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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2011

A time to demonstrate solidarity with Japan

PRAGUE — The shattering earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 have wrought devastating physical damage — aggravated by the threat of a nuclear disaster — across the country's northeastern coastal areas, and have rekindled grave fears in the only country to have experienced fully...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 23, 2011

Sake brewer vows to rebuild after tsunami

RIKUZENTAKATA, Iwate Pref. — Yasuhiko Konno stands next to a pile of debris that reaches over two stories high. He bows his head for a moment and takes a deep breath.
COMMUNITY
Mar 22, 2011

Judge not, lest you be judged

At this point, a week and a half after the earthquake and tsunami, and with the government and thousands of volunteers rapidly restoring power and water and municipal services to the affected area, Japan — and the world — is anxiously awaiting the resolution of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 22, 2011

Where were you when the 3/11 quake hit?

Shizuko Shokoku
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Mar 22, 2011

Central League's reputation takes hit in scheduling row

The show must go on. At least so says the Central League.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 22, 2011

A dispatch from the disaster zone

I cannot recall ever attempting to take gasoline from a car by sucking through a rubber hose. But on Monday last week there I was, standing in a dirt parking lot while contemplating proper tube diameter to access the tank of our Toyota Belta sedan in the town of Kawasaki, a small suburb just west of...
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2011

Trouble in Bahrain

Overshadowed by the violence and civil war in Libya, the situation in Bahrain continues to deteriorate. On March 15, King Hamad al-Khalifa declared martial law and invited troops from Saudi Arabia, along with other neighboring countries, to help calm the situation. That move, unprecedented in the country's...
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2011

Can't run away from Tokyo ties

During the Second World War, the people of London were heartened to hear that the king and queen chose to remain in London rather than escape an area near German bombing, in order to share their trials and tribulations with the people. Both were deeply loved and admired for that gesture.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2011

The Vatican circles the wagons

HONG KONG — The abrupt — and underhanded — sacking of a key lay Catholic official by Vatican clerics raises disturbing questions about where Pope Benedict XVI is taking the Roman Catholic Church.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEK 3
Mar 20, 2011

'Nothing can prepare you to witness this'

It's a relatively minor incident that gets me. I'm at a gymnasium in central Ishinomaki photographing members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) as they unload dozens of corpses from a truck. Each is wrapped in blankets, some with flowery designs far too cheerful for this occasion.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 20, 2011

The Bronze Bonze

Yoshiyuki Yoneda had a problem. As chief priest of a temple in Kyoto, he ministered to the spiritual and ritual needs of his local community. But like many other clerics in Japan's ancient capital, he also wanted to attract fee-paying tourists to his temple.
BASKETBALL
Mar 20, 2011

Evessa, Lakestars lift fans' spirits

The Osaka Evessa returned to the court on Saturday and did what comes natural to them: win.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 18, 2011

Crazy T "in to you"

Japan-based American rapper Travis Tewes, who performs under the moniker Crazy T, originally planned to use kanji on the cover of his sophmore album. However, since so few young Japanese could actually read the kanji, he decided at the last minute to spell out "in to you" using the easier-to-read katakana...
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2011

Getting relief to survivors

People who have taken shelter at evacuation facilities in northeastern Japan since the March 11 quake and tsunami are finding themselves living under harsh conditions. The central and local governments must make strenuous efforts to deliver aid and personnel to those places as soon as possible. The death...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2011

Stars certain movie business will bounce back

Each new day since the March 11 earthquake seems to bring something worse, but the Japanese entertainment industry is no stranger to disaster and mayhem. There's a been-there-seen-it-all mindset, nurtured by a long history of alternating repression and liberation, plus natural disasters in between.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2011

Embassies list 400 foreigners as missing

About 400 foreigners remained unaccounted for as of noon Wednesday, several dozen embassies told the Foreign Ministry in the wake of Friday's historic earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2011

Calculating the impact of aerosols

SINGAPORE — Scientists have developed an extensive understanding of the impact that carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other global warming gases have on Earth's climate.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Mar 16, 2011

Season hangs in the balance

By all accounts, this is how to sum up the bj-league's current situation: a season in limbo.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2011

Tale of two defense policies

LONDON — China has declared that its official defense budget for 2011 will rise by 12.7 percent from the previous year. Last year there was a lot of hoopla surrounding the fact that China had announced a mere 7.5 percent jump in defense budget. It was the first time since the 1980s that China's defense...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2011

Overseas aid offers flow in

Offers of help have been streaming in from abroad in the wake of the massive earthquake and tsunami that wiped whole towns off the map in the northeast.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Mar 16, 2011

Eagles faced with formidable obstacles in wake of disaster in Tohoku

Heartbreak.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 15, 2011

What do you think of the proposed tattoo ban at Suma Beach from this year?

Ai Yamamoto
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2011

Lessons learned in Kobe aid relief effort

OSAKA — So far, the response to Friday's earthquake and tsunami has been better than the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake thanks to better official communications between Tokyo bureaucrats and politicians and local governments, and also the existence of the Internet and social media.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2011

Global rescue teams arrive to lend hand

Facing the chance that more than 10,000 people were dead in the wake of the deadly earthquake and tsunami in northern Japan, international rescue teams have been arriving to give assistance.
Reader Mail
Mar 13, 2011

Apology to ex-POWs a good start

Regarding the March 4 article "Maehara apologizes to Aussie ex-POWs": The apology by Japan's foreign minister has been accepted by five Australian former prisoners of war in the manner in which it was extended, sincerely. It is a good step forward. It is, however, a shame to have missed the chance to...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 13, 2011

From Kurama to Kibune: Hiking in northeastern Kyoto

The Eizan Electric Railway serves a sparsely traveled route — or so I infer from the dinky two-carriage train we board shortly before it lurches out of the terminus at Demachiyanagi Station in Kyoto heading for the mountains on the city's northeastern outskirts.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb