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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 22, 2009

Shiftless apathy to the victims makes all Japanese guilty for the past

"When we speak of guilt about the past, we are not thinking about individuals, or even organizations, but rather a guilt that infects the entire generation that lives through an era — and in a sense the era itself.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 22, 2009

Shiftless apathy to the victims makes all Japanese guilty for the past

"When we speak of guilt about the past, we are not thinking about individuals, or even organizations, but rather a guilt that infects the entire generation that lives through an era — and in a sense the era itself.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Feb 21, 2009

Tangling over chopsticks

"You know what we should do?" I tell my wife over lunch. "Find a way to insert some Chapstick onto the end of a chopstick. We could call it the "Chapchop-stick" and make millions."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 21, 2009

Driving in Japan is not for the gullible

It was Sunday. We were driving. But this was no Sunday drive.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2009

Tokyo indeed is photogenic

Regarding the Feb. 13 article "Light moments in a drab metropolis": As a photographer who photographs not just the people of the city of Tokyo, but also the city itself, I must take issue with writer Marius Gombrich's suggestion that Tokyo is the most unphotogenic of cities.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Feb 19, 2009

Tome ishi

Dear Alice, Recently I toured a beautiful traditional garden in Kyoto with a Japanese friend. At a fork in the path, I was about to turn to the right when my friend stopped me and said we were not supposed to go that way. I did as she said, but couldn't understand how she knew. She'd never been there...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Feb 19, 2009

Time for bj-league to take stock, make necessary changes

Baseball and soccer are well-established professional sports in Japan. And now it's time for the bj-league, Japan's first professional basketball league, to take necessary steps to earn its place as an established, respected league.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 18, 2009

Stunned Australia starts searching for answers

SYDNEY — The worst natural disaster in Australian history has killed at least 200 people, destroyed 7,000 houses and a dozen villages, and left a nation agonizing over the question — why did we let this happen?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 17, 2009

What do you think about the laws on smoking in Japan?

COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Feb 15, 2009

Keio's man ahead of his time

Next time you come by a ¥10,000 bill, take a look at the face of Yukichi Fukuzawa (1835-1901) that appears on the front, for he was a most remarkable man.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 15, 2009

Eco-sweepers get to push their dust in the ancient way

In the future, when some oddly inclined academic sits down to pen the definitive history of the broom in Japan, several key years will stand out like piles of dust littering the corridors of time. One of them could be 2009.
JAPAN
Feb 14, 2009

Trial interpreters urge certification

As the courts prepare to let citizens join with judges in trying accused criminals, legal experts are calling for improving the training and status of court interpreters.
COMMENTARY
Feb 14, 2009

When it's wrong to protect

LONDON — A government's first duty is to protect its citizens. So say all the authorities and experts. It sounds simple, but in practice and in real life it is a very complex and problematic matter.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 13, 2009

Towa Tei wallows in optimism for art's sake

"In Tokyo, there is too much information," says famed Japanese producer and DJ Towa Tei. "Even if you don't want to listen to music, you are raped into listening to something you don't like at the convenience store. So I try to go somewhere quiet and listen whenever I want to!"
EDITORIALS
Feb 13, 2009

Beware pledges of sweet returns

The police have arrested the chairman of L&G K.K., a Tokyo-based bedding supplier, and 21 other people on suspicion of defrauding investors through a sham investment scheme. The specific charge that led to the arrests alleges that the suspects collected about ¥118 million from six people between July...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 8, 2009

Tele-fraud documentary, urban myth sleuths, eco-institute tour

Remittance fraud, where con artists call people on the phone and fool them into transferring money through automatic teller machines, has become a hot topic. Despite warnings from police and banks, people still fall victim to such swindles.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 8, 2009

Burmese junta fuels influx

In 2008 there was a sharp spike in the number of people seeking asylum in Japan, and although only 6 percent of those processed were recognized by the government as refugees, they totalled 57 compared with 41 the year before.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 8, 2009

Anxiety haunts a Burmese family left in official limbo

"All my Burmese friends are getting humanitarian visas, but not me," laments Hla Aye Maung, who has lived in Japan for the past 12 years.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 8, 2009

City ecology explains Japan's low birthrate

Last week, a 33-year-old woman in California made headlines around the world when she gave birth to eight babies. She had been on fertility treatment and, it emerged, already had six children.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 8, 2009

Japan charts a new course on refugees

Beginning in 2010, Japan will inaugurate a three-year pilot program to accept 30 refugees a year from camps nestled along the remote border between Thailand and Burma.
BASKETBALL / INSIDE LOOK
Feb 7, 2009

Playing in Ivy League presents challenges

NEW YORK — Team update: The senior shooting guard helped the Columbia University men's basketball team record back-to-back home victories over Yale and Brown last week. It was the Lions' first sweep over those schools since 2004.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Feb 7, 2009

Long-shot meeting, longtime love

After training under a dyer for six months in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, art student Satoko Yamagishi decided she needed a break. In October 1998 she went to Montreal, where she met Philippe Lavoie, a Canadian computer chip designer studying Japanese.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 3, 2009

Bank transfer fraudsters have that grift of gab

Subway posters, newspaper ads, TV commercials and automatic teller machines nationwide bear warnings against "furikome sagi" — remittance fraud — a scourge that bilks the vulnerable out of billions of yen every year.
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2009

For a stronger safety net

As economic conditions worsen and an increasing number of workers, especially irregularly employed workers, lose their jobs, it is becoming urgent that the government strengthen the social safety net.

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