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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Nov 25, 2010

Showa Women's University President Mariko Bando

Mariko Bando, 64, is the president of Showa Women's University in Tokyo. She is also a best-selling author with more than 30 books under her belt, including "The Dignity of a Woman," which has sold over 3 million copies. An advocate of women's rights, Bando is director of the Japan National Committee...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 24, 2010

Japanese open about being part of Sea Shepherd crew

For Kuniko Oyakawa, that cetaceans may be more intelligent than, say, cows, pigs or chickens is not why she opposes whaling — she is against eating any wild creature.
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Nov 21, 2010

Death before dishonor, more rights for Ainu, J.F.K. elected, Swatches hit Japan

100 YEARS AGO
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 21, 2010

Those at the sharp end act out plight of their small firms

An old man storms into an office, looking furious. He spots a younger man in a pale-blue worker's uniform — actually, the new president of a small auto-parts factory in Tokyo's Ota Ward — and confronts him.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 21, 2010

Tossing our leaders to the lions

In Tokugawa days (1603-1867), criticizing the government was a capital offense. Rulers, not only in Japan but the world over, expected to be — and generally were — not only obeyed but revered, sometimes as gods, sometimes as beings only slightly less exalted. "God," wrote the French bishop and political...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Nov 20, 2010

Everyone chime in . . .

Classes start early on our island — 6 a.m. every day, even on Sundays. At least that's what any teacher visiting for the first time would think. This is because there is a "chime" that sounds over the island's PA system at 6 a.m., which lets islanders know that it is time to wake up. The chime happens...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2010

Looking less like a secret

The Metropolitan Police Department and public prosecutors decided Monday not to arrest a Japan Coast Guard member who has allegedly confessed to having leaked video footage onto YouTube of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and two JCG patrol ships off the Senkaku Islands of Okinawa Prefecture....
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2010

Worlds of Flavor conference adds Japan to its menu

Japan's ailing economy may lack the impact it once had on global finance, but there's one area of influence where the country's significance is on the rise: the world of gastronomy. Earlier this month, a team of 39 top-tier Japanese chefs wowed an international audience with dazzling displays of technique...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2010

Kan ducks the rice problem

HONG KONG — Has Prime Minister Naoto Kan finally woken up to the fact that the world is changing rapidly and Japan risks being left behind? In recent days he has spoken of a fresh fleet of "black ships" off the coast of Japan, and has noted nostalgically that he comes from Choshu (now Yamaguchi Prefecture)...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 16, 2010

Consumers should demand diamond clarity

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Diamonds have an image of purity and light. They are given as a pledge of love and worn as a symbol of commitment. Yet diamonds have led to gruesome murders, rapes and amputations.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 14, 2010

When a natural selection can appear to some an offensive choice

One morning in the summer of 1967 I made what was, for me, a momentous decision.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2010

Protesters rally to voice Pacific FTA farm fears

Thousands of people staged a rally Wednesday in central Tokyo to voice their opposition to Japan taking steps to join a U.S.-backed trans-Pacific free-trade agreement, saying it would destroy the farm sector.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2010

Looking back at 'Japan as No. 1'

Since the best-selling book "Japan as Number One" came out in 1979, the country has suffered through a diminished global presence and been beaten out in international business competition, according to experts who gathered to look back and evaluate the intervening decades.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 10, 2010

Six-mat chic: Small spaces suit us just fine

As the minimalism movement gains momentum in the United States, it's probably a good idea to re-examine the concept on our own shores. Minimalism is a Japanese birthright — what Western culture views as monkish habits, Zen aesthetics or the joys of simplicity, the Japanese have pretty much taken for...
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 9, 2010

Pachinko parlors pulling in pensioners

Bored? Need to get out the house but nothing too strenuous? How bout a friendly game of pachinko, gramps?
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 9, 2010

Japan's long love affair with 'matsutake'

When it comes to status — and exorbitant prices — "matsutake" mushrooms may be in the same league as caviar and truffles.
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.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Nov 1, 2010

Annals of Cheap: Pan no mimi

When the recession gives you bread heels, make sweets, doughnuts and pizza crusts.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 31, 2010

Japan's Afghanistan news blackout in the spotlight

Veteran freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka was finally freed last month by kidnappers after five months of captivity in Afghanistan. Though the Japanese media reported the kidnapping when it happened last April, and then Tsuneoka's release on Sept. 6, any details about his confinement or what he was...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 30, 2010

Lifeline to hold charity auction

Tokyo English Life Line, a nonprofit organization that offers multilingual counseling, will hold a charity auction Nov. 5 to raise funds for its activities.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Oct 29, 2010

What's the real cost of quitting?

Smokers who kick the habit are healthy for the economy ... or are they?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2010

Embrace the world, English, too: Sadako Ogata

Although Japan is no longer the world's second-largest economy, many countries expect it to continue its global contributions, one of the nation's most prominent international figures said, urging today's youth to have ambition and rise to the challenge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 29, 2010

Good news for the blues: Tokyo Designers Week

Forget green. Once the only color on the creative minds of the world — from fashion and product design to architecture and packaging — its dominance may soon be usurped.
COMMENTARY
Oct 28, 2010

Should the U.S. be worried as Latin America prospers?

Behind the excitement in the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners buried 623 meters underground for 69 days lies a mystery.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Oct 28, 2010

Ryokan owner Kazushi Sato

Kazushi Sato, 63, is the owner of Tsurunoyu Onsen, a hot-spring ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) in Akita Prefecture. Nestled within beech woods deep in the mountains, Tsurunoyu is surrounded by natural beauty — bears wander freely, feasting on mountain grapes, and edible wild mushrooms grow in enough...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 26, 2010

Foreigners victims, perpetrators of sekuhara

When "Tracy," an American then in her late 20s, started her career in Japan as a JET instructor at a high school in Kagoshima nearly 20 years ago, nothing in her training could have prepared her for what she witnessed.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Oct 26, 2010

Network promotes contact among nikkei worldwide

Some 50 nikkei gathered with foreigners and native Japanese on Oct. 16 and 17 to discuss how to run Nikkei Youth Network, an organization that supports young people of Japanese descent worldwide.

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