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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 19, 2011

Students choose failure over uncertainty

"Could you please fail me?" As a university lecturer, it is by no means unusual to have seniors drop by to check if they have sufficient credits to graduate. However, I was flabbergasted by this recent visitor who wanted not reassurance - she was on track to graduate - but rather my cooperation in failing...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 19, 2011

Japan pension answers often case-specific

JM has a question about the Japanese national pension system: "I am an American citizen and permanent resident of Japan and have been living and working in the country continuously since 1988. During most of this time, I have been employed as a "local" hire by my company, and contributed to the Japanese...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 19, 2011

Hiroshima: Should Japan abandon the use of nuclear energy?

Chiyo Sadatomo, 40s
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2011

Clinton meets with Matsumoto

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on Sunday in Tokyo, where she expressed Washington's sympathy and solidarity with Japan's attempts to rebuild from the deadly quake and tsunami that claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2011

Were meters used instead of feet?

My apologies if I am incorrect about questions regarding Jun Hongo's April 12 article, "Nation's unpreparedness ahead of disaster is blasted." My current understanding of the data presented by the world community, including Japanese television, specifically relating to the events on March 11, has been...
CULTURE / Books
Apr 17, 2011

Shining a light on Korean sorrow in Japan

INTO THE LIGHT: An Anthology of Literature by Koreans in Japan. Edited by Melissa L. Wender. University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, 226 pp. $22 (paper) The eight stories in this anthology span nearly 60 years, from 1939, when Korea was a resentful and mutinous Japanese colony, to 1997, when South Korea was...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 17, 2011

The unnatural state of Japan's self-restraint

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, Japanese television started covering the disaster full-time. As things returned to some sort of version of normal, the spaces where commercials were supposed to run were first filled with public service announcements provided by the Ad Council...
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2011

North Korea's 'chronic crisis'

North Korea is facing food shortages. International aid agencies report that the situation is dire, with millions facing the prospect of starvation in coming months without help. Even if those estimates are exaggerated, there is no escaping the fact that North korea cannot feed its own people.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 16, 2011

Earthquake relief: Little people doing big things

Prime Minister Naoto Kan took out nearly a full-page ad in the International Herald Tribune last week to thank the international community for their kizuna (bond of friendship), regarding Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11. It was a stirring tribute to those who have come together to...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 16, 2011

Stojkovic admits he has room to grow as manager

The European media may be keen to anoint Dragan Stojkovic as Arsene Wenger's successor at Arsenal, but the Nagoya Grampus manager's thoughts currently extend no further than the April 23 return of the J. League.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 15, 2011

Dance artists come together for Japan

Last Friday, at exactly 2:46 in the afternoon, the "Nihon Kizuna" bonus album, containing a further 34 electronic tracks from a range of producers worldwide to supplement the 50 tracks on the original album, was released for free online. As well as marking one calendar month since the March 11 earthquake...
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2011

Nation's unpreparedness ahead of disaster is blasted

A month after the earthquake and tsunami obliterated cities along the Tohoku coast, Japan is struggling to limp back to some semblance of normalcy while coming to grips with the unprecedented disaster.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 12, 2011

Evidence for Agent Orange on Okinawa

In the late 1960s, James Spencer was a United States Navy longshoreman on Okinawa's military docks. "During this time, we handled all kinds of cargo, including these barrels with orange stripes on them. When we unloaded them, they'd leak and the Agent Orange would get all over us. It was as if it were...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 12, 2011

Kashiwa: What are you doing to save energy in these troubled times?

Simon Wood
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 11, 2011

From Russia with leverage

Spiraling oil prices and the serious accidents at a major Japanese nuclear power station caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami are helping strengthen the position of Russia in the international community.
Reader Mail
Apr 10, 2011

Politicians no match for the voters

The patience and stoicism demonstrated by ordinary Japanese people has been an enduring characteristic of recent times. These are qualities that have marked the extraordinary advances of this country in the second half of the last century and will feature largely in the recovery that will surely follow....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 10, 2011

Kroon can't make cut with San Francisco

Marc Kroon was cut just prior to opening day after trying to make the San Francisco Giants. The six-year Japan veteran closer with the Yokohama BayStars and Yomiuri Giants was attempting to return to the majors with the defending World Series champions, and he did not make the team — but why not?...
BASKETBALL
Apr 9, 2011

Player concerns may force Final Four move

Voices of opposition have emerged to the bj-league's possible plans to hold this season's Final Four at Ariake Colosseum, and this could force the league to move the final playoff rounds to another region, possibly Kansai.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 8, 2011

'The Killer Inside Me'

If you like your film noir darker than a Texas outhouse on a new moon in June, and if you don't mind being shocked — and I mean really shocked — then here's your film: "The Killer Inside Me," director Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of the cult noir novel from 1952 by that most hard-boiled of authors,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 2011

China cracks down on dissent

Events in the Middle East are reverberating throughout the world, but no government is as committed to squashing domestic protests as is the leadership in Beijing. The government there has begun a crackdown against liberal voices in China. This seems to be a systematic effort that includes control of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 8, 2011

Takubo's building renovations turn art outside-in

A lot of the restlessness and energy in contemporary art actually stems from a sense of emptiness and frustration that young artists feel as they flail around trying to find their true artistic voice. This certainly seems to have been the case in the career of Kyoji Takubo, a 62-year-old artist, who...
COMMENTARY
Apr 7, 2011

West is on a slippery slope

NEW DELHI — From initially seeking to protect civilians to now aiming for a swift, total victory in Libya, the mission creep that has characterized the Western powers' military attack raises troubling questions about their Libyan strategy and the risks that it could end up creating — however inadvertently...
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2011

End game in Ivory Coast

In most elections, the person who collects the most votes is declared winner and takes the office that was contested. Not in the Ivory Coast. There, incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to leave office after losing to former Prime Minister Alessane Ouattara.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?