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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 26, 2012

Welcome to the world we've made but don't want to share with children

"Love ... casts itself on persons who, apart from the sexual relation, would be hateful, contemptible, and even abhorrent to the lover. ... It seems as if, in making a marriage, either the individual or the interest of the species must come off badly."
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2012

National bicycle policy needed

Shizuoka Prefecture took a positive step forward in mid-February when it enacted revised traffic rules and opened new one-way bicycle lanes in Shizuoka City. Taking place on a larger scale than other pilot projects around the country, it should be a harbinger of improved bicycle policies throughout Japan....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 25, 2012

Austerity — we've embraced it in the countryside

Austerity. It's a word steeped in meaning. No one is more aware of a stagnant economy than the Japanese people, who are spending less and learning to relish cheap, imported goods.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 25, 2012

Multilingual ex-professor pours all his energy into translation, writing

Curled up in his German grandfather's library, the young Charles De Wolf looked up from the pages of Goethe to dream of the cobblestoned streets of Europe.
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Unbearable cost of Iranian oil

With increasing international momentum for an oil boycott on Iran in light of the Tehran regime's relentless pursuit of nuclear energy capability, Japan's leaders must pause and reflect on the unbearable cost of Iranian oil. By cost, I am not referring exclusively to yen and rials, but to the political,...
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2012

Joining the Hague convention

The Legislative Council of the Justice Ministry earlier this month submitted an outline of domestic bills related to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa. The government plans to submit a bill to approve Japan's joining the convention...
JAPAN
Feb 22, 2012

Hopes fade for Monju's energy dream promise

Japan's long and expensive pursuit of a superefficient nuclear reactor — a model once touted as the key to its energy future — now teeters on the brink of failure amid new government concerns about its runaway costs.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 20, 2012

Lost in inflation: the trap of focusing solely on the consumer price index

Japan's wholesale price index has consistently been on the rise since December 2009 due chiefly to rising oil and food prices. But the consumer price index has fallen year on year for three years in a row. One reason behind the decline in the CPI is the rising influx of cheaper, high-quality products...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Japanese people deserve better

I laughed while reading Marvin Motsenbocker's Feb. 16 letter, "Japan remains the best choice," which sounds like a European elitist rant against America for gobbling up resources and being a dump, gun-crazy, uncivil, blah, blah, blah.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Feb 19, 2012

Avant-garde shamaness takes a poetic journey to the Californian suburbs

In a YouTube clip from February 2011, Hiromi Ito begins a reading of an excerpt from her narrative poem "I Am Anjuhimeko (Watashi wa Anjuhimeko de aru)" at the Museum of Modern Aomori Literature by banging the palm of her hand loudly and repeatedly on the desk in front of her. She sits down, squares...
EDITORIALS
Feb 19, 2012

Costly price of expensive education

A recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has found a few positives in Japan's educational situation. Japan has generally improved its educational conditions relative to other OECD countries, but the costs of education remain extremely high with little financial...
BUSINESS / ANALYSIS
Feb 18, 2012

Fiscal ills not DPJ's doing but it's holding the bag

The tax and social security reform outline adopted by the Cabinet on Friday indicate the government has run out of options and must finally address welfare costs and public finances that have been spiralling out of control for years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 18, 2012

Tireless volunteer Fukuda makes a difference in the lives she touches

Julie Fukuda, 75, is a giver — not financially, but physically — who has tirelessly volunteered for various organizations in her community for nearly 50 years in Japan.
BASKETBALL
Feb 18, 2012

Search on for new coach after JBA drops Wisman

After less than two years in charge, Thomas Wisman's ouster on Wednesday by the Japan Basketball Association was expected by those who pay attention.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Feb 14, 2012

Returns, regroups and debuts: Versace, Tokyo Runway, Julius, K-fashion, Alexander Wang

The Medusa is back
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 12, 2012

Are supercomputers worth their super price tags?

"Why do we have to aim for the world's No. 1 — what's wrong with being the world's No. 2?"
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Feb 11, 2012

Survivors of Thai floods carve a temporary niche in Aichi

The devastating floods in Thailand last year took a toll on some 450 Japanese companies operating in the country.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 10, 2012

NNTT hopes Generation 2.0 hears 'Silence'

The late classical composer Teizo Matsumura, American film director Martin Scorsese, and playwright/director Keiko Miyata may seem an unlikely trio, but they share a reverence for "Silence," the 1966 novel by Shusaku Endo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 9, 2012

U.S. Treasurys foiling intervention

Finance Minister Jun Azumi's efforts to weaken the yen are being foiled, in part, by U.S. Treasurys.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2012

Caution on concessions ahead of U.S. TPP talks

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said the government was "cautious" ahead of talks Tuesday on joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bloc that will include demands to eliminate tariffs on protected goods.
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2012

'Stealth' intervention reined in yen

Japan used so-called stealth intervention in November as the government sought to stem yen gains that hammered earnings at makers of exports ranging from cars to electronics.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 5, 2012

Nuclear crisis given lightweight treatment

JAPAN'S NUCLEAR CRISIS: The Routes of Responsibility, by Susan Carpenter. Palgrave MacMillan, 2012, 248 pp., $90 (hardcover) Alas, this very important subject gets short shrift in this misleadingly titled, hastily cobbled together assessment of the causes and consequences of the accident at the Fukushima...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 4, 2012

Craft beer connoisseur knows his suds

Domestic and imported craft beers have found an ever-growing number of Japanese fans in recent years, and festivals in major cities and smaller towns have offered the public a chance to sample numerous ales, lagers and porters, as well as a variety of German beers and more exotic concoctions that contain...

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