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Reader Mail
Oct 2, 2011

Japanese leaders will find a way

I feel compelled to comment on two letters published Sept. 25. First, Grant Piper ("Evacuation revelations shocking") uses the Sept. 19 article "Tokyo faced evacuation scenario: Kan" to lambast Japanese leadership, arguing that "alarmist and hysterical" foreign media coverage was warranted after all...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 2, 2011

Bikes keep the wheels of progress rolling

With the onslaught of super typhoon No. 15 on Sept. 21-22, for the second time in a little over six months Tokyo's public transport network was snarled by a natural disaster. Several hundreds of thousands of hapless commuters found themselves stranded for hours as kitaku nanmin ("refugees" unable to...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 2, 2011

Arrival of October recalls great moments in game's history

Some of the greatest moments in baseball history, in Japan and the major leagues, have taken place during the month of October.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2011

Seoul urged to nix sex slave monument

Seoul KYODO
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2011

New Finance Ministry HQ on hold

The government may scrap a plan to build a new headquarters for the Finance Ministry, which is now housed in a quake-vulnerable structure dating back to the war, three government officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Sep 30, 2011

Average Joes become champions on 'Sasuke'

"Pole dancer! Pole dancer!! Pole dancer!!!" From the bellowing announcement thumping through the speakers, you might think we're in a night club. We're not. But, without doubt, the location is just as fabled as many nocturnal haunts, and the atmosphere is just as electric.
Reader Mail
Sep 29, 2011

Don't belittle individual efforts

I am a foreign resident who usually doesn't watch the Sunday morning talk shows, so I was not aware that Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, and other political party leaders appeared on an NHK broadcast Sept. 11 to discuss the national government's response...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Sep 29, 2011

Metabolism: When the future was still ahead

The word "fukkō" ("reconstruction") — is once again in the air. Ubiquitous during the postwar period, it enjoyed an earlier vogue a generation before as Tokyo was rebuilt after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. But while the word may be the same, its meaning and spirit changes from era to era. A...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 27, 2011

Can the government change my name? asks 'Madame Spouse'

French citizen DTMV is concerned about the name listed on her alien registration card, which includes her maiden name, married name, two first names, and "epouse" (listed before her married name), which means "spouse" in French. As such, she is often referred to as "epouse," despite the fact this isn't...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 27, 2011

Ichifuji owners Midori and Takashi Nakao

Midori and Takashi Nakao, 55 and 61, are the owners of Ichifuji, a shop selling Japanese crockery in Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. Established in 1951, the store is located in one of the oldest buildings in the jōgai shijō or outer market. More than 5,000 types of Japanese tableware are available to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Sep 27, 2011

Jamaica coffee, music recipe for success

Yukiko Ariga, 39, a Tokyo native, visited Jamaica, where her friend was living, twice on holiday because she loved reggae music. Eventually, she decided that she wanted to do something different in her life, so she went to live and work in the Caribbean nation in 1998.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 26, 2011

Will K-cars save the domestic automotive industry?

In the wake of the March 11 disaster, mini-cars come into their own.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 26, 2011

Two 'systematic' acts of brutality and coverup

When Mark Hatfield, who had served as a U.S. Senator from Oregon for three decades, died in early August, obituaries noted that he was one of the first U.S. soldiers to visit Hiroshima not long after the atomic bombing of the city, and that experience led him to work for nuclear arms control later, after...
Reader Mail
Sep 25, 2011

Hopes for a better Okinawa

In the most recent general election, I and many others voted for the Democratic Party of Japan chiefly because DPJ lawmakers appeared to be considering the relocation of U.S. Marine Air Base Futenma, Okinawa, to another prefecture in Japan or, possibly, to a foreign country. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 25, 2011

'Bachi' makes life easier for foreign players on Giants

Who is that foreigner sitting in the Yomiuri Giants dugout talking to the foreign players?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Sep 25, 2011

Praise, where it's due, for Japanese fascism

Once upon a time men were proud to call themselves fascist. "I am convinced," wrote a leading Japanese reformist bureaucrat in the early 1930s, "that from now on the spirit of the civilization and politics of mankind is fascist ideology ... Before the iron laws of historical development, the downfall...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 24, 2011

Amore mio, Aomori

With reconstruction underway and tourism returning to northern Japan, Aomori Prefecture is once again a viable tourist destination. You can ride the Hayabusa (not the space probe, but the bullet train) and probe northern Japan. As the new bullet train pierces the northernmost reaches of Honshu, to me,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 23, 2011

In a galaxy not so far away....

"Japanese space engineers could just possibly be the most boring people on the face of the Earth," laughed an aeronautics engineer working for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), during a brief interview with The Japan Times.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2011

Tohoku students share tales of disasters on global stage

Global leaders who gathered last week in Dalian, China, for the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Asia's premier global business forum, had a rare chance to hear Japanese high school and university students' firsthand experiences of the March disasters.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2011

SNS users to play role in Tohoku makeover

The Foreign Ministry is planning to invite prominent users of social networking sites to tour the devastated northeast as part of its efforts to rebuild Japan's image overseas following the March disasters and nuclear crisis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Sep 21, 2011

Despite dire predictions, this year's TGS was huge

Horrible natural disasters. Blackouts. Enduring hardships. This spring, as Japan was pulling itself out of earthquake and tsunami rubble, few thought there was going to be a Tokyo Game Show. Few thought about TGS at all.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 20, 2011

Hold the cesium: Ways to reduce radiation in your diet

Is our food really safe?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 18, 2011

Reflecting on icons of 'cute'

Although watching wildlife is not for everyone, countless hordes of visitors flock to zoos when tiger cubs or a Giant Panda baby first go on show, when penguins are on parade, or when young animals are present in the petting section. Why is that?
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Sep 18, 2011

Navy on alert in Shanghai, Japanese actor lauded, nuclear arms race, world's best-selling computer

75 YEARS AGOFriday, Sept. 25, 1936
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Sep 18, 2011

Energetic leader Nakamura looks to build special team in Akita

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with personalities in the bj-league. Coach Kazuo Nakamura of the Akita Northern Happinets is the subject of this week's profile.

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’