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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 10, 2010

Hitachi recycling scarce rare earths

It takes two Hitachi Ltd. workers eight minutes to slice open the metal casing of the used air conditioner compressor. The prize inside: four wafer-thin magnets containing about 30 grams of rare earth metals.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2010

The Chinese challenge

NEW YORK — So far, discussions about whether China should revalue its currency, the renminbi, have focused almost exclusively on the impact of the currency's exchange rate on China's trade balance. But what would an appreciation of the renminbi do to China's inward and outward foreign direct investment...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 8, 2010

'Father of the Internet in Japan' predicts the future of networked devices and tells us why Japan must deregulate online healthcare

In 1990, Jun Murai, at the time an associate professor at Keio University in Tokyo, made a prediction in an article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. When asked what the future of computer systems would look like, he described a world where, on one level there would be a network, on a second level computers...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 30, 2010

Flu prevention advice nothing to sneeze at

As winter sets in, hospitals are calling for people to get flu shots.
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 28, 2010

The Rita Taketsuru Fan Club

In January 2001, I was riding a single-car train through Hokkaido ski-country when a blizzard swept in without warning and stopped us dead on our tracks. It was 11 a.m. but the snow clotted the windows dark and the wind rocked us so hard it felt as if we would tip over.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 28, 2010

Veering off the path of mutually assured destruction

As individuals, we usually recognize when we're heading off in the wrong direction and then have the good sense to get ourselves back on the right track.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2010

For a fairer, more unwieldy Security Council

UNITED NATIONS — Reform and redesign of the U.N. Security Council has long been on the diplomatic drawing boards. Few countries will argue against the necessity for that, but most balk at the specific details.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2010

Loosening ties to the kitchen sink

One of the reasons the Germans lost WWII, it has been argued, was because they failed to mobilize their female labor force to the same degree as their enemies. This had much to do with a "Kinder, Kuche, Kirche" (children, kitchen, church) mentality that consigned women to a world of old-fashioned domestic...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2010

Suu Kyi: free to do what?

HONG KONG — Aung San Suu Kyi regained her freedom last weekend, but walked into a "free" life that is still misgoverned by one of the most repressive and stupid regimes in the world, which only days before had thumbed its nose at its own people by conducting fake elections.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2010

Overvalued club debate

HONG KONG — American domination of the world economy was challenged last week at the Group of 20 summit in Seoul much the same way that Barack Obama's Democrats were mauled in this month's U.S. congressional elections, which the president termed a "shellacking."
COMMENTARY
Nov 16, 2010

Japan's narrowing lead

For quite some time now the mass media has been reporting pessimistic views of Japan's future. March 1991 marked the end of an economic bubble and the start of economic stagnation. From then until 2009, Japan's economy grew by an average 0.8 percent per year, an extremely low figure compared with other...
BUSINESS / ASEAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Nov 16, 2010

Japan urged to cope with changing landscape in Asia

Japan needs to come to terms with its declining influence in Asia and readjust its strategy toward Southeast Asia, where its once-dominant position has been replaced by rising China, veteran journalists from the region said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 14, 2010

Brazil spikers edge Japan in sensational semifinal

In one of the greatest matches in volleyball history, Brazil rallied from two sets down to outlast Japan 3-2 (22-25, 33-35, 25-22, 25-22 and 15-11) in a 2-hour, 20-minute marathon semifinal on Saturday in the 2010 FIVB Women's World Volleyball Championship at Yoyogi National Gymnasium.
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2010

U.S. commerce chief praises TPP interest

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke welcomed Japan's decision Wednesday to launch talks with other countries to study a trans-Pacific free-trade agreement.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2010

Bending over to humiliate Tokyo

HONG KONG — Is Beijing deliberately trying to intimidate and humiliate Japan and Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, or are the Japanese merely collateral damage in China's wider ambitions to assert the political muscle of its new global economic aspirations?
CULTURE / Music
Nov 5, 2010

Japan Music Week sets lofty goals for the live scene

With plans for a weeklong series of shows featuring 500 artists from 40 countries performing in 50 venues — and a target of 20,000 attendees — it's clear from the get-go that Jon Lynch has ambitious plans for Japan Music Week. But there are still moments when he catches you out.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2010

U.S. hurts itself sitting on South Korea FTA

WASHINGTON — How have the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress responded to the twin challenges of continued high unemployment and China's displacing America as the No. 1 trading partner with leading East Asian states? By retreating economically from Asia.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 2, 2010

Toilets: Japan power behind throne

Japan, the state-of-the-art high-tech powerhouse that gave the world manga and sushi, has also achieved prowess in a more fundamental feature of daily life: the toilet.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 31, 2010

Okinawan garden majesty

The world's first gardens may well have been made of coral, natural clusters of underwater beauty that could be glimpsed through the transparent water. Perfectly tone-coordinated, balanced and formed, they were refined by nature to a degree that may have suggested the divine.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 30, 2010

Di Matteo's West Brom winning friends in top flight

LONDON — With a quarter of the Premier League campaign gone there can be little doubt about the team of the season so far — West Bromwich Albion.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2010

China's fair-weather friends in Washington

MUNICH — Because China has pegged its undervalued currency, the renminbi, to the dollar, every weakening of the dollar in the wake of America's financial crisis has also meant a weakening of the renminbi vis-a-vis other world currencies. But is China really to blame for the eruption of a global currency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010

First-time director takes on Murakami

Many filmmakers say the difficulties of adapting a best-selling novel to the screen can be daunting. How about the challenge of adapting a story by a foreign best-selling author ("All God's Children Can Dance" by Haruki Murakami) from a country one had never visited (Japan) and to choose the project...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 19, 2010

Study abroad key to Japan's future

The lack of student interest in studying abroad is casting a shadow over the future of this quickly graying nation, according to a noted German business professor.
EDITORIALS
Oct 18, 2010

Measure of a healthy planet

Since their appearance on Earth, humans have developed by using plants and animals for food, clothing, residences, medicines and other purposes. Ecosystems are the basis of human existence. This basic fact does not change no matter how much industrial civilizations may progress. An important measure...
COMMENTARY
Oct 17, 2010

Time to let the neighbors deal with the North Korean problem

PARIS — North Korea has officially unveiled the youngest son and heir apparent of "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il. Yet again the impoverished dictatorship has captured the world's attention. But the United States should leave the problem of dealing with Pyongyang to the North's neighbors. The so-called Democratic...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 17, 2010

Tireless work ethic earned Nomo respect in majors

Third in a four-part series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2010

'Cheri (Watashi no Kawaii Hito Cheri)'

"After 40, a woman doesn't need a lover so much as a good PR agent." That would be a great quote for the mythos surrounding Cleopatra, the global metaphor for ageless beauty of the past three millenniums. Besides her hefty cache of personal charms, she knew the value of self-promotion — you can't just...

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear