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COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2007

Containing the Mideast fires of reform

LONDON — The recent meeting in the Vatican between "Custodian of the Holy Places" King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Pope Benedict XVI was a seminal event, particularly as it comes at a time when radical Muslims are decrying the role of "Crusaders" in Middle East politics. It was also the clearest sign...
COMMENTARY
Nov 18, 2007

Stoking democracy in a Muslim giant

BALI, Indonesia — Do you like big-time success stories? There may be a quiet one in the making here that almost no one knows about, aside from the neighbors. And it's an important story at this early stage, even if the political tale's ending cannot honestly be forecast.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 18, 2007

Losing the plot and ratings when jumping on the Showa bandwagon

In order to keep people watching a TV drama series every week, it helps to have a loose plot thread — an overarching mystery that remains unexplained while the various story lines develop over time. The protagonist of the Friday night TBS serial, "Uta-Hime (Song Princess)" (10 p.m.), is Taro Shimanto...
Reader Mail
Nov 18, 2007

Overweening pride that baffles

Bravo to Roger Pulvers for his Oct. 21 Counterpoint article, "The power of telling tales versus making apologies." The last paragraphs were expressed beautifully. I always think it's prejudiced of Americans to think that their democracy and system are the best in the world and, whenever they go to another...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 17, 2007

England needs help from Israel to keep Euro hopes alive

LONDON — In August, England head coach Steve McClaren said the media should "judge me on results," so if the results are not good enough the man in charge will have his wish and be judged. The verdict will be guilty and the sentence loss of job.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 17, 2007

Hopi activist brings two messages to Japan

Playing drum and chanting an eagle song, Ruben Saufkie Sr. — a Hopi messenger and silversmith — brings East and West into balance at the leading shrine in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2007

Soft touch with Myanmar

It was far from a perfect crime and far from a perfect coverup: a shooting in broad daylight, hundreds of witnesses, scores of video cameras recording the crime from many angles, audio recordings of the shots fired, clear photos of a man brandishing a murder weapon, an insignia identifying the suspect's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 16, 2007

Japan's top sommelier has plenty of bottle

At midnight Wednesday, Prince Hotel sommeliers marked the release of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau wine with celebrations underwater at the Epson Shinagawa Aqua Stadium at its Shinagawa branch, and on the snow at its Karuizawa ski-resort hotel.
SOCCER
Nov 15, 2007

Nagai leads Reds to ACL title

SAITAMA — Urawa Reds were crowned kings of Asia after a comfortable 2-0 win over Iran's Sepahan in the second leg of their AFC Champions League final on Wednesday evening.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2007

Iran's quest for security and stability

TEHRAN — A major shortcoming in today's world is the persistence of a zero-sum sense of geopolitics. The world expected something different in the post-Cold War era to promote peace and stability. Instead, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, momentum swung toward a "global war on terror," which, in practice,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Nov 15, 2007

Remix this: anime gets hijacked

Tim Park sits at home in his one-man studio in Ontario, Canada surrounded by piles of anime DVDs and a ton of tech.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2007

Not in Beijing for the Chinese

Standing among the glamorously attired revelers celebrating the opening of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing this month, Tokyo art dealer Sueo Mizuma had to yell to make himself heard.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2007

Restoring the innocence of childhood

With just a few days before International Children's Day (Nov. 20), it is high time to ponder the issues in the leadup to the event. This day is marked to commemorate globally the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was signed by the United Nations on Nov. 20, 1989, and celebrated as Children's...
MORE SPORTS
Nov 11, 2007

Suguri perseveres as rivals grow younger

Sometimes in life we tend to take things that endure for granted.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 11, 2007

Trapped between borders

Frontier Mosaic: Voices of Burma from the Lands In Between, by Richard Humphries. Orchid Press, 2007, 180 pp., $29.95 (paper) "A man on a motorbike comes by and we then follow him through the streets of Mae Sot." So begins one of the narrative vignettes from "Frontier Mosaic." Based on extensive travel...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 10, 2007

English teams continue to excel in Champions League

LONDON — The Premier League is now the power base of European football.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2007

Lucky little countries, or not?

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, New York — Western Europe's small democracies have, on the whole, been exceptionally fortunate. Freer and richer than almost anywhere else in the world, countries such as Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland would seem to have little to worry about. This is why the world normally...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2007

'Ten Ten'

Some directors are like fashion brands, churning out immediately identifiable product the same way again and again. Others are more like a hot stock: a spectacular rise, followed by an equally spectacular fall. There are also those who are like an underperforming athlete who suddenly changes into a worldbeater....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 8, 2007

New MOT curator aims to do a lot with a little

Yuko Hasegawa delivers instructions to her staff in an even, polite manner that often belies the burden they impose. It's a style perhaps more suited to a corporate boardroom than an art museum. But, since she took over as chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT), in April last year,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 7, 2007

Pride towers amid ongoing woes

In 1669, the Ainu leader Shakushain, who rose up and united the Ainu in rebellion against Japanese invaders, was called on to observe a truce, and invited to a banquet in his honor. The Matsumae clan, who had established a foothold on the island then called Ezo, now Hokkaido, by building a castle in...
Japan Times
LIFE / CLOSE-UP
Nov 4, 2007

Sue Palmer: The kids are not OK, top educator warns

To a growing legion of educated, enlightened and empowered mothers in Japan and abroad, Sue Palmer's advice on how to bring up children might sound — if not heard in context — too old-fashioned, too alarmist or even maybe too naive to prepare their loved ones for the rapidly changing, fiercely competitive...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Nov 2, 2007

Well-heeled in Chuo Ward

From the opulence of world-renown Ginza emporiums, to the glittering scales on the fish auctioned from slick palettes in Tsukiji market, Chuo Ward wheels and deals precious commodities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2007

Not so welcome to Japan any longer

HONG KONG — Japan is still purporting to celebrate "Yokoso Japan" or Welcome to Japan — just as it is preparing to inflict on every foreign visitor measures that are harassing, time-consuming, unnecessary, and would be illegal if done to Japanese citizens in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Nov 1, 2007

Trumped up war on 'terror'

My French aunt died the other day. She was lovely woman. But sadly she was also a terrorist.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 31, 2007

Wie to miss Japanese tourney

Michelle Wie will skip the Japanese tour's Casio World Open golf tournament next month while she recovers from hand injuries. "We have concluded that it is important for her to fully recover from her hand injuries before playing to her potential," said Yuichi Miyakawa, a spokesman for tournament sponsor...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Oct 31, 2007

Loopy Lisa offers a surreal take on cybersex

The Internet is a wonderful thing. By firing up your computer and jacking it into a wall socket, you have instant access to millions of pages of information. You can learn about any subject under the sun, share your knowledge with others, market your business, buy almost any product imaginable, keep...
LIFE / Digital
Oct 31, 2007

Whole worlds inside the screen

With a population of Net-cafe refugees in Japan reported in August to be 5,400, and the recent demise of a 28-year-old South Korean, identified as Lee, who reportedly died after playing an online computer game for 50 hours straight, many are wondering what online virtual worlds are all about.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 31, 2007

New gadget for beer promotion gives whiff of things to come

Nose for innovation: Sales campaigns have traditionally focused on just one of the five senses. Retailers love to deck out their products in eye candy — some of it even connected to the offerings on sale — to attract the attention of the shopping public. The sense of hearing also gets some attention,...
EDITORIALS
Oct 29, 2007

China and Japan

Despite recent statistics, China may not ever dominate Japan in the way many alarmists fear, but the balance of power between the two countries will undoubtedly continue to shift in the near future. The readjustment in relations, though, may occur in unexpected ways that are less obvious than government...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2007

France suits up as European full-timer

PARIS — When Nicolas Sarkozy became president of France, he declared that his country was back in mainstream Europe. Since then, Sarkozy has thrown himself into the European political fray.

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