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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
May 23, 2014

Motel owner provides rooms to the roaming

Makoto Kai, 62, is the founder and CEO of Hatagoya Co., which operates Japan's only motel chain. Kai, an avid biker, started the business in 1994 out of frustration with the lack of comfortable and inexpensive accommodation across the Japanese countryside. After traveling around the United States and...
JAPAN / Politics
May 22, 2014

Komeito to LDP: Self-defense not same as collective defense

The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito remain at odds as the ruling coalition debates the contentious proposal to revamp defense policy by reinterpreting the Constitution.
JAPAN / Politics
May 22, 2014

With wary eye on China, SDF drill simulates retaking of island

Japanese land, sea and air forces combined to simulate the recapture of a remote island on Thursday, a small drill that nonetheless underscores the country's concerns about far-flung territory claimed by China.
JAPAN / Politics
May 22, 2014

Okinawa mayor invokes red tape, dugong deaths to stop U.S. base

Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine acknowledges his failure so far to prevent the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to ecologically sensitive land in his city.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 21, 2014

Retailers scrambling to empty fat foreign wallets

In graying Japan, retailers are waking up to a hot new demographic: foreign visitors.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 21, 2014

World Cup 2014 views from Tokyo: Bosnia, Switzerland and Italy

A Bosnian teacher, Swiss student and Italian businessman weigh up their teams' prospects in next month's FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
JAPAN / Politics
May 19, 2014

Concerns grow in ruling coalition as debate over Article 9 begins

Ruling coalition lawmakers voice concerns about reinterpreting Article 9 in the name of collective self-defense on the eve of a long debate on the matter.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
May 19, 2014

From Fukushima to Syria, CWAJ supports scholars

The College Women's Association of Japan awards a variety of annual scholarships in higher education, backing, among others, women from abroad studying in Japan and Japanese women getting an education overseas.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 18, 2014

Translating movie titles into Japanese can get a bit wairudo

For one of my classes recently, I needed to get the Japanese movie version of Harper Lee's classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." When I looked for it on Amazon Japan, I was a little confused because they didn't seem to have it. Instead they kept offering me a DVD titled "Arabama monogatari" (「アラバマ物語」)....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 17, 2014

Foreign fans revel in ballpark fun

A beat writer for one of the Japanese papers called the other day and said, "I am seeing a lot of foreign fans at Japanese baseball games recently. What's going on?"
JAPAN
May 16, 2014

Population fixes have anti-foreign bias, official says

The government is in denial over Japan's looming demographic disaster and adopting unrealistic solutions to keep immigrants at arm's length, a former senior immigration official reveals.
JAPAN
May 13, 2014

Abe to get Article 9 proposals Thursday

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Article 9 panel will propose its conditions for using collective self-defense under a reinterpreted Constitution on Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2014

Pachinko parlors face taxing times

Moves toward legalizing casinos in Japan have reignited a debate over the legal status of pachinko, with a potential new tax mooted for a $200 billion gaming industry that has existed for decades on the fringes of the law.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / TELLING LIVES
May 13, 2014

Message themes woven into songs by J-pop's Hart

Chris Hart's appearance on "Kohaku Uta Gassen," NHK's annual New Year's Eve music extravaganza last December, "became one of the two most memorable stages (of his career) so far," he said in a recent interview.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 11, 2014

Constitution revision vital: Abe adviser

The idea that Japan can improve its security without dropping a long-standing ban on aiding friendly countries under attack is a miracle that just won't happen, the acting head of an advisory panel to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SYMPOSIUM ON SOUTH KOREA
May 11, 2014

S. Korea's economy and the elderly

The South Korean economy has shown positive signs recently, but prospects may not be so bright due to the increasing costs of handling an aging society, five South Korean think tank researchers met at a recent symposium in Tokyo to discuss issues facing South Korea.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
May 10, 2014

Rhododendrons, azaleas: blooming marvels of the plant world

Nothing tops turning a corner on a trail and encountering a sudden splash of pink, red or gold amongst the greenery.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 10, 2014

Convenience stores give our nation pride

Japan's prime minister is an unabashed patriot, as outspoken in his love for his country as in his desire to instill that love in his compatriots. Are his compatriots receptive? Opinion polls on attitudes toward pending revisions of long-standing interpretations of the pacifist Constitution, prologue...
Reader Mail
May 10, 2014

Deniers won't let war wounds heal

Regarding Koichi Katsuta's May 8 letter, "Fictions aimed at milking Japan": Nationalists like Katsuta love to claim that Japan was the victim nation in World War II and that [claims of atrocities] were all lies to hurt Japan. He says the use of the term "sex slave" is incorrect, because no women were...
Japan Times
CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH
May 9, 2014

Manga becomes a major draw at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

The 11th annual Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) kicks off May 10. As its title suggests, it's less a fan-focused pop convention than a platform for comics and graphic novels as art, and for the artists who create them. It has also emerged as a great friend to manga over the past few years.
Japan Times
WORLD / EU SPECIAL 2014
May 9, 2014

EBC an important partner

As voters throughout the European Union prepare to go to the polls to elect the next European Parliament, will anyone pause to think about the people who made all this possible? It has been 64 years since the first steps were taken toward the foundation of the union and 57 years since the first treaty...
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2014

The U.S. balancing act in Asia

U.S. President Barack Obama sailed rough waters during his recent trip through four Asian countries, trying to reaffirm Washington's security commitments in the region without antagonizing Beijing.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 3, 2014

Obama's pivot to Asia: Rebalance and reassure

Summits are all about symbolism and optics and on that score U.S. President Barack Obama's swing through Asia was a qualified success. Another few nails were hammered into the coffin of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with officials now edging toward a face saving TPP-Lite, but Americans paid little...
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2014

Protecting the peace Constitution

As a majority of polled Japanese oppose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to overturn the government's traditional interpretation of a constitutional principle that has enabled Japan to enjoy nearly 70 years of peace and prosperity, he should focus on improving ties with Japan's closest neighbors.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan