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Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 25, 2013

Top billings of 2013

Although all Japan's 50 reactors have been shut down since September, cleaning up in the wake of the March 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is making very slow progress and tens of thousands of people still live in temporary accommodation or are internally displaced. In addition,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / EVERYMAN EATS
Dec 19, 2013

A year of pancakes, donuts, flying fish

Japan has reached peak donut.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2013

Pollution rife on Okinawa's U.S.-returned base land

When the last U.S. service members moved out of the Nishi-Futenma housing area at Camp Foster, in 2006, the land was slated to return to civilian use as part of ongoing attempts by Tokyo and Washington to reduce the military burden in Okinawa — host to more than 70 percent of American bases in Japan....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2013

U.S. sailor's rape victim wins case

A woman raped by an American serviceman near the U.S. Navy base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2002 wins a landmark judgment against her attacker.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Nov 18, 2013

Wife fights decades-long battle to free Shibuya riot leader Hoshino

Fumiaki Hoshino has spent nearly 40 years behind bars for a murder he maintains he did not commit and due to a conviction he and his supporters believe was politically motivated.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 28, 2013

Exposing IAEA to a dose of reality

Contrasting the International Atomic Energy Agency's findings with the reality in Fukushima, one is left wondering whether the IAEA mission got lost in a Potemkin village during their trip.
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2013

No. 1 water woes laid to Tepco's ineptitude

Two and a half years after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant experienced its three reactor-core meltdowns, the effort to clean up what remains of the complex is turning into another kind of disaster.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 10, 2013

Abe under pressure from his party to protect 'sacred five'

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing severe resistance from his ruling Liberal Democratic Party on plans to potentially scrap import tariffs on some of Japan's "sacred five" agricultural products.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 28, 2013

Camera artist casts new light on Jomon millennia

The Jomon Period of Japanese history is so shrouded in the mists of time that any bid to fathom its secrets stretches even the usual bounds of prehistoric archeology. Yet as amateurs and experts alike have continued unearthing examples of Jomon pottery and stone tools for more than a century, the pieces of the puzzle are gradually coming together.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 12, 2013

Long-term imports still rare in ever-changing league

With each passing season, perpetual change on team rosters means dozens of foreign players come and go. And it's become quite rare for foreign players to spend a large chunk of their careers in the bj-league.
Japan Times
OLYMPICS
Sep 8, 2013

What others are saying about Tokyo's winning Olympic bid

Whenever it rolls around, the Olympic bid story will travel to the front pages of the world's media. Here are a few highlights from the rivers of keystrokes given to the topic of the 2020 Olympic host.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 16, 2013

Some words of self-introduction

Ask what's good about life in Japan and answers always vary.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 3, 2013

Bass still standard by which foreign players measured

Over the years I've been asked, "Who is the No. 1 foreigner to have played in Japanese baseball?"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Jul 2, 2013

The LDP constitution, article by article: a preview of things to come?

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for constitutional change. Yet he is playing the political huckster by proposing to first only fiddle with the amendment procedure in Article 96, lowering the threshold for the process to move forward from the approval of two-thirds of both houses of the Diet, as...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 26, 2013

Is it safe? Ruling party pushes nuclear village agenda

In July 2011, then Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered stress tests on all Japan's 50 nuclear reactors to assess their safety. By May 2012, they were all idled and for the first time in 40 years the nation was not generating a single kWh from nuclear energy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Mar 10, 2013

Providing lessons on nuclear policy

FALLOUT FROM FUKUSHIMA, by Richard Broinowski. Scribe Publications, 2012, 273 pp., A$27.95 (paperback)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 21, 2013

Redefining conventions of the play

Without doubt, Takahiro Fujita is the most prominent newcomer in the world of Japanese contemporary theater. To a considerable extent that's because the 27-year-old playwright/director has an unusual trademark style — to create works that often have the same lyrical phrases and series of movements...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Nanjing remembers; disputes fester

Young Chinese marking the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre are baptized in battles over war memory that shape bilateral relations.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 4, 2013

Eight seasons from Slovakia

Opening 2013 on a cultured note, the Slovak Chamber Orchestra (SCO) tours Japan from Jan. 5 through Jan. 18.
CULTURE / Music
Dec 20, 2012

Tokyo Girls' Style to perform first solo gig at legendary Budokan, but first — homework

The members of Tokyo Girls' Style have a lot to juggle in the next couple of months. This Saturday, the five-member pop group will perform a solo show at Japan's storied Budokan arena — a huge milestone for any musical outfit here. About a month later, their third album "Yakusoku" ("Promise") will...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Dec 3, 2012

Nippon Mirai pledges 2022 atomic phaseout, tax freeze

Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada on Sunday unveiled her new party's hastily compiled policy platform for the Dec. 16 general election, calling for the elimination of nuclear power by 2022 and freezing the government's plan to raise the sales tax.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 30, 2012

Nippon Ishin qualifies nuclear phaseout goal

Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), the "third force" emerging as a serious challenger to the political status quo, unveiled a watered-down version of its election platform Thursday devoid of a definitive road map for phasing out nuclear power.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2012
Nov 28, 2012

DPJ platform: TPP, end of reactors

The Democratic Party of Japan unveiled on Tuesday its policy platform for the Dec. 16 Lower House election, vowing to end use of nuclear power by the 2030s and promote participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade accord.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 16, 2012

Disaster looms large for artist 'genius' Makoto Aida

What to make of Makoto Aida? One day, he's filling a giant blender with thousands of naked young girls and whirring them into a bloody concoction. The next he's piling up dead salarymen into a great mountain — nay, several great mountains, which recede majestically into the foggy distance.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 14, 2012

Consumers batten down their wallets

Consumers are closing their wallets as the economy's outlook darkens, making it harder for Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to stave off the nation's third recession in four years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2012

Madonna finds kindred spirit in Wallis Simpson

"At dinners and parties," Madonna recalls, "I found that whenever I brought up the topic of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, it was like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the conversation." Of course, the same story could be told about the speaker herself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Sep 22, 2012

Filipino filmmaker-writer captures the stories of Asians on the fringe

Rey Ventura's prose startles with the subtle force of cinematic images: From the "rustling leaves" that signal the return of the rebel forces to the Aeta hill tribes in the Philippines to the "standing men" or day laborers populating the alleyways of the Kotobukicho district of Yokohama. As both filmmaker...
Japan Times
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 19, 2012

Taking a look back at the spectacular London Games

Before boarding the plane on Wednesday to return to Japan, here are items I scribbled down on paper from the Olympics extravaganza of the past few weeks, days that will always remain in my memory.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 17, 2012

The art of making monsters

Good news for monster fans: Not one, not two, but three separate tokusatsu exhibitions are stomping their way through downtown Tokyo as you read these words.

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