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JAPAN
Dec 31, 2009

Fukushima strives to carve a pacifist path for the SDP

After being handed a fourth term as president of the Social Democratic Party without a vote, Mizuho Fukushima on Dec. 4 took her seat at the SDP's headquarters in Tokyo and faced reporters to give her victory speech.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2009

Something in the air

There was something ineffable in the air throughout 2009. At first, it was the prospect of change, a fuzzy promise that propelled candidate Barack Obama to victory in the November 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. His "yes we can!" slogan captured the imagination of U.S. voters and millions more around...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 29, 2009

New Year's: Communing with family, the gods

In the West, people count down the seconds to midnight Dec. 31 and in many cases keep partying into the wee hours, then sleep in. Once the clock strikes 12 in Japan, many people head to temples and shrines, then proceed to make New Year's Day a family occasion.
EDITORIALS
Dec 28, 2009

Do more to prevent suicides

The number of suicides in 2009 has already topped 30,000 for the 12th straight year (since 1998). According to the National Police Agency, the suicide figure through the end of November reached 30,181, or 445 more than for the same period last year. This translates into about 90 suicides a day on average....
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 27, 2009

Thank God the year's over

History has seen worse years than 2009. All the same, this Year of the Ox has been more than most of us born after World War II in the relatively privileged regions of the Earth were conditioned to cope with.
BUSINESS
Dec 26, 2009

Budget big but little in remedial terms

The all-time high fiscal 2010 budget draft approved Friday casts considerable doubt on whether the country can sustain its finances or if through such spending it can buy its way out of the economic slump, experts warn.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 25, 2009

' Higanjima'

Hollywood likes its action movies fast and furious, their plot lines reducible to a phrase.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 23, 2009

Kobe's winner continues L.A. hex on Bucks

NEW YORK — The date was Jan. 9, 1972.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 22, 2009

Level playing field for immigrants: responses

A selection of readers' responses to Debito Arudou's Dec. 1 Just Be Cause article, which proposed policy changes to "make life easier for Japan's residents, regardless of nationality":
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 20, 2009

Alexandria's library: A phoenix amid the tea fields of Uji

Recalling the glorious Heian Period in Japan's history from 794 to 1185 at once conjures up images of a world of courtiers, 12-layered kimono, elegant poetry competitions beside winding streams — and secret trysts in scented chambers.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2009

Zoo pool too cool, so pudgy penguins hoof it

The penguins at Asahiyama Zoological Park in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, have gained weight lately, for good reason.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Moody's prods Japan on debt

Japan should set a "well-articulated" target to reduce government debt that is already the largest in the world, according to Moody's Investors Service.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2009

Politics and the Emperor

The government's decision to let Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping have an exceptional audience with the Emperor Tuesday made many people wonder whether the government, especially Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, has a correct understanding of the constitutional order with regard to the position of the...

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person