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Reader Mail
Mar 3, 2011

A perishable college education

Regarding Dipak Basu's Feb. 27 letter, "Failure rate climbs in final year": I am glad to hear that Basu is trying to keep high standards in the university classes that he teaches. However, I am sad to see that he seems detached from the reality that surrounds him. His argument that only 5 percent of...
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2011

Matsuzawa will seek ban on public smoking

When Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa formally announced Tuesday that he will run for Tokyo governor, he listed a raft of key policy objectives, many of which he advocated in his current office.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2011

A call for philosophical thinking

HIROSHIMA — It has been long since hope for the future was lost, and a vague sense of anxiety is now prevailing among us. Yet this feeling of uneasiness should be the beginning of our thinking philosophically. We should rather take it as an unexpected blessing.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Mar 2, 2011

The Nintendo 3DS faces stiff competition, and not just from other game consoles

In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, a dual-screen gaming handheld that was revised several times over the next few years as the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL (LL in Japan) and went on to become one of the most popular consoles ever. The Kyoto-based gamemaker is obviously hoping to repeat that success...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 1, 2011

JAL revives crane logo in return to basics

Japan Airlines Corp. on Monday resurrected its red crane logo hoping it will bring new lift once the revised symbol is formally readopted April 1.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 1, 2011

Aoki sets sights on playing for national team

Since the bj-league was enveloped under the umbrella of the Japan Basketball Association last year, there have been casual talks regarding who from the league could play for the national team.
Reader Mail
Feb 27, 2011

So much pain for so little gain

The Feb. 20 editorial "Japan's ecological catastrophe" impressed me with the copious amount of detailed and deep thought that goes into Japan's hay fever allergy problem. It's not just a health problem, but a domestic economic and environmental problem, too.
Reader Mail
Feb 27, 2011

Just look at India's nuclear record

The Feb. 21 Kyodo article "We want nuke tech, too" — in which Pakistan demands to be treated the same as India vis-a-vis nuclear technology — rightly mentions the reluctance of Japan to transfer sensitive technology. I suggest that the nuclear records of India and Pakistan would shed more light on...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 27, 2011

All hail the wonders of Japanese cuisine — if not what Japanese eat

Ask almost any Japanese living overseas what they miss most and they are more likely to say the food than their relatives. Ask virtually any tourist what excites them most about Japan and you are apt to be told "Japanese food."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 27, 2011

Japanese TV funnymen target U.S.

In the popular U.S. TV series "Heroes," Japan-born actor Masi Oka played the role of Hiro Nakamura, who could travel through space and time. The series has now finished, of course, but Oka is still breaking down barriers that were once thought insurmountable — this time, however, he's doing it as a...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 27, 2011

Minding the gaps

During the Senkaku/Diaoyu imbroglio following the Sept. 7, 2010 collision between a Chinese trawler and a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel off disputed islands of those names in the East China Sea, some NHK and Asahi reporters emphasized that the anti-Japanese demonstrations in China were not only or...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 27, 2011

Ditching materialism for the simple life

There's a new notion floating around. Perhaps you've heard of it: Danshari. Its three kanji characters signify, respectively, refusal, disposal and separation. Prosaically it means cleaning or tidying up, but there are psychological and religious dimensions, deriving in part from yoga, which suggest...
JAPAN / ELEMENTARY ENGLISH
Feb 26, 2011

Are schools ready for English?

Come April, English classes will become mandatory for fifth- and sixth-graders, but a 29-year-old elementary school teacher in Tokyo has heard the concerns of her overwhelmed colleagues, especially the older ones, who have neither taught the language nor studied it since their university years decades...
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2011

Refugee families' dads land jobs in farming

The fathers of five refugee families from Myanmar who have been undergoing language training and living orientation after arriving in Japan under the U.N.-sponsored third-country resettlement program have landed jobs on farms, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELEMENTARY ENGLISH
Feb 26, 2011

Parents supportive but girl is the winner

How does one force an elementary school child to study or to master a foreign language at such a young age?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 26, 2011

The new foreigner in my 'hood

The new foreigner in my neighborhood is . . . me.
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Feb 26, 2011

Foreign sumo fans have their say on yaocho

In reaction to the yaocho (bout fixing) fracas enveloping sumo at present, many journalists in Japan and overseas have recently jumped on the sumo coverage bandwagon. Many have criticized the sumo association, the participants and their lifestyle and called for punishments, suspended basho and the like,...
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2011

Chubu Electric to invest ¥800 billion abroad by '30

Chubu Electric Power Co., Japan's third-biggest energy utility, plans to invest as much as ¥800 billion overseas by 2030, increasing its foreign business by more than 10 times as domestic demand falls.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 25, 2011

Artist-curated festival sets new rules

"It's Auschwitz with good music," jokes Nick Cave at the start of "All Tomorrow's Parties," a 2009 documentary released to mark the 10th anniversary of the music festival of the same name. It's a tasteless description for an impeccably tasteful event, one that has become a bastion for left-of-center...
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2011

Challenges of a smaller population

Regarding Shinji Fukukawa's Feb. 13 article, "How does Japan start to cope with fewer births, longer lives?": The notion that Japan would face a decline in population is nothing new. I learned it in Japanese elementary school back in the 1980s. The politicians use these key words in their manifestos...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight