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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 14, 2012

Key crisis contact heads for London

As deputy Cabinet secretary for public affairs, Noriyuki Shikata instantly realized his workload would skyrocket when the Great East Japan Earthquake struck, but admits being taken aback by the flood of requests that started pouring in from overseas media.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2012

Psychological imperative of a euro commitment

When Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, publicly proclaimed that the ECB would do "whatever it takes" to ensure the future stability of the euro, the effect of his remarks was immediate and remarkable. Borrowing costs fell dramatically for the governments of Italy and Spain; stock...
EDITORIALS
Aug 13, 2012

Evil that comes with research funds

The special investigation squad of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office on July 31 arrested Mr. Gozo Tsujimoto, a former professor at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Science, for allegedly taking bribes worth some ¥6.2 million from Med Shirotori, a Tokyo-based medical equipment...
LIFE
Aug 12, 2012

Japan's Paralympians overcome adversity by leaps, bounds and innovative design

When Oscar Pistorius made his dramatic debut in the men's 400-meter race in London last Saturday — becoming the first double amputee to compete alongside able-bodied athletes in Olympics history — some people might have wondered if the South African's artificial legs gave him a competitive edge over...
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2012

IAEA only finds light damage at Onagawa

Although the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima No. 1 plant in Fukushima Prefecture, the younger Onagawa plant in neighboring in Miyagi was "remarkably undamaged" by the violent temblor and tsunami and safely shut down, experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency said...
OLYMPICS
Aug 11, 2012

Bolt completes historic sweep with 200 victory

Jamaica had a run for the ages on Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 10, 2012

'Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo (The Kirishima Thing)'

High schools are mercilessly hierarchical societies. At mine in rural Pennsylvania varsity basketball players occupied the summit. (Football players didn't because we didn't have a football team.) For a mere honor student to absent-mindedly sit in the "reserved" seat of one of these titans in the lunch...
JAPAN
Aug 10, 2012

Opposition vote to oust Noda fails

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote Thursday, bringing him one step closer to achieving his goal of doubling the consumption tax.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2012

Hashimoto reeling after students' names leaked

Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) officials were reeling with embarrassment and threatening to file a police complaint this week after a weekly tabloid magazine published the names of the 888 students studying at an academy set up by the local political group and its founder, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto....
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2012

Love and marriage in North Korea

Imagine North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a tuxedo, waiting nervously at the altar (or shrine) of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, and his father, Kim Jong Il. He beholds his future wife's face, anticipating his chance to kiss the bride. Of course, such an event can only be imagined in today's North Korea....
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2012

Wedding gift for the first couple of North Korea

I guess I am a sucker for old-fashioned romance. When I heard about the stunning marriage of Kim Jong Un, the young new leader of North Korea, to the lovely Ri Sol Ju, apparently a professional singer, I hurriedly buried the ideological hatchet and grabbed the latest BRIDES magazine to figure out what...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 7, 2012

NASCAR fan killed by lightning

Lightning strikes at Pocono Raceway after a rain-shortened NASCAR race Sunday killed one fan and injured nine others, one critically, racetrack officials said.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2012

Noda forges on as temperatures rise

Tokyo is in the dead of summer and if anything, things are only getting hotter in the political hub of Nagata-cho.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2012

Obituary: Shunpei Ueyama

Shunpei Ueyama, a philosopher and former president of Kyoto City University of Arts, died of Parkinson's disease at his home in the city of Kyoto last Friday, his family said Monday. He was 91.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2012

Sharp needs Hon Hai ties, if only for Apple

Taiwan billionaire Terry Gou built a manufacturing empire that assembles iPhones and iPads. His Foxconn Technology Group may be key to ensuring Sharp Corp.'s survival and a stable supply of components for Apple Inc.
COMMENTARY
Aug 6, 2012

Fat chance of war over the Arctic's resources

Russian television contacted me the other night asking me to go on a program about the race for Arctic resources. The ice is melting fast, and it was all the usual stuff about how there will be big strategic conflicts over the seabed resources — especially oil and gas — that become accessible when...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 5, 2012

MLB's trade deadline frenzy has yet to take hold among Japanese teams

One of the potential game-changers in Major League Baseball is the annual late-July trade activity of quality players from teams lower in the standings with little or no chance to make the postseason. Every year, these guys are dealt to playoff-contending clubs for young prospects, supposedly stars of...
Reader Mail
Aug 5, 2012

Group needs to confront China

Regarding the front page Aug. 1 article "China flexing more muscle in Pacific": I am not the Philippines' president or a foreign affairs officer, but I think the solution is for small and bullied countries like Vietnam, Brunei, the Philippines, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan to form an association for settling...
Reader Mail
Aug 5, 2012

A sense for health care spending

Not a day passes that I don't hear about the critical situation of Japan's national health insurance system. Mass media are likely to attribute the deterioration of the insurance system's budget only to the graying of society, but there are other serious reasons.
COMMENTARY
Aug 3, 2012

Bullying begins at the top of the U.S. food chain

The huge humpback whale whose friendliness precipitated a surreal seven-year — so far — federal hunt for criminality surely did not feel put upon.

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