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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 2, 2012

Fuji Rock gets a blast of sunshine, and a wave of Cool Britannia from Radiohead, Noel Gallagher, The Stone Roses

Chances are that anyone who regularly makes it out to the valleys of Naeba, Niigata Prefecture, for the annual Fuji Rock Festival will tell you that it's not for the weather. If there's one thing every year that punters will cross their fingers and hope for more than quality performances from their favored...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUJI ROCKERS
Aug 2, 2012

James Blake says nothing beats mum's advice

Two gigs in one day, you must be busy balancing your schedule right now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2012

Contemporary Japanese artists strive to create works uninfluenced by the West

"Real Japanesque: The Unique World of Japanese Contemporary Art" at the National Museum of Art, Osaka, is in many ways a trying exhibition. Its concept claims that Japanese artists born after the 1970s are attempting to create something entirely new and that they are distancing themselves from imitating...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 31, 2012

China appears to be losing its diplomatic grip

In 2016, China's share of the global economy will be larger than America's in purchasing-price-parity terms. This is an earth-shaking development; in 1980, when the United States accounted for 25 percent of world output, China's share of the global economy was only 2.2 percent. And yet, after 30 years...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 31, 2012

SOFA a source of sovereign conflicts

The July 23 arrival of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture and plans to deploy them this fall to Okinawa have fueled stiff opposition from local governments nationwide.
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2012

Myanmar's budding miracle

More than three months ago, on April 21, amid great fanfare, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda at a Japan-Mekong summit pledged $7.4 billion in development aid to five Southeast Asian nations in an effort to promote cooperation with countries in the Mekong region. The prime minister also said Japan...
BUSINESS
Jul 28, 2012

Nagai taking over as Nomura CEO signals global retreat

Nomura Holdings Inc.'s appointment of domestic brokerage head Koji Nagai as the new chief signals a retrenchment into its home market as Japan's biggest investment bank reels from the insider-trading scandal and losses abroad.
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2012

Suspicious geological faults

The trade and industry ministry's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) on July 18 ordered Kansai Electric Power Co. (Kepco) and Hokuriku Electric Power Co. to carry out geological surveys, including boring, at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture and the Shika nuclear power plant in...
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2012

Syria's minority prospects

In war, moral power is to physical as three parts out of four, said Napoleon, and the past few days have seen a sudden and drastic shift in the balance of moral power in Syria.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2012

Obsession with a safety myth

The government-commissioned panel charged with investigating the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant submitted its final report to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday. The report made clear that obsessed with the myth of nuclear safety, both Tepco and the...
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2012

Equalizing pension benefits

There has been criticism that public servants have been receiving advantageous treatment in retirement allowances and pension benefits, compared with corporate workers.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2012

Adapting to climate change in the Asia-Pacific

Rising, warming and increasingly acidic seas threaten the very survival of Pacific island countries.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 23, 2012

Bloom is off decentralization

A number of local political parties have cropped up of late clamoring for further "decentralization," which would shift much administrative and budgetary authority from the central government to local governments.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 22, 2012

Nomura has Carp in playoff picture

How does this grab you?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 22, 2012

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto: 'What Japan needs now is dictatorship'

Confrontational, outspoken, feisty and highly focused, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a self-made man determined to redraw the loci of power in Japan. He is clearly using the local platform from which to spring into the national arena. The question on everyone's mind is: Will Hashimoto ever be the prime...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 22, 2012

A century of Tokyo taxis

The year 1912 is recorded in Japan both as the 45th year of Meiji Era and the first year of the Taisho Era. After a protracted illness, Emperor Mutsuhito expired, age 61, on the night of July 29 (although the official announcement came the next day). Through the remainder of the summer, the front pages...
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2012

Avoid tabloid-style headlines

Regarding the July 15 Kyodo article "Police to grill 300 pupils, parents over boy's suicide": Police to "grill" pupils? Seriously? Are they going to deny them cigarettes and really give them the third degree? Inappropriately dramatic headlines like this always make me visualize gray-haired editors fondly...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 22, 2012

The spirit behind Japanese cohesion

Building Democracy in Japan, by Mary Alice Haddad. Cambridge University Press, 2012, 270 pp., $20.34 (paperback) Mary Haddad seeks to refute those non-Japanese scholars who are dismissive of Japanese democracy because it doesn't measure up to western standards. She argues that they overlook and marginalize...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 21, 2012

Raw beef liver not alone in Japan's big menu of extreme foods

The ban on serving raw beef liver at restaurants in Japan is a small victory for the bovine community. The question now is, will this cause a black market to fill the gap? Could mere cow tipping turn into liver-stealing? Will we have little yatai restaurants inside pastures with cows on display the way...
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2012

Sham hearings on nuclear power

The government on July 14 began a series of public hearings on the future weight of nuclear power in Japan's electricity generation. They are being held in 11 cities and the last hearing will take place on Aug. 4. Although the government says the hearings are a chance for it to hear what the people have...
COMMENTARY
Jul 20, 2012

Overhauling the anachronistic U.N. groupings

Come October, Australia will be competing with Finland and Luxembourg for two of this year's five elected two-year seats on the U.N. Security Council. Why against Finland and Luxembourg and not others also contesting for the total of five seats up for grabs? Well might you ask.
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...

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