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COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 17, 2011

Print is suffering, but English readers have never had it so good

Returning to Osaka after several years, James wonders what became of Kansai Time Out, the magazine that served the English-speaking community in that region and beyond:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 10, 2011

Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner Hiroshi Mizohata

Hiroshi Mizohata, 50, is the Commissioner of the Japan Tourism Agency. A native of Kyoto and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, Mizohata entered the ranks of the prestigious kanryō, the career bureaucrats who control Japan's top-tier government offices. He worked in various ministries in Tokyo and...
Reader Mail
Apr 7, 2011

Uncertain future of Japan tourism

Regarding Amy Chavez's April 2 column, "This earthquake still felt all over Japan": As a Frenchman married to a Japanese and as a one-year resident of Japan, I usually read Chavez's articles with great pleasure and enjoy the wit in her writing. This article is no exception as it gives us the usual insight...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 19, 2011

The new pair seat surcharge

My neighbor Kazu-chan recently booked a trip to Bali with her friend on Garuda Indonesia. She said the travel agency she booked through charged her ¥3,000 to sit next to her friend. And her friend also had to pay ¥3,000 to sit next to Kazu-chan. This was called a pair seat.
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2010

Hotels find profit in catering to families

One autumn afternoon in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, a group of children and their parents were driving to a field to pick fresh vegetables for pizzas they planned to make there.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010

Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak

This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2010

APEC told isle feud may hurt tourism

NARA — A Chinese delegate to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting on tourism warned Thursday that tourist travel between Japan and China could be further damaged over escalating tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over Japan's arrest of a Chinese trawler captain near the disputed Senkaku...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Sep 4, 2010

Long-distance bus carriers' rivalry heats up in Nagoya

Competition in the highway express bus industry is heating up as more and more people look for ways to cut domestic travel costs.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 1, 2010

Do your part and take a vacation

Japan tends to vacation en masse at the same times annually, which isn't great for an ailing tourism industry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 10, 2009

From East Berlin to the Far East, and vice versa

On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. The East German nation, for 28 years hidden from the world's eyes behind almost impassable walls, suddenly opened up.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 10, 2009

Fundraising Japanese hanga print exhibition coming up

A Tokyo-based women's volunteer group — now in its 60th year of activity — is holding an annual fundraising show of print works next week.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2009

Less work, more play to lift economy: DPJ

Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan swept to power last month with the promise to revive the nation's moribund economy. One way to do so may be to stop people from working so hard.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 10, 2009

Tour guide Shinobu Nimura

Shinobu Nimura, 50, is an experienced tour guide who organizes long-distance bus journeys through Asia, Africa and South America. His tours take one to two months and cover vast territories. In 25 years, he has clocked up an incredible 280,000 km on buses, the equivalent to riding around the Equator...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 10, 2009

Tour guide Shinobu Nimura

Shinobu Nimura, 50, is an experienced tour guide who organizes long-distance bus journeys through Asia, Africa and South America. His tours take one to two months and cover vast territories. In 25 years, he has clocked up an incredible 280,000 km on buses, the equivalent to riding around the Equator...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2009

Japan Web site a life-time labor of love

When Stefan Schauwecker first launched japan-guide.com in 1996 while still a student in Canada, the Web site only featured an A to Z section on Japanese culture — "just a basic intro to Japan, a guide to look up cultural stuff and a little bit of history," the Swiss native recalled.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2009

JAL offers staff unpaid leave

Japan Airlines Corp., Asia's biggest carrier by sales, is asking workers to take unpaid leave at its international unit for the first time in four years amid slumping demand for air travel.
BUSINESS
Sep 5, 2008

Kansai airport still struggling after 14 years

OSAKA — Fourteen years after opening and a year after its second runway was completed, Kansai airport is still struggling to survive as canceled flights and political clashes with local and central government officials leave the airport's future up in the air.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2008

Offbeat exploits attract foreign visitors

Dressed entirely in black with his head wrapped in cloth, Michael Studte throws darts, turns somersaults and twirls lassos in a ninja class for foreign tourists in Japan.
Reader Mail
Oct 28, 2007

A cakewalk compared to Africa

Regarding Martin Issott's Oct. 23 letter, "A month away to bigger hassles": Issott should appreciate the fact that his Western passport allows him to either obtain a visa easily or travel visa-free to many developed countries to conduct his business regardless of his financial status.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 3, 2006

Permanent visa can relieve pension pain

One of many foreign residents' biggest gripes about Japan is the requirement that they must pay into the Japanese pension system for as long as they work here, even though they won't stay long enough to receive any benefits. Permanent residency can help to side-step the issue without obliging somebody...
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2006

Following the great haiku poet on the road

BASHO'S JOURNEY: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, translated with an introduction by David Landis Barnhill. State University of New York Press, 2005, 191 pp., $19.95 (paper). The great haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was first represented to the West just over a century ago. This was in W.G. Aston's...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes