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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 25, 2013

A howler for Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games

On Jan. 7, Tokyo put in its bid to host the 2020 summer Olympic Games. So did Madrid and Istanbul. Who wins the coveted bid will not be known until September. But consider some of the barriers to Tokyo winning. First, Tokyo needs to garner more public support, meaning they'll need to get the population...
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 22, 2013

Tokyo: What do you think of AKB48's no-love-life clause?

I can understand their handlers want to keep the girls potentially available, just as I'm sure they want their stable to concentrate on their performances, not boys. It works to prevent any scandals too, while maintaining a pure image in a very Japanese way, where the puppet masters keep a very tight rein.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2013

Moscow's not-so-friendly environmental quirks

Moscow, they say, "wasn't built at one go" — in contrast to St. Petersburg, which emerged laid out, as if by magic, in strict conformity to Peter the Great's plan — and it has been growing chaotically for more than 800 years on seven gently sloping hills surrounding the river of the same name.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 14, 2013

Niigata/Nagano: Should Japan make all of its highways free or is the present toll system fair?

If tolls were eliminated, gasoline and car taxes would have to go up to make up the difference. At the moment the economy is bad and not everyone can afford to pay the extra taxes. Once it gets better, though, raising taxes on cars and gasoline to eliminate the freeway tolls would be a good idea.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 14, 2013

Sign of the Financial Times: Will it sell independence?

Too many years ago, this young reporter was about to move from one of Britain's biggest newspaper groups to a paper with a daily sale of fewer than 200,000 copies. A hard-bitten veteran, who had spent years reporting for the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph pleaded with me over farewell drinks not...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 13, 2013

Anniversaries abound around NPB

The year 2013 will mark a season of notable anniversaries for Japanese baseball franchises and ballparks. It is Japanese year Heisei 25, the 25th anniversary for Tokyo Dome, Japan's first indoor stadium, and the 20th for Fukuoka Yahoo Japan Dome, the country's first-and still the only-retractable roof...
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2013

A website to combat bullying

Bullying has remained a pernicious problem in the Japanese school system. Students are reluctant to report it and teachers and administrators reluctant to admit it. A new proactive approach by the Saitama Prefectural Board of Education has the potential to start putting a stop to the problem through...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 8, 2013

Tokyo: What will you remember most about 2012?

I attended my coming of age ceremony, which was a big event for me, even though I actually turned 20 the year before. I wore a kimono, and after the ceremony near where I live I went to Senso-ji in Asakusa, met up with all my classmates from school and did what everyone does — got drunk.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 1, 2013

Osaka: What are your hopes for yourself, Japan and the world in 2013?

I argue with my husband a lot, so I hope that diminishes next year! And I hope everyone stays healthy, especially my four grandkids and new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, since he previously quit for health reasons. I worry about Japan's conflicts with our neighbors, and hope that the country can use its brainpower and high-tech knowhow to figure out ways to solve the various island disputes. Can't we all just get along nicely?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 27, 2012

Polar bear hunting, trade sparks global controversy

The polar bear was more than 1 km away and began running toward the dog sled, quickly closing the distance on the frozen Arctic waters of Canada's Resolute Bay.
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 18, 2012

Tokyo: What does Christmas mean to you?

George Ianus
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 15, 2012

A peek inside the cave

The term "man cave" has been added to the dictionary. At last.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 14, 2012

View waves from a new vantage

American photographer Clark Little gives nonsurfers a chance to see what they're missing in a series of pictures he is showing at the "Clark Little Photo Exhibition" in Tokyo.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 11, 2012

Tokyo: What action do you want to see from Shintaro Ishihara's successor as Tokyo governor?

Daniel Dumas
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2012

American colleges have free speech on the run

In 2007, Keith John Sampson, a middle-aged student working his way through Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as a janitor, was declared guilty of racial harassment. Without granting Sampson a hearing, the university administration — acting as prosecutor, judge and jury — convicted...
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2012

Okinawa: What should be done about the recent incidents involving off-duty U.S. servicemen in Okinawa?

Eva Wyatt
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 4, 2012

Okinawa: What should be done about the recent incidents involving off-duty U.S. servicemen in Okinawa?

Eva Wyatt
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 27, 2012

Fukuoka: What should be the next prime minister's top three priorities?

Ian Ruxton, 56
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 25, 2012

Canadian scientist uses math to green Japanese baseball

Richard Hoshino is a tall, slim mathematician, as tightly wound as a precision timepiece, and irrepressibly polite and cheerful. He also has a hard time taking "no" for an answer.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2012

Long wait for Putin's 'residential renaissance'

In Russia, as in many other countries, one main measure of living conditions is the number of "squares" — square meters — in a flat.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 20, 2012

Tokyo: What do you think of Shintaro Ishihara's decision to give up running the capital and start a new national party? Would you vote for him?

Kohei Yoshimura 
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Nov 18, 2012

Story behind drug scandal that rocked bj-league to core

Nearly six months after being released from Osaka Prefectural Police custody, Dana Washington, wife of bj-league legend and former Osaka Evessa star Lynn Washington, decided it was time to tell her side of the story.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 13, 2012

Kamakura, Kanagawa: What is your ideal pet?

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 8, 2012

No problems with Nisennenmondai's contradictions

There's a basic disconnect at the heart of Tokyo's Nisennenmondai. A series of small contradictions run through nearly all aspects of what the instrumental trio does, but they add up to make it one of the most intriguing bands to come out of Japan's underground and experimental-rock scene in the past...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 6, 2012

Osaka: Who will win the U.S. presidential election, and what changes will that bring?

Erkki Hietalahti, 53University professor (Finnish)Obama should be re-elected, because he saved a bad situation, even though many initiatives were blocked by the Republicans. Obama is a better choice than Romney, who seems to flip his opinions, so who knows what he'd do in office? Obama cares about people,...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Oct 26, 2012

Sumo World Championships a shadow of former self

Thousands of kids in Japan attend amateur sumo clubs every weekend. Many adults join them as part of fitness regimes.

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