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CULTURE / Books
Jun 10, 2012

Okinawa: a long history of hardship

THE OKINAWAN DIASPORA IN JAPAN: Crossing the Borders Within, by Steve Rabson. University of Hawai'i Press, 2012, 312 pp., $55.00 (hardcover) Okinawa, mainland Japan's subtropical playground, is no paradise to Okinawans. Ryukyu, the archipelago's original name, means "circle of jewels." Lush appearance...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 10, 2012

Matsue: 'City of Water ' with a history set in stone

The train from Okayama to Matsue took nowhere near as long as the one the English writer Sacheverell Sitwell boarded in 1959 to the same destination: "Nine hours from Osaka, into a remote and little-visited part." The region still feels faintly remote, the train carriages clickety-clicking over rivers...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2012

LDP's dangerous proposals for amending antiwar article

The Liberal Democratic Party published its new draft constitutional amendment proposal in late April. The draft reflects a number of significant changes above and beyond those advanced in the proposal unveiled by the LDP in 2005. The proposal includes a complete overhaul of Article 9, the war-renouncing...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 5, 2012

Much ado, but micro-important

A few weeks ago, as a panelist at a symposium on Japan's accession to the Hague Convention on international child abduction, I found it hard to disguise my ire. One of the speakers was a lawyer opposed to Japan joining the convention, and who refused to even use "abduction" to discuss what she called...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 5, 2012

Blackston taught kids days before murder, may have toured with AI

Although no official statement has been made by the artist or her representatives, evidence points to links between high-profile Japanese pop star AI (Ai Carina Uemura) and at least one, if not both, of the suspects being questioned over the rape and murder of Nicola Furlong.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2012

Naval exercise tweaks Constitution

It was reported Monday that Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force ships and naval ships of the United States and a few other countries fired at and sank a decommissioned U.S. Navy ship during an exercise off Hawaii in July 2010.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 1, 2012

Shizuoka eyes theatrical bridge over to Avignon

Stranger things have happened, and in the near future a vibrant cultural bridge across Eurasia may be built between the city of Shizuoka in the beautiful foothills of Mount Fuji, and ancient Avignon in the artists' mecca of Provence in the South of France.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2012

Citizens are main stakeholders in rebuilding global governance

The Council on Foreign Relations, a leading U.S. foreign policy institute and publisher of Foreign Affairs magazine, this spring launched a network of the world's influential policy institutes. The initiative aims at creating a forum for serious discussion among policy researchers to address pressing...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 29, 2012

Photos reunite left-behind parents with lost children, but only on film

If there is no bond deeper or love stronger than that between a parent and a child, then equally, there is no pain greater than when that bond is broken or that love taken away.
BUSINESS
May 29, 2012

JGB streak beats Treasurys on BOJ easing expectations

Japanese government bonds are set for a sixth monthly gain, a winning streak that beats Treasurys amid investor speculation the central bank will bolster monetary easing to defeat deflation.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2012

Anniversary of Okinawa's reversion highlights opposing press views

In February, Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba assured the mayor of Iwakuni City and the governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture that Japan would not ask the people they serve to take on "any additional burden" from U.S. forces. Iwakuni already has a Marine Corps air station, and it is thought that the United...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 26, 2012

Desperate Kurd plays final asylum card

The 42-year-old Kurdish asylum seeker's wife and four children fled back to Turkey more than a year ago, terrified about the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, but he stayed on, in limbo, hoping beyond hope that he would be permitted to remain in Japan.
BUSINESS
May 22, 2012

All seems in limbo until Greek polls

The butterfly effect triggered by Greek voters left its mark on Japan's economy last week as stocks took their sharpest drop of the year and the yen soared against the dollar amid deepening concern over the eurozone's debt crisis.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 22, 2012

Foreigners disqualified as blood donors for wide range of reasons

From the many responses to our April 3 column, "Less-than-fluent foreigners may have trouble giving blood," it seems that Japanese language ability is an issue at some centers, but not all. Other factors sometimes took precedence, such as medical conditions and other rules.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 2012

TV: no longer the drug of the people

Last week, Japan's fifth largest discount electronics retailer, Bic Camera, announced it would soon obtain a 50 percent share of Japan's sixth-largest discount electronics retailer, Kojima, thus making the combined companies Japan's second-largest electronics retailer. Bic operates 34 stores in large...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
May 20, 2012

'Alien' actress at home with a robot

Even today in the performing arts in Japan, gaijin (lit. "aliens"), as foreigners are called, are still often presented like something to be gawped at in a Victorian freak show.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 20, 2012

Poverty stalks the land — and its long-term victims will be today's young

Open any Japanese newspaper, listen to the radio, watch television or keep tabs on any other form of media, social or otherwise, and you are bound to find references to this country's "rapidly aging society."
CULTURE / Music
May 18, 2012

Will the world soon wake up to the scent of Perfume?

When the Nippon Budokan was built in 1964, its architects probably never envisaged it one day resembling a massive nightclub filled with hundreds of laser beams in every shade of neon as three women in lightup minidresses danced like finely tuned robots to the sound of the bassiest bombast imaginable....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 17, 2012

Otomo's genga will make you remember

Without "Akira" there would be no "Cool Japan."
Japan Times
Figure Skating / ICE TIME
May 16, 2012

Suzuki aiming higher following best season of career

Coming off the best season of her long career, one might think world bronze medalist Akiko Suzuki could be content to retire from competition and turn to show skating.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
May 15, 2012

Olympus fiasco was 'lost opportunity'

Waku Miller, a resident of Tokyo for over 30 years and a veteran translator who recently served as a spokesman for Michael C. Woodford — former president and CEO of Olympus Corp. — said he found it odd how indifferent major Japanese shareholders were even after a massive loss coverup by the camera...
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2012

Okinawans deserve better

Forty years have passed since Okinawa reverted to Japanese rule on May 15, 1972, after 27 years' of occupation by the United States following the end of World War II. Polls show that about 80 percent of Okinawans regard the restoration of Japanese rule as a positive development. The central government...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
May 13, 2012

Japanese laws make abortion an economic issue

The cost of abortion in Japan shows it is not considered a women's health issue.
CULTURE / Books
May 13, 2012

A chart-topper for J-Pop fans

Sayonara Amerika, Sayonara Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop by Michael K. Bourdaghs. Columbia University Press, New York, 2012, 304 pp., $27.50 (paperback)

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’