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Reader Mail
Apr 28, 2011

Late remedy against radiation

Regarding the front-page April 20 Kyodo article "Powder to remove radiation developed": This new powder, if it works as claimed, is a godsend. Ever since radioactive elements were found in Tokyo's water supply, I have used activated charcoal in bath water and refrained from giving my baby daughter tap...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Apr 28, 2011

The well-organized rites of spring

Time to head out into the sunshine Though the sakura (cherry blossom) festivities have just passed, spring is still in the air, and as the weather warms up we can expect brighter skies. With that comes lots of sunshine, which means for those of us with sensitive skin it's that time to search out the...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 27, 2011

Stop worrying and embrace the passive tense

English grammarians like to abide by ironclad rules: Don't split infinitives! Don't splice sentences together with commas! Use the active voice!
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

A place of refuge for exiles and foreign wayfarers

The 21-sq.-km island of Mikura has a distinctive history remembered and shared well by villagers.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Apr 24, 2011

Gaming Moto Azabu

Rather than dwell on the dark side of life at this time, I decide to get my game on by heading to a store just off Azabu-Juban's main shopping street in central Tokyo's Minato Ward. Max Game, at the foot of Kurayamizaka (Dark Slope), is surrounded by kids of all ages sitting at tables, strategizing and...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 23, 2011

Rolling blackouts: The virtue of silence

The rolling blackouts in Tokyo meant interruptions in watching TV, running computers, stereos and electric heaters, not to mention recharging cell phones and electronics.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 23, 2011

Disaster expert seeks better tsunami defense

A town hall located several kilometers inland was the designated disaster evacuation site in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture. Immediately after the magnitude 9 earthquake hit Tohoku on the afternoon of March 11, a young town employee broadcast an urgent evacuation order to local residents. Her broadcasts...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 22, 2011

Tradition goes on display at Yokohama fair

From ink prints to flower arrangements, Japanese handicrafts are renowned all around the world for an unmistakable blend of ancient customs with a dash of foreign-influenced flavor. This month, a festival in Yokohama will showcase a host of local artisans and their creations in a bid to support these...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Apr 22, 2011

Is everyone in the world still patiently 'Waiting for Godot'?

"Waiting for Godot" is a masterfully minimalist play that allegorically expresses how we all strive to keep at bay the sense of life's ultimate futility. After all, there is only one certainty in our lives: our death.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 20, 2011

Bulls' Rose clear selection for MVP

It's time to break up this space's monotony and cast votes instead of aspersions.
COMMENTARY
Apr 20, 2011

Between Japan and China

The visit to Japan by Australia's Labor Party prime minister, Julia Gillard, reminds us that Australian foreign policy has never been known for its consistency.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2011

Bicycle sales triple as 3/11 haunts Tokyoites

Tokyo residents haunted by the memory of how the March 11 earthquake shut the world's busiest subway system are returning to bicycle travel, tripling the sales of retailer Asahi Co. in the area last month.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 19, 2011

EU road map to improving the lives of Roma

The European Union, at long last, is taking a significant step toward improving the lives of Europe's millions of Roma. Rather than proposing a grand plan for EU-level action, the European Commission's recently released "EU framework for national Roma integration strategies up to 2020" calls on each...
BUSINESS
Apr 19, 2011

Carmaker's Miyagi investments stand

Toyota Motor Corp., the automaker most affected by the March 11 disaster, plans to build a new engine plant in devastated Miyagi Prefecture and will transfer a subsidiary's production operations to the region.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2011

Crisis cost and opportunity

The most powerful earthquake in the nation's history struck the northeastern part of Japan on March 11. Even more devastating than the quake itself was the tsunami that followed, as it took more than 20,000 lives and destroyed countless structures.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2011

All fired up by Japanese wheels

Cycling has enjoyed a renewed boom in popularity in recent years as an eco-friendly means of transportation and for its health benefits. Reflecting this trend, more and more helmet-donning businesspeople are seen cycling to work on their glimmering sports bikes these days, often gliding past cars on...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2011

Bags of fun recycling old JTs

In Japan, English-language newspapers are great sources of news and views and such (some more than others, of course). But a new use for them has lately arisen, with patrons of mini-trucks selling baked yaki-imo (sweet potatoes) in upscale Tokyo office districts thinking it trendy to receive their hot...
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2011

North Korea's 'chronic crisis'

North Korea is facing food shortages. International aid agencies report that the situation is dire, with millions facing the prospect of starvation in coming months without help. Even if those estimates are exaggerated, there is no escaping the fact that North korea cannot feed its own people.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Apr 15, 2011

Wakayama fair in Yokohama

The Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu will hold a Wakayama Prefecture dinner fair at its buffet dining restaurant, Cafe Tosca, from April 18 to May 31.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 15, 2011

Blazers pass on Swift after tryout this week

The Tokyo Apache's season is finished, but big man Robert Swift's goal of returning to the NBA lives on.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 13, 2011

Walsh likely on way out with Knicks

James Dolan's reluctance to pick up Donnie Walsh's $5 million option for next season the moment the Knicks qualified for the playoffs says it all about where this shadowy situation is headed.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 12, 2011

Quake aid, local services

For relief organizations, groups or individuals needing translators, Taichi W. sent information about the Japan Guide Consortium Volunteer Interpreters, a group of translators initially formed at the request of the government. Four are working in Sendai with the Indian National Disaster Response Force;...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 10, 2011

Poetry lies in wait to spring at our throats

NONZEN POEMS, by Morgan Gibson. Printed Matter Press, 2010, 100 pp., $15 (paper) Translator, scholar and poet Morgan Gibson's collection "Nonzen Poems" divides into four parts concerned variously with breath, nature, Buddhism, and the author's mentors and contemporaries — notably Kenneth Rexroth and...
CULTURE / Music
Apr 8, 2011

The world awakens to Japan's 'brutal orchestra'

Creating a wonderfully bizarre avant-garde hybrid of classical music, heavy rock and punk, Osaka's 11-member-strong Vampillia have been described by their record label as "a hardcore version of Arcade Fire."
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2011

Politics of crisis leadership

The mega-crisis engendered in Japan by the great earthquake and tsunami has brought to the surface the political problem of Japanese crisis management.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 8, 2011

Takubo's building renovations turn art outside-in

A lot of the restlessness and energy in contemporary art actually stems from a sense of emptiness and frustration that young artists feel as they flail around trying to find their true artistic voice. This certainly seems to have been the case in the career of Kyoji Takubo, a 62-year-old artist, who...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb