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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / SWEET INSPIRATIONS
Oct 5, 2012

Tasty twists on tradition at Tokyo Station

Great fanfare accompanied the reopening of Tokyo Station's redbrick building in Marunouchi this week. And, just like any major new (or in this case 98-year-old) landmark, it's a bonanza for tie-in marketing, including plenty of sweets — all limited-edition items that can only be bought inside the station...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 4, 2012

Chairlift taps childhood memories of Japan for inspiration

Next week will mark Brooklyn, New York-based synth-pop duo Chairlift's first gig in Japan, but it won't be the first time here for Caroline Polachek.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 3, 2012

S.T. Dupont excels amid steady growth in luxury brand market

S.T. Dupont, a maker of luxury lighters, pens and other merchandise, will continue to outsell industry rivals thanks to the launch of new attractive products, according to its global president.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 3, 2012

Nippon Ishin no Kai: Local but with national outlook

After months of preparation, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's new political party, Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), was formally inaugurated at a mid-September gathering that drew more than 3,000 supporters.
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2012

Cracking down on drunk driving

The ban on driving under the influence of alcohol must be more vigilantly enforced to reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic accidents. People who drive under the influence of alcohol are said to be nine times more likely to be involved in a deadly accident than sober drivers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 2, 2012

Second homes may be cheap, but they are often in disrepair

Atami The ad said the property was 2 km from Ajiro Station on the Ito Line, but it was difficult to tell how far we were traveling in the agent's car. Most of the trip was up a steep, winding road into the hills above Atami on the Izu Peninsula, an area developed in the 1970s by the Tokyu Corporation...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 2, 2012

What it means to be 'Made in Japan'

"Made in Japan" is a such a simple phrase, yet it instantly evokes an image of exceptional design and high-quality production. Japan today is known for creating some of the most stylish, innovative and whimsical products in the world.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 2, 2012

Divergent views on Debito; the fate of mixed-nationality kids

Arudou's writing still needed Most of the readers who indignantly criticize the writings of Debito Arudou seem to share the same outlook. Arudou, they say, should shut up and accept the good with the bad.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 30, 2012

"Forgotten and Neglected Brides"; Interviews with tourists in Japan; CM of the week: Tokyo Disney Resort

"Kyoko Kikoku: Wasuresarareta Yometachi" ("Forced Repatriation: Forgotten and Neglected Brides"; TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.), a Cultural Agency-sanctioned program commemorating the 40th anniversary of normalized relations between Japan and China, dramatizes a 1993 incident when a group of women from China staged...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Sep 30, 2012

Casting around for the past on Fish-basket Slope

Hoping to find traces of the fishing village that was Edo (present-day Tokyo) before the first Tokugawa Shogun chose the site for his new political capital in the early 1600s, I head to Gyoranzaka (Fish-basket Slope) in the city's central Mita district.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 30, 2012

Teleworking: Home sweet ... office

On March 13, 2011, just two days after the Great East Japan Earthquake, as massive aftershocks rocked the capital and fears of a radioactive cloud spreading over the country seemed all-too real, Yasuyuki Higuchi, president of a Tokyo-based software company, sat down and typed an email to his 2,200 staff....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 28, 2012

Parker not expecting to win fifth straight scoring title

Shimane Susanoo Magic forward Michael Parker, the four-time reigning scoring champion, predicted on Monday he won't win the scoring title this season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Sep 28, 2012

Diversifying Japan's biggest food festival

From its origins as a regional festival in the backwaters of Aomori Prefecture, the B-1 Grand Prix has attained a status of Fuji Rock-like proportions. The seven-year-old event, which attracts enthusiasts of local cooking from around Japan, almost single-handedly kick-started the country's obsession...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 27, 2012

NHK uses carrot and stick approach to get your money

NHK finds new way to get paid, but there's also a new way to avoid paying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2012

The fabric of Okinawa design

With the typical "white box" museum, everything depends on the contents of the exhibition, but with the Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum), the museum itself is very much part of the experience. This is clear from the moment you slide open the entrance door and take off your shoes to shuffle around...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 24, 2012

Toll of double tax hikes on the economy will be even worse than in '97

The number of people in Japan aged 65 or older has reached 30.74 million, or 24.1 percent of the population, according to a government estimate released on the Respect for the Aged Day last Monday. The numbers are record highs and warn of snowballing health and welfare costs the country will soon have...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 24, 2012

Indecent proposals: the language of Japanese dating spam

It started with an email from a 20-year-old college student called Emi, who told me she was looking for a Showa umare no dansei (昭和生まれの男性, a man born in Showa, i.e., born before 1989). Next was Norika, a bored housewife in her early thirties asking me to spend some himajikan (ヒマ時間,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 23, 2012

Evolution revelation sparks MAD inspiration to sucker the (U.S.) soul

Thank god for all things virtual.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 21, 2012

Yorozuya Okagesan: Michelin-starred food tastes better by the bottle

The entrance to Yorozuya Okagesan is, to put it mildly, discreet. The modest sign is set back so far from the sidewalk you'd never spot the steps unless you knew to look. And you'd never go down them anyway unless you had a reservation since, politely but inevitably, you would be turned away.
Uncategorized / TRAVEL INSIDER
Sep 19, 2012

Fly China Airlines, ride Taiwan high-speed train for free; Virgin's Haneda plans

Taiwan plane, train offer
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

Shilling for our side over the Senkakus

Akihiro Suzuki does not think war will come, but if it does, he believes Japan will prevail.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Sep 18, 2012

Kaohame

Dear Alice,
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Sep 16, 2012

Single vs. married TV personalities; "The Apply Yourself Cookbook"; CM of the week: Lixil

On Friday, TV Asahi devotes almost three full hours to the variety special "Kekkon Dekinai Shikaisha to Nijusan-nin Yomeiru Geinintachi" (7 p.m.), whose entire premise is described in the title: "Presenters Who Can't Get Married and 23 Comedians With Brides."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues
Sep 15, 2012

U.S. Agent Orange activist brings message of solidarity to Okinawa

Residents of Okinawa Island have recently been confronted with mounting evidence that their land used to be a major storage site for the toxic U.S. defoliant Agent Orange.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 14, 2012

Quake focus at short-film fest in Sendai

Miyagi Prefecture's capital, Sendai, was the largest city to suffer major damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake last year, so it makes sense that its long-running short-film festival would turn its attention to the disaster and recovery efforts.
CULTURE / Music
Sep 13, 2012

Ozone plugs hole left by Coleman at Tokyo Jazz Festival

Improvisation has long been a key part of the jazz musician's repertoire, and the organizers of last weekend's Tokyo Jazz Festival (TJF) found themselves having to do some of their own improvising at the eleventh hour when news came through that headline act Ornette Coleman was unable to fly due to poor...

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