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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 18, 2012

Quake insurance is but a token offering

As the government continues to push for an increase in the consumption tax, a question related to last year's disaster is still being debated: How much of the burden for rebuilding should be shouldered by taxpayers? We live in a resolutely capitalist country that stresses personal responsibility, and...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 17, 2012

Terry's influence crucial for Chelsea

Maybe it was Roman Abramovich's instruction to the players to improve.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2012

'Take Shelter'

If there's one thing that's certain about predictions of the apocalypse, it's that none of them have been correct to date. The mother of all end-of-the-world predictions was 2012 — according to all that Mayan calendar mumbo-jumbo — and yet, here we are.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2012

Europe's trust deficit undermines crisis resolution

There is no shortage of talk nowadays about Europe's deficits and the need to correct them. Critics point to governments' gaping budget deficits. They cite the southern European countries' chronic external deficits. They highlight the eurozone's institutional deficits — a single currency and a central...
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2012

Ease loan burdens in disaster area

Enterprises and individuals in the areas devastated by the 3/11 disasters are saddled with loans and are facing great difficulty in restarting their business and rebuilding homes. On March 5, the doors opened at a government organization that was established to help small-scale enterprises, self-employed...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 13, 2012

New Zealander loses legal fight over crippling med addiction

When Wayne Douglas arrived home in New Zealand from Japan in early 2001, his own mother didn't recognize him at the airport.
COMMENTARY
Mar 12, 2012

Delusional pretexts to attack Iran

The last time U.S. President Barack Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was obvious that the two men distrusted and despised each other. This time (March 5), their mutual dislike was better hidden, but the gulf between them was still as big, especially on the issue of Iran's alleged...
LIFE / Language
Mar 12, 2012

Japanese men love their men more than their women

Did somebody use the word "bland" in describing the Japanese male temperament? Wrong. Misinformed. Arienāi! (ありえなーい, not possible!) Okay, maybe my countrymen are bland in some areas best not mentioned in polite conversation. But let me set the record straight: the Japanese male is a toritsukareta...
JAPAN / QUEST FOR RECOVERY
Mar 11, 2012

A year on, Tohoku stuck in limbo

Located roughly 23 km from Fukushima's crippled nuclear plant, Hirono Station today is the northernmost stop on the JR Joban Line for passengers traveling up Tohoku's coast from Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2012

Chiba student defeats 35 to clinch Japan Times Spelling Bee crown

Haruka Masuda of Makuhari International School in Chiba Prefecture was crowned the winner Saturday of The Japan Times Spelling Bee after correctly spelling the word "ignominious," landing her a spot in the annual National Spelling Bee in Washington.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 10, 2012

Hannaryz score big win

First-year coach Honoo Hamaguchi brought discipline, a commitment to excellence and a pair of big-time big men to the Kyoto Hannaryz for the team's third season.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 10, 2012

J. League big guns set sights on Reysol's crown

The following is the second of a two-part preview for the upcoming J. League season. Team-by-team previews of the nine highest-ranked teams competing in the first division are listed.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 10, 2012

Who wants to know what's where?

One problem I have with the phrase "language struggles" is the image.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 9, 2012

Promoted sides seek to make mark against J. League powers

The following is the first of a two-part preview for the upcoming J. League season. Team-by-team previews of the nine lowest-ranked teams competing in the first division are listed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2012

Ridley Scott wants your home movies for crowd-sourced 3/11 tribute doc

Where will you be on March 11?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2012

'Shame'

Sexual addiction is defined by one recovery-program website as "any compulsive or impulsive sexual activity that falls into one of three categories: shameful, secretive or abusive." Well, that's a bit of a party-killer, isn't it? Beyond the fact that this defines as illness so much common sexual activity...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Mar 7, 2012

Money isn't everything for renters…or is it?

When you rent in Tokyo, it's best to start with lower expectations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 6, 2012

Rebuilding lives in shattered Tohoku, one image at a time

As the minibus winds through the foothills of northern Fukushima, the Geiger counter flashes blue and buzzes loud alerts — but it doesn't distract Brian Peterson. The 35-year-old American holds up a boxy Konika Instant Press — what he calls his "magic camera" — then explains how to load it, set...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 6, 2012

Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail

Last December, the Japanese government announced that a new visa regime with a "points system" would be introduced this spring.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 5, 2012

Hashimoto: a young politician to keep an eye on

He's young, photogenic, energetic, brash, bold, intelligent — and, almost oxymoronically, a politician, one of very few in Japan within living memory who come close to fitting such a description. He has many ideas, all of which boil down to this: "Nihon no kuni wo ichi kara risetto shite, mōichido...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2012

Noda makes international pitch for tax hike plan

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Saturday that his government "cannot sidestep" a controversial tax hike that has turned into the leader's highest priority and largest potential stumbling block.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 4, 2012

Mahara's injury leaves a big question mark for Hawks

A couple of teams expected to be pennant contenders in Japanese baseball this season will have to patch up some holes after the loss of a key player due to injury and another who may have to play out of position.
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2012

No reason to deny marriage right

Regarding Thomas Clark's Feb. 26 letter, "Twisting the meaning of marriage": Since when has the ability to procreate been the criteria for marriage? I'm quite sure that the heterosexual couples who are childless by choice or who have problems with fertility would be surprised to find that their marriages...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2012

Panel lays bare Fukushima recipe for disaster

The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis was caused by Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s lack of preparation for huge tsunami and exacerbated by conflicting levels of authority and downright "distrust and meddling" by high-ranking officials, an independent investigative panel reported Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 29, 2012

To save U.K., England must be more like Scotland

The battle over Scotland's future as part of the United Kingdom has begun. Last week, politicians on both sides of the border set out passionate arguments for and against Scottish independence. All three of Britain's main political parties are committed to preserving the union. In a speech in Edinburgh...
JAPAN
Feb 29, 2012

Noda tax quest one dimensional?

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has cleared numerous political hurdles since taking office in September, but his goal of raising the consumption tax and reforming the social security system may prove insurmountable as he wages a two-front battle.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 29, 2012

In Iraq, done in by the Clinton-Lewinsky affair

The recent public-television documentary on the Clinton presidency has focused attention anew on the scandal involving Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Overlooked is the important role this affair played in the confrontation with Iraq in 1998.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2012

Could EU use a global growth plan?

Talleyrand said of the Bourbon dynasty that ruled France both before and after that country's revolution: "They have learned nothing and have forgotten nothing."
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 27, 2012

Pragmatic Islamists of the Maghreb countries

Just over a year ago, the Arab Spring sparked dramatic change throughout the Arab world. Popular movements have brought a range of avowedly Islamist political parties to power, replacing the largely secular former regimes. What that will mean for these countries, and for the region, is one of today's...
LIFE / Longform
Feb 26, 2012

Danger zones: What are Japan's coastal communities doing to avert a disaster like March 11?

Teruo Saito has lived most of his 79 years within a couple of hundred meters of the Pacific, in an area that has been overwhelmed by massive tsunamis twice in the last 600 years.

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