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EDITORIALS
Jun 14, 2012

Bottom line of welfare

A weekly magazine in April reported that the mother of an entertainer earning an annual income of ¥50 million has been receiving public livelihood assistance known as seikatsu hogo (literally livelihood protection). Through a blog of a Diet member and other media, the entertainer was identified as TV...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 12, 2012

'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan

Although more than a year has passed since the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku on March 11, 2011, Ivan Stout's memory of the moment when the Shinmarunouchi building in Tokyo's Chou Ward began to tremble is as vivid as ever.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Jun 10, 2012

The Marshall Islands: Tropical idylls scarred like Tohoku

With all its American, European and Asian cultural influences, it's easy to forget that Japan is also an island nation in the Pacific.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 5, 2012

'It's just because ... foreigners know best': readers' views

Some readers' views on John Spiri's May 1 Zeit Gist column, "It's just because . . . foreigners know best":
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 5, 2012

Much ado, but micro-important

A few weeks ago, as a panelist at a symposium on Japan's accession to the Hague Convention on international child abduction, I found it hard to disguise my ire. One of the speakers was a lawyer opposed to Japan joining the convention, and who refused to even use "abduction" to discuss what she called...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jun 5, 2012

Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms

Last month's column on "microaggressions" was my most debated yet. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 3, 2012

Koki Mitani: Japan's Mr. Comedy

Koki Mitani is far and away the nation's best-known dramatist. Although theater is quite a niche medium here, most people in Japan — whether male or female, young or not so young, Japanese or not — recognize his face, even if they couldn't name many of his works. Recently, indeed, I was amazed when...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 24, 2012

This Japanese Life

Scholars of Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher best known for his controversial statement "God is dead," have for years talked about a gaping hole in his works: Where are Nietzsche's writings about teaching English to Japanese high schoolers? What has he got to say about the paranoia of being...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 22, 2012

The elephant in the foreigner's room now has a name: microaggression

Some positive and negative readers' reactions to Debito Arudou's provocative and widely read May 1 Just Be Cause column, "Yes, I can use chopsticks: the everyday 'microaggressions' that grind us down":
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
May 18, 2012

Kyoto's Allred has unique perspective on game, life

The Japan Times periodically features interviews with players in the bj-league. Lance Allred of the Kyoto Hannaryz is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
May 16, 2012

Tokyo Green Space

What do you see when you look at Tokyo? Hypermodern constructions of steel and concrete? Cubic, characterless office buildings? Jared Braiterman sees green ... in the back streets, in the small cracks of dirt on the sidewalks and on his balcony. He finds patches, slivers and swaths of nature that tourists...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 15, 2012

Readers vent over 'Bread and becquerels'

Some readers' responses to the April 17 Zeit Gist column by Gianni Simone, "Bread and becquerels: a year of living dangerously":
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 / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 8, 2012

The best of Views from the Street

A pick of some of best —and the rest — of the vox pops over the years, in chronological order:
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
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
May 1, 2012

Blood, beatings and the cage: the bouncer

Before The Japan Times was invited inside Nagoya's iD Cafe to speak to Thomas, the nightclub's security manager, we stopped to chat to a uniformed policeman near the club. He told us there were as many as 50 fights in a nearby park on Friday and Saturday nights. This busy area of the city, Sakae, known...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 29, 2012

Reversing Japan's rising sex aversion may depend on a rebirth of hope

"If young people's aversion to sex continues to increase at the present rate, the situation of Japan's low fertility rate and rapid ageing will rapidly worsen. ... The Japanese economy will lose its vitality even more than now. If this happens, this nation might eventually perish into extinction."
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2012

For Iwate's Malloy, Hurricane Katrina provided valuable life lessons

Natural disasters can alter one's outlook on life in a positive way, and give an individual a greater sense of purpose or focus in everything he/she does.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Apr 12, 2012

Tokyo Times

When not working as a high school English teacher, photoblogger Lee Chapman walks the streets of Tokyo in search of stories and sights that tourists, and even long-term residents, seldom see. Chapman, a U.K. native, has been running the photoblog Tokyo Times for almost 10 years. While his posts do sometimes...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 3, 2012

These are a few of my favorite things — about the Japanese

Debito Arudou's Feb. 7 Just Be Cause column describing the 10 things he likes about Japan both inspired and depressed me. As a frequent critic of the country's legal system (among other things), his piece made me stop and think of some of the things I like about Japan that are all too easy to take for...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 25, 2012

A woman of wisdom among the energy mandarins

Ask me who should facilitate Japan's energy dialogue and the choice is easy: Junko Edahiro.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 17, 2012

'Super priority' seats — what will they do ?

We are about to enter a new era: that of the super priority seat. The Yokohama municipal subway has just announced their ¥4 million mission to add these seats. What are "super priority seats?" No one has said. Perhaps they're for VIP elderly? The 100-and-over crowd? The only thing that has been revealed...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2012

Cambodia experience facilitated aid effort in the Tohoku region

Cathy Hirano says it was "so painful to feel powerless in the face of such a huge disaster," recalling the day a year ago that the Pacific coast of Tohoku was hit by the huge earthquake and tsunami.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 4, 2012

Taro Yamamoto: Actor in the spotlight of Japan's antinuke movement

On a rainy midwinter day, Taro Yamamoto stood with a small group of people in front of Shimokitazawa Station in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and addressed passers-by in that artsy youth-culture hub.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 3, 2012

'Alternative labor' helps Ishinomaki rebuild

Jamie El-Banna, 27, is a self-professed "cynical Londoner" who says he's "not a nice guy" and admits he is known to many as something of a party animal interested mostly in getting drunk. But a look at his recent track record reveals he's now spent over nine months volunteering in tsunami-ravaged Ishinomaki,...
LIFE / Longform
Feb 26, 2012

Danger zones: What are Japan's coastal communities doing to avert a disaster like March 11?

Teruo Saito has lived most of his 79 years within a couple of hundred meters of the Pacific, in an area that has been overwhelmed by massive tsunamis twice in the last 600 years.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY
Jan 25, 2012

Conversations with Thaksin, Thailand's prime suspect

THE SHOCKING COUP: "The situation is no good." "It's just a matter of time," a top minister had told him. "We only have a few weeks left before they act." Another had told him: "Our days are numbered."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 22, 2012

Self-effacement is a fine thing, but does Japanese culture take it too far?

What is it that has aided the people of Tohoku in coping with the tragedy inflicted on that region of northeast Honshu by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011? The entire world marveled at their resilience, courage and stoic altruism.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2012

What to call baby?

While clearing closets at my parents' house in Nara in December following my mother's death the month before, I came across a large square card in a pile of old documents. A snapshot of a baby looking at a birthday cake was glued in the center of the card, and I recognized that it was me at the time...
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2012

Encouragement after tragedy

People in Kobe and adjacent areas on Tuesday prayed for the souls of the victims of the Jan. 17, 1995, earthquake, which killed 6,434 people. This year's anniversary was special. It was the first anniversary remembered since the March 11 earthquake-tsunami, which devastated the Pacific coastal areas...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji