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COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Dec 18, 2012

When is an hour at work not a work hour?

It was 1988, in an ad for Regain energy drink. Actor Saburo Tokito, wearing a suit and carrying an attache case, asked a question that would go down in TV history: "Can I work 24 hours straight?"
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2012

Abe vague on manning Senkakus, Yasukuni visits

Shinzo Abe, who is expected to be named prime minister next week, tried Monday to ease international concerns a bit over his hawkish stance a day after his Liberal Democratic Party won an overwhelming victory in the Lower House election.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2012

New regional leaders face myriad challenges

What Japan needs the most as it emerges from the Lower House election is a more stable political leadership, after having six prime ministers in as many years, so that it can tackle mounting domestic challenges and manage its shaky ties with neighboring countries.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 16, 2012

Nippon Ishin seen in coalition lottery

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) is stumbling into Sunday's Lower House election with polls showing it will pick up just a fraction of the seats it was eyeing, as internal squabbles have sown confusion and distrust among voters.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2012

Frailty rising as a medical condition

As a medical resident 30 years ago, Ava Kaufman remembers puzzling over some of the elderly patients who came to the primary-care practice at George Washington University Hospital. They weren't really ill, at least not with any identifiable diseases. But they weren't well, either.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 15, 2012

Idled reactors' fate holds center stage in nuclear hub Fukui

On a snowy afternoon just a few days before the general election, local politicians and many residents of Fukui Prefecture were in a state of shock and wondering what the future holds, after a team of nuclear experts declared it is highly likely that a fault under the Tsuruga nuclear plant's reactor...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Dec 15, 2012

'Face of election' Kawamura of Nagoya now the odd man out

After deciding not to run in this weekend's Lower House poll, Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura's status as the "face of the election" has faded and his frustration is clearly growing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 14, 2012

Dismayed Tohoku faces first post-3/11 poll

A mere 15 minutes before Azuma Konno, a Democratic Party of Japan candidate running in Sunday's Lower House election, was set to make a stump speech in front of JR Sendai Station last Friday evening, a 7.4-magnitude quake struck deep off Miyagi's shore, flooding one coastal district with 1-meter-high...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2012

Jackson bids for more magic with 'The Hobbit'

When asked what "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" offers that "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy didn't, actor Sir Ian McKellan pauses before answering.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2012

'Gummo Ebian! (G'mor Evian!)'

When teenagers see their parents goofing around or generally not acting their ancient age, they often react with embarrassment, scorn or the fervent wish that these so-called adults would just grow up. Then inevitably, not long later, those sophisticated 15-year-olds are goofing around themselves —...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 13, 2012

Nature that goes beyond its course

The easiest way to describe this exhibition is "The meeting of two Mets," with the Metropolitan Museum of Art Tokyo serving as a venue for 133 works from its much more renowned New York version, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, known simply as "The Met."
Reader Mail
Dec 13, 2012

Apathy a hopeful sign for whales

Regarding Rowan Hooper's Dec. 9 Natural Selections column, "World still waits for Japan to stop being apathetic about whaling": I'm surprised Hooper didn't mention the whaling lobby in the Diet, who pressed whalers to go out this year. Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research didn't want to strain its...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2012

Perception gaps prolong soured Japan-China ties

The diplomatic row and anti-Japanese sentiments in China over the Senkaku Islands dispute may become a prolonged issue as long as perception gaps remain between the two countries, a scholar said at a recent seminar in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Dec 12, 2012

U.S. economy creating a lost generation

This is not a good time to be starting out in life. Jobs are scarce, and those that exist often pay unexpectedly low wages. Beginning a family — always stressful and uncertain — is increasingly a stretch. The weak economy begets weak family formation. We instinctively know this; several new studies...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 11, 2012

Is Shintaro Ishihara the most dangerous man in Japan? Readers discuss

Parallels with wartime general
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Dec 11, 2012

Do Japan a favor: Don't stop being a critic

Remember grade school, when the most demanding question put to you was something as simple as "What color do you like?" Choose any color, for there is no wrong answer.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2012

Privacy debate surrounds U.S. electronic spying law

A measure granting the government expansive power to intercept electronic communications in the United States without a warrant is set to expire this month, setting up a sharp debate in the Senate over how to balance privacy against national security.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 9, 2012

"Give it a try!"; A Matsumoto mystery; CM of the week: Pizza Hut

Celebrity couples are very popular among variety-show producers, but in recent years they have shown more interest in another two-for-one bargain: the parent-child pairing. This week a special two-hour edition of the consumer challenge show, "Otameshi Ka!" ("Give It a Try!"; TV Asahi, Mon. 7 p.m.) will...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2012

'Frankenweenie'

Director Tim Burton started out as an animator at Disney, and after working on such milquetoast projects as "The Fox and The Hound" and "The Black Cauldron" he was greenlighted to develop some of his own stuff. After a few animated shorts, he made his first live-action film at age 25 in 1984, "Frankenweenie."...
LIFE
Dec 4, 2012

'Were we marines used as guinea pigs on Okinawa?'

Newly discovered documents reveal that 50 years ago this week, the Pentagon dispatched a chemical weapons platoon to Okinawa under the auspices of its infamous Project 112. Described by the U.S. Department of Defense as "biological and chemical warfare vulnerability tests," the highly classified program...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2012

Sacred India's Chinese flavor

More than a billion small lamps lit the evening sky and hand-held sparkler fireworks added to the dancing light, while firecrackers boomed almost as if a war was going on. In hundreds of millions of homes, people chanted the sacred mantras and called upon the gods to help good defeat evil, and light...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2012

Buffett's spending goal won't bring U.S. renewal

I hate to pick a fight with the sage of Omaha, but in an otherwise admirable New York Times Op-Ed that offered a new version of his idea for a minimum tax for the wealthy, Warren Buffett embraced (inadvertently, I'm guessing) spending and revenue goals for the federal government that would kill any agenda...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 4, 2012

'Were we marines used as guinea pigs on Okinawa?'

Newly discovered documents reveal that 50 years ago this week, the Pentagon dispatched a chemical weapons platoon to Okinawa under the auspices of its infamous Project 112. Described by the U.S. Department of Defense as "biological and chemical warfare vulnerability tests," the highly classified program...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2012

Ceasefire tests five leaders

The diplomatic activities under the current Gaza ceasefire will test whether a quintet of leaders — each with his own domestic critics — can find a peaceful rather than a military solution to the Palestinian situation. The ceasefire language was direct but ambiguous: "Israel should stop all hostilities...
Reader Mail
Dec 2, 2012

Usual 'decency' is not enough

In his Nov. 29 letter, "Opportunists pervert ideologies," Percival Constantine may fail to appreciate that, historically, the vast majority of "decent, upstanding citizens" went along with the Inquisition, pogroms, the gulags and so on.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Dec 2, 2012

Players give ultimatum to Oita, plan appeal to FIBA

Like a veteran boxer with 75 bouts on his resume, the Oita HeatDevils' American quartet —Wendell White, Matt Lottich, Taj Finger and Cyrus Tate — is not going down without a fight.
JAPAN
Dec 1, 2012

U.S. Senate passes Senkaku backing

The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that is designed to counter attempts by China to challenge Japan's administration of the Senkaku Islands but sidesteps the question of who has ultimate sovereignty over the disputed territory....

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’