prime rib; sweet treat; flower power

Premium prime rib The Los Angeles-based prime rib specialty restaurant, Lawry's The Prime Rib Tokyo, formerly located in Akasaka, reopened in Ebisu on April 20.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Apr 23, 2014

In a world of pretense, are Japanese just more honest about lying?

The net sum of lying may be similar in Japan and America, but in their acceptance of life exigencies, the Japanese may be more realistic, more charitable and forgiving about the role that deception plays in our social relations.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan