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JAPAN
Aug 11, 2010

Budget cutters target JET

Every year for the past two decades, legions of young Americans have descended on Japan to teach English. This government-sponsored charm offensive was launched to counter anti-Japan sentiment in the United States and has since grown into one of the country's most successful displays of soft power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Aug 10, 2010

Of Charisma Men and Western Women

Last month, The Japan Times invited readers to send in their thoughts on "Charisma Man," originally a comic strip that ran from 1998 in The Alien, a Nagoya-based magazine, but lately something of a byword for the stereotypical nerdy Western guy with the beautiful Japanese girlfriend.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 8, 2010

A warm embrace for ruff justice

Some years ago, a Belgian woman named An van Dienderen wondered why so many Japanese tourists visited her hometown of Antwerp, and particularly its cathedral. She learned that they wanted to see the place where the boy Nello and his faithful dog Patrasche died in the story "A Dog of Flanders." This thin...
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Aug 7, 2010

Mie's marauding macaques wreak costly havoc on seniors' farms

Macaques are causing crop damage in Mie Prefecture to the tune of about ¥150 million annually, the largest amount nationwide.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 7, 2010

Kamakura expat at one with all Buddhist deities

Mark Schumacher's home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, requires a journey, both on foot and for the spirit.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 5, 2010

Two tales of tobacco sales

Tobacco companies face a pair of problems: how to respond to an upcoming tobacco tax hike as well as the best way to prevent minors from smoking.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 3, 2010

Karate teacher has worldwide allure

On first seeing him, it's hard to understand why people cross continents to meet this diminutive 65-year-old wiry gray-haired man, shaking his head in dismay as some of his karate students struggle to get a grip on the art of fighting with sticks.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2010

Miyazaki crisis almost over

The Miyazaki Prefectural Government on July 22 lifted its last ban on the shipment of livestock. This is a sign that the foot-and-mouth disease crisis in the prefecture, which lasted more than three months, is nearing an end. But it must be kept in mind that the eradication of the virus that causes foot-and-mouth...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 30, 2010

Bringing samurai spirit and business acumen to kabuki

On July 1, 2009, Kenzaburo Mogi, 72, a former vice chairman of the soy sauce manufacturing giant Kikkoman Corporation, was appointed to direct the Japan Arts Council, which covers all traditional performing arts of Japan, including noh, kabuki and bunraku (puppet theater).
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2010

Living life by the numbers

NEW YORK — Recently I learned that I don't have cancer. My doctor called and said, "I have some good news!" Fortunately, we were in the middle of a fire drill in my office at the time, so no one noticed as I blinked back tears of relief.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2010

Pedal faster, not slower

LONDON — Memo to Naoto Kan, David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, and Hu Jintao and Manmohan Singh: Running an economy is like riding a bicycle — if you maintain a good speed, you can make progress; but if you reduce your speed, there is always the danger of losing your balance,...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2010

Okada, Clinton vow to keep Futenma agenda on course

HANOI (Kyodo) Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Friday that he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton State Hillary Clinton agreed in their meeting that it is important to gain the support of the people of Okinawa for the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within the prefecture....
COMMENTARY
Jul 22, 2010

Pond scum could save the world

Do we really need to keep pushing the frontiers in the search for oil? Must we venture into ever deeper and more dangerous waters, and into areas on land where technical challenges and political risks are rising? Some leading multinational energy companies evidently believe there may be a promising alternative...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 18, 2010

Kujukuri: the long, long beach on Tokyo's doorstep

If it was thousands of miles from home, I would wistfully think of this as an exotic and special place. It has almost everything I want in a seaside hangout: Empty beaches backed by pine forests, not condos; surfing waves; fishing piers; hilltop viewpoints; and family farms growing corn and watermelons....
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2010

Hong Kong pitches school opportunities

Hong Kong's secretary for education, Michael Suen, is looking for Japanese students to study in the city.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2010

Is it dangerous to speculate on food prices?

ROME — The prices of many staple foods increased dramatically during 2007-2008, creating a food crisis for many poor and developing countries. International prices of maize, rice and wheat, for example, reached their highest levels in 30 years, causing political and economic instability — and leading...
COMMENTARY
Jul 12, 2010

Scholars flunk George W. Bush

NEW YORK — George W. Bush ranks among the five U.S. presidents who accomplished the least while in office, according to the Siena College Research Institute's latest survey of 238 presidential scholars. The institute has conducted the poll annually for the past 28 years.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 11, 2010

Japan's great gamble

Sheldon Adelson, crusading chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, was in Singapore last month to launch his company's latest casino-anchored mega-resort, the $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands Singapore.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 9, 2010

Bradley Cooper: hot and hung over

HOLLYWOOD — They say nothing is as hot as a slow-burning fire, and Bradley Cooper's career had been warming up for a number of years before it turned white-hot last year thanks to his starring role in "The Hangover."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 9, 2010

'The Hangover'

Ever wondered what would result if you put Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas," a bromance-comedy of the Judd Apatow sort, and John Cassavettes' "Husbands" in a blender and hit spin? Your answer would be "The Hangover," an over-the-top comedy of men behaving badly in the absence of...
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2010

Tired response to language study

Regarding the July 3 Kyodo article "Japanese 'critical' in U.S. language scheme": If we in the United States want to start promoting Japanese — or any other language — we should start by encouraging a variety of languages in our public schools. As a teacher credentialed in Japanese, my students always...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2010

Japan's economic fantasy

HONG KONG — Belatedly, Japan's leading politicians are waking from their coma and realizing that the country's economy is in a massive mess hit by a triple whammy of low growth, heavy debts and an increasingly aging population.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.