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COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 1, 2011

Ganbatte and gaman stifle debate, hinder recovery

Nuclear debate discouraged Re: "Japan needs less ganbatte, more genuine action" by Debito Arudou (Just Be Cause, Oct. 4):
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2011

All too familiar signs of state paralysis in Thai crisis

Like the Japan tsunami, flooding in Thailand will have a global impact on the supply and price of rice, cameras, computers and cars.
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2011

A prisoner swap in Israel

The exchange of some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped Israeli soldier is a victory for humanitarianism in a region too often characterized by brutality. The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the deal goes against every one of his impulses, which were over-ridden...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 25, 2011

Kurosawa's nightmare and the voices of Fukushima

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 25, 2011

Tokyo: What spooks you in Japan?

Mike HannahMechanic, 30 (Australian)Being followed. It's always been a nightmare. To think that someone is lurking about outside your house while you are doing something as normal as cooking a steak.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDIA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Oct 24, 2011

India bids for closer East Asia ties for regional integration

India wants to play a role in the economic integration of Asia through closer ties with East Asian powers including China — despite a long history of political hostility — and Japan, journalists and experts from India said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Public paying for Tepco's gamble

Tell me it isn't true! In the Oct. 20 article "Tepco ignored higher probability of tsunami," it was reported that a nuclear energy safety expert warned Tepco in 2006 that there was a 10 percent chance that its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant would be hit by a massively destructive tsunami sometime...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Opportunity for Tohoku

I couldn't agree more with Roger Pulver's Oct. 16 article "Don't look back, Tohoku." I visited Miyagi Prefecture from Oct. 11-15 for the first time in nearly 20 years. I, too, was shocked by the extent of the impact of the tsunami. But I was equally impressed by the resilience and positive attitude of...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 23, 2011

Rich can afford to jump Japan's sinking ship

If Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Diamond are both right, Japan is in serious trouble.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 21, 2011

Overcoming disaster via cinematic therapy

Back in May, the rumor among cinephiles in the Japanese media was that the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) wouldn't happen this year. The mood was that it was too soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 to hold anything festive, especially in the visual-arts scene. All over Japan,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2011

What is in store for Russian Asia?

When the Soviet Union disintegrated, a large number of ethnic Russians and other Russian-speaking and Russian-cultured peoples remained outside the borders of the Russian Federation — creating, in the short run, many acute and complicated problems but, in the long run, eventually facilitating a revival...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2011

The microfinance catalyst

So-called impact investors — providers of capital to businesses that solve social challenges while generating a profit — are the current rage in economic development. U.S. President Barack Obama's Office for Social Innovation and Civic Participation recently convened more than 100 practitioners to...
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011

China's unparalleled rise as a hydro-hegemon

International discussion about China's rise has focused on its increasing trade muscle, growing maritime ambitions and expanding capacity to project military power. One critical issue, however, usually escapes attention: China's rise as a hydro-hegemon with no modern historical parallel.
COMMENTARY
Oct 19, 2011

A decade of Afghan tragedy

On July 1, 2002, the United States bombed an Afghan wedding in the small village of Deh Rawud. Located to the north of Kandahar, the village seemed fortified by the region's many mountains. For a few hours, its people thought they were safe from a war they had never invited. They celebrated, and as customs...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Oct 18, 2011

Fuji Five Lakes: What are your thoughts on hiking prices on everything from food to utility bills in the wake of the 3/11 disasters?

Robin Lawrentz, 34Yamanashi local government (American)It will be a greater burden in rural Japan where the economy is already struggling. There it will just take more out of money out of people's hands. But people will get used to it unless the change becomes drastic.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 18, 2011

Noda, tear down this 'nuclear village'

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, The Great East Japan Earthquake was a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. While the quake and tsunami did tremendous damage to Tohoku, the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant did even more harm to the country by threatening the health of the population,...
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2011

Time to rebuild from Tepco failure

"If somebody tells us to stop using the cost-plus pricing formula, we would say, 'We are not in a philanthropic business,'" said a power-industry person in the Oct. 10 article "Tepco guarding its ground."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 16, 2011

Average Joe could be collateral damage in war against yakuza

The war against the yakuza was raised a notch higher at the start of the month, but not everyone is happy about it.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 15, 2011

The joy of taiko and cultural exchange

The booming noise coming up from the basement of the British School in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, is a more visceral version of the magic flute: It's just impossible to resist its charm. You follow the deep, thumping beat down a flight of stairs and find a shouting, whooping little devil leading a group of...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 14, 2011

Gardow has expansion Jets prepared for takeoff

The bj-league's Eastern Conference is overflowing with newness this season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Oct 14, 2011

Staving off the bulldozers for one more round

Tokyo is roughly divided into styles and cliques. Neighborhoods delineate and categorize, often in keeping with the cool factor of their inhabitants: Omotesando, Aoyama and Harajuku for fashionistas; Shibuya for party kids; Koenji for earthy music fans; and Shimokitazawa for the vintage-tint rock-star...
EDITORIALS
Oct 13, 2011

A friendlier environment for NPOs

The tax system and the law on nonprofit organizations have been recently revised to help NPOs in tax matters. These revisions are expected to lead NPOs to expand their activities not only in usual fields such as education, culture, sports, social welfare and community building but also in the efforts...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 13, 2011

A chance to do more than rebuild Tohoku

Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai stands before a gathering in Tokyo of 300 representatives of the nation's biggest companies and community organizations.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2011

China and America at odds over the South China Sea

China and the United States are at strategic odds in the South China Sea. The U.S. is striving to maintain — and if necessary — demonstrate its dominance while China is expanding its might and reach. Respective nuclear warfare strategies may even play a role with China basing and operating its nuclear...
Reader Mail
Oct 9, 2011

Past opportunities for Palestine

Kevin Gaffney's Oct. 2 letter, "Effects of disenfranchisement," claims that Palestinian Arabs could "become citizens of their own nation through the United Nations as Israelis did, but that peaceful path has been blocked by, of all people, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, (U.S. President) Barack Obama."...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2011

Rescuing America from Wall Street

Better late than never, the movement to take America back from Wall Street has arrived. This week the ranks of the Occupy Wall Street encampment swelled as MoveOn.org members, union activists and ordinary disgruntled citizens joined the demonstration against our financial sector's misrule of the American...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 8, 2011

Geary, B-Corsairs prepared for inaugural campaign

The Yokohama B-Corsairs are neither terrible nor terrific right now. Simply put, they are a brand new team, and their history begins in earnest on Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2011

Integration outlook for ex-Soviets

It is well known that, in the political field, the 20th century brought about a strong and, as it turned out, omnipresent trend toward disintegration of former empires and the formation in their place of nation-states all over the crumbling colonial world.
COMMENTARY
Oct 6, 2011

Dams muddy China's image

China's frenzied dam building at home and abroad is emerging as a flash point in inter- and intrastate relations in Asia. Burma's decision to suspend work on a controversial Chinese-funded dam marks a tactical retreat on a project that has symbolized China's resource greed and is a trigger for renewed...
CULTURE / Music
Oct 6, 2011

James Blake

The British media quickly championed James Blake as the poster boy of dubstep's entry into mainstream outlets. Along with artists Untold and Joy Orbison, Blake rode into the scene with a mishmash of melancholic chord sequences and manipulated vocal samples taken from 1990s R&B — characteristics that...

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