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COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2010

Immigrants can buoy Japan

It is not possible to spend more than a few minutes with a Japanese diplomat or scholar without hearing the "C," namely China. Most of them are convinced that the People's Republic is expanding its global influence while Japan's is shrinking. The entire world, and most worryingly Asia, which used to...
JAPAN
May 19, 2010

NPOs' social roles still in stage of infancy

When he set up a nonprofit organization 35 years ago to sell organic vegetables, Kazuyoshi Fujita never expected his pursuit would grow into a big business.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2010

Middle East needs truly secular governance

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — The march for secularism held on April 26 in Lebanon focused attention on the country and the region's conflicts and battle of values. Thousands of Lebanese from various social backgrounds — Shiite, Sunni, Maronite and more — took to the streets and marched to the national parliament...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 18, 2010

Sakurai: a very dapper demagogue

Makoto Sakurai brings to mind that old joke about the man in a pub who says "I'm not racist, but . . . "
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 16, 2010

Nara still boasts its ancient lure

In a geographical battle for the hearts and minds of Japanese people, Kyoto would win hands down as the wellspring of so much of their culture for which they feel such reverence.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 14, 2010

Yokohama shows off regional fare

Buffet restaurant Cafe Tosca at the Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu will put on dinners featuring ingredients from Yokohama and other parts of Kanagawa Prefecture from May 17 to June 30.
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2010

A turning point in Thailand

BANGKOK — Massive occupations of two areas of central Bangkok the past two months show that the rise of Thailand's "red shirt" protesters is one of the most significant developments in Asia in 25 years, as it signals a new type of conflict involving entrenched elites and millions of workers who have...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 13, 2010

Antique dealer Kunihiro Iida

Antique dealer Kunihiro Iida, 66, specializes in tea ceremony utensils. His tiny corner shop, Iidakojitsudo, is just 500 meters from Tokyo Station's Yaesu side, in the historical district of Kyobashi. Built in 1971 by the famed carpenter Kisaburo Fujii — who studied under Ogi Rodo, the grandmaster...
JAPAN
May 10, 2010

Most Taiji residents rest easy, refuse to change diet

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. — Residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, appeared relieved Sunday after health specialists found no symptoms of mercury poisoning in their bodies, even though the hair samples of some residents contained high levels of methyl mercury.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 9, 2010

Children of Japan

Childhood. We all know it, we've all been through it, we've all lost it. Memory retains traces of it. We recall facts, incidents, fragments — but not what it felt like to be a child. Childish feelings are nameable to the adult, but not recoverable. They are on the other side of an impassable boundary...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 9, 2010

TV Tokyo's soft approach toughens consumer savvy

Each of Japan's key commercial TV stations has distinctive traits, though in terms of programming these distinctions are probably insignificant to the average viewer, especially when you often have the boy band Arashi appearing on two or three different stations in the same evening.
EDITORIALS
May 7, 2010

Long live the next Kabukiza

Kabukiza Theater in Tokyo's Ginza, the center of the traditional performing art that is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritages, was closed on April 30. It will revive in the spring of 2013 with new buildings. Toward the end of the 16-month long Kabukiza Farewell Performances, which started...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / Japan Pulse
May 5, 2010

Big (only) in Japan? Tape as proof of purchase

While Japan loves packaging, it makes an exception with proof-of-purchase tape.
JAPAN
May 4, 2010

Constitution Day marked with rallies and protests

On the occasion of the 63rd Constitution Day, and with the national referendum law to take effect May 18, a group of conservative intellectuals on Monday stressed the need to kick-start debate on the Constitution, which they argued has been on the back burner for too long.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 2, 2010

The Zen nothingness of Zamami

Thinking that Japan is too expensive for them, many budget travelers eschew this archipelago for Southeast Asia. But with a mountain bike and a tent, it's quite possible to travel in Okinawa on ¥1,000 a day — and enjoy it — especially on Zamami Island.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 2, 2010

He's unusual, so why not just kill him

In a review of the book "Shikei de Ii desu" ("The Death Sentence Is OK With Me") that appears in the Feb. 26 issue of Kinyobi, critic Tatsunori Yagashiwa asks if a society that "disregards illness" can properly judge criminal suspects.
COMMENTARY
May 1, 2010

How news skews views

BEIJING — I am not good at flying kites. But during a recent visit to the Olympic Village of Beijing, I felt compelled to do so. Despite the cold and late hour, there were many kite runners around me. A salesman insisted that I try my hand before committing to any purchase, and I did. After purchasing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 1, 2010

An artist's love affair with ceramics

Ceramic artist Swanica Ligtenberg returned from her native Holland in early January with a new sense of purpose. She no longer felt an outsider in a family of goldsmiths and silversmiths, because in speaking with her uncle — still creatively active at age 91 — she realized that the roots of his and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 30, 2010

'The Box'/'9'

You'd be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of certifiably cult movies from the past decade, but Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" (2001) is definitely one of them. This strange hybrid about a troubled teen and his invisible friend (a giant evil-looking rabbit named Frank) could best be described...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 30, 2010

Only got 4Minutes to take the world

T he five young members of 4Minute sit dressed in tight, black leather outfits at a luxury hotel in Ebisu, Tokyo. It's one day before their Japanese debut, but they show no signs of nerves.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 28, 2010

Ethics of citizenship tests

PRINCETON, N.J. — Can citizenship really be tested? An increasing number of countries — especially, but not only, in Europe — seem to think so.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 27, 2010

Craftsman gets creative with Yakushima wood

Derrel Grisham is an American, but it was a sense of nostalgia that drew him to the island of Yakushima off the southern coast of Kagoshima Prefecture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 27, 2010

Battered Briton survives aikido ordeal

At the end of February, a group of international students graduated from the Tokyo-based Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo, one of the most intensive martial arts training centers in the world.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2010

Tax breaks for donations to NPOs

Since the nonprofit organization law went into effect 1998, certified nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have been active in various areas, including welfare, art, culture and education, which the government sector does not and cannot cover. But many of them are financially weak.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan