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JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 23, 2011

Rich can afford to jump Japan's sinking ship

If Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Diamond are both right, Japan is in serious trouble.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 23, 2011

Documenting disaster

THE TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE and Tsunami, the Fukushima Nuclear Reactor, and How the World's Media Reported Them, by Eric Johnston. The Japan Times, 2011, 96 pp., ¥1,260 (paperback) Seven months after Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, the jury remains out on media reporting...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 23, 2011

Minister attacked for challenging the 'family system'

Yoko Komiyama is the first woman to ever occupy the post of Japan's minister of health, welfare and labor. As a mother, she may have more insight than her male colleagues into issues her ministry addresses, and from the start of her appointment in August she has stirred up controversy, mainly with her...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 19, 2011

The microfinance catalyst

So-called impact investors — providers of capital to businesses that solve social challenges while generating a profit — are the current rage in economic development. U.S. President Barack Obama's Office for Social Innovation and Civic Participation recently convened more than 100 practitioners to...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Oct 18, 2011

Noda, tear down this 'nuclear village'

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, The Great East Japan Earthquake was a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. While the quake and tsunami did tremendous damage to Tohoku, the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant did even more harm to the country by threatening the health of the population,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 17, 2011

A decade of war in Afghanistan

Oct. 7 marked the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan. It has been a bitter decade. The initial success in driving the Taliban from power quickly turned to stalemate as U.S. attention shifted to Iraq. The hope that the war-torn country, a proxy battleground of great power...
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2011

Local fix first for Tohoku fisheries

Miyagi Gov. Yoshihiro Murai's plans for growth in the Tohoku region of Japan, in the Oct. 13 article "A chance to do more than rebuild Tohoku," seem all very positive in theory but it would be regrettable if locally-based fishing cooperatives lost their powers to large international corporations.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2011

Occupy where? Kasumigaseki?

The Occupy Wall Street protest that started in New York in September has spread rapidly throughout the United States and may continue to spread, perhaps even to Japan. The movement has interacted, in a virtual way at least, with the Arab Spring movement in the Middle East as well as with the "indignado"...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Oct 16, 2011

In search of the Holy Grail of mushrooms

The ancients were none too complimentary about their fungi. "Few of them are good, and most produce a choking sensation," wrote Marcus Athenaeus of Naucratis 1,800 years ago in "Deipnosophistae" ("Philosophers at Dinner").
COMMENTARY
Oct 14, 2011

Why the sudden backlash against the wealthy?

The context for Occupy Wall Street and proposals to tax the rich — "rich" being constantly redefined — is the broader issue of economic inequality. For years, liberal politicians, academics and pundits have complained about growing inequality, but their protests barely resonated with the public....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 14, 2011

"Toulouse-Lautrec: The Maurice Joyant Collection"

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) suffered a number of congenital health problems that led to the inability of his legs to heal properly after he fractured his thigh bones in his teens. Often mocked for his appearance, he chose to focus on his art and found comfort in the nightlife of Paris — his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 14, 2011

'Ichimei (Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai)'

The samurai movie has a great and glorious tradition, but Japanese directors have long been of two minds about the samurai themselves. For every "Chushingura" remake that celebrates the samurai ethos of loyalty and self-sacrifice, there is a genre masterpiece that questions it.
Reader Mail
Oct 13, 2011

Careless treatment of a survivor

Amy Chavez's Oct. 1 Japan Lite column about Maruko, the dog from Iwate Prefecture ("Not just cats — will dogs also get nine lives?"), left me fuming. While it had a happy ending, the apathy and lack of common sense displayed by the hokenjo (local health centers that operate animal pounds) was unbelievable!...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2011

'Jobs factor' made Apple's closed strategy work

Normally, you need a distinctive first name not to need a last name, but in this — as in everything that he did — Steve Jobs was different. He was always just "Steve."
COMMENTARY
Oct 10, 2011

Lord, let me quit cigars, but not yet

Despite increasing bans on tobacco use, smoking cigars will continue to have universal appeal. As the trade embargo on Cuban cigars in the U.S. is still in place, it is good to remember one of the greatest fans of Cuban cigars: the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2011

No country for younger, self-made oligarchs

Mikhail Prokhorov, the owner of gold mines in Siberia and a professional basketball team in the United States, is one of Russia's richest men, with a net worth of $18 billion. This past June, he agreed to lead a center-right political party to contest December's parliamentary elections.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Oct 5, 2011

Big Bulls ready to charge into debut bj-league season

The Iwate Big Bulls are about to begin experiencing something every professional sports team must encounter: an inaugural season.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2011

Greater growth with lower domestic demand

As the American economy continues to sputter three years after the global financial crisis erupted, one thing has become clear: The United States cannot generate higher rates of growth in gross domestic product and employment without a change in the mix of the economy's domestic and export-oriented components....
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2011

The need for macro-coordination

Central banks seek to stabilize financial markets as share values around the world fall sharply and display considerable volatility because of concerns about government finances — unlike in 2008 when the worries were about the health of private financial institutions.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2011

What political moderates can learn from America's political extremes

What is a campaign platform that most Americans would support but will never get a chance to vote for?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2011

Agenda of imperatives for 7 billion

Late next month, a child will be born — the 7 billionth citizen of planet Earth. We will never know the circumstances into which he or she was born.
COMMENTARY
Sep 30, 2011

The challenge of managing a flammable Earth

To what extent will our future on Earth be shaped by fire? As the world gets hotter, the risk of more and bigger fires increases.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers