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COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 14, 2010

South Koreans show split over what sank their ship

Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 5, 2010

Niseko's real estate boom: Bigger picture in sight for local development

For some it was a flash in the pan, at best an experiment destined to fail, at worst a mini-bubble hyper-inflated by greedy "outsiders" with little interest other than the type accumulating in the bank.
EDITORIALS
Jun 1, 2010

Yet another nuclear success

For the first time in a decade, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference was a success. The 189 nations that met for a month at the United Nations headquarters reconfirmed their commitment to the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, and to that end agreed to hold a regional conference...
BUSINESS
Jun 1, 2010

Panasonic aims to outshine solar competitors

Panasonic Corp. is banking on the solar-panel business that it gained by acquiring domestic rival Sanyo, aiming for a top market share of at least 35 percent in Japan by 2012.
OLYMPICS
Jun 1, 2010

Ukraine preps Winter Olympic bid

KIEV (AP) Ukraine is considering a bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics in Bukovnya in the Carpathian mountains.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 24, 2010

If China's amazing growth seems illusory, maybe it is

Not many people in Japan are convinced that China has truly become an economic giant even though Beijing has released impressive statistics on the country's economic growth, accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, rising automobile sales and aggregate stock market value.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 22, 2010

The bright career of a literary 'shadow hero'

American author Paul Auster once called translators "the shadow heroes of literature," who have enabled us to understand that we all live in one world. He could also be describing Juliet Winters Carpenter, 61, one of the best-known literary translators from Japanese to English, who has won praise for...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 21, 2010

New history of art in the 21st century

To the extent that it exists in the popular consciousness, contemporary art is frequently associated with ideas of "newness" and "antitradition." This is partly to do with the legacy of the early 20th-century Dada movement. Responding to the social ferment surrounding World War I, the Dadaists rejected...
JAPAN
May 19, 2010

NPOs' social roles still in stage of infancy

When he set up a nonprofit organization 35 years ago to sell organic vegetables, Kazuyoshi Fujita never expected his pursuit would grow into a big business.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 16, 2010

Reality check, 2010: 'Smoking doesn't cause cancer' (Japan Tobacco)

Every generation has its theme song.
MULTIMEDIA
May 14, 2010

Firms battle back to profit on cost cuts

Japanese companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and Panasonic Corp. forecast profit will surge this year as exports and cost-cutting power a recovery from the worst postwar recession.
JAPAN
May 13, 2010

Parties pin poll hopes on sports star power

The summer Upper House election is looking increasingly like an athletic competition as both ruling and opposition parties field sports stars to woo independent voters.
COMMENTARY
May 13, 2010

China's navy changing the game

For much of the Cold War, China's navy was little more than an elaborate coast guard. It was barely a blip on the maritime horizons of Japan and Southeast Asia. Today the Chinese armed forces are in the midst of an intense and sustained modernization program, and the navy has emerged as a key service...
JAPAN
May 11, 2010

DPJ to field judo star Tani as candidate

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan announced Monday it will field women's judo superstar Ryoko Tani for the proportional representation segment of the summer Upper House election.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2010

A better lay judge system

A 26-year-old Chinese man was given 18 years' imprisonment for stabbing to death another Chinese man on March 9, 2009, in Chiba Prefecture. Lay judges took part in his trial in Utsunomiya District Court. In an appellate trial before Tokyo High Court, his defense counsel challenged the constitutionality...
JAPAN
May 7, 2010

Troubled Monju reactor revived in Fukui

OSAKA — Monju, a nuclear reactor designed to generate more plutonium than it burns, resumed operation Thursday morning in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, 14 years and five months after a sodium coolant leak and subsequent fire inside the plant shut it down.
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2010

Economic meet can't hide world's growing divisions

WASHINGTON — What a difference a year makes. Spring was in the air in Washington — both physically and in the economic metaphors — at the meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank late last month. The fog of crisis that pervaded a year ago has largely been blown away. IMF predictions...
COMMENTARY
May 3, 2010

Untold ties of friendship exist between Okinawa and the U.S.

The baseball team from Konan High School, Okinawa, emerged from the dramatic final game as the winner of the annual National High School Baseball Championship for spring 2010. There is an untold story behind this victory.
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2010

Monju reactor set to restart

The test run of the prototype fast-breeder reactor (FBR) Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, is now expected to start after Golden Week, after prefecture Gov. Issei Nishikawa on April 28 gave the go-ahead for test runs to be conducted. The 280,000 kW reactor — an important part of Japan's planned nuclear...
COMMENTARY
Apr 29, 2010

Obama conceding lead in space exploration

In the movies, all the spacemen are Americans, but that's just because Hollywood makes the movies. In the real world, the United States is giving up on space, although it is trying hard to conceal its retreat.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.