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CULTURE / Books
Dec 2, 2012

The ever-evolving digital movie world

JAPANESE CINEMA IN THE DIGITAL AGE, by Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano. University of Hawaii Press, 2012, 178 pp., $47 (hardcover) The world film industry, including Japan's, is now completing a changeover from traditional film stock to digital substitutes.
EDITORIALS
Dec 1, 2012

The elephant in the room

Despite the catastrophe at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the issue of nuclear power has been given lower priority in the runup to the Dec. 16 Lower House election. But the launch of a new party, Nippon Mirai no To (Japan Future Party), by Gov. Yukiko Kada of Shiga Prefecture,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 1, 2012

Media grill party chiefs in televised debate

With campaigning for the Lower House election set to kick off in a few days, the leaders of 11 parties gathered for a televised discussion Friday that saw most of the questions thrown at Liberal Democratic Party chief Shinzo Abe, whose party leads the opinion polls.
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2012

Ishihara left behind a mixed legacy

Tokyo is about to get its first new governor in almost 14 years, and whoever wins the Dec. 16 election will have to fill the shoes of Shintaro Ishihara, who leaves behind a legacy both positive and negative.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 30, 2012

Nippon Ishin qualifies nuclear phaseout goal

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), the "third force" emerging as a serious challenger to the political status quo, unveiled a watered-down version of its election platform Thursday devoid of a definitive road map for phasing out nuclear power.
BUSINESS
Nov 30, 2012

Export weakening to drag down yen, expert says

The deterioration of Japan's exports will be the driving force behind weakness in the yen, according to Alan Ruskin, global head of Group of 10 foreign-exchange strategy at Deutsche Bank AG in New York.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 29, 2012

To kowtow or cooperate in Asia

When a U.S. president's first overseas trip following his re-election is to Asia, one can be sure that something big is afoot in the region. Indeed, Barack Obama's decision to go first to impoverished and long-isolated Myanmar (Burma) attests to the potency of the changes under way in that country —...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Better elementary schools

While studying in the United States as a 2011 Fulbright visiting scholar, I strongly felt that there was an urgent need for Japan to create a new elementary school environment of progressive education with skilled teachers. As Japan's global presence has diminished, "the nurturing of global human resources"...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Storm brewing in the classroom

The Nov. 25 editorial "Throwaway workers" could have been written about gaijin English teachers — perhaps the most expendable workforce in recent memory. What irony that young Japanese employees now face the same arrogant cavalier attitude of feckless profit-motivated employers that most foreign-language...
Reader Mail
Nov 29, 2012

Loath to live in a new culture

I totally agree with the Nov. 18 editorial "Students staying in Japan." The nervousness of young Japanese people at the prospect of traveling overseas to study is considerable. It is heightened amid all the pressures mentioned in the editorial.
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Nov 29, 2012

The coming influx of an idol workforce

Much has been made in the media over the problem of Japan's aging population and shrinking workforce. But there is another demographic time bomb, at the heart of Japan's most militantly youthful sector of society, just waiting to explode.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 28, 2012

Shiga's Kada readies party; Ozawa joins

With just a week to go until campaigning starts for the Dec. 16 general election, Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada formally announced a new political group Tuesday that aims to get Japan out of nuclear power, create more opportunities for women and promote a work-life balance that makes it easier for families...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Nov 27, 2012

Ink doesn't always cause a stink at the onsen

In response to our Nov. 6 column ("If you need to bring drugs to Japan, sort out the paperwork — or else"), regarding how to find tattoo-friendly onsen, a few readers wrote in with their public bathing experiences.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 26, 2012

Punchy party names hark back to ignominy

So, Shintaro Ishihara, who had abruptly quit the Tokyo governorship in October, set up a political party named Taiyo no To, then merged it with Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's political party that doesn't sound like one, Nippon Ishin no Kai. Another political party that doesn't sound like one, Tachiagare...
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2012

Anti-nuclear madness doesn't jibe with concern about global warming

After the loss of 10 million American lives in the Three-Mile Island calamity in 1979, the death of 2 billion in the Chernobyl holocaust in 1986, and now the abandonment of all of northern Japan following the death of millions in last year's Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, it is hardly surprising that...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 25, 2012

Attitude change needed to shake up the workforce

Several weeks ago the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, hung around briefly after the IMF finished up its annual meeting — which happened to be in Tokyo this year — and appeared on a special hourlong edition of NHK's in-depth news show "Closeup Gendai." The topic was working...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 24, 2012

Yaeyama stray cats steal the show on the beaches of Taketomi

After eight days on Miyakojima in which again our departure was delayed by bad weather, we finally set sail for Ishigaki Island, part of the Yaeyama Island chain and the end of our sailing trip through Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 23, 2012

Abe economic policy raises serious questions

Not satisfied with bending Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to its will for a snap election, the Liberal Democratic Party has set its sights on Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa, at No. 36 the highest-ranked Japanese on Forbes magazine's 2011 list of the world's most powerful people. (Noda was ranked...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 23, 2012

Meet the ambassadors

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes