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JAPAN
Feb 3, 2012

How far can Hashimoto ride wave?

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's political fortunes in and out of Osaka continue to rise, as a growing number of local- and national-level politicians seek his cooperation to form what could well be the ruling coalition after the next Lower House election.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Jan 31, 2012

Iwakuma may thrive in shadows with spotlight on Darvish

It's doubtful Hisashi Iwakuma's debut in the major leagues with the Seattle Mariners will make a big splash in many locales outside Seattle, unless of course it comes against the Oakland A's at Tokyo Dome in March. Though in that case, outfielder Ichiro Suzuki will be the player in the spotlight.
Reader Mail
Jan 29, 2012

Purpose of a higher education

Regarding the Jan. 23 article, "More crucial than English" (by Takamitsu Sawa): The question of why Japanese students' intellectual capacities are not developed has not been adequately addressed. When it comes to the humanities, Japanese students are discouraged from developing critical thinking skills....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jan 24, 2012

Tepco pole position may scupper land buy

Mr. A writes: "We are seriously considering buying a property (house and land) in a residential neighborhood. On a corner of and inside the property, Tepco installed a light pole several years ago, apparently under an agreement with the current owner. It is believed that a nominal payment from Tepco...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 22, 2012

Self-effacement is a fine thing, but does Japanese culture take it too far?

What is it that has aided the people of Tohoku in coping with the tragedy inflicted on that region of northeast Honshu by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011? The entire world marveled at their resilience, courage and stoic altruism.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Weak justification for the hunt

Joseph Jaworski, in his Jan. 12 letter, "The moral case against whaling?," asks whether anyone opposed to whaling can explain precisely what principle makes killing whales morally wrong. A simple answer is not easy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2012

U.S. no longer land of the free

Every year, the U.S. State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 10, 2012

Student count, knowledge sliding

Education experts have for years been lamenting the academic decline of young Japanese.
COMMENTARY
Jan 3, 2012

An Enlightened Awakening?

There are only three valid reasons why the Middle East, the focus of international attention as 2012 begins, is important to the United States and the European nations. These are energy, immigration and Israel.
EDITORIALS
Jan 3, 2012

Unnerving year for Northeast Asia

While 2011 was "the great unraveling," 2012 holds out the prospect of equally consequential changes for Asia, but the inflection points are visible well ahead of time. The most notable feature of the calendar will be elections that are scheduled to be held throughout the region this year, each of which...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 1, 2012

For how much longer will Japan's fate remain in the hands of amateurs?

As we enter into a new year in which last year's greatest event is still, dreadfully, uppermost in the mind of everyone in Japan, let's pause to think hard about the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, the tsunami it triggered, and the release into the environment of radioactive substances from...
JAPAN / NUCLEAR AWAKENING
Jan 1, 2012

DIY cesium scanning store may be 'new normal'

Kashiwa, about 30 km northeast of Tokyo, is known for its humble beginnings as a 1970s bedroom community for Tokyo workers.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2011

The great unraveling

The last 12 months yielded another humbling year. One event after another confirmed the limits of our ability to predict and shape the future. Blame idle imaginations, selfish societies, pusillanimous politicians or blind bureaucracies. Whatever the cause, 2011 should remind us of the need to be better...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 29, 2011

2011 was a dangerous year for world's bad guys

This was a bad year for bad guys. Departing the political scene — or departing the scene altogether — were Osama bin Laden, North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il, and a trio of Arab leaders: Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine ben Ali, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
EDITORIALS
Dec 29, 2011

Unprepared for what happened

A third-party panel set up by the government to investigate the accidents at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant issued Monday an interim report based on interviews with 456 people. It emerges from the report that before the March 11 disaster both Tepco and the government had...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2011

What will become of North Korea?

According to North Korean state television, the heart attack that killed Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17 was "due to severe mental and physical stress from overwork."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 22, 2011

Seeking solace in artistic responses to March 11

What can art do? What role can it play when the whole world seems suddenly unstable, unsure?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 22, 2011

Japan's dramatists take on the 'nuclear village'

The place to start when reviewing this year's highlights in contemporary Japanese theater, has to be The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11. That day led to a nation in mourning, an ongoing nuclear crisis and an awakening among dramatists, who saw the importance of their role to stimulate debate...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 17, 2011

Australians recall POW ordeals

Former Australian prisoner of war Alfred Ellwood can vividly recall being interrogated and at times tortured by the Imperial Japanese Army's notorious military police after he was captured in East Timor, an experience that scarred him most of his life.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 13, 2011

One-fifth of kids deprived of contact with one parent

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Minister of Justice Hideo Hiraoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba, Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Yoko Komiyama, and the government of Japan,
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Dec 13, 2011

One-fifth of kids deprived of contact with one parent

Dear Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Minister of Justice Hideo Hiraoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba, Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Yoko Komiyama, and the government of Japan,
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 11, 2011

The Scot who shaped Japan

This coming Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, marks the centenary of the death in his opulent home in the Shiba Park area of Tokyo's central Azabu district of the Scottish-born trader Thomas Blake Glover, who became the first foreigner ever decorated by the Japanese government when he was awarded the Order of the...
COMMENTARY
Dec 3, 2011

Asia's water stress challenges growth and security

Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that will determine whether Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa, but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 3, 2011

Playing a little chicken

Here it comes, the eternal question . . .
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Nov 24, 2011

Dressed to impress Tokyo's art crowd

A life-size bucking brown horse, pieced together from old leather jackets. A loom operated by a Noah's Ark collection of polar bears, birds and other beasts. A fashion boutique till that scans barcodes to create a cacophony of musical sounds.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 20, 2011

Paradoxes pervade gender issues' public face in Japan

Transgender people are popping up everywhere in the current Japanese media landscape. Whether it's appearing on variety shows or hawking soft drinks or makeup in TV ads, the current crop of "new-half" celebrities have established themselves in the mainstream in a way that has surprised many onlookers....

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.