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Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2012

Home purchases rise ahead of tax increase

Record low mortgage rates and the prospect of a consumption tax hike that will add the price of a new Toyota Corolla to the cost of an average home spurred Sumiko Morigaki into action.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Aug 27, 2012

Noda's hapless diplomacy

Strange though it may seem, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who heads the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, is seeking support and advice from former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori of the No. 1 opposition Liberal Democratic Party in his bid to restructure Japanese diplomacy in general as well as improve...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 26, 2012

If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?

Watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean from a hotel tucked in among the dry scrub hills of San Diego, I have a chance to reflect on life here in Southern California, on climate changes and on what's in store for future generations.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2012

Another strange tale from east of the river

River Road: a Novel of Six Stories, by Hillel Wright. Printed Matter Press, 2012, 146 pp., $15.00 (hardcover) Writer Hillel Wright's seedbed of ideas, fertilized in the work of American giants like Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe and William Burroughs, also owes something to the English sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock....
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 26, 2012

Material girls: Japan's preteen model boom

AKB48 has reshaped the landscape of youth culture in modern Japan. The pop-idol group's rapid rise to stardom across a wide array of formats has provided the country's children with a fairly straightforward path to commercial success: fame is ultimately achieved by attracting a broad fan base via popular...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 25, 2012

Death with dignity bills heading toward Diet

It was 2 a.m. when Chiaki rushed to the hospital to see her 63-year-old father, who had collapsed from a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 24, 2012

Poorer people passing up cancer screenings

The lower your income, the less likely you'll take advantage of your local cancer screening program.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2012

Preference should go to real, rational women

In the Dominican Republic last month, a pregnant teenager suffering from leukemia had her chemotherapy delayed, because doctors feared that the treatment could terminate her pregnancy and therefore violate the nation's strict anti-abortion law. After consultations between doctors, lawyers, and the girl's...
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2012

Region could drive a global economic revival

Amid concerns about sagging growth in both advanced and developing economies, Japan — which is heavily dependent on Asian demand — may take heart from the region's potential to drive a global revival.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2012

Mr. Putin's butterflies

Alexander Pope's question — "Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?" — is as compelling as ever in the wake of the two-year sentences handed down Friday by a Russian court to three young women convicted of hooliganism.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 21, 2012

Do your research to avoid medical surprises in Japan

Understanding how Japanese medical practice differs from that in your home country can be crucial to avoiding unwelcome surprises next time you or a loved one find yourselves in need of treatment at a local clinic or hospital.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 21, 2012

Japan's hold on Olympic judo slipping

Judo became an Olympic sport in the 1964 Tokyo Games and was dominated by the country of its origin until the 2008 Games in Beijing.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 20, 2012

Yokohama star Ramirez keeps family close to his heart

Alex Ramirez is dressed in his full uniform and standing a few feet in front of the Yokohama BayStars clubhouse, but baseball is the furthest thing from his mind right now.
Reader Mail
Aug 19, 2012

India should not look to NATO

Ramesh Thakur's Aug. 15 article, "India and Pakistan: Come and dream with me," is great. But I think one of the big problems (with Thakur's economic dream for South Asia) is that Israel would like to use India to help it fight future wars against Muslims.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 19, 2012

Yakuza face new battles within and without

The nation's largest underworld syndicate, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, is 97 years old.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 19, 2012

Scholar Tenshin Okakura's seaside pavilion, destroyed in tsunami, witnesses a new dawn

Rokkakudo, a small, six-sided wooden pavilion that overlooks the Pacific Ocean from a low rocky headland in northern Ibaraki Prefecture, is by no means Tenshin Okakura's most important legacy. That honor would go to "The Book of Tea," a now-classic dissertation on traditional Japanese aesthetics that...
JAPAN
Aug 18, 2012

Tokyo seeks ICJ ruling on Takeshima

Tokyo will go all out to persuade Seoul to take a sovereignty row to the International Court of Justice after South Korean President Lee Myung Bak's unprecedented visit to disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, government sources said Friday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2012

"Hubert Robert "

At the age of 21, painter Hubert Robert (1733-1808) left France for Italy, where he spent 11 years working as an artist. He became well known for landscapes that mixed real architecture with the imaginary, and he often brought together unrelated historical structures, such as ancient Greek ruins with...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 16, 2012

Miu Sakamoto "I'm Yours!"

"I'm Yours!" is the third album to come out of the partnership between Japanese pop singer Miu Sakamoto and The Shanghai Restoration Project, an American outfit led by Dave Liang that merges traditional Chinese instruments with contemporary electronic music. They've been handling the production on Sakamoto's...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes