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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 28, 2014

OK Go shares a love of Japan with fans

'Sharing' used to be a dirty word in the music industry, but OK Go have been instrumental in changing that.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2014

Air bag maker in crisis used unique chemical explosive

The emerging crisis over air bags traces back to a little-known Tokyo company that for over 20 years has supplied the safety devices to automakers including Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and General Motors Co.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 27, 2014

For Panasonic, life after gadgets enriched by self-driving cars

Panasonic Corp.'s ratings upgrade last week shows that its investment in self-driving autos and car batteries has breathed new life into the company as it scales back on consumer electronics.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 26, 2014

The world still needs to learn Japanese

For the attention of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren):
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Oct 25, 2014

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo: young blood

Ten years have now passed since Tokyo first strutted its stuff on the international catwalk and yet the metropolis still lacks the pulling power of rivals such as Milan, New York and Paris. As if the domestic industry didn't have enough on its plate, the wheels threatened to come off the spring/summer...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 25, 2014

Blondes have more fun in NHK's morning drama

Two weeks ago I received a message from a reader who asked me to ask NHK why the public broadcaster had changed the name and the hair color of the female protagonist of its new daily 15-minute asa-dora (morning drama series) "Massan," which is based on the life of Masataka Taketsuru, the first person...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2014

Tsunami-hit Miyagi mulls casino to hasten recovery

Business and political leaders in the northeast bet on a casino as the brightest hope to speed reconstruction in a region battered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
WORLD / Society
Oct 25, 2014

Alaska's indigenous languages now official along with English

Alaska's governor signed a bill on Thursday to officially recognize the state's 20 indigenous languages in a symbolic move that gives a nod to tribal efforts to save Native American tongues at risk of dying out.
OLYMPICS / ROBERT WHITING'S 1964 OLYMPICS RETROSPECTIVE
Oct 24, 2014

Negative impact of 1964 Olympics profound

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics had a profound impact on the capital city and the nation. In the final installment of a five-part series running this month, best-selling author Robert Whiting, who lived in Japan at the time, focuses on the environmental and human impact that resulted from hosting the event....
Japan Times
JAPAN / HOTEL SPECIAL 2014
Oct 24, 2014

Haneda sees nation's first transit hotel

If Japan is famous for its omotenashi (hospitality) around the world, a new service to further strengthen the message is now available at Tokyo's Haneda airport, a gateway to Japan. Royal Park Hotel The Haneda, Tokyo opened this September to provide an option for passengers on layovers.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2014

Western media distorts Japan

Those two favorite targets for Western moralizing about Japanese corporate corruption — Olympus (cameras) and Recruit (information) — are back in the headlines. Both typify the shallowness of much Western reporting in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2014

Patent law must retain incentives

As the government drafts amendments to the patent law, the question is how effective the new rules will be in ensuring fair corporate remuneration to inventors so that they keep their engineering talent in Japan to enhance the nation's industrial competitiveness.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 24, 2014

Give Abe a break on 'womenomics'

What matters for Japan — after two female ministers resigned this week from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet — is not the number of women in the Cabinet, but whether Japanese women get good jobs en masse.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 23, 2014

Paraguayan plant stevia upends sugar market

The maker of America's top sugar brand, Domino Sugar, is launching its first no-calorie "natural" sweetener extracted from the stevia plant in Paraguay, the strongest sign yet that the upstart product is threatening to eat into demand for sugar.
EDITORIALS
Oct 21, 2014

New power industry alliances

The comprehensive alliance struck between Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. in their thermal power generation business raises expectations of a further shakeup in the power industry ahead of the full liberalization of the retail sale of electricity in 2016.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2014

U.S. can cope with the next China slowdown

The U.S. economic boom in the 1990s even after the Japanese economy slowed dramatically suggests that the U.S. will cope with the next slowdown in China.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 18, 2014

Son of ex-prime minister testifies at Canada dismemberment trial

The son of former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the sister of convicted serial killer Karla Homolka testified on Friday at the murder trial of a Canadian man who has admitted to killing and dismembering a Chinese student in 2012.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2014

Orix presses ahead with solar despite grid constraints

Orix Corp., the finance and leasing company with renewable energy investments, plans to increase its backing of large solar projects in Japan regardless of grid access constraints that are threatening to slow the industry.
EDITORIALS
Oct 15, 2014

Asbestos victims deserve relief

The government needs to take a top court decision seriously and move quickly to offer financial help to asbestos victims.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 14, 2014

How employer transportation allowances helped create commuter hell

Why don't more people live closer to their jobs?
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 10, 2014

Moody's boosts Nomura credit rating for first time since 2005

Nomura Holdings Inc.'s credit rating was raised by Moody's Investors Service for the first time since November 2005 as Japan's largest brokerage showed improved profitability.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 10, 2014

Bitcoin payments by pedophiles frustrate child porn battle

In a two-story building in the English university town of Cambridge, researchers at the U.K.'s Internet Watch Foundation pore over online images of sexually abused children in an effort to remove them from the Web. It is dispiriting work, and this year it grew more complicated when they found a new payment...
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 9, 2014

Daihatsu buys Tokyo office building in minicar expansion push

Daihatsu Motor Co., the maker of minicars that is majority-owned by Toyota Motor Corp., bought an office building in Tokyo to strengthen its business in the nation's largest metropolitan area.
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2014

Japan Tobacco looks at closing some European plants

Japan Tobacco Inc. may close some European manufacturing facilities after taxes and illegal trade triggered an industry slowdown in a number of countries in the region.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / SEEN AT CEATEC
Oct 7, 2014

Toshiba unveils a humanoid robot that could be a sign of the times

If you visit the Toshiba booth at CEATEC this week you’ll be greeted by ChihiraAico, who can communicate in sign language . . . and who just happens to be an android.

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic