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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 13, 2009

Going where the grass is bluer

It's a story you could write a song about. It's sometime in the 1960s or '70s. A teenager in Tokyo slips a borrowed cassette into a player and is transfixed by what he hears: the sound of guitars, banjos and mandolins; the call of mountains far, far away. He saves his money and flies to the United States,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 12, 2009

Nihon Rikagaku President Yasuhiro Oyama

Yasuhiro Oyama, 76, is the president of Nihon Rikagaku Industry, known not only for being the first chalk-maker to launch dustless chalk in Japan, but for the employees who make its products: 54 out of the company's 74 employees are mentally challenged, with 60 percent of them having an IQ lower than...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 10, 2009

Antiwar groups, Almond and Michi Aoyama

Nuts! Where's Almond? Julie was with friends on a bus passing through Roppongi and saw from the window that the famed Almond coffee shop on the crossing was no more.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2009

Think tank calls for common Asian currency

Japan should take political initiatives to achieve an Asian monetary unification in the 2030s that supplements, if not replaces, the current fragile international economic and financial system, a semigovernmental think tank said in a report released Monday.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2009

Uruma recalls no off-record biased remark

Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Iwao Uruma stressed Monday he does not recall saying the scandal over alleged illicit political donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co. would not implicate lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2009

Mexico's fight against organized crime

The international media have recently placed increased attention on the actions carried out by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to combat organized crime and strengthen the rule of law in Mexico.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2009

BOJ may have to buy more debt: Yamaguchi

The Bank of Japan may need to expand its purchases of corporate debt to prevent a credit shortage from worsening the recession, BOJ Deputy Gov. Hirohide Yamaguchi said.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2009

MSDF Somalia dispatch slammed by opponents at rally

Lawmakers and activists on Thursday slammed the imminent dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to the Gulf of Aden, calling it irrational and a threat to the Constitution.
COMMENTARY
Mar 6, 2009

Human rights in recession

LONDON — "It's the economy, stupid!" declared Bill Clinton during his U.S. presidential election campaign. He was right then as well as now in emphasizing that economic issues are paramount with voters.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2009

Three in Cabinet tied to Nishimatsu

Three members of the Cabinet, including Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai, decided Thursday to return money donated to them by two political groups linked to scandal-tainted Nishimatsu Construction Co., the government's top spokesman said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2009

Calderons hopeful as end game approaches

The clock is ticking for an undocumented Filipino couple in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, who must decide by Monday whether to leave the country with or without their 13-year-old Japan-born daughter.
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2009

Saving our sinking economies

At first glance the grim economic and political situation now confronting Japan sounds remarkably similar to the British scene. There is the same slump in national production, the same factory closures and rising unemployment, and the same highly unpopular prime ministers and weak governments that seem,...
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2009

Enhanced, permanent MSDF antipiracy law approved by ruling bloc

A proposal on a new permanent antipiracy law that would enhance the Maritime Self-Defense Force's rules of engagement off Somalia got the green light Wednesday by a ruling bloc policy panel.
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2009

Aso decides he will take cash handout

After several months of equivocating, Prime Minister Taro Aso finally came out and declared Monday evening he will accept his portion of the controversial ¥2 trillion cash handout, contradicting his previous position that he wouldn't take the cash.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 3, 2009

Vexing slump has Ichiro searching for answers

There is no argument that Ichiro Suzuki will again be the star attraction for the Japanese team in its hunt for consecutive championships in the World Baseball Classic, but right now he isn't even a supporting cast member.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2009

Putting Asia first puts Clinton in driver's seat

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The U.S. secretary of state's recent four-stop swing through Asia led to some accusations of symbolic superficiality. Perhaps — but there can be more real meaning in acts of diplomatic symbolism than what first meets the eye.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2009

Human Rights Watch coming to Tokyo

Civilians are killed as the Sri Lankan military closes in on the Tamil Tiger rebels.
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Mar 1, 2009

Of money and motherhood

Kazuyo Katsuma is a charismatic economic analyst, best-selling writer and working mother, who has regular columns in newspapers and appears frequently in magazines and on TV shows. Katsuma is considered one of Japan's foremost writers on the subjects of self- development skills for people in business,...
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Mar 1, 2009

Kazuyo Katsuma: Of money and motherhood

Kazuyo Katsuma is a charismatic economic analyst, best-selling writer and working mother, who has regular columns in newspapers and appears frequently in magazines and on TV shows. Katsuma is considered one of Japan's foremost writers on the subjects of self- development skills for people in business,...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2009

Lower House passes ¥88 trillion budget

The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc passed the ¥88 trillion fiscal 2009 budget bill and related legislation Friday through the Lower House, paving the way for implementing the biggest initial budget ever by the March 31 end of the fiscal year.

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