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Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2012

Fitting analogy for health debate

Yoshi Tsurumi's April 16 article, "Supreme Court is destroying U.S. democracy," shows the writer's lack of understanding of the American system. No one is saying health care isn't a mess, but the protest is against President Barack Obama's plan that, in effect, makes it a crime, punishable by a fine,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 21, 2012

Incredible images capture surreal disaster zone

Twisted wreckage thrown against the pastoral countryside, surreal scenes of the elements of everyday horribly juxtaposed, a world exploded yet eerily calm in its chaos. The photos are at once deeply disturbing and uncomfortably captivating. Rich colors, uncanny detail and stunning skies brought out by...
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2012

New Olympus picks defeat protests

Olympus Corp. won approval Friday to appoint new management, including Yasukuki Kimoto as chief executive officer and Hiroyuki Sasa as president, despite opposition from foreign shareholders.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2012

Doubt in Kansai grows over plant restarts, blackout predictions

Distrust of the central government's conclusion that the Oi No. 3 and No. 4 reactors are safe to restart and doubts over Kansai Electric Power Co.'s predictions of possible blackouts without them have grown in Kansai this week.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2012

Dam-building disputes roil Asia

Dam building on shared rivers has emerged as the leading source of water disputes and tensions in Asia, the world's driest continent whose freshwater availability is less than half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic meters per inhabitant. Dam-building activities by China and Central, South and...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Apr 18, 2012

Governor seen as goading administration into action

Though quick to get a reaction from experts and lawmakers Tuesday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's intention to purchase the Senkaku Islands will likely have little impact on the territorial dispute between Japan, China and Taiwan.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2012

Mr. Noda's taxing problem

One-on-one Diet debates between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and opposition leaders held on April 11 primarily concerned Mr. Noda's plan to raise the consumption tax from April 2014. The prime minister has stated that he will stake his political life on the tax hike plan, and added that he will tackle...
BUSINESS
Apr 16, 2012

Myanmar business leader woos investors

At a symposium in Tokyo Saturday, a Myanmar business leader encouraged Japanese companies to keep pace with their Chinese and South Korean rivals who are investing in the newly democratizing country or risk missing out on prime opportunities before the 2015 elections.
COMMENTARY
Apr 16, 2012

Look at Social Security for what it is: welfare

Would Franklin Roosevelt (the 32nd U.S. president) approve of Social Security? The question seems absurd. After all, Social Security is considered the New Deal's signature achievement. It distributes nearly $800 billion a year to 56 million retirees, survivors and disabled beneficiaries.
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2012

The hunt for Japan's civilization

The perennial debate on the death penalty again reared its head with Cesar Chelala's excellent April 11 article. But I fear that his exhortations will once again fall on the deaf ears of those who kill in the name of the state, both in Japan and in the United States.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 15, 2012

Is Putin's 'roof ' going to keep out the hard rains of his falling popularity?

Putin's in a pickle and Russia's in the soup. At least that's what many who write about the "Dear Leader" and his country seem to be saying. But is it so? Certainly there is disruption, the kind of disruption that sits just below the skin, breaks out into turmoil, then all but disappears from sight —...
Reader Mail
Apr 15, 2012

Disturbingly inexact language

In response to the April 12 Kyodo brief "Noda to send Edano to Fukui," I wish to pose one question to industry minister Yukio Edano: What does he and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda mean when they confirm that reactors 3 and 4 of Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant "basically" meet the government's...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Apr 15, 2012

Wild Watch turns 30 this month

As April 2nd's 30th anniversary of my first Wild Watch column in The Japan Times neared, I was in India — teeming Delhi to be precise, with its cacophony of people, honking traffic and barking dogs, though a tailorbird would stop and call outside my window, where a palm squirrel never tired of chattering....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 15, 2012

Are women really on the ascendancy as some media proclaim?

'Joshi bakari ga naze tsuyoi?" ("Why is it that only women are strong?") asks Aera (Mar. 26). The question may be a valid one, at least when limited to international sports events, where Japan's women over the past several years have been outshining their male counterparts as they excel in soccer, women's...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 15, 2012

Titanic disaster, cherry trees sent to Washington D.C., "Sunflowers" fetches record price at auction

100 YEARS AGOFriday, April 19, 1912
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 13, 2012

'Texas Killing Fields'

Having an iconic Hollywood filmmaker for a dad isn't always a cool thing. The dad in question: Michael Mann, the guy who brought us such notable gangster tales as "Public Enemies," produced the gritty, testosterone-infused "Heat" and has more than a dozen blockbusters to his name. Granted, Michael Mann...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2012

Court upholds life sentence for Ichihashi

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld Tatsuya Ichihashi's life sentence for raping and murdering English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker, ruling he intended to kill her.
CULTURE / Art
Apr 12, 2012

Voina points to the art of dissent

The photo shows an unshaven Russian glaring into the distance from behind prison bars. It's a striking shot, so it is hardly surprising that when it was printed on a 4×6-meter banner and unfurled at an entrance to the 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the police officers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 12, 2012

Voina points to the art of dissent

The photo shows an unshaven Russian glaring into the distance from behind prison bars. It's a striking shot, so it is hardly surprising that when it was printed on a 4×6-meter banner and unfurled at an entrance to the 20-km exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the police officers...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2012

Lifting Myanmar sanctions would be a mistake

On April 1, international election monitors and media outlets reported a remarkable event in Myanmar. Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — who spent years under house arrest, and sometimes in prison, fighting for democracy and justice — was elected to Parliament. All week, calls have grown for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 10, 2012

Rape victim marks 10 years on lonely crusade for justice

It surely isn't very often that elite Japanese bureaucrats hear the words to the national anthem quoted at them — by a foreigner. Earlier this year, Australian national Catherine Fisher says she pulled the words of "Kimigayo" from her head during a frustrating meeting with officials from the ministries...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 8, 2012

18th-century murder mystery still delivers

MURDER IN THE RED CHAMBER, by Taku Ashibe, translated by Tyran C. Grillo. Kurodahan Press, 2012, 268 pp., $16.00 (paperback). Anthony West has called "Dream of the Red Chamber," a Chinese novel written in the 18th century, "beyond question one of the great novels of all literature," and many eminent...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 8, 2012

Purity and pollution in Japan

TROUBLED NATURES: Waste, Environment, Japan, by Peter Wynn Kirby. University of Hawaii Press, 2011, 250 pp., $49.00 (hardcover) Japan "is enmired in waste." Naturally — what industrialized or industrializing nation isn't? It's a ubiquitous problem urgently demanding an elusive solution, studied accordingly...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2012

Mainstream media toes the line on sales tax

A bill to increase the consumption tax has finally been submitted to the Diet. Approval is by no means assured, owing partly to the fact that the substance of the issue has changed since the idea of a consumption tax was originally formulated. The Liberal Democratic Party saw it as a source of funding...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 8, 2012

'Anything goes' unites women's collections

What exactly is Tokyo fashion? Is it a pastiche of color and gobs of shapes so outrageous it's like we're being punked? Or is it the modern, conservative look that is an actual mainstay on the streets?
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2012

Debate growing over 'local' reactor consent

Dissent between those inside Fukui Prefecture who want two reactors in the town of Oi restarted quickly and those in adjacent prefectures who want to wait for stronger safety measures or are opposed altogether, highlights the dilemma Tokyo faces in obtaining local consent.

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