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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 11, 2012

Filmmaker says don't worry, be happy

"Wow, the weather turned bad quickly, huh?"
Reader Mail
May 10, 2012

More than a 'few' foreigners split

The May 6 editorial "'Flyjin' rather few" states that "The survey ...did not determine exactly how many of those 25 percent eventually returned to Tokyo" after the 3/11 disasters. But it should be patently obvious how many did — all of them!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 10, 2012

Makoto Morimura literally finds hope in the news

Osaka-based artist Makoto Morimura was surely not alone last year in feeling that the newspapers were full of gloom and doom. But he probably was the only person who in response set for himself the task of searching for hope, literally.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices
May 8, 2012

The top 10 Zeit Gist articles of the past decade, chosen by the readers

1. Battling a broken system, by RICHARD CORY One day in March, just minutes after my daughter and I returned home from celebrating her graduation from elementary school that morning, her mother, from whom I had filed for divorce in January after 17 years of marriage, lured my daughter out of the house,...
COMMUNITY
May 8, 2012

A different story: the most-read Zeit Gist articles on our website

The most-viewed Zeit Gist articles on The Japan Times Online since 2007:
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2012

Ending reliance on nuclear power

The 912,000 kW No. 3 reactor at Hokkaido Electric Power Co.'s Tomari nuclear power plant came to a complete shutdown on early Sunday morning for regular inspection. No nuclear reactors are now operating in Japan — the first such situation in 42 years. Japan should use this as an opportunity to analyze...
Reader Mail
May 6, 2012

Global infrastructure crumbling

Kevin Rafferty's May 2 article, "Inviting economic suicide?," is correct on the main points: Japan is in an economic tailspin and this is of grave concern for our well-being. But so, too, is the rest of the industrialized world as the 500-year-old banking system, which is based on fraudulent accounting...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 6, 2012

Weeklies take a look at faiths, (misplaced) hopes and charities

Which religious groups were most successful in raising funds for earthquake victims in the devastated parts of Tohoku? In its Golden Week double issue, Flash (May 8-15) ran an article about the heretofore unreported nexus between last year's disaster and religion. The most generous donor by far, which...
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 6, 2012

Small fry spawn big dreams

The Shinano, at 374 km the country's longest river, empties into the Sea of Japan at Niigata City. Salmon still migrate back from the open ocean to this river of their birth to breed and die, but a few decades ago they would arrive to spawn not only in the main river but also in its many tributaries,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 5, 2012

English fluency and alligator pits

When I used to teach English at university, I was sure to leave an impression on my students on their first day of class. I'd tell them that as Japanese speakers, they could only speak with a mere 130 million people. But if they could learn English, they would be able to communicate with 500 million...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2012

Conservatives call for revising Constitution

The time has come for political parties to overcome their differences and join hands to revise the Constitution to suit the times, including by establishing of an "army" to protect Japan, its people and its territory, conservative lawmakers said Thursday.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 4, 2012

Playoffs could provide surprises in both conferences

And now, finally, it's time for the real season to tip off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

Sintok festival brings Singapore's growing movie scene to Tokyo

How long does it take to develop a unique national culture? Perhaps the answer can be found in Singapore. The "Lion City" has been independent for just half a century and maybe, judging from the splash the country has made at international film festivals in the last couple of years, its film directors...
Reader Mail
May 3, 2012

Feeling deregulation's effects

Let me make a brief comment about the Bloomberg article by Jared Diamond, titled "Three reasons why Japan's economic pain is worsening," which ran in The Japan Times on April 28.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 3, 2012

Kyte promise new songs, special treat for fans at upcoming gig

The music of indie-pop group Kyte may be created in a bedroom in Leicester, England, but the band says its spacious and electronic sound seems to resonate best with audiences in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
May 1, 2012

Blood, beatings and the cage: the bouncer

Before The Japan Times was invited inside Nagoya's iD Cafe to speak to Thomas, the nightclub's security manager, we stopped to chat to a uniformed policeman near the club. He told us there were as many as 50 fights in a nearby park on Friday and Saturday nights. This busy area of the city, Sakae, known...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2012

Slow but steady economic recovery

Japan's economic prospects are not very bright due to the effects of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the stronger yen. But it is not that the prospects are completely gloomy. The government's monthly assessment of the economy for April released in mid-April by the Cabinet Office shows continued modest...
EDITORIALS
May 1, 2012

Changing Futenma statement

Japan and the United States on April 27 issued a joint statement — an interim report on the review of the 2006 plan to realign U.S. armed forces in Japan. The statement hints at the possibility of exploring new options concerning the plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 30, 2012

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the sakura

Until The New York Times pointed it out earlier this month, I had failed to notice, alas, that Tokyo had given cherry trees to this city as it did to Washington, D.C., 100 years ago ("Gifts From Japan, Less Celebrated in Manhattan," April 12).
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 29, 2012

Japanese families on endangered list

The family is humanity's oldest and most universal institution. But its shape, size, aims and ideologies seem infinitely variable. Japan's families down the ages have been polygamous and monogamous, multigeneration and single-generation, swarming with children or comparatively, if not entirely, devoid...
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2012

Eased postal reforms, Diet pay cuts passed

The Diet passed a bill Friday to amend the Postal Privatization Law and water down the postal reforms championed in the early 2000s by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and a bill to trim national lawmakers' salaries for two years.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2012

BOJ boosts asset buys to tune of ¥5 trillion

The Bank of Japan on Friday eased monetary policy by boosting the size of its asset purchase program by ¥5 trillion, saying the move will "better ensure the return of Japan's economy to a sustainable growth path with price stability."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Apr 27, 2012

Solar industry beaming; wind sector deflated

The government's proposed incentives to boost renewable energies will probably see growth in the solar and geothermal power industries, but have disappointed operators in the wind energy sector, lobby groups said.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2012

Tsuruga plant may sit atop active fault

Reversing an earlier assessment, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency admitted an active and dangerous fault may be lurking directly beneath one of the two reactors of the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’