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Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

A volunteer's journal of hope for Tohoku

When the magnitude 9 megaquake hit northeastern Japan in the early afternoon of Friday, March 11, I was at work in The Japan Times office some 250 km to the south in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2011

Triple disaster and the Constitution

Japan on Tuesday marked the 64th anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution just as the entire nation, including its people, private enterprises, and the central and local governments, is struggling to overcome the consequences of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 1, 2011

Atsuko Muraki: Fighter for justice

Atsuko Muraki was thrown into the public spotlight in 2009, when she was head of the Equal Employment, Children and Families Bureau at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 17, 2011

The unnatural state of Japan's self-restraint

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, Japanese television started covering the disaster full-time. As things returned to some sort of version of normal, the spaces where commercials were supposed to run were first filled with public service announcements provided by the Ad Council...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 17, 2011

In this time of trials, a new nationalism would aid Japan's recovery

The worst form of bondage is the bondage of dejection, which keeps men hopelessly chained in loss of faith in themselves."
EDITORIALS / NOTES ON A SCORECARD
Apr 12, 2011

Reconstruction after the disaster

A month has passed since the massive quake and tsunami on March 11 devastated the pacific coastal area of the Tohoku region. Some 13,000 people perished and about 14,500 people are missing. Some 148,000 evacuees remain at temporary shelters. It is unlikely that the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Apr 12, 2011

Classics scholar seeks to repay debt

When the earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast on March 11, Robert Campbell, an Irish-American scholar of Edo Period to early Meiji Era literature, was in Tokyo.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2011

Coming together for the survivors

One recent afternoon in a small community room in an apartment building in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, people streamed in carrying big boxes and bags full of food, beverages and clothing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 29, 2011

From raw emotion to relief: 'Quakebook'

What started as the "Quakebook," now titled "2:46" after the time the earthquake hit, originated in a shower in Abiko, Chiba Prefecture, a week after the earthquake and tsunami devastated the Pacific coast of northern Honshu. A longtime British resident of Japan, who blogs as Our Man in Abiko, trying...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / GLOBAL HUMAN RESOURCES SYMPOSIUM
Mar 26, 2011

Firms urged to develop leaders in global business environment

Japanese firms seeking to globalize their operations need to develop leaders who can achieve their missions in a diverse business environment across national borders, experts on human resources development told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2011

Preparation for nuke crisis woeful

FUKUSHIMA — When the massive earthquake and tsunami rocked the northeast March 11, residents who had been prepared by years of drills knew exactly what to do: They scrambled for cover until the shaking stopped, then ran for higher ground to avoid the giant waves.
EDITORIALS
Mar 18, 2011

Getting relief to survivors

People who have taken shelter at evacuation facilities in northeastern Japan since the March 11 quake and tsunami are finding themselves living under harsh conditions. The central and local governments must make strenuous efforts to deliver aid and personnel to those places as soon as possible. The death...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 15, 2011

HIV/AIDS awareness often too late

More than two decades after the first case of AIDS in a Japanese patient was officially reported by the health ministry's National AIDS Surveillance Committee in 1985, HIV/AIDS seems to have become a disease of the past. With much less media coverage, people have become complacent about the issue, experts...
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2011

Dealing with population trends

Preliminary findings in the 2010 census released Feb. 25 by the internal affairs ministry underline the overall trend of a shrinking and graying population as well as a demographic imbalance characterized by a population rise in a few prefectures and a population drop in most prefectures.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Mar 6, 2011

Tadao Sato: 'Japan's single finest film critic'

Tadao Sato laughed an embarrassed laugh as he recalled that three years ago, in London, he had been referred to as a "legend." Though adding to his discomfort, I had to admit that in my university days I had thought of him in the same way. And I still do.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2011

What has become of Japan?

Recently, I had a most bizarre experience. I was walking down a street when a total stranger approached me and asked, "What will become of Japan?" And this happened not once but three times. Under a normal circumstance, those three people would have simply passed by wondering in which newspaper or TV...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2011

How does Japan start to cope with fewer births, longer lives?

Economic growth depends on the rates of population increase and technological evolution, among other factors. Technological evolution relies on the capacities of human beings. So its kernel factor is human power.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 11, 2011

Playwright Noda asks, 'What is a Japanese?'

In the early 1980s, when he was a student at the University of Tokyo, Hideki Noda began to emerge as a standard bearer of something new in Japan: Contemporary theater by — and for — young people seeking to change their country.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 6, 2011

Yang Sok Gil: Writing about wrongs at home and abroad

Yang Sok Gil is renowned for his novels describing, with remarkable humanity and humor, people's wanton desires and the problems they cause, often from the viewpoint of minorities in Japan or elsewhere.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 1, 2011

Wheelchair pioneer out to change public perceptions

"You can't keep a good man down" is the darkly applicable phrase that springs to mind when listening to Yasuhiro "Mark" Yamazaki. The energy, conviction, sense of mission and utter absence of self-pity in this soft-spoken man is humbling.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 28, 2010

Mind the gap, get over it: Japan hands

Things have changed for the better for foreigners since the old days in Japan.
OLYMPICS
Dec 21, 2010

Protecting the elderly from abuse

In April 2006, the law to prevent abuse of people aged 65 or over went into force, requiring citizens to report any case of abuse to municipal governments. But the situation surrounding the elderly appears to be deteriorating. The welfare ministry reported on Nov. 22 that in fiscal 2009, there were 15,615...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 19, 2010

'Nitten' is no mere Braille library

Regular bookstores or libraries might not be much use to blind people, but there's one place in Tokyo where they can not only read and borrow books and meet others in similar situations, but also get advice on improving their quality of life — and even buy a range of everyday goods.
JAPAN / RESETTLEMENT
Dec 16, 2010

Pilot resettlement program put to test with first Karens

This fall, five families from Myanmar arrived in Japan filled with hope and excitement for a new life.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 7, 2010

Japan loses, rest of the world gains from 'one citizenship fits all' policy

Dear Diet Member Keiichiro Asao:
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 5, 2010

Matsumoto Koshiro IX: A lifetime of kabuki

"Koraiya!" shouts someone in the audience, acclaiming the actor center stage. Feeding off the adulation, he launches into his next line. "What a useless fellow you are," he yells, berating the servant at his side. "You shall pay dearly!"
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 30, 2010

Flu prevention advice nothing to sneeze at

As winter sets in, hospitals are calling for people to get flu shots.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 26, 2010

The 'weird' world of techno's Ishino

"Salarymen are fantastic," says DJ and producer Takkyu Ishino. "If there weren't so many of them doing their thing, then people like me would not be able to exist. If more people acted like me (outside the norm), then I wouldn't have had the life that I've had."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 7, 2010

Noriko Hama: Scholar brings economics to life

Clouds of gloom have been shrouding Japan and its economy for quite some time. The bursting of the asset- inflated economic bubble in the early 1990s, and the failures of banks, insurers and other big corporations later in that decade, has put a huge dent in Japan's collective self-confidence. That is...

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