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Japan Times
JAPAN / TOHOKU TRAPPED IN TIME
Mar 9, 2013

NRA gets strict, must prove credibility

Japan's nuclear regulator has had a major revamp in the two years since lax safety standards contributed to the catastrophic nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, discrediting it in the eyes of the public.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Feb 26, 2013

Tokyo: What do you make of the idea of having a romantic relationship with a Western woman/Japanese man?

At first, I thought I preferred Japanese women based on looks, but now I am actually married to an American woman. I was attracted to her as a whole — her personality as well as her looks.
LIFE
Feb 24, 2013

An inclined view: The life and work of Donald Richie

It was with a heavy heart that I heard from Donald Richie's longtime friend and editor Leza Lowitz that he had passed away on the morning of Tuesday, this week. He was 88.
Reader Mail
Feb 21, 2013

Cut the irrelevant gender data

Feminists of all stripes are having a field day with the Minami Minegishi scandal, but the Feb. 17 editorial, "AKB48 and sexual politics," is the second Japan Times editorial to cite irrelevant data in the course of analyzing the issue.
Reader Mail
Feb 17, 2013

Shortsighted plan for languages

The Jan. 30 Kyodo article "U.K. plan to limit Japanese worries language teachers" reports on a plan to minimize the teaching of Japanese in U.K. schools. As a result, Japanese may disappear from GCSE exams (for 16-year-olds) by September 2014.
EDITORIALS
Feb 17, 2013

AKB48 and sexual politics

The tearful video from a 20-year-old female pop group member who 'broke the rules' was a disturbing reminder of Japan's troubling gender issues.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EMBASSY AVENUE
Jan 25, 2013

Scholar receives Serbian honor

The government of the Republic of Serbia awarded the Order of the Serbian Flag, Third Class to Shigeo Kurihara, a professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo, for his contributions to developing closer and deeper ties between Japan and Serbia, at a decoration ceremony held at the Serbian Embassy in...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 19, 2013

Zen and the cross-cultural art of tree-climbing

In the upstairs meeting room of a camping lodge in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, two women and about 20 men walked slowly and intently in circles one rainy day last November. At the front of the room, a weathered and wiry Englishman intoned the sort of instructions a yoga aficionado would find familiar....
CULTURE / Books
Jan 13, 2013

Exploring the past to makes sense of Meiji modernity

PILGRIMAGES TO THE ANCIENT TEMPLES IN NARA, by Tetsuro Watsuji, translated by Hiroshi Nara. Merwin Asia, 2012, 252 pp., $35.00 (paperback) In the Japanese original, "Koji Junrei" (1919), this book is a classic, much imitated and still quite widely read, although it has also been sometimes controversial....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2013

Japan's steely resolve suggests nationalism based on fear

More than half a century ago I had dinner in Paris with Arimasa Mori, the grandson of the Meiji Era education minister Arinori Mori, who had set the prewar pattern for a Westernized but intensely patriotic education. The Mori family hailed from Kagoshima, and the part that Arinori had played in the Meiji...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 30, 2012

Rightwing minister seeks to radically revamp education system

Conservative education minister Hakubun Shimomura said he wants to fundamentally change Japan's postwar school system to teach children about the nation's historical traditions and culture.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 29, 2012

Textile scholar advocates sustainable fashion

Yoshiko Wada, textile artist and scholar, believes the word "sustainable" in foods and fashion shares the same philosophical taste. "Both are a holistic approach, about health, environment, and the community that supports it. We must recapture and rethink how we are going to sustain our Earth and society,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / OUR MAN IN TOKYO
Dec 25, 2012

Finns eagerly embracing things Japanese: envoy

Santa Claus, Moomin, contemporary design and saunas may be the things that come to mind when Japanese think of Finland. What may be less widely known is that the two countries have been strengthening cultural and educational ties in recent years.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 24, 2012

Ultimate taboo for military spouses: infidelity

Military spouses talk about almost everything. In running groups, prayer groups, writing groups, many spouses say they lean on one another heavily while their partners are overseas on yet another deployment in this decade of war.
JAPAN / IMF-WORLD BANK IN TOKYO
Oct 12, 2012

Project lends helping hand to industry, small brewers

Sake, like Japanese fashion, anime or even sushi, can be an acquired taste. Just like those other cultural exports from Japan, sake comes in a wide variety of different styles and flavors, and while your first taste may not be precisely what you're looking for, it can be rewarding for those who keep...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Oct 2, 2012

Divergent views on Debito; the fate of mixed-nationality kids

Arudou's writing still needed Most of the readers who indignantly criticize the writings of Debito Arudou seem to share the same outlook. Arudou, they say, should shut up and accept the good with the bad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 20, 2012

Code and function in a world of altered reality

Hideki Nakazawa originally studied medicine graduating from the Medical School of Chiba University to work as an ophthalmologist until, in 1990, he decided to work with computer graphics as an illustrator. His experience of art during university and his shift to illustration saw him explore representation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 6, 2012

Soil & "Pimp" Sessions, Jaga Jazzist and Bruut! challenge jazz's conservative image

Grammy Award-winning bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding recently told the Los Angeles Times that one of the problems in bringing jazz to a wider audience was essentially one of image.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 26, 2012

Should the public trust Japan's leaders when the 'big one' hits Tokyo?

No two calamities are alike, yet the needs of victims vary only in scale, not in kind.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 23, 2012

The Khitans: from Mongolic tribe to rulers of an empire

When I visited "The Splendor of the Khitan Dynasty" at the University Art Museum, Tokyo, I got a funny feeling that Japan somehow wanted to preserve good diplomatic relations with this mighty Empire. This makes perfectly good sense given this state's great military strength and strategic position in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2012

Architect Andrew Burns and artist Brook Andrew introduce Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale's new Australia House

"Surely, post 3/11, post Global Financial Crisis, we need to make buildings and spaces that are simple and allow us to remember essential things," says Andrew Burns, the architect behind the new Australia House in Urada, Tokamachi City.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 22, 2012

Shisaku

Shisaku is a homophone meaning essay, a meditation upon a subject, a policy or measures a government takes. A fitting title for analyst Michael Cucek's blog which provides insight and opinion on Japanese politics, with a distinct hint of satire. In the eight years he's been writing the blog, Shisaku...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2012

Sake makes a comeback

Japanese traditional sake had a resurgence in 2011, with drinkers consuming more than in 2010. After hitting a peak in the mid-1970s, consumption gradually fell to a third. Last year, though, saw a return of enthusiasm for sake as a way of supporting Tohoku, a region with three major sake-producing prefectures:...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 17, 2012

Easy does it on Taketomi

Consulting a map of Okinawa, you might be forgiven for thinking that the Yaeyama Islands group comprises fragments of Japan and China that have become loosened and detached. It's an impression confirmed at every turn once you set foot on these remote littorals.
LIFE
May 13, 2012

What awaits Okinawa 40 years after reversion?

On May 15, 1972, Okinawa became a prefecture of Japan once again. Up until then, for 27 years since World War II — when the islands endured some of the most intense fighting of the entire brutal conflict — Okinawa had been under U.S. military administration, so reversion to Japanese rule should have...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 6, 2012

Richard Collasse: Sold on brand Japan

In Tokyo's high-end Ginza district, the Chanel Building stands out among the luxury fashion boutiques and global brands' emporiums thanks to its shining black-glass exterior.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 4, 2012

Sintok festival brings Singapore's growing movie scene to Tokyo

How long does it take to develop a unique national culture? Perhaps the answer can be found in Singapore. The "Lion City" has been independent for just half a century and maybe, judging from the splash the country has made at international film festivals in the last couple of years, its film directors...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 3, 2012

Polish envoy comes to terms with 3/11 via noh

Jadwiga Rodowicz-Czechowska, Poland's ambassador to Japan, says she was utterly heartbroken when she witnessed the catastrophe caused by the earthquake and tsunami that hit Tohoku last March.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear