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Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 20, 2012

Yoshitomo Nara puts the heart back in art

The induction of manga-style painting into Japan's contemporary art canon over the last 15 years can be put down to the work of not one but two artists. Sure, it was Takashi Murakami who laid the theoretical foundations, spelling out links with classical painting and ukiyo-e prints. But it was another...
Reader Mail
Jul 19, 2012

BBC's Olympics commentary

A word of explanation is owed to foreign observers of the upcoming Olympics in London (July 27 to Aug. 12). During the last Commonwealth Games, some non-Britons were puzzled as to why the BBC often referred to medal winners as "proud Scots" or "proud Welsh" etc., while English winners were always "British."...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2012

Obama playing the China card?

According to the United States Federal Reserve, Americans' net worth has fallen 40 percent since 2007, returning to its 1992 level. Progress toward recovery will be slow and difficult, and the U.S. economy will be weak throughout the runup to November's presidential and congressional elections. Can any...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2012

Britain's endangered breed

British parliamentary democracy has developed over the centuries and is often seen as a model for other countries. At its best, the system works for the public good, curbs corruption and prevents tyranny by the executive.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2012

A Camp David moment with Egypt

Despite early assurances by Egypt's new President Mohamed Morsi regarding his "commitment to international treaties and agreements," one can already foretell a confrontation between Egypt and Israel.
Reader Mail
Jul 15, 2012

Why Japan hosts fewer startups

A 2003 study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor showed that Japan has the lowest entrepreneurship activity among 37 countries surveyed. After reading past studies in this area, I discovered that the best predictor of entrepreneurial activity is population growth.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2012

Better a ban on work drinks than a ban on workers drinking

On July 6, the president of Fuji TV, Ko Toyoda, held a press conference and apologized for a June 9 segment of the variety show "Mecha Mecha Iketeru!" in which a group of celebrities had a drinking contest. Three citizens organizations, including a group of parents of children killed in drunk-driving...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 15, 2012

Aging Village shows the way with switch to solar

Eighty kilometers from Oi, Fukui Prefecture, is the village of Sanno, Hyogo Prefecture — 11 households, population 42, average age 60 plus.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2012

Libya's unwilling revolutionaries

Egypt is not the only place where the bright hopes of the Arab Spring are fading. From attacks against Western governments to ethnic clashes in remote desert oases, Libya's revolution is faltering.
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2012

Discovery of long-sought particle

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)announced on July 4 that scientists at the international organization have found a new subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that could explain the origin of mass.
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2012

Pension fund problems to remain

In the wake of the incident in which AIJ Investment Advisors Co. lost most of ¥145.8 billion in pension assets through bad investments, a panel of the health and welfare ministry on June 29 came up with a proposal on how to solve the problems related to the type of corporate pension fund known as kosei...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jul 11, 2012

Will Kim's return provide new motivation for Mao?

Great news descended upon the skating world last week when Kim Yu-na announced she was returning to competition with the goal of taking part in the 2014 Sochi Games.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2012

Prosecution's questionable call

The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office on June 27 decided not to indict Mr. Masahiro Tashiro, a former prosecutor with the special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. He was accused by a citizens' group of falsifying a report on his interrogation of Mr. Tomohiro Ishikawa,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 10, 2012

Osprey deployment heightens safety worry

The United States last month announced that the MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft will be deployed to U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa as scheduled in October.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 10, 2012

The beautiful future of fashion

The "Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion" exhibition first showed at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2010 and traveled to the Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2011. Highly acclaimed by art critics and fashion fans, the show is finally making a pit stop in Japan, at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2012

Follies of overconfident, arrogant government may be setting the stage for a cyber meltdown

When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, many shocked critics asked why markets, regulators and financial experts failed to see it coming.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 10, 2012

Readers lament the ever-shrinking eikaiwa salary

Some readers' responses to "The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary" by Patrick Budmar (Zeit Gist, July 3):
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Unprepared for times like these

Regarding the June 24 Big in Japan column, "The doomsday cult of 9-to-5 depression": I would like to thank writer Michael Hoffman for a very well-written and timely article on the relentless rise of depression in Japan. There are, according to the business magazine cited by Hoffman, a wide variety of...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 8, 2012

Give Kato four more years at NPB helm

A Kyodo News item came out of the blue on July 3, indicating Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato's term was to have expired June 30, and he is now in limbo, awaiting word about whether he will be extended.
Reader Mail
Jul 8, 2012

Biomass: a question of viability

Regarding the June 19 Kyodo article "Biomass town shining amid Fukushima taint": As nice as it sounds, biomass will not meet Japan's power needs for the foreseeable future. ... Does the city of Maniwa (Okayama Prefecture) seriously think that harvesting trees will meet its energy needs, and for how long?...
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2012

Thumbs up for whistle-blowing

The Supreme Court, for the first time, ruled in favor of a corporate whistle-blower late last month. Mr. Masaharu Hamada, an employee at Olympus Corp., had filed suit after being demoted, forced to take rudimentary tests, ignored by colleagues and given cold treatment after raising complaints about business...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2012

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita's commercial film departure

Starting with his first film "Donten Seikatsu (Hazy Life)" from 1999, director Nobuhiro Yamashita explored slackerdom, Japan-style, with a laconically knowing eye and a laidback sense of humor. Rejecting the broad approach of so much local comedy, he developed gags from off-beat, spot-on observations...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2012

Leveling the field for women

When I first read the July 1 article "Disabled women speak out on discrimination," I was so angry that I read it again — just to be sure about what I'd read. The first question that came to me: What would it be like if there were no women in the world?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2012

Use JGBs, not tax hike, to spur growth: 'Mr. Yen'

Far from tightening its fiscal belt, Japan should expand the world's largest debt pile to rekindle economic growth, said former Finance Ministry official Eisuke Sakakibara.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2012

Japan to become No. 2 solar market

Japan is poised to overtake Germany and Italy to become the world's second-biggest market for solar power as incentives that started Sunday drive sales for equipment makers from Kyocera Corp. to China's Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 3, 2012

The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary

Now fraught with job insecurity and low pay, there was a time when the work was steady and salaries were high for those who taught English in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 2, 2012

The ironic potential of Putin

Vladimir Putin's recapture of the Russian presidency has been met with widespread derision, both at home and abroad. But the autocrat's return to the Kremlin could be Russia's best hope to escape stagnation.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?