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JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Project lends helping hand to industry, small brewers

Sake, like Japanese fashion, anime or even sushi, can be an acquired taste. Just like those other cultural exports from Japan, sake comes in a wide variety of different styles and flavors, and while your first taste may not be precisely what you're looking for, it can be rewarding for those who keep...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2012

Territorial disputes don't rain on Asia's largest parade of cinema

There was very little talk at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, Asia's biggest movie event of the year, of the ongoing conflict between Japan and South Korea over ownership of those rocks in the Japan Sea. It so happens that the festival's Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award was being given to...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 9, 2012

North Korea abductees mark decade since coming home

Oct. 15 will mark the 10th anniversary since five Japanese citizens were repatriated from North Korea after being abducted by Pyongyang's agents in the 1970s. The government claims that the North has failed to properly address the fate of 12 more Japanese abductees that remain missing, while others say...
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2012

Searching for economic answers

Japan is hosting annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank this week, with some 20,000 people from 188 countries taking part. The meetings are taking place at a time when the European sovereign debt problems, uncertainty about the U.S. economy and slowing down of the Chinese...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 9, 2012

Call to stop dolphin hunt in Taiji makes waves

Some of the many readers' letters The Japan Times received in response to the Sept. 11 Hotline to Nagatacho column, "Stop the annual Taiji dolphin massacre, make your children proud" by Deb Bowen-Saunders:
Reader Mail
Oct 7, 2012

Give East Asians a greater say

The Sept. 27 editorial "Confrontation may hurt economy" is right to presume that the recent flareup between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands is unlikely to be a one-time event. We can expect even stronger reactions in China if Japan builds a base on the islands or starts offshore drilling for...
BUSINESS
Oct 6, 2012

Nissan plans major boost in car imports

Nissan Motor Co. may overtake Volkswagen as Japan's biggest car importer as it steps up shipments of vehicles made offshore to mitigate the strength of the yen.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 3, 2012

Nippon Ishin no Kai: Local but with national outlook

After months of preparation, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's new political party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), was formally inaugurated at a mid-September gathering that drew more than 3,000 supporters.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2012

Maehara vows extra scrutiny of BOJ

New economic and fiscal policy minister Seiji Maehara pledged a closer watch over the Bank of Japan to ensure it meets a 1 percent inflation goal, adding that purchases of foreign bonds may be a powerful tool for easing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 2, 2012

Abuse by Irish priest could be tip of iceberg

It is over three years since it was revealed that an Irish Catholic priest had abused several children in Japan. His victims here are probably still unaware their tormentor was a serial offender.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 2012

Senkaku issue falls hard from the shelf

Tanaage, which means to put something on the shelf, is a term that pops up often in the coverage of the current imbroglio over the islands that Japan calls the Senkakus. There is disagreement over when China, which calls the islands Diaoyu, started insisting they were its territory, but in any case the...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 30, 2012

An undeclared war: the Japanese-Soviet battle that decided the outcome of WWII

Nomonhan 1939: The Red Army's Victory That Shaped World War II, by Stuart D. Goldman. Naval Institute Press, 2012, 288 pp., $31.95 (hardcover) T he battle of Nomonhan between the Japanese Imperial Army and the Soviet Army is a little known confrontation that had a significant impact on both countries...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 29, 2012

Former Evessa star Washington claims he is 'blackballed' despite exoneration

The Osaka Evessa and bj-league office claimed that Lynn Washington, one of the league's original superstars, retired on April 9 after he was exonerated of all charges following his arrest and 18 days in Osaka Prefectural Police custody.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 28, 2012

Parker not expecting to win fifth straight scoring title

Shimane Susanoo Magic forward Michael Parker, the four-time reigning scoring champion, predicted on Monday he won't win the scoring title this season.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2012

The fabric of Okinawa design

With the typical "white box" museum, everything depends on the contents of the exhibition, but with the Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum), the museum itself is very much part of the experience. This is clear from the moment you slide open the entrance door and take off your shoes to shuffle around...
EDITORIALS
Sep 26, 2012

Ten years on, little progress made

Ten years have passed since then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il signed the Pyongyang Declaration (Sept. 17, 2002) with the eventual aim of normalizing a bilateral relationship. Despite the historic significance of the declaration, little progress has been...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 25, 2012

Gaijin cards valid until 2015 — but not at the post office

Reader AM informed us that Japan Post no longer accepts alien registration cards as valid identification.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 24, 2012

Toll of double tax hikes on the economy will be even worse than in '97

The number of people in Japan aged 65 or older has reached 30.74 million, or 24.1 percent of the population, according to a government estimate released on the Respect for the Aged Day last Monday. The numbers are record highs and warn of snowballing health and welfare costs the country will soon have...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 22, 2012

Filipino filmmaker-writer captures the stories of Asians on the fringe

Rey Ventura's prose startles with the subtle force of cinematic images: From the "rustling leaves" that signal the return of the rebel forces to the Aeta hill tribes in the Philippines to the "standing men" or day laborers populating the alleyways of the Kotobukicho district of Yokohama. As both filmmaker...
OLYMPICS
Sep 21, 2012

Taiwanese IOC member assures Tokyo over vote

Relations between Japan, China and Taiwan have spiraled out of control over the past week, but a longtime Taiwanese International Olympic Committee member is not using that as a pretext for his vote for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2012

Territorial row is a ticking time bomb for Asia

As the struggle to control disputed islands and valuable offshore resources has intensified in the East and South China Seas over the past few years, the United States has said repeatedly that it does not take sides in the disagreements among Asian countries over who has ownership rights.
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2012

Cooler heads needed over islet row

In this 40th anniversary year of diplomatic normalization between Japan and China, the bilateral relationship has plummeted as demonstrations rage in many Chinese cities against the Japanese government's purchase of three of the five islets comprising the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 20, 2012

Carmakers brace for bashing in China

Two years ago, Sherry Wang bought a Toyota Camry because it offered a comfortable way to commute to her job as a researcher in the Chinese city of Xian. Lately, she's been taking the bus.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Relisting just starting point for rejuvenated JAL

Japan Airlines Co. will return to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section Wednesday, two years and eight months after filing for bankruptcy in one of the country's biggest corporate failures.
BUSINESS
Sep 19, 2012

Japanese companies become protest targets in China

As anti-Japan protests in China rage with no end in sight, Japanese businesses there are seeing their operations disrupted, while government officials seek to limit the damage to economic ties.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 18, 2012

Unlike giving blood, becoming an organ donor easy

Bob is wondering if the blood donation rules, which we covered in "Less-than-fluent foreigners may have trouble giving blood" (April 3), also apply to organ donors.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

It's past midnight but child-abduction treaty promise is not yet a pumpkin

Despite much promise and a flurry of activity, it didn't happen: Japan failed to ratify the Hague Convention on international child abduction and pass the extensive piece of accompanying domestic legislation the government felt was necessary in order for it to do so. Both items on the Diet agenda were...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 16, 2012

Living the botanical high life

Japan, though it has a very different image, is on the same latitude as southern Europe and North Africa, while my nearest city, Sapporo, is oddly enough on the same east-west parallel as France's boisterously cosmopolitan second city of Marseille on the Mediterranean.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 13, 2012

Home is always where the heart is

Contemporary artists are a product of a globally minded world. While artists of past ages have had clear goals of making it in London, Paris or New York, artists of the 21st century seek stimulation from any number of locations across the planet. All they need is a passport, a place to stay, and ideally...

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan