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EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2011

Centennial for an artist

Japanese artist Taro Okamoto died in 1996 at the age of 84, but his ever-young artworks and attitude toward life are gathering new attention 100 years since his birth in 1911. What would have been his 100th birthday on Feb. 26 was commemorated with a Google-logo homage to Okamoto, original music at an...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 12, 2011

Smoke gets in your eyes

"If you could pick five great places to smoke a cigar, where would you choose?"
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2011

Harvesting rare-earth metals

Rare-earth metals are called "vitamins for industry" because the addition of trace amounts to such metals as iron, copper and aluminum boost their quality, making them stronger, more pliable or more viscous. They are used in many products, including cell phones, electric cars, medical treatment devices,...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

DPJ veteran signed petition to drop Takeshima claim

A senior Democratic Party of Japan member close to Prime Minister Naoto Kan signed a declaration last month that Tokyo should immediately give up its claim to sovereignty over the two South Korea-controlled islets, it was learned Thursday.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

U.S. sacks Maher, apologizes for remarks

An apologetic U.S. government on Thursday removed a senior U.S. official from his post over disparaging remarks he allegedly made about Okinawa.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 11, 2011

Tyler raising his game as season progresses

Jeremy Tyler, still a few months shy of his 20th birthday, is no stranger to NBA talent evaluators. Though he's playing halfway around the world, the Tokyo Apache's highly touted 210-cm prospect is being closely watched.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Mar 11, 2011

Savor the taste of bottled sunshine

Last year's World Cup gave Japan the opportunity to discover more about South Africa than just vuvuzelas: In 2010, packaged wine exports from South Africa to Japan grew by an impressive 11 percent. While the noise of the hornlike instrument is happily fading away (hopefully never to be heard again),...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

Senators irked by the lack of base progress

OSAKA — A key U.S. senator involved in Japan relations said Wednesday evening the appointment of Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto comes at a critical moment for both countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2011

Activist fighting for LGBT rights

Harvey Milk is part of U.S. history but Japan has yet to see anyone like him 32 years after his assassination, according to Taiga Ishikawa, an openly gay candidate running for the Toshima Ward Assembly in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 11, 2011

New dance-music label Diskotopia aims to bring Tokyo in step

Glance at the lineups of Tokyo's larger nightclubs on any given weekend and you'd be forgiven for feeling some deja vu. Mainstays such as Takkyu Ishino, Shinichi Osawa or Dexpistols are likely to be headlining, much as they have been doing for the past several years.
Reader Mail
Mar 10, 2011

Let human capital trump arms race

Regarding Hiroaki Sato's Feb. 27 article, "Indefensible costs of military one-upmanship ": When it comes to national defense, Japan needs to accumulate human capital instead of participating in the arms race. In the 21st century, when many countries are locked in fierce competition to obtain natural...
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Mothers make case against Hague treaty

Three Japanese mothers who took their children from the United States to Japan after failed international marriages urged the government Wednesday not to sign the Hague Treaty, which is aimed at preventing cross-border parental kidnapping.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Pilot project's first refugees orientated

Poised to embark on a new life on their own, the five Myanmar families in Japan on a U.N.-sponsored third-country resettlement program finished their six-month training Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2011

Zen psychology: Daisetz Suzuki remembered

Despite the gloomy global economy, the field of positive psychology is booming. Often described simplistically by journalists as "the science of happiness," it's actually a broad focus on our strengths and talents, virtues and peak experiences in daily living. The name for this specialty originated with...
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2011

Maehara donation trap easy to fall into, and rectifiable

The Democratic Party of Japan-led administration finds itself again on the brink, following Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara's resignation Sunday for taking illegal donations from a foreign resident who has a Japanese name.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2011

Expedia has big Asia travel plans

Asia's Internet-based travel market, including in Japan, is growing rapidly and the world's largest online travel agency said Tuesday it wants to cultivate it further.
BUSINESS
Mar 9, 2011

'50 mine law update eyed to tap seabed

The trade ministry plans to streamline a mining law for the first time since 1950 to develop seabed resources that could be worth ¥300 trillion and fend off competition from China, South Korea and Russia.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 8, 2011

A worrying period for all ALTs

Dear Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki: "How tall are you?" "How much do you weigh?" "Ooh, your eyes look like sunflowers." I guess if I got ¥100 every time a Japanese junior high school student asked me one of those questions, I wouldn't be writing this letter today.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / MIXED MATCHES
Mar 8, 2011

From love of anime to love of a man

When Mel Ushikubo, 35, saw the name of her future husband, Kohei, on the Internet, she immediately wanted to see him in person, as that was the name of a character in one of her favorite anime.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2011

Maehara's departure no boon to finances

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's struggle to fund the nation's budget and avoid an early election suffered another setback when his foreign minister quit Sunday over illegal donations and a poll showed fewer than one voter in four supports him, and a stock slide heightened the sense of unease.
BASKETBALL
Mar 6, 2011

Sojourner says JBL superiority just a myth

The ongoing debate about how to improve Japan's basketball, from the elementary school level to the professional ranks, has produced a number of different viewpoints. The one thing that most people agree on is that the current approach isn't working to create a powerful national team and a number of...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2011

Minding the tensions over changes in China

The closing decade of the 20th century offered a crystal ball for anyone peering into the future of the Asia-Pacific region. Japan's economy, once the region's leader, was "lost" after its asset bubble burst, whereas China overcame the economic stagnation that followed the Tiananmen Square crisis of...

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’