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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 17, 2012

Global demand for nuclear power remains high

Despite the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster that hit Japan last year, the global appetite for nuclear energy remains largely unchanged as emerging economic powers are set to account for much of the growth in worldwide electricity demand in the coming decades, a U.S. think tank expert said at a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Jul 17, 2012

Courts back workers' rock-solid right to strike

"Sensei, Japan is such a safe country because there are no strikes. Right?" A student at the university where I teach blindsided me with this remark the other day.
Reader Mail
Jul 15, 2012

Leveling field should be in court

Regarding Sarah Fuidio's July 5 letter, "Leveling the field for women": July 4 was the 236th birthday of the United States, which relentlessly upholds its original constitution and the amendments. I take this occasion to express my great admiration for the U.S. Supreme Court for defending the constitution's...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2012

Alternatives by Mr. Ozawa

Former Democratic Party of Japan chief Ichiro Ozawa, who bolted the DPJ to protest against Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's plan to eventually double the consumption tax rate from the current 5 percent to 10 percent from October 2015, inaugurated a new party on July 11 together with 36 other Lower House...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 14, 2012

NPO's projects seek to help Tuvaluans facing global warming issues

For many years people have been acquainted with the word "refugee." Though it usually brings to mind wars, genocide and ethnic cleansing, more and more often it has been linked to climate change and natural disasters. We may now be entering the age of the "environmental refugee."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

High price of the most gorgeous show in town

Note to self: Never be a young woman in Japan. It's just too harrowing.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2012

Political training schools catching on with disaffected

Kenyu Ito always thought there were better ways to contribute to Japan than becoming a politician. The medical doctor saw his primary care services for the people in Sanya, the day laborers' district in Taito Ward, Tokyo, as his way to help society from the bottom up.
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2012

Settle for two and move on

It seems clear that Japan will never get back all four islets or groups of islets north of Hokkaido (aka the Northern Territories). Therefore, I don't see the point of continually insisting on their return. How many times can Russia say no?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 12, 2012

Public theater takes on a leading role

Once upon a time, Japanese contemporary theater shared the limelight with youth-cultural movements that were rocking the nation. Back then, in the late 1960s and '70s, the avant-garde works of the angura (underground) theater scene had such an affinity with the radical student movement that they often...
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2012

Sharp's TV business to remain in the red

Despite its much-touted alliance with Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Group, Sharp Corp. is likely to continue drowning in red ink amid sluggish demand for TVs and persistent high inventories, experts said.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jul 10, 2012

The beautiful future of fashion

The "Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion" exhibition first showed at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2010 and traveled to the Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2011. Highly acclaimed by art critics and fashion fans, the show is finally making a pit stop in Japan, at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 10, 2012

Scholar urges fresh look at rich Ainu heritage

Shunwa Honda, a renowned scholar of indigenous ethnic groups, emphasizes that the Japanese people need to create a stage for the nation's indigenous Ainu, who "still suffer from not having their voices heard properly in society."
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 10, 2012

Being in the doghouse is not always a bad thing

Joseph Kosuth, an American artist famous for conceptual, text-centric works, just put one of his good friends — Joni Waka — in the doghouse.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 8, 2012

Give Kato four more years at NPB helm

A Kyodo News item came out of the blue on July 3, indicating Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato's term was to have expired June 30, and he is now in limbo, awaiting word about whether he will be extended.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2012

New religions in the land of the rising sun

CELEBRITY GODS: New Religions, Media, and Authority in Occupied Japan, by Benjamin Dorman. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 296 pp., $42.00 (hardcover)
EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2012

Rakuten's English drive

E-commerce giant Rakuten kicked its English policy into high gear last week, as English became the official language for the Japan-based company. Founder, chairman and CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has promoted, or rather "forced," English to become the company's official language.
BUSINESS
Jul 7, 2012

IMF director praises consumption tax hike

The push by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his administration to raise the consumption tax is a key step that "will make the Japanese economy more agile and efficient," Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said Friday in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 5, 2012

Ryuichi Sakamoto gently rallies the troops for No Nukes 2012

The demonstrations against the restarting of the Oi nuclear power plant held recently on Friday nights outside Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's residence are very much directed at the occupant of that abode, but they are attracting attention around the world, too. One of their closest followers is a Japanese...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 5, 2012

Use JGBs, not tax hike, to spur growth: 'Mr. Yen'

Far from tightening its fiscal belt, Japan should expand the world's largest debt pile to rekindle economic growth, said former Finance Ministry official Eisuke Sakakibara.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 3, 2012

All systems go for happy international campers

Shiro Matsuoka, 39, from Kawasaki, and Zhang Yi, 33, who hails from Changchung, China, first met in 2004 when they were working part-time at a McDonald's in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 3, 2012

Dip into the history of the Japanese 'system bath'

Japanese people love their evening bath, but tubs in private residences are a relatively recent development. By 1963, only 60 percent of Japanese homes had them. The small amount of living space necessitated by economic reality, not to mention the paucity of indoor plumbing, couldn't accommodate bathrooms,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 2, 2012

After 15 years, Mainali is a free man

Freed June 7 from 15 years' imprisonment for a murder he apparently never committed, Govinda Prasad Mainali declared himself full of gratitude. Speaking through his lawyer, he said, "Mujitsu, shinjitsu wo shinjite kureta saibankan ni deaete yokatta. Kansha no kimochi de ippai desu," (「無実、真実を信じてくれた裁判官に出会ってよかった。感謝の気持ちでいっぱいです"」"It's...
LIFE
Jul 1, 2012

Disabled women speak out on discrimination

Being a woman in Japan often comes with a variety of challenges, but when you are a woman with disabilities here, the scale of hardships you must endure can be overwhelming.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2012

Workers' comp for mental illness

More workers than ever before were approved for compensation for work-related mental illnesses in fiscal 2011, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. While those statistics offer hope of treatment for those suffering and are a clear recognition that workplaces are one of the causes of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 1, 2012

Feline fine in Iriomote's unspoilt wilderness

For the jaded traveler, arrival in one place in Japan can often seem suspiciously like arrival in any other. After quitting a station building, you can find yourself viewing thoroughfares lined with familiar-looking stores, with it all appearing instantly similar to other places beheld elsewhere the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jul 1, 2012

Lesley Downer: Love, war and geisha

Lesley Downer's seven books range widely in genre and subject. Here she reflects on their inspiration and her experiences writing them.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 30, 2012

Where the wild things aren't

"I have this idea to get rich quick," says this friend. Like me, he is underwhelmed by his Japanese income. Unlike me, he still has dreams. He also has my attention. For we all want to get rich and "quick" is by far the preferred method. But then he says . . .

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