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EDITORIALS
Jul 8, 2010

Flexibility needed on whaling issue

The International Whaling Commission decided June 23 in Agadir, Morocco, to postpone a final decision on a 10-year compromise proposal and to have a one-year cooling-off period before reviving talks. While it is unfortunate that the 88-member body failed to reach a compromise, a cooling-off period is...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 6, 2010

Despite 'wagyu's' history, foot-and-mouth hit hard

Although sushi may be the dish of choice for many Japanese, consumption of beef has greatly expanded in the country since it opened its doors to Western culture following the Meiji Restoration.
JAPAN / DECISION 2010
Jul 6, 2010

Campaigning in Tokyo heats up

With beads of sweat pouring down his forehead, veteran Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Toshio Ogawa addressed a small crowd in Tokyo late last month, begging for their support in the Upper House election.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 6, 2010

Down — but not out — in Kotobukicho

Yokohama's Ishikawacho Station straddles the border between two worlds. Take a right turn from its south exit and you find yourself among the designer boutiques and Belgian chocolate shops of tourist Motomachi. Head left from the same station, however, walk three minutes and you discover a neighborhood...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 4, 2010

Pearl Harbor: setting history straight

It is extraordinary the lengths to which some people will go to reorganize history to suit their own ends. There are still voices, for example, claiming that Emperor Hirohito knew nothing about Pearl Harbor, the aerial attack that launched Japan's holy war.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2010

Foreign talent feeling gypped by top agency

Inagawa Motoko Office, one of the largest and oldest show business agencies catering to foreign performers in Japan, recently came under fire from some of its registered artists for not paying them in a timely manner for work they have done.
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2010

India nuke tieup OK'd

TORONTO (Kyodo) Japan and India agreed Sunday to cooperate further in the civilian use of nuclear power when Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met on the sidelines of a two-day Group of 20 summit in Toronto, Japanese officials said.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 28, 2010

How cheap is your love? Diamond appraiser hit

Does love take a hit when diamond appraisers start shifting standards?
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 27, 2010

Still shy of reversion after all these years

NEW YORK — Just about the time Yukio Hatoyama resigned as Japan's prime minister, apologizing to the Okinawa people in tears, I was writing about the last day of Yukio Mishima's life — Nov. 25, 1970.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 27, 2010

What's in a name? Politics as usual

When the Democratic Party of Japan indicated in its political manifesto that it favored voting rights for foreign permanent residents, the reaction from some quarters of the media was visceral. In early April, publisher Takarajima-sha produced a 96-page "emergency publication" titled "Gaikokujin Sanseiken...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 26, 2010

Global multitasking: it's in her DNA

Miho Natori can recite nursery rhymes in Thai, speak German fluently, converse over coffee in English and is native in Japanese. For this 40-year-old graphic designer, life kaleidoscopes world to world, from Japan, to the orphanage she helped start with her mother in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and to Germany,...
JAPAN / DECISION 2010
Jun 24, 2010

Parties focus on economy, taxes

With the campaign officially kicking off for the July 11 Upper House election, political parties are weighing in on rebuilding the economy and government finances, hoping their platforms will translate into votes.
EDITORIALS
Jun 24, 2010

Security treaty 50 years old

Fifty years have passed since the Japan-U.S. security treaty went into force on June 23, 1960. Under this revised treaty, Japan provides military bases to the United States, while the latter is to play an offensive role to defend Japan. Tokyo pursues a defense-only posture, as Article 9 of the Constitution...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 19, 2010

Canadian keeps options open via multitask tack

When Osaka-based entrepreneur Ray Kruger, 60, takes a break from a 70-hour work week to reminisce, his stories command attention. He explains about the haunted Buddhist temple he owns in the mountains near Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, a 440-year-old registered national treasure still used for occasional...
EDITORIALS
Jun 18, 2010

High achiever back on Earth

Japan's unmanned space probe Hayabusa (peregrine falcon) returned from a seven-year, 6-billion-kilometer trip to the asteroid Itokawa. Although its main body burned up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere, a capsule released from it landed in the desert near Woomera in southern Australia on the night...
JAPAN / PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Jun 17, 2010

Tourism revs up for China boom

With the government easing the criteria for granting individual travel visas to Chinese next month, Japan is gearing up to lure more tourists from the Middle Kingdom and make international tourism a pillar that can prop up the anemic economy.
JAPAN / PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Jun 17, 2010

Kansai gropes to find right hook

OSAKA — PROMOTING TOURISM FROM CHINA
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 15, 2010

Mah-jongg ancient, progressive

Few games may be as addictive as mah-jongg, whose players range from university students to salarymen and tend to go at it all night, often for money.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 15, 2010

U.S. military presence on Okinawa continues to be a hot topic

Race-based disparities "Futenma is undermining Japanese democracy" (Just Be Cause, May 1) by Debito Arudou:
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2010

Mr. Kan states his approach

In his first general-policy speech before the Diet on Friday, Prime Minister Naoto Kan showed that while he will inherit the major policy line of his predecessor Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, he will make a clear departure in economic policy, calling for serious efforts to reconstruct state finances.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 12, 2010

Returning favors is indeed a thorny issue

I look out my door in both directions before I leave the house. Once I am out of the house, I go straight to where I am headed and come straight back. No stopping to talk to neighbors. I don't even answer the door anymore. I'm hiding — from gifts.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes