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Reader Mail
Apr 5, 2009

Root of immigration problem

The March 26 article "Immigration reforms spell Big Brother, JFBA warns" was an eye opener. The latest immigration bill before the Diet appears to criminalize the good while in pursuit of the bad. If a foreigner does not carry the new ID card, he or she might have to pay a ¥200,000 fine — which could...
EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2009

Money's worth in space

The U.S. space shuttle Discovery carrying its crew of seven docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday morning, Japan time. Among the crew is Japanese astronaut Mr. Koichi Wakata. While the Discovery is docked at the ISS, he will set up the ISS' fourth and last solar power panel by using...
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2009

Suicide crisis continues

As the employment situation worsens in the midst of the deepening economic crisis, it is feared that more people may commit suicide. In 2007, the latest year for which annual suicide statistics are available, 33,093 people killed themselves, making it the 10th consecutive year that suicides topped 30,000....
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2009

Infants at risk as government drags feet on vaccines

Kenta Morioka, 4, died last year from suffocation caused by a bacterial infection. But the vaccine that could have saved his life, in use for 16 years and offered in 120 countries, wasn't available in Japan.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Feb 1, 2009

Japan's best shot is 2022 World Cup

Japan resumes its campaign for a place at the 2010 World Cup this month against Australia, but the nation's power brokers are already setting their sights on a more distant — and potentially more rewarding — edition of the tournament.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 29, 2009

Author/physician Shigeaki Hinohara

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. Hinohara's magic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke's College of Nursing. After World...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 29, 2009

Author/physician Shigeaki Hinohara

At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators. Hinohara's magic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke's College of Nursing. After World...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 23, 2009

Snow and sculpting on show in Sapporo

Perhaps it's a sign of how peaceful the last 54 years have been for Japan. Since 1955, many of the giant snow sculptures that have made the Sapporo Snow Festival famous around the world have been constructed by members of the Ground Self-Defense Force, which have several bases in Hokkaido. For this year's...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 23, 2009

Snow and sculpting on show in Sapporo

Perhaps it's a sign of how peaceful the last 54 years have been for Japan. Since 1955, many of the giant snow sculptures that have made the Sapporo Snow Festival famous around the world have been constructed by members of the Ground Self-Defense Force, which have several bases in Hokkaido. For this year's...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 8, 2009

Pay attention to these story lines in 2009

Since the calendar has flipped to 2009, it's time to look ahead to the year to come in sports.
Reader Mail
Dec 28, 2008

Apartment hunt shows the score

I am an American who has lived in Japan for the past eight years — five years in Osaka and three years in Tokyo. For the most part it has been a positive experience, but recent events have shown me Japan's underlying legalized racism toward foreigners living in Japan.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Dec 16, 2008

Ichiro, Dice-K headline Japan WBC candidates

Major League Baseball stars Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka headline a host of players revealed as the primary candidates to play for Japan in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, it was announced on Monday.
COMMENTARY
Oct 30, 2008

Perfidious Albion and the Chagos Islanders

For arrogance, hypocrisy and nastiness, few organizations in the world rival the British Foreign Office. Exhibit A in the case against it, for the past decade, has been its marathon legal struggle to deny the former inhabitants of the Chagos Islands their rights. Last week, it cheated them again.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2008

Obama, McCain all but ignore poverty issue

PRINCETON — Barack Obama worked for three years as a community organizer on Chicago's blighted South Side, so he knows all about the real poverty that exists in America. He knows that in one of the world's richest nations, 37 million people live in poverty, a far higher proportion than in Europe's...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 24, 2008

Visit the house that Ando built

'You need courage to make good architecture," says Tadao Ando. He should know. The self-taught architect — arguably Japan's most famous — has a current client list that includes the city of Abu Dhabi (he's building a maritime museum), French businessman Francoise Pinault (he renovated Palazzo Grassi...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2008

Untapped energy source fuels a paradox

SINGAPORE — Ice that burns? It sounds like a magician's trick. So do some of the exotic names given to gas hydrate — "flammable sorbet," "crystal gas" and "burning ice." But recent scientific surveys and test drilling in Asia and elsewhere have proven that this substance exists in massive, potentially...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 31, 2008

Results in Beijing prove that baseball has a place in Olympics

After watching that cliff-hanging, nail-biter, barn-burner of a victory by South Korea over Cuba in the gold medal game at the Beijing Olympics, I am more convinced than ever that baseball — and softball — belong in the Games.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Aug 26, 2008

Beijing exit must spur bout of soul-searching

The fall was as stunning as it was quick.
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 24, 2008

Japan leaves Beijing with nothing but regrets

BEIJING — What went wrong for "Hoshino Japan" at the 2008 Summer Olympics?
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2008

Prevention of suicides

The Diet in 2006 enacted a basic law to help prevent suicides. And in 2007 the Cabinet adopted the goal of reducing the number of suicides per 100,000 people by 20 percent by 2016 from the level of 2005.
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 13, 2008

Kitajima's swimming feats inspire a nation

BEIJING — With his head tilted back and his mouth wide open in a victorious roar, Kosuke Kitajima's fist-pump celebration after winning the 100-meter breaststroke final on Monday morning produced Japan's iconic image of the 2008 Summer Games so far.
OLYMPICS
Jul 24, 2008

Yoshida, Hoketsu provide compelling story lines

In less than two weeks, the bright lights in Beijing will shine on thousands of athletes.
OLYMPICS
Jul 18, 2008

Hoshino places faith in Olympic qualifiers

Japan announced its 24-man baseball roster for the Beijing Olympics during a press conference at a Tokyo hotel on Thursday afternoon.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 1, 2008

July forecast: rough, with ID checks mainly in the north

I have suggested before (Zeit Gist, Dec. 18, 2007) that Japan shouldn't host major international events. Unfettered police power and insufficient media scrutiny create a virtual police state, inconveniencing everyone.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami