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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 31, 2012

SOFA a source of sovereign conflicts

The July 23 arrival of MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport aircraft at U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture and plans to deploy them this fall to Okinawa have fueled stiff opposition from local governments nationwide.
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2012

Smell of untaxed trillions

One of the best tax-avoidance tactics in the late Roman Empire was to sell yourself into slavery. You didn't really have to work as somebody's slave, of course — it was more like rock star Hotblack Desiato being "dead for a year for tax reasons" in Douglas Adams' wondrous confection "The Hitch-Hiker's...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2012

When horrific death leaps off the movie screen

We go to the movies to dream.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2012

Billionaire's tax to help the poor

In searching for new sources of funding, the United Nations this month called for a tax on billionaires to raise money for poor countries. According to the assessment in the U.N. World Economic and Social Survey, an annual tax on the world's super-rich would yield almost $400 billion a year.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 29, 2012

Effect of spiritual force on the post-3/11 crisis

This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan, by Jonathan S. Watts. International Buddhist Exchange Center, 2012, 208 pp., $10.00 (paperback) T he response of the Japanese people to the triple catastrophe of March 2011 won global admiration. The deeply ingrained...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Jul 23, 2012

Inoue continues to chase NFL dream

People may laughingly call Japanese quarterback Tomotsuna Inoue's challenge reckless, but he isn't letting that stand in his way.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 22, 2012

Shisaku

Shisaku is a homophone meaning essay, a meditation upon a subject, a policy or measures a government takes. A fitting title for analyst Michael Cucek's blog which provides insight and opinion on Japanese politics, with a distinct hint of satire. In the eight years he's been writing the blog, Shisaku...
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2012

A telling tale of two Koreas

What has been happening in North Korea recently is straight out of the "Hereditary Dictatorship for Dummies" handbook. Kim Jong Un, the pudgy young heir to the leadership of one of the world's last communist states, is removing powerful people who were loyal to his father and replacing them with men...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 20, 2012

Boomer boom: Businesses tapping consumption where they can find it

Retired people are already single-handedly propping up consumption.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 20, 2012

'God Bless America'

Warning: if you think "American Idol" is, like, totally the best thing in American music today, that far-right talk-show host Glenn Beck is a prophet and that "Jersey Shore" is about the most fabulicious people evah, the following movie is not, repeat not, for you.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 20, 2012

Yoshitomo Nara puts the heart back in art

The induction of manga-style painting into Japan's contemporary art canon over the last 15 years can be put down to the work of not one but two artists. Sure, it was Takashi Murakami who laid the theoretical foundations, spelling out links with classical painting and ukiyo-e prints. But it was another...
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2012

A good start for Libya

The Arab Spring has been a mixed blessing for Western governments. While those governments provided considerable support for the forces battling the old regimes in the region, the overthrow of those autocratic governments has in some cases brought to power Islamic political parties whose commitment to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 19, 2012

China and Japan: A 40-year friendship worth singing about

Forget allegations of spies and economic intrigue. Put aside the controversial Senkaku Islands and celebrate as the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing unites with the New National Theatre in Tokyo to commemorate the 40th anniversary of normalized relations between Japan and China. Two...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2012

Turning swords into plowshares, and back again

How long does it take for enemies to become allies, and allies to become enemies?
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jul 17, 2012

Employees should work toward a life of leisure, not live to work

Some readers' responses to Hifumi Okunuki's June 19 Labor Pains column, "In 'right-to-work' Japan, employees should also have the right to rest":
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jul 17, 2012

Suteteko: Hanging out in underwear is a cool way to survive the summer heat

Picture this: A man comes home from work on a summer evening. The intense heat of the day has abated and he goes into another room to change out of his suit. He emerges wearing a simple ensemble of underwear consisting of an undershirt (sleeveless or not) and a pair of suteteko — which can best be...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 17, 2012

Chindonya

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

'Big Miracle (Japanese title: Daremo ga Kujira wo Aishiteru)'

Can a relationship expert also be an environmentalist? The answer is yes, if he's director/writer Ken Kwapis, who has done an unlikely hopscotch jump from the chuckle-inducing love story "He's Just Not That Into You" in 2009, to an outright saving-the-whales vehicle three years later. "Big Miracle" is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2012

Hitoshi Matsumoto gets big laughs in Japan but the comedian wants more

Comics who direct films may start by making audiences laugh, but if they are at all successful they typically turn serious. The classic example is Charlie Chaplin, who went from slapstick two-reelers to speechifying against totalitarianism in "The Great Dictator."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 12, 2012

Ukraine and Japan's radioactive bond

Bedecked in an odd yellow protective suit and wandering through a ruined landscape, the figure could be a member of the first landing party of an invading alien army. And yet, to the Ukrainian audience at the current Kiev Biennale, the scene is immediately recognizable, for it comes from their own recent...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Jul 11, 2012

Mizuno confident Tokyo has what it takes to host 2020 Olympic Games

Persuasion is a powerful tool, especially when the stakes are high.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 8, 2012

Attitudes hardening toward the welfare state

Last March, the number of individuals receiving seikatsu hogo (financial assistance from the government) exceeded 2.1 million people, the first time the record had been surpassed since 1951. Payouts this year are likely to exceed ¥3.7 trillion.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2012

Japanese geek cool

OTAKU SPACES, by Patrick W. Galbraith. Chin Music Press, 2012, 240 pp., $20.00 (paperback)
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 8, 2012

Naoshima: art colony risen beautifully from ruination

Packing his trademark black Walther PPK 7.65 mm automatic, a small pistol with a mighty punch, agent 007 set foot on the island of Naoshima just one day after escaping the clutches of a powerful sociopath and his henchman.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 8, 2012

The sorry state of affairs in Japan is enough to turn WGs into FGs

Many years ago I coined a phrase — "Frozen Gaijin" — to describe a particular kind of foreigner living in Japan.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jul 7, 2012

Handling of Chiba's departure latest bogey by league incompetents

The Chiba Jets' recent defection announcement from the bj-league to play in the re-branded JBL in 2013-14 triggered two reactions. And the first one is shared by most people in Japan's basketball community.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 4, 2012

On July 4, recalling liberation from mass murder

July 4 is a day of mixed emotions for me as a Rwandan-American. Not only is it Independence Day in this country, but it also is Liberation Day in Rwanda — a time to remember being liberated from the abyss of mass murder and the conclusion of 100 days of mourning for the more than 1 million innocent...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 3, 2012

The curious case of the eroding eikaiwa salary

Now fraught with job insecurity and low pay, there was a time when the work was steady and salaries were high for those who taught English in Japan.
LIFE
Jul 1, 2012

Disabled women speak out on discrimination

Being a woman in Japan often comes with a variety of challenges, but when you are a woman with disabilities here, the scale of hardships you must endure can be overwhelming.
EDITORIALS
Jul 1, 2012

Asia richer than ever — or is it?

Asian millionaires have surpassed North American millionaires for the first time ever, according to a study by Capgemini consultancy and the Royal Bank of Canada. The Asia-Pacific region now has 3.37 million so-called high-net-worth individuals, calculated in terms of the number of people with over $1...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past