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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 19, 2013

Fukushima's powder paradise

I seem to have the whole mountain to myself. The vast majesty of Fukushima Prefecture spreads out below me, all around. Up here, skiing on powdery snow, zigzagging through challenging moguls, it's easy to forget about the nuclear reactors 120 km away.
Reader Mail
Jan 19, 2013

Deport the solo 'fly-jin' of 3/11

Regarding the Jan. 16 article "Frenchwoman fired for leaving Japan during nuclear crisis sues NHK": I know this will upset a lot of foreigners in Japan, but I fully agree with NHK's terminating the employment of Emmanuelle Bodin after she fled Japan during the Fukushima nuclear plant crisis in March...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Zen and the cross-cultural art of tree-climbing

In the upstairs meeting room of a camping lodge in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, two women and about 20 men walked slowly and intently in circles one rainy day last November. At the front of the room, a weathered and wiry Englishman intoned the sort of instructions a yoga aficionado would find familiar....
CULTURE
Jan 17, 2013

Audie Bock interviews Oshima at Cannes

The award for "Best Direction" at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival actually caps the achievement of a decade for Japan's Nagisa Oshima. His latest film, "Ai no Borei (Empire of Passion)," a ghostly story of doomed love, saw its world premiere as Japan's official entry in the most important international...
EDITORIALS
Jan 17, 2013

Third-pole parties' policy positions

The so-called third-pole opposition forces gained a slight foothold in the Dec. 16 Lower House election, although the Liberal Democratic Party and its ally Komeito control more than two-thirds of the Lower House seats.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Jan 15, 2013

Hall of Fame long overdue for another foreign member

Victor Starffin was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1960. Wally Yonamine was enshrined in 1994.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jan 14, 2013

Advising Abe on the wisdom of a nuclear restart

Readers offer some advice to the new prime minister on the contentious issue of nuclear power in post-3/11 Japan.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 13, 2013

Anniversaries abound around NPB

The year 2013 will mark a season of notable anniversaries for Japanese baseball franchises and ballparks. It is Japanese year Heisei 25, the 25th anniversary for Tokyo Dome, Japan's first indoor stadium, and the 20th for Fukuoka Yahoo Japan Dome, the country's first-and still the only-retractable roof...
Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2013

Who will care for the elderly?

Regarding Jun Hongo's Jan. 9 article, "Foreign nurse success story has message for Japan: Open up": Why did Japan bother to invite these poorly paid, overworked and under-appreciated nurses from Indonesia and the Philippines to work here.
Reader Mail
Jan 13, 2013

Twitter's fine, grammar's better

Regarding Ai Shiinoki's Jan. 6 letter, "Using Twitter to learn English": Frankly, I feel disgusted when I hear the argument that English education in Japan is rather useless or that English-language textbooks contain expressions that are too old and so on.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 11, 2013

Mori isle 'compromise' flatly denied

Tokyo on Thursday moved quickly to reaffirm official policy calling for the return of four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido, a day after former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori suggested a compromise that would leave one in Moscow's hands.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 9, 2013

Senkaku intrusions seen as testing Abe

Beijing may be testing the patience of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has recently kept his hawkish streak in check as he instead focuses on domestic economic measures.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2013

Xenophobia finds fertile soil in web anonymity

As diplomatic strains with China and South Korea worsen over territorial disputes, more and more Japanese are using the relative anonymity of cyberspace to vent their political spleens online.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 8, 2013

Here comes Fred

This year will see the arrival of a formidable new force in the Japanese fashion market. Perhaps best known for being a go-to for Hollywood stars, Fred Segal is a trend-setting California clothing and lifestyle goods retailer, which in its 50-year history had never planned to expand beyond Los Angeles....
EDITORIALS
Jan 8, 2013

Mending ties with China

The dispute between Japan and China over the sovereignty issue involving the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea has caused bilateral ties to plummet. China is repeatedly violating Japanese territorial waters and airspace around the islands. Japan needs to enhance its ability to protect its territorial...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2013

What's the point in working yourself to death?

Working for long periods under extreme stressful work conditions can lead to sudden death, a phenomenon the Japanese call karoshi, literally translated as "death from overwork," or occupational sudden death, mainly from heart attack and stroke due to stress. Karoshi has been more widely studied in Japan,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 7, 2013

No loss for words when expressing scale of DPJ's defeat

December's election aftermath offered a good chance to learn synonyms for "crushing defeat" and "overwhelming victory." Taihai (大敗, great defeat), kanpai (完敗, total defeat) — not to be confused with kanpai! (乾杯, cheers!) — kaimetsutekina haiboku (壊滅的な敗北, annihilating defeat),...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2013

Happiest people in the world

Japan may have a relatively high standard of living and the longest life expectancy in the world, but it does not have the happiest people. According to a new Gallup poll of 148 countries, Japan ranks somewhere in the middle of world happiness levels. The recent poll showed just how little economic levels...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 5, 2013

Photog finds sense of heart, unity in Bhutan

Junko Kimura, 38, was among the many people who were moved by the Bhutanese King and his new wife as they traveled through Tokyo and Fukushima to encourage those affected by the March 2011 disasters.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2013

Wait out passions of the moment when touching up the Constitution

Now that the Liberal Democratic Party and their allies have won a large majority in Japan's House of Representatives, the issue of constitutional revision is on the table.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 4, 2013

NHK spotlights gunslinging daughter of the north in yearlong Sunday drama

How to rebuild when you've lost everything? In the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, as many thousands of people in northeastern Japan sought to answer that question for themselves, public broadcaster NHK began looking for a historical figure whose story might...
BUSINESS
Jan 3, 2013

Abe hoopla aside, key economic challenges loom

Stocks are up, the yen is easing and there is a new prime minister pledging to splash trillions of yen to breathe life into the country's moribund economy: Last year ended on a high note for Japan Inc., and 2013 looks even more promising for some.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2013

New fossil fuel resources

While there have been heated discussions over what to do with Japan's nuclear power generation, it is important for the government not only to promote development of green energy sources but also to make serious efforts to exploit new fossil fuel resources, especially in the ocean, to operate the thermal...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’