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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 7, 2011

The best kindergarten lessons are at lunch time

Despite the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami in the northeastern part of Honshu, in most of Japan, life has to go on as usual.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2011

JET post best, not 'pityfest'

SHICHIGAHAMA, Miyagi Pref. — There is a picture folder in Marti McElreath's Facebook account that chronicles her time in Shichigahama, a town located on a small peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture less than an hour's drive from Sendai and where she has been working since last summer under the Japan Exchange...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 5, 2011

'Fly-jin' face fallout from decision to go

DAREK GONDOR "Osaka? Why didn't you tell me about this? I'm responsible for the whereabouts of this institute's employees, you know."
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2011

Tohoku disaster sparks innovative social media responses

As Japan grapples with an unprecedented triple disaster — earthquake, tsunami, nuclear crisis — the Web has spawned creativity and innovation online amid a collective desire to ease suffering.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 3, 2011

Life's a breeze on far-out Miyakojima

Like tree rings, the islands of Okinawa contain cultures within cultures; ever more singular layers of age and time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 1, 2011

Designs on love, dreams and fun

The 20th century, with its emphasis on war and mass industrialization, favored the functionalism of modernism in architecture, design, and other areas. This saw such elements as decoration, embellishment, playfulness and humor pushed to the sidelines in design. The rise of a more consumerist economic...
Reader Mail
Mar 31, 2011

Prod toward more transparency

Regarding Gregory Clark's March 24 article, "Nuclear meltdowns and Japanese culture": It is always a pleasure to read Clark's considered analysis, steeped as it usually is in high-level personal experience with some wing of the Japanese bureaucracy or industry from the past 30 years.
JAPAN / Q&A
Mar 29, 2011

Long-life cesium top threat to seafood

The damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is contaminating seawater with heavy amounts of iodine-131 and other radioactive materials.
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2011

Akihabara rampage verdict

The Tokyo District Court on March 24 sentenced a 28-year-old former temporary worker to death for indiscriminately attacking and killing pedestrians in June 2008 in Akihabara, a popular shopping and tourist district in Tokyo packed with stores selling electronics goods, anime and other pop-culture products....
CULTURE / Books
Mar 27, 2011

Love, war and betrayal in old Siam

THE TALE OF KHUN CHANG AND KHUN PHAEN: Siam's Great Folk Epic of Love and War. Translated and edited by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit. Silkworm Books, 2010, 970 pp., $60 (hardcover) Those who like their novice monks prim and proper, taming desires, meditating and selflessly engaging in good deeds...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES SYMPOSIUM
Mar 26, 2011

Firms urged to develop leaders in global business environment

Japanese firms seeking to globalize their operations need to develop leaders who can achieve their missions in a diverse business environment across national borders, experts on human resources development told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 25, 2011

Sendai, Saitama players catching on with other teams

The Sendai 89ers are a symbol of Tohoku region and their fierce loyalty to the locals reflects that fighting spirit.
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2011

Residents safe: Fukushima adviser

Residents of Fukushima and neighboring prefectures, let alone Tokyo, have little to fear from radiation exposure because current levels are far below what would pose a health risk, a newly appointed medical adviser to Fukushima Prefecture said Tuesday.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 23, 2011

Volunteers translate quake data into visuals

Over the past week we've seen a stark contrast in how the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been reported. "Panic" read the New York Daily News. "Get out of Tokyo Now" said The Sun. One expects that of tabloids, yet more credible media also described an "exodus" from Tokyo, neglecting to mention that it...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Mar 22, 2011

Central League's reputation takes hit in scheduling row

The show must go on. At least so says the Central League.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 20, 2011

This awful tragedy will show Japan's true character to the world

Some people look for moral lessons in disasters, concentrating on a baby pulled out of the rubble of an earthquake days after it struck and calling it a "miracle." But a tsunami of the scale that crashed against the manmade seawalls along the Pacific Coast of the Tohoku region in northeast Japan left...
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2011

Lapses, coverups color public view of nuclear plants

Behind the escalating nuclear crisis sits a scandal-ridden energy industry in a cozy relationship with government regulators, who are often willing to overlook safety lapses.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 19, 2011

F.A. punishment of Ferguson illustrates just how gutless it really is

LONDON — The five-game touchline ban and £30,000 fine handed to Sir Alex Ferguson by the Football Association for criticism of referee Martin Atkinson ranks alongside five minutes on the naughty step.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 19, 2011

Poetess achieves duality of words, numbers

Statistically, there's no accounting for Jessica Goodfellow's life in Japan. The daughter of an engineer, on a fast track in her early 20s to a Ph.D. in economics at California Institute of Technology, Goodfellow realized something essential didn't correlate: her incalculable love of poetry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2011

'Manzai Gyangu (Manzai Gang)'

Manzai acts — comedy duos consisting of a boke (goofball) and tsukkomi (straight man) — are ubiquitous on Japanese television, but the form has relatively few foreign fans.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 18, 2011

Warung Bintang: A taste trip to the Bali backstreets

With all the thousands of Japanese who visit Bali each year, enjoying its beguiling climate and culture, it's a mystery why the island's cuisine does not have more adherents here. Indonesian restaurants are so few and far between in Tokyo that any addition to their number is worthy of note. When it's...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Mar 17, 2011

Yokobue

Dear Alice, Last November, I went to Kyushu to see the Karatsu Kunchi festival. It was a wonderful spectacle, with huge, flamboyant floats pulled through crowded streets to the rhythmic accompaniment of drums, music and shouts of "Enya! Enya!" I loved it all, but if I had to designate one aspect as my...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 15, 2011

Kicking up a stink over ink in Kobe

You might want to avoid Suma Beach this summer if you are inked or have even a temporary sticker tattoo. The powers that be in Kobe City are considering ways to ban the display of tattoos on the beach.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 14, 2011

Yudhoyono's shaky coalition drifts along

SINGAPORE — It has been common in recent years to praise Indonesia as Southeast Asia's primary democratic success story. Vital achievements include a successful campaign against Islamist terrorism and the end to three decades of futile military oppression of Aceh province.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Mar 14, 2011

Hamaguchi's steady hand on tiller steers 89ers in right direction

KASUKABE, Saitama Pref. — It's no shock that the Sendai 89ers are once again one of the most consistent, quality clubs in the bj-league. Above all, it begins with good coaching.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2011

Atavistic longing years after the revolution

VIENNA — What happens after the euphoria of revolution fades? Today's Eastern Europe, some two decades after the revolutions of 1989, may offer a salutary warning for today's defiant and jubilant Arab youth that they must remain vigilant.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan