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JAPAN
May 2, 2009

Power struggle rages in North over Kim's heir

As succession speculation abounds amid reports of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's deteriorating health, a recently obtained confidential report has shed new light on a power struggle taking place in the reclusive state.
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2009

'Burn After Reading'

"I know what you represent," sneers John Malkovich, playing an ex- CIA operative confronting one of his blackmailing tormentors in the Coen Brothers' latest, "Burn After Reading" — "you represent the entire idiocy of today!"
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2009

Food crisis still plagues Asia

BANGKOK — For 583 million people across Asia and the Pacific the financial crisis has become a food crisis. While food prices have fallen from last year's spike, they remain high. Rising unemployment and falling incomes are putting additional pressure on poor and vulnerable groups. More worrying still...
BUSINESS
Apr 30, 2009

Rengo-staged May Day rally draws 36,000

Expressing solidarity at a time of employment crisis, nearly 36,000 regular and temporary workers turned out Wednesday for the 80th annual May Day rally organized by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2009

Hope, doom: Japan Prize pair poles apart

The two Americans who received this year's Japan Prize did a first by appearing afterward at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan to highlight their visions — one of hope in medical breakthroughs and the other in the inevitable doom of mankind.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2009

Ruling bloc submits extra budget bill to Diet

The government submitted to the Diet Monday the fiscal 2009 extra budget bill, which is expected to become the main focus of confrontation between the ruling bloc and opposition parties as the ordinary Diet session nears its end.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 28, 2009

Berlitz blitz against union bogs down

After the second court hearing on April 20 in Berlitz Japan's lawsuit against unionized teachers, the legal fight seems bogged down in a form of trench warfare.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2009

Ignorance of 'sustainability' is not an option

Judging from the last month's headlines, it's clear we are collectively still not getting it — despite how much we know about the environment. In fact, it seems the more we know, the less we learn.
LIFE
Apr 26, 2009

A literary loner

In Tokyo and even in the Occident, I have known almost no society except that of courtesans. — Nagai Kafu There's not much left of Kafu today. Among the major Japanese writers of the early 20th century, he scarcely ranks as a survivor. Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki are the...
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2009

The promise of higher education

High school students from single-mother households are giving up on higher education, according to a recent poll by Ashinaga, an NPO providing financial support to children who have lost one or both of their parents. Rather than pursue their dreams of education, over 40 percent are going to work instead....
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2009

Tent villages highlight shortfalls

The establishment of a tent village in Tokyo's Hibiya Park during the New Year's holidays to help unemployed temporary workers is a sobering reflection of these hard times. In the tent village, nonprofit organization and labor union activists gave advice on a variety of matters ranging from finding employment...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 21, 2009

The past, present and future of fortunetelling

From the traditional "omikuji" — sacred lots — people draw at shrines and temples to learn their New Year's fortunes, to the horoscopes displayed on commuter train video screens to distract strap-hangers, Japanese society is immersed in fortunetelling.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Apr 20, 2009

Looking for a new leader

David Cameron, the leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, is the envy of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which is in desperate need to find someone to replace or succeed Taro Aso, whose popularity remains low despite a political scandal involving the Democratic Party of Japan —...
Reader Mail
Apr 19, 2009

Still a smoker's paradise

While it is gratifying to learn that smoking has been banned at JR stations in Tokyo, the fact remains that most public places in Japan are organized to maximize the convenience of smokers ("Breathing easier at JR stations," April 12). In Osaka, many train stations place smoking sections in central...
JAPAN / History / JAPAN TIMES GONE BY
Apr 19, 2009

Flying machines, dancing for defense, an Imperial wedding and a bark suppressor

100 YEARS AGO
JAPAN / Media
Apr 19, 2009

Cops crack whip in fight vs. vice

A leather-clad female physically punishing a compliant male into erotic bliss is the usual image one conjures for BDSM, or bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism. Yet, to spend a Sunday afternoon with the ladies on the roster of La Siora, a high-end club based in Shinjuku, is to realize that the proper...
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2009

Donors line up $5 billion for Pakistan

About 50 nations and international groups pledged in Tokyo on Friday to give strife-torn Pakistan more than $5 billion in aid after President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to continue a war against extremists still raging eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2009

Yosano admits primary balance goal won't be met, eyes new target

The government is considering setting a new fiscal target after conceding that the goal established by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won't be met, Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 17, 2009

Stimulus not long-term solution, analysts warn

Prime Minister Taro Aso's record stimulus plan will only provide temporary relief as the country heads for its worst postwar recession, economists said.
SUMO
Apr 16, 2009

Hakuho welcomes steroid testing, laments sumo's woes

The most common problem in the sports world today is about to slightly alter the landscape of one of the world's oldest sports.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years