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EDITORIALS
May 11, 2012

Long live the crested ibis

Four crested ibises have hatched from eggs laid by two breeding pairs of the endangered birds on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture (three hatchlings to one pair and one to the other pair). They are the first to be born in the wild since 1976. The efforts to return the species to the wild will serve as...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 8, 2012

Efforts to save Japanese crested ibis take flight

Japanese spirits were uplifted recently by the news that three "toki," or Japanese crested ibis, chicks were hatched in the wild for the first time in 36 years, the culmination of a ¥300 million project that was started in 1999 to breed the endangered wading birds outside captivity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Mar 29, 2012

A tale of two paths to indie success

Tokyo postpunk quartet Otori is an archetypal product of the city's underground live-music scene. The band's sets feature a machine-gun rattle of drums, slashes of guitar that explode in fierce climaxes, and bursts of scattershot vocals that teeter on the brink of hysteria — the kind of music that...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 13, 2012

New Zealander loses legal fight over crippling med addiction

When Wayne Douglas arrived home in New Zealand from Japan in early 2001, his own mother didn't recognize him at the airport.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2012

Government to pay debris disposal costs

The environment minister said Monday that financial support will be given to any local government that accepts and disposes of debris from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures generated by last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
COMMENTARY
Jan 21, 2012

Bring the world closer to Japan

Once the Cold War was over, globalism was widely expected to expand but has since lost its momentum due to the credit crunch stemming from the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and the ensuing economic recession around the world. As a result, the World Trade Organization gave up in December on concluding...
JAPAN
Jan 7, 2012

Nuke regulators get teeth via bills

The government wants to legally compel nuclear plant operators to take every measure possible to prevent a crisis like the one that occurred at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 power plant and follow the latest safety steps when reactor standards are changed, Environment Minister Goshi Hosono...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 4, 2011

Tenten Hosokawa: Drawing the blues away

In the last few decades, clinical depression in Japan has emerged from its longstanding obscurity shrouded in shame and guilt to becoming far more openly recognized as a national disease.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Nov 21, 2011

Primer for decontamination

The potentially lucrative business of decontaminating areas of radioactive substances released from Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station may well go to companies handpicked by a government organization that has long played a leading role in promoting the construction of nuclear...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2011

Eight prefectures eyed for radioactive dumps

The Environment Ministry has revealed a controversial plan to build temporary storage facilities for soil contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in eight prefectures in the Tohoku and Kanto regions.
Reader Mail
Aug 25, 2011

Scientific sources and some math

Some additional information needs to be added to the Aug. 17 Japan Times editorial, "Ray of light amid the nuclear gloom."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 9, 2011

Going beyond indefensible national interests

Humanity's main concerns today are not so much concrete evils as indeterminate threats. We are not worried by visible dangers, but by vague ones that could strike when least expected — and against which we are insufficiently protected. There are specific, identifiable dangers, but what worries us most...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2011

Next nuclear watchdog needs teeth: Hosono

Goshi Hosono, state minister in charge of preventing further atomic power plant accidents, revealed Friday a proposal to fold nuclear-related functions now scattered among different ministries into a new authority.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 12, 2011

Youth said to need voice, opinions

Lena Lindahl has for the past two decades produced environment-related events in Japan in an effort to apply her home country Sweden's notion of sustainable society here. And she believes the key is education to encourage children to develop and express opinions about issues that concern their own future....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2011

Radioactive debris dilemma unresolved, growing worse

Second of two parts
EDITORIALS
Jun 3, 2011

Back to basics with Russia

Prime Minister Naoto Kan met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on May 27 in the French seaside resort of Deauville shortly after a two-day Group of Eight summit held there. No substantive development came out of the meeting concerning a long-standing bilateral territorial dispute, except that Mr....
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
May 26, 2011

'Golden age' of kayoukyoku holds lessons for modern J-pop

On April 21, 2011, the actress and singer Yoshiko Tanaka, aka Sue from 1970s idol group the Candies, died after a relapse of the cancer that she had been living with for 20 years. A tragedy, at the relatively young age of 55, and one that comes during a period of deep soul-searching for the Japanese...
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2011

Electricity restored at reactor No. 2

Tokyo Electric Power Co. restored electricity to the power center of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant's No. 2 reactor Sunday afternoon and will attempt to turn on its cooling system and other safety equipment to get the upper hand on the nuclear crisis.
COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2011

Building a happy society means junking GDP myth

The mass media in Japan have played up the news of China's gross domestic product exceeding, in U.S. dollar terms, Japan's to become the second largest economy in the world after the United States.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami