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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 30, 2012

British artist/chef finds happiness by keeping all of his options open

Cooking can be art and art nourishes, but what really connects the two for chef and artist Johnny Miller is the act of creation itself: "It's the physicality of it — both are directly related to your body and how your body moves. In cooking, you've got to touch things, touch hot and cold things. You've...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Jun 30, 2012

Amateur sumo in crisis: Europe and Japan go head to head

For the past 20 years amateur sumo has been bidding for full and formal IOC recognition. Making its way through the IOC's various levels of acceptance, it was, according to many, doing rather well.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 28, 2012

Annan eyes Putin for Syrian settlement

Kofi Annan must strike a deal with the devil to end the sickening atrocities being committed by the Syrian Army. But the devil Annan has in mind is Russian President Vladimir Putin, not his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

"The Nude"

Toward the end of the 19th century, a series of avant-garde art movements in Europe experimented with new ways to express the female nude. In Japan, however, the naked woman remained taboo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 28, 2012

"Japanese Ghosts and Eerie Creatures"

This exhibition invites visitors into a world of "comical horror" and highlights spooky works from the collection of well-known painter Kanpo Yoshikawa (1894-1978).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 26, 2012

Social-media manager Lin Qing Xiang

Lin Qing Xiang, 33, is the social-media manager of the "The Ruby Alan Show" (also known as "The RA Show"), a video blog that explores both Singaporean and Japanese culture. Lin creates travelogues of his journeys around Japan and also films Japanese-culture events in Singapore. A die-hard fan, he loves...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 26, 2012

Japanese business isn't working: What would Shima do?

A Ponzi scheme. Alleged yakuza ties. Accounting scandals. Executive misuse of company funds for gambling. A record-breaking bankruptcy. Callous disregard of public health and safety.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2012

Clarity in the conflict of austerity versus growth

It seemed clear that Germany (or at least this rather large gathering of government, business, and labor leaders) remains committed to the euro and to deeper European integration, and recognizes that success will require Europe-wide burden-sharing to overcome the ongoing eurozone crisis. The reforms...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jun 25, 2012

Ii ne! Facebook is a perfect place for Japanese immersion

Facebook has grown at a tremendous rate in Japan over the past four years, jumping from just over 200,000 users in 2008 to more than 6 million by the end of 2011. In the process, Japan has generated one of the social network's highest annual growth rates of 254 percent, second only to Brazil.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2012

Law school enrollment blues

Recruitment failed to meet enrollment goals at 63 of Japan's 73 law schools in 2011. The number of students enrolled was less than half the quota at 35 law schools, compared with only 14 under-filled schools last year.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2012

'One Day'

They say that the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. "One Day" is all about that need, and how two people (subconsciously and otherwise) hold on to that for 23 long years.
Reader Mail
Jun 21, 2012

New taxes are not the answer

Regarding the June 5 front-page article "Noda replaces censured ministers," what is Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda thinking? Japan doesn't have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. The last thing you want to do is raise taxes during a time of deflation — particularly a tax that will...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 21, 2012

Japan also has stake in universal rights, says ex-Congo child soldier

Michel Chikwanine, a university student in Canada who was once a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has suffered things no ordinary Japanese child will ever have to.
Jun 20, 2012

Japan's tale of two stockpiles

Mount Fuji stands as a powerful eco-symbol in Japan, invoked frequently to describe elements of Japanese nature and culture. According to Japanese writers and others, Mount Fuji's towering summit-cone and elegantly balanced slopes convey the remote majesty of nature, the essence of purity, a trove of...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 19, 2012

Dealing with isolation and exclusion in Japan

Q: As mental health professionals dealing chiefly with native English-speakers in Tokyo, do you often have to deal with people who feel isolated and excluded in Japan, e.g. long-termers who have failed to "fit in" here, as in they lack Japanese friends, despite knowing the language, culture and so on?...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 17, 2012

Hunting ivory netsuke carvers is like a big game

Netsuke are the diminutive works of art that dangled from cords attaching purses or other pouches to a kimono's obi sash before Western garb ousted traditional dress after the modernizing Meiji Restoration of 1868.
CULTURE / Books
Jun 17, 2012

Long journey home for a soldier-journalist

MARCH FORTH, by Trevor and Debbie Greene. Harper and Collins, 2012, 272 pp., $29.00 (hardcover) On March 4, 2006, a Canadian patrol led by Capt. Kevin Schamuhn was on security operations in the Gumbad Valley, in the Shah Wali Koi District, an area known to be a hotbed of Taliban activity. The patrol...
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2012

Tax hike's economic impact divides experts

Economists and experts remain split over whether raising the consumption tax would help restore the country's battered public finances or choke future economic growth.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 14, 2012

"Marc Chagall 2012: The Love Story"

Marc Chagall lived through the hardships of both world wars. Because of this life and his Belarusian-Russian-French roots, he moved many times — from Vitebsk in Belarus, where he grew up, to traveling between St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris — until he was forced to flee German-occupied France for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jun 12, 2012

Totally wrapped in Joy

Asked to name a seminal New York City-born musician with an intrepid preference for over-the-top fashion, and Lady Gaga would surely the first name to roll off the tongue. But there's another female musician from the city who influenced global fashion with her unique taste in stage costumes: Yeah Yeah...
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2012

Local governments worried

The drafting of a bill to transfer the functions of regional bureaus of three central government ministries to federations of local governments is being delayed due to resistance from the ministries concerned and some Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers. Associations of city, town and village mayors...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 10, 2012

It's not that easy to quit

"If you don't like it, quit."
Reader Mail
Jun 10, 2012

Osaka mayor should be watched

In my understanding of human nature, most of us have a hidden agenda in our dealings with the world at large — private thoughts and desires often not shared with those nearest to us. I believe this is even more true of politicians. Assessing the depth and width of their humility and humanity is usually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2012

'Michi — Hakuji no Hito (Takumi: The Man Beyond Borders)'

Millions of Japanese have become fans of things Korean, from weepy TV dramas to perky girl pop groups, since the start of the hanryu ̄ ("Korean Wave") popular-culture invasion over a decade ago. Many of the younger generation, however, have only a hazy awareness, if that, of the dark period between...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear