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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 30, 2012

Whatever fanatics say, a nice cup of tea together beats a fight to the death

There is no doubt about it: We humans are, at best, a peculiar species. It seems that we feel obliged to display brazen hostility toward each other, to the point of engaging in violence, before we can reconcile to friendship.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2012

'Ashura (Asura)'

An anime with a sad-eyed waif as the hero must surely be something for the kiddies, no? Well no, if the waif carries a blood-stained axe and greedily devours human flesh like a starved wolf.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2012

Hard truths about global growth

The world's high-income countries are in economic trouble, mostly related to growth and employment, and now their distress is spilling over to developing economies. What factors underlie today's problems, and how appropriate are the likely policy responses?
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2012

Mitsubishi Estate raises ¥11.2 billion to purchase four properties for REIT

Mitsubishi Estate Co. raised ¥11.2 billion to buy four properties in Tokyo for its private real estate investment trust.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2012

Brutality in Benghazi

The wave of violence that engulfed the Muslim world in the aftermath of the release of a video insulting Prophet Muhammad has receded. But there is far more to this sad episode than meets the eye.
BASKETBALL
Sep 23, 2012

Clutch 3-pointer propels Iran past Japan in FIBA Asia Cup final

In the game of basketball, making a big shot in crunch time is as important as total points and rebounds on the stats sheet that's distributed after a game.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2012

Why do nations' savings patterns differ so much?

Ever since the integration of emerging markets into the global economy began in the early 1990s, three striking trends have emerged: a divergence in private savings rates between the industrialized core and the emerging periphery (the former experiencing a sharp rise, and the latter a steady decline);...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2012

Five myths from the eurozone crisis

1. The Europeans will never get their act together.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 16, 2012

The long tradition of sanitizing history

Ways of Forgetting, Ways of Remembering: Japan in the Modern World, by John W. Dower. New Press, 2012, 336 pp., $26.95 (hardcover) Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka and leader of the Nippon Ishin-no Kai, recently tried to revise the history of comfort women, saying that there is no evidence that the Japanese...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 16, 2012

People-watching on a ferry in the fog

Rust streaked down from the anchor hole in the ferry's bow. The only noticeable color in the harbor — a bright-red sun rising out of the gray water — was painted on the side of the white ship. There was no sound except the soft clanging of tools from the crew preparing to cast off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 13, 2012

The woman who could bring Beppu back to life

In Japan's performing arts scene, it's widely believed that 32-year-old Akane Nakamura is one of the country's most famous globally known theater producers. As executive director of the theater production company Precog and the performing arts nonprofit Drifters International — which she founded in...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 12, 2012

Volatile risks accompany North Korea's reforms

Reports of unusual activity have been emerging from North Korea. Farmers were told in early July that, going forward, the state would take not their entire harvest but only 70 percent, and they would be allowed to keep the rest. The military's economic role was partially curtailed last month when some...
Japan Times
OLYMPICS / ANALYSIS
Sep 12, 2012

Island disputes could cost Tokyo 2020 Olympics

With the vote to determine the host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games less than one year away, Tokyo's chances of landing the global extravaganza could slip away in the wake of Japan's ongoing involvement in island disputes with South Korea, China, Russia and Taiwan.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 9, 2012

Final countdown under way for Ishii, Kokubo

Infielder Takuro Ishii of the Hiroshima Carp has announced his retirement as an active player effective at the end of the 2012 season. Ishii joins infielder Hiroki Kokubo of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks who will also hang up his spikes when his club concludes its schedule in October or November.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2012

Economists in denial as conventional tools fail

In an exasperated outburst, just before he left the presidency of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet complained that, "as a policymaker during the crisis, I found the available [economic and financial] models of limited help. I would go further: In the face of the crisis, we felt abandoned...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 6, 2012

Coming to I-House

Contending with Meian: A Public Conversation between John Nathan and Minae Mizumura (Sept. 21; 7 p.m.): Natsume Soseki's "Meian" ("Light and Dark") is widely acknowledged as his masterpiece even though it was incomplete at the time of his death in 1916. John Nathan, who is just finishing a new translation...
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2012

Skytree helps Tobu cut costs to refinance

Tobu Railway Co., the owner of Tokyo Skytree, cut the cost of refinancing to less than a third of what it paid five years ago on expectations that admission tickets and souvenir sales at the world's tallest tower will boost profit.
COMMENTARY
Sep 3, 2012

China thrives in soft corner with two-track U.S. strategy

The U.S. strategy long has been geared against the rise of any hegemonic power in Asia and for a stable balance of power.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2012

Rising grain prices

Irregular weather conditions are causing prices of grains such as corn, wheat and soybeans to shoot up. The most vulnerable people in this situation are the poor in developing countries that rely heavily on food imports. Officials of international organizations such as the United Nations and the World...
COMMENTARY
Aug 29, 2012

Tensions rise in Northeast Asia

Japan and South Korea, allies of the United States since World War II, are supposed to be part of an Asia-Pacific counterbalance to China's growing power and its expansive maritime and island claims in East Asia's seas. Instead, an upwelling of nationalism as the region marked the Aug. 15 anniversary...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 26, 2012

If we ruin the air, what will our children breathe?

Watching the sun set into the Pacific Ocean from a hotel tucked in among the dry scrub hills of San Diego, I have a chance to reflect on life here in Southern California, on climate changes and on what's in store for future generations.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 25, 2012

A plan for a healthy TV diet

The world is going to pieces. I know because the television told me so. Global warming, economic meltdown, regional conflicts, partisan politics, Justin Bieber. Is there anything good happening? Anywhere?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Aug 24, 2012

Siesta at the Park Hyatt Tokyo; buy, taste wine at Okura Tokyo fair; Shangri-La wins award

Park Hyatt Tokyo siesta spa package Sweltering temperatures nationwide can lead to heat exhaustion, so the Park Hyatt Tokyo in Shinjuku has opened its spa and fitness facility Club on the Park — usually available only to members and hotel guests — to visitors as well, offering a special relaxation...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 23, 2012

Preference should go to real, rational women

In the Dominican Republic last month, a pregnant teenager suffering from leukemia had her chemotherapy delayed, because doctors feared that the treatment could terminate her pregnancy and therefore violate the nation's strict anti-abortion law. After consultations between doctors, lawyers, and the girl's...
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2012

Australia's call for thoughts on Iraq

On Aug. 16 a group of Australians, led by former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and former Chief of the Defense Force Gen. Peter Gration, launched a call for an inquiry into how and why Australia joined the Iraq war in 2003. The goal is not to rake over old coals, but to improve how war and peace decisions...

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