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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 12, 2011

Go! Team hope to rock Japan in a good way

"People are scaredy-cats, aren't they?" laughs Ian Parton, founder of British cut-and-paste kitsch-pop outfit The Go! Team, when told that many Western bands have canceled their Japan tours in the wake of March's radiation-tinged triple disaster in the Tohoku region.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2011

Two of the top 100

Among the famous artists, magnates and leaders on Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people this year were two lesser-known names from Japan: Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai and Dr. Takeshi Kanno. That a young medical doctor and a small-city mayor could make the list of the most prominent people...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 8, 2011

Hisashi Inoue's great legacy is just the ticket to inspire our best efforts

A beautiful cherry-blossom tree stands right beside the sento (public bath) I religiously go to, and its top branch hangs over an opening in the roof. In early April, petals were falling from the branch down into the water, which comes out of the ground the color of strong coffee.
COMMENTARY
May 5, 2011

The world after bin Laden

Ding, dong, the witch is dead. Osama bin Laden, the author of the 9/11 atrocity in the United States and various lesser terrorist outrages elsewhere, has been killed by American troops in his hideout in northern Pakistan. At last, the world can breathe more easily, but not many people were holding their...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 4, 2011

Group helps kids get through grief

In the aftermath of the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region, victimized children face an increasing need for help in coping with the death of loved ones, according to an American expert.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 3, 2011

It's innovate or die in today's mad mag world

In few countries are the most vital political, economic and cultural activities as geographically concentrated as in Japan. All the main institutions can be found in Tokyo — one can only shudder to think what will happen not only to this city, but to the whole country if and when a massive earthquake...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
May 3, 2011

Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple'

The past two months have been uncomfortable for Japan, and for the country's foreign residents. Non-Japanese (NJ) have been bashed in the media, unreservedly and undeservedly, as deserters in the face of disaster.
LIFE / Digital / Japan Pulse
May 2, 2011

Hacking for a safer world

The mother of invention is alive and well at Tokyo Hackerspace.
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

No time for the DIY approach

The April 17 letter from Daniel Potocki, "Give the foreign experts a chance," struck a chord. If I had the chance to write Prime Minister Naoto Kan and the Japanese government, it would be a rather emotional appeal.
Reader Mail
May 1, 2011

Price of unnecessary convenience

Regarding Stephen Hesse's April 24 article, "After March 11, Japan must reconsider its energy options": It is a shame that only now, because of the Fukushima nuclear power plant problems and the loss of its energy output, that many people are willing to reduce energy usage. We have known for years that...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 1, 2011

It is time to target who calls the shots in Japan when disaster strikes

Why did it take so long for any Japanese Cabinet ministers to make their presence felt on the site of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — and what does this tell us about the decision-making process in Japan?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 1, 2011

Tohoku charity a minefield for Japanese celebrities

One of the worst-kept secrets on television is the location of Dash Village, a remote farm that was built by the boy band Tokio in the late 1990s. It has since been maintained by the quintet as part of a running feature on their Sunday night Nihon TV variety show "Tetsuwan Dash," and in order to discourage...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 29, 2011

Bright set out to lighten spirits

All-female vocal quartet Bright are putting their efforts into Action for Nippon, a charity that works to help kids affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 29, 2011

Logic System sets the mood for Moog

"I think people come to my shows to hear a 'nostalgic' sound, something that they might have otherwise forgotten," says Hideki Matsutake, who has been at the forefront of Japan's electronic music scene since its beginnings.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2011

Thai Airways targets reluctant customers

Japan is the single most important market for Thai Airways International, and despite the recent drop in customers due to the March 11 disasters, the carrier hopes to bring back customers to Japan as early as this summer with various promotional activities, according to executives of the firm who visited...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 27, 2011

Critical thinking crucial in the information age

Ignorance is the root of all evil, according to Plato, who also famously gave us a still-current definition of its opposite: knowledge. For Plato, knowledge is "justified true belief." That definition is worthy of consideration as we reflect on the perils of ignorance in the 21st century.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2011

First openly gay candidate wins in Tokyo ward

Openly gay candidate Taiga Ishikawa won a seat in the Toshima Ward Assembly in Tokyo in Sunday's election, marking a historic first.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2011

Disclosing radiation data

The government on April 21 declared a 20-km, no-entry zone around the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Violators face fines of up to ¥100,000 and detention of up to 30 days.
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2011

25 years after Chernobyl

The world's worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986, marked its 25th anniversary Tuesday amid Japanese anxiety and wavering self-confidence over the March 11 earthquake-tsunami and the resultant nuclear crisis. Power industry people, government leaders, nuclear regulators and nuclear power...
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2011

Worries about new card

From January 2015, the government hopes to introduce a "common number" system under which each individual will be issued an electronic card that will be used for both taxation and social security purposes.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

Mikura: Tokyo's island of natural wonders

Last week, while much of the metropolis continued to reel from aftershocks following the March 11 megaquake, and worries about radiation leaks from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear reactors lurked in most people's minds, there was a part of Tokyo blissfully removed from all that madness.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 24, 2011

Fantasy really is reality in many aspects of Japanese life and culture

People around the world are bewitched by Japanese fantasy. From East, Southeast and South Asia to Europe east and west, the United States and Latin America, it is now mostly anime and manga that draw young people to the study of Japan and the Japanese language.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 24, 2011

A place of refuge for exiles and foreign wayfarers

The 21-sq.-km island of Mikura has a distinctive history remembered and shared well by villagers.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2011

Deeper problem than Fukushima

The April 20 editorial "Nuclear crisis and Japan's image" is off the mark. It mistakes officially voiced opinions for what Europeans, at least, actually begin to see when they look at Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2011

Evacuation zone to be widened

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government on Friday instructed parts of Fukushima Prefecture outside the 20-km no-go zone around the crippled No. 1 nuclear plant to evacuate by the end of May, saying that cumulative radiation levels may pose a health risk to residents.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 23, 2011

Rolling blackouts: The virtue of silence

The rolling blackouts in Tokyo meant interruptions in watching TV, running computers, stereos and electric heaters, not to mention recharging cell phones and electronics.

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