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COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2008

Birth of a massacre myth

With the Beijing Olympics looming we see more attempts to remind the world about the alleged June 4, 1989, massacre of democracy-seeking students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2008

Toning down the convenience

In an attempt to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, some local governments are planning to ask convenience stores to rethink their round-the-clock operations. If fully implemented, fewer business hours would have a great impact on people's lifestyles. As a first step, though, it would be necessary...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jul 20, 2008

Rethinking the tiniest class of car

They are Japanese cultural icons, easily recognizable by their diminutive size and yellow license plates. But unlike their even smaller anime cousins, such as Pokemon, kei-jidosha (subcompact cars) have remained a completely domestic phenomenon.
EDITORIALS
Jul 19, 2008

Ensuring accuracy in food labels

A government plan to enact a new law in or after fiscal 2009 to establish the traceability of all food products is timely and appropriate. People's trust in food labels, already undermined by previous incidents, was further shaken by a recent scandal in which Chinese eels were falsely labeled as domestic...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 19, 2008

My Life as a Gaijin, Kimono Reincarnate

My Life as a Gaijin and Kimono Reincarnate are two different blogs written by Melanie Gray Augustin. The former centers around the experiences of an Australian native living and teaching English in a foreign land, while the latter offers a taste of her artistic interests and entrepreneurial efforts...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 18, 2008

Can iPhone infiltrate Japan's mobile tribes?

Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn't about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jul 15, 2008

Vivienne Westwood, Ebi-chan in Maquillage and more

The latest Vivienne Westwood exhibition rolls into Tokyo this week. After the acclaimed "Vivienne Westwood: 35 Years in Fashion" held at the Mori Arts Center in 2005, this show includes one of the largest fashion books ever published, and is sure to be an instant hit with Westwood's huge Japanese fan...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 15, 2008

Famed electronics hub still sparks the curious, bizarre

Tokyo's Akihabara district draws throngs not only with its hundreds of electronics shops but also because it is the mecca for "otaku" computer geeks, and fans of "manga" and "anime" pop culture.
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2008

Cigarettes, lies and impressionable film fans

MADRAS, India — Humphrey Bogart used to seduce women through his smoke rings. In a movie like "Casablanca," much of this Hollywood star's playboy persona came from the cigarette he held between his fingers. That the tobacco stick finally finished him is something that all his fans, especially female,...
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2008

Real cost of bottled water

Since the Group of Eight talks produced some agreement on the environment, Japanese can at least take time to reconsider their lifestyles. Recently, one of the hottest environmental issues abroad is bottled water. Not only does bottled water exact a heavy toll on the planet in energy and materials, it...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 13, 2008

Self-praise abounds in the pages of wheeler-dealers' own obituaries

Japanese politicians are known for their perseverance and ingenuity, and the Diet may well be the last place in the country still offering lifetime employment.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2008

Market for mobile 'manga' taking off

A wave of digital and mobile phone technology is sweeping through the Japanese publishing industry as the market for electronic publishing continues to take off.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2008

Japan caves to gadget makers on 'iPod tax'

Japan will stop pushing for legislation to charge royalties on the sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, giving in to opposition from electronics makers, officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2008

Skymark to hike prices due to jet fuel costs

Skymark Airlines Inc. plans to raise ticket prices for at least the second time in three months as it tries to cover fuel costs that have jumped 40 percent this business year.
BUSINESS
Jul 9, 2008

Kuidaore mascot generates ¥900 million before shutdown

The popularity of the mannequin minstrel Kuidaore Taro, mascot of an eatery in Osaka's Minami district, has generated ¥900 million in economic stimulus in the area since the circa-1950 restaurant's closure was announced in April, according to a university study.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2008

Cardboard coffins boast eco-merit

As more consumers pursue environmentally friendly lives, businesses are introducing products and services catering to those quests.
BUSINESS
Jul 8, 2008

NEC buys Hungarian wireless firm

NEC Corp. said Monday it has bought Hungarian communications-engineering company Linecom Kft. to expand operations in Eastern Europe.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jul 6, 2008

Nissan stages own 'Olympics' to get ahead in hard times

Imagine you are a marketing mogul at one of Japan's big carmakers. Your job is to get the world's motoring press driving your cars, generate international exposure and spread the word about your company's products. And right now car sales are plummeting in many countries as rising oil prices hit consumers...
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT SPECIAL: JAPANESE ECONOMY
Jul 6, 2008

Toyako 2008: lessons from Japan

In 1936, when Keynes wrote the "General Theory," the world's key economic problem was unemployment. There were too many people and not enough jobs.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2008

Yet another food scandal

The agriculture and fishery ministry has found that an Osaka-based firm shipped 2.05 million Chinese grilled eels after labeling them as domestically produced. The firm, Uohide, says it wanted to clear Chinese eel inventories, the sales of which had had plummeted in the wake of food poisoning incidents...
BUSINESS
Jul 4, 2008

FSA slaps 10 insurers over 'nonpayments'

The Financial Services Agency slapped 10 life insurers, including two foreign ones, with business improvement orders Thursday saying their internal controls are insufficient to prevent them from failing to pay benefits to policyholders.

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