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CULTURE / Books
Sep 5, 2010

Glass ceiling has not budged for many of Japan's working women

As we enter the third decade of the "lost decade," there is much to despair about the state of Japan. There has been a sharp increase in the number of working poor, mostly due to the spread of nonregular employment, which now involves 34 percent of the workforce, nearly double the level of the asset-bubble...
JAPAN / JAPANESE LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Aug 20, 2010

Rewards, roadblocks for volunteer teachers

Ikuko Sahara, representative of a volunteer group teaching Japanese to foreigners in Tokyo, knows it's no picnic living in a foreign country without being familiar with the language.
EDITORIALS
Jul 4, 2010

Quiet change in Japan

Anyone reading about the failure in letting married women use their maiden names in their family registers, or watching the latest to-do over whaling, could be forgiven for concluding that nothing ever changes in Japan. Quiet currents of change, however, are running under the surface.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 4, 2010

Manga's Cinderella story

"I want to tell you a real love story," whispers a pen-wielding Misako, a graphic-novel version of comic artist Misako Takashima, on the first page of the 2007 book, "Rock and Roll Love."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 1, 2010

Gunma city does battle with beards

I would like to draw readers' attention to the outstanding work of the municipal government of Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. After receiving complaints that citizens find bearded men unpleasant, Isesaki — just as all levels of Japanese government often do — took decisive action to address an important...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 28, 2010

Rainbow 21

Around this time last year, music students at six universities were asked to consider what projects would best suit Suntory concert hall's 2010 "Rainbow 21" educational program. Each year only three projects survive a fierce selection process. This year's winners are Toho Gakuen School of Music with...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 11, 2010

Language sets high hurdle for caregiver candidates

Since the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers arrived in 2008 under a new bilateral economic partnership agreement, 570 have come to Japan, as have 310 Filipinos under another EPA that took effect two years ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2010

It's a Global Century, not an Asian Century

PARIS — It is almost taken for granted nowadays that this is to be the "Asian Century," marking an irreversible political/economic shift in global power from West to East. China has replaced Germany as the world's leading exporter, while South Korea's Korean Electric recently outbid Electricite de...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 27, 2010

Embracing the bicultural identity

Leslie Lorimer defied definition in Japan from the time she was a young child, when her blond hair, blue eyes and fluent Japanese proved a startling mix.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2010

Autopsy report: too few deaths examined

If the police had had their way, the sudden death of a young sumo wrestler three years ago would have been simply a tragic event quickly swept under the rug, dismissed, as it initially was, as heart failure from unknown causes.
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2010

Don't exclude 'Chosen' schools

The Diet is deliberating on a bill to make public high school tuition free and provide ¥120,000 yearly to those attending private schools or certified educational institutions. But Mr. Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of the North Korean abduction issue, aired the view in February that pro-North Korean...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 7, 2010

DPJ needs schooling on equality

When the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power last year, many people expected Japanese politics to become more rational. The Liberal Democratic Party had maintained a status quo that stifled meaningful change, and the DPJ supposedly won by promising to move forward.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 24, 2010

Don't expect an assertive Toyoda

Americans are likely in for a surprise if they expect Toyota President Akio Toyoda to put on a show of authoritative "the-buck-stops-here" clout at Wednesday's congressional hearing on the automaker's massive recalls.
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2010

Airport wars roil Kansai region

OSAKA — Two years into his term, Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto continues to enjoy high popularity among voters, with some local media polls showing his approval rating at almost 70 percent, due largely to his personality and cost-cutting steps.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2009

How Japan can regain its vitality

Last November, two months after the inauguration of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, I predicted, in an opinion piece for the American magazine Science, that a sweeping change in Japanese government was imminent.
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations
Sep 5, 2009

Washington U. let nisei avoid internment

ST. LOUIS — Yoshio Matsumoto was among the 110,000 Japanese-Americans seemingly bound for an internment camp soon after the United States entered World War II when a university he knew nothing about from a far off part of the country agreed to take him in.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 11, 2009

Todai still beckons nation's best, brightest but goals diversifying

For more than 130 years, the University of Tokyo has been unrivaled as the gateway to elite careers for thousands of hopeful candidates who pass the exam to get in.
LIFE / Digital
Jul 22, 2009

Google Books leaves Japan in legal limbo

For a long time, the Japanese publishing industry was in the dark about the Google Book Search Library project, the ambitious endeavor by the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant to create a vast online library by scanning millions of books. Google announced the start of the project in 2004, but...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2009

Crimes happen, but are the criminals 'one of us' or 'one of them'?

Crime may not pay like it used to, but the way it is described in the media has not changed much throughout the millennia.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 12, 2009

Crimes happen, but are the criminals 'one of us' or 'one of them'?

Crime may not pay like it used to, but the way it is described in the media has not changed much throughout the millennia.
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2009

It's hard to please everyone

Cynthia Seton writes in her May 28 letter, "Different take on universities," that Japanese national universities are often notorious for treating non-Japanese quite differently. I agree to a large extent. I worked as a low-paid post-doctorate fellow at a prefectural — not national — university for...
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2009

Rescinded job offers

A record number of graduates had their job offers canceled this spring, a recent survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported. More than 2,000 offers in total were withdrawn, double the number of the second worst year — 1998 — when several brokerage firms collapsed.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji