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JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Genba wants China in loop with U.S., firm on Takeshima

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said Tuesday he strongly hopes to establish a Japan-U.S.-China framework to deal with Asia-Pacific issues.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Serve the people, not politics: Noda to Diet

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda kicked off a new Diet session Tuesday by urging the opposition camp to stop playing party politics and join talks on raising the consumption tax.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2012

Weak euro's perks said few, unlike dollar's

Having reached a historic high against the dollar last year, the sky seems to be the limit for the yen as it forges on against the euro.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 24, 2012

Troupe takes Japanese folk tales abroad

A Tokyo-based actors' group working to spread Japanese folk culture abroad is now helping the Japanese-Brazilian community preserve the culture of their ancestors.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Kick-start a new whaling agenda

The Jan. 15 editorial, "Wars over whaling," highlights the damage that scientific whaling has done to Japan's image — a self-defeating outcome for a country largely reliant on "soft power" to pursue foreign policy objectives. As one of those objectives is access to food supplies, Tokyo's position has...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 22, 2012

Fresh light on history books

POSTWAR HISTORY EDUCATION IN JAPAN AND THE GERMANYS: Guilty Lessons, by Julian Dierkes. Routledge, 2010, 224 pp., $130 (paper) The ways in which both Japanese and Germans remember and narrate the history of World War II have generated a vast literature in recent years. School education and textbooks...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2012

Sales tax shouldn't be the priority: Takenaka

Before hiking the 5 percent consumption tax, the government should first cut trillions of yen in public spending and adopt measures to spur economic growth, former economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka says.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2012

Foreign Ministry hires interpreters for media

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba has begun providing simultaneous interpretation in English at his weekly press conferences to provide more information to the international community about Japan's diplomatic activities.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 20, 2012

Condors fly in the face of contemporary dance scene

The Japanese are often described as being inward-looking and stoic, with a sense of humor that often fails to connect with people from overseas. However, there are still rare birds among that bunch.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2012

FamilyMart to add 600 Southeast Asia stores

FamilyMart Co. plans to open 600 stores in Indonesia and the Philippines, tapping demand from young people as an aging population saps growth at home.
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2012

Unfair criticisms of education

Some recent comments criticizing Japan's education system are devoid of reality. It's true that more Japanese students used to go abroad when the country's university system was not developed, just as China sends thousands of students abroad today because its university system is not yet fully developed....
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2012

Why go along with warmongers?

Regarding the Jan. 13 front-page article "Iranian oil imports to be cut to aid U.S. pressure": Politicians in the Diet seem to forget, or to not even know, that at one time (mid-19th century) Japan was doing fine on its own when U.S. warships showed up on its doorstep and demanded entry. This neighborly...
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2012

Breath of fresh air by comparison

I realize that the Jan. 17 article "Corporate Japan: woeful lack of outside directors" was on Corporate Japan, but actually fraud and deception are no different within any big corporation.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2012

Noda stands by Tanaka, qualifies Futenma flub

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Tuesday stood behind his new defense minister, Naoki Tanaka, who days into his job drew fire from the opposition camp for suggesting the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma may begin by year's end.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jan 16, 2012

Whaling may be sunk by commercial reality

Activism aside, is there a market for whale meat large enough to sustain the industry?
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Jan 15, 2012

Anniversary of Korean annexation, "harakiri" row halts Diet, Socialist Party-China communique, Kyoto Journal debuts

100 YEARS AGOSunday, Jan. 7, 1912
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2012

Yokohama antinuclear conference draws thousands of activists, experts

A two-day antinuclear conference kicked off Saturday in Yokohama with the aim of sharing lessons from the Fukushima crisis and fostering global momentum against atomic power.
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2012

Wars over whaling

Japan's annual whaling season is currently under way with the inevitable lurid reports and tangled accusations. The history of conflict between Japan's whaling boats and anti-whaling protesters has not only gained newspaper headlines, but has inspired its own TV program, "Whale Wars," on the American...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 15, 2012

Sealing a connection with nature

The cliff-ringed cape known as Notoro Misaki stands as a massive natural breakwater west of the city of Abashiri in northeastern Hokkaido, sheltering it from some of the might of the ocean.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 15, 2012

The other side of world's 'worst battle'

FIGHTING SPIRIT: The Memoirs of Major Yoshitaka Horie and the Battle of Iwo Jima. Edited by Robert D. Eldridge and Charles W. Tatum. Naval Institute Press, 2011, 224 pp., $26.95 (hardcover) Iwo Jima is a tiny sliver of an island 1,200 km south of Tokyo, an unlikely setting for anything historical, let...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 14, 2012

Reflections on being an expat

The hairstylist exclaims, "Wow, you live in Japa'an!" — pronouncing the word as if it was a diphthong. I am home for a friend's wedding, and getting my hair cut.

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