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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 2, 2010

Attorney glut may hit foreign firms

COLIN P. A. JONES One of the interesting things about being part of Japan's new law school system and its role in greatly increasing the number of Japanese attorneys is this: Nobody seems to have bothered asking the Japanese people if they actually need more attorneys. The original target of increasing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 23, 2010

No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage

Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration's push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo, with opposition logic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 19, 2010

Umibachi skirts industry suits for newest release

"Basically women are body conscious and men play with their joysticks. The woman is in the more powerful position. The idea is about woman and man, sexual and urban."
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2010

Skyliner to get quicker but pricier Narita link

Keisei Electric Railway Co. will offer faster, more direct Skyliner rail service between Tokyo's Nippori Station, next to Ueno, and Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture beginning in July.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 12, 2010

JBA sketches out plans for bj-league, JBL merger

The Japan Basketball Association has come up with a 10-step outline for the creation of a new professional men's league in 2013.
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2010

LDP struggling in vain to rebuild

Taking the podium last month at the Liberal Democratic Party's first convention since its fall from power at the hands of voters last summer, Katsuya Nomura, former manager of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team, had a few words of advice for the LDP.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2010

Slow shifts in U.S. defense strategy

Every four years, the U.S. Department of Defense issues a vision statement that outlines U.S. defense priorities and the ways it intends to meet them. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) provides a window on the thinking of the administration that writes it. The new QDR, released Feb. 1 by President...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 5, 2010

Spring blooms early in art world

Seasons play an important role in Japanese culture, which has long celebrated the appreciation of ephemeral beauty as a reflection of life itself. One of the most important seasons in Japan is New Year's, a time for families to gather and celebrate with several days of elaborate feasts. Traditionally,...
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2010

Surprise! More gas coming

Sometimes a quite simple new discovery or technological breakthrough changes everything, making nonsense of yesterday's apparently safe assumptions and expert projections.
LIFE
Jan 24, 2010

Secrets and lies

Japan marked the 50th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty on Jan. 19 amid calls for an inquiry into the dispatch of Japanese Self-Defence Forces to Iraq, which critics say was illegal. But in contrast to the fierce debates over the origins and legitimacy of the 2003 Iraq invasion in both the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jan 22, 2010

Sweat to a girl riot; soak up Gypsy jazz

"What's that smell in here?" I ask The Harpy's in the dressing room of the livehouse Motion, which lies at the butt end of the sleazy Kabukicho entertainment area in Tokyo's central Shinjuku district.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2010

Nago mayor vote a referendum on base

OSAKA — In an election with major implications for Japan-U.S. relations, voters in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, will head to the polls Jan. 24 to either re-elect a mayor who supports relocating the Futenma air base nearby or install a challenger who wants the base out of the prefecture and, preferably,...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jan 17, 2010

Clandestine campaign led to Valentine's demise

First in a four-part series
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 13, 2010

O-shōgatsu can really test a woman's endurance

Here's my take on the Japanese o-shōgatsu (お正月, New Year's) holiday week: I am, like, so ecstatic the whole thing is over.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 10, 2010

Beware: Reading this may swamp your sea horses

Reading this column could be an unforgettable way to start the new year.
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2009

The Japan-India partnership to power a multipolar Asia

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's India visit is part of Japan's growing economic and strategic engagement with that country. Given that the balance of power in Asia will be determined by events as much in the Indian Ocean rim as in East Asia, Tokyo is keen to work with New Delhi to promote peace and stability...
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2009

The past year of newness

The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation's annual kanji of the year for 2009 is, appropriately, " " (shin), meaning "new." This kanji, chosen by national ballot and announced in December at Kyoto's Kiyomizu temple, reflects the win of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which ended a half-century...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Dec 27, 2009

Usual conformist cliches about the Japanese

NEW YORK — So Roger Cohen, a relatively new columnist with The New York Times, concluded after a brief stay in Tokyo earlier this month that Japan is a society laid low by "a tremendous conformity" and trivialized by "otaku" ("Japanese Obsessions," Dec. 14).
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 27, 2009

The year's top news in brief, final `Hidden Talent' show, and Shinichi Hoshi's short stories

SMAP's leader, Masahiro Nakai, is not just this year's co-emcee of NHK's New Year's Eve song contest again. He's hosting specials throughout this week and next all over the TV dial.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 27, 2009

The year's top news in brief, final `Hidden Talent' show, and Shinichi Hoshi's short stories

SMAP's leader, Masahiro Nakai, is not just this year's co-emcee of NHK's New Year's Eve song contest again. He's hosting specials throughout this week and next all over the TV dial.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 25, 2009

Foreign currency saving: Norway or the highway

Why save yen at zero interest in Japan when you could make your savings become a money-earner overseas?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 25, 2009

The decade's most influential

Last week, The Japan Times picked Hikaru Utada as the most influential artist of the past decade. This week, our writers ask various figures in Japan's music scene who they thought were the most influential artists of the noughties. We asked them to choose one Japanese artist and one non-Japanese artist,...
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

LDP bedfellows out; no biz as usual

Takeshi Miyamoto is a man on a mission, but things haven't been going his way.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 5, 2009

Tom-san, the big man in kids' soccer

So who is the most famous soccer coach in Japan? Well, it could be Japan team coach Takeshi Okada or maybe Gamba Osaka's Akira Nishino. On the other hand, it may be someone many adults have never heard of: Tom-san.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2009

Tokyo's urban design role

The Hatoyama government's ambitious carbon reduction goals position Japan for leadership in the postindustrial global economy. Less discussed is Tokyo's remarkable energy efficiency, urban ecology innovations, and its potential for playing a leading role in the next decade's biggest environmental challenge:...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2009

The irresistible rise of the Chinese renminbi

BEIJING — China is making a big push to encourage greater international use of its currency, the renminbi. It has an agreement with Brazil to facilitate use of the two countries' currencies in bilateral trade transactions. It has signed renminbi swap agreements with Argentina, Belarus, Hong Kong, Indonesia,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 23, 2009

Whither the LDP withers

The once dominant Liberal Democratic Party has withered so miserably since losing the general election Aug. 30 that it looks as if it could suffer a total collapse or disintegration.
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 22, 2009

Our growing Earth?

The world is awash with wild theories, conjecture and speculation about everything you could imagine — and then some.

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo