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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 9, 2009

Rumpus on campus

Illegal arrests, forced expulsions, "kidnappings" by security police and beatings by hired thugs. No, it's not another dispatch from a violent banana republic. Those accusations come from the leafy back-streets of Ichigaya, Tokyo, home to a branch campus of the prestigious Hosei University.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2009

Feasible anti-emission goal

In July 2008 the Japanese government adopted a target for 2050 of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent from 2005 levels. At the same time, a special panel was created to deliberate midterm reduction goals (through 2020).
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2009

Pandemic test eyed for cell phones

A few months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 7, 2009

Our columnist's 'drug runs' are happily over

Whenever I visit the United States, friends ask me to pick up things for them, usually over-the-counter (OTC) drugs that are cheaper in the States than they are in Japan. I always return with this booty as nervous as if I were carrying a brick of hash, having once been told by a colleague how customs...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 7, 2009

All aboard for Saitama's splendors

"Get ready!" comes the call from Kato, our river guide who is standing at his post in the stern of our wooden longboat. My gaze snaps forward, scanning the waterway.
COMMENTARY
Jun 6, 2009

Dodging a CO2 hangover

Officials from Japan and other parts of the world are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until June 12 for more negotiations on a new set of global arrangements to prevent runaway climate change. The deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012, is supposed to be clinched at a climate summit convened...
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2009

Did media go too far on swine flu?

The swine flu scare seems to be over, at least in Japan and at least for now.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 5, 2009

Discovering an unexpected gem

Skeptic that I am, upon hearing there was an historical exhibition on the lives and art of Japan's Buddhist nuns, I assumed that this would be a drab show of temple artifacts and feminine articles veneered in the dust of incense smoke. As the show is largely curated by Western female academics, I also...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 5, 2009

Toilet humor set for Tokyo theater

The title may be cheesy, but there's plenty that's memorable about the content of this politically astute musical, too.
BUSINESS
Jun 2, 2009

Fallout to hit Japan, parts makers acutely

General Motors Corp.'s filing for bankruptcy protection Monday will have a wide impact on Japan's economy, ranging from further reduced U.S. consumption and car sales to fallout hitting the nation's parts makers, experts said.
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2009

Students held in gang rape

KYOTO (Kyodo) Police said Monday they have arrested six male students of the Kyoto University of Education on suspicion of gang-raping a 19-year-old woman at a Kyoto pub.
Reader Mail
May 31, 2009

Obama riding up the wrong track

The May 16 Kyodo article "U.S. wants to study Shinkansen technology" was another perfect example of the bread-and- circus pledges being fed to the American public by the new administration in Washington. This time officials are waving the image of bright new, high-speed rail lines spanning the continent....
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
May 31, 2009

Open mind key to Hillman's success

First excerpt in a two-part series of updated "You Gotta Have Wa"
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 31, 2009

Agriculture maverick, a near-death experience and international-marriage drama

As the worldwide recession continues, Japan is seriously reconsidering its agricultural policies in terms of both exports and self-sufficiency. Moreover, ways must be found to encourage young people to make careers out of farming.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 31, 2009

Agriculture maverick, a near-death experience and international-marriage drama

As the worldwide recession continues, Japan is seriously reconsidering its agricultural policies in terms of both exports and self-sufficiency. Moreover, ways must be found to encourage young people to make careers out of farming.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009

Brahman

You might expect a band named after the Sanskrit term for "absolute reality" to be a bit, well, pretentious. But if their moniker is evocative of patchouli, long beards and even longer guitar solos, Brahman's music remains firmly grounded.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 29, 2009

Dissecting the cave on canvas

One of the greatest mysteries of art is what exactly the flat two-dimensional surface of the canvas is, and what it is for. The mundane answer, of course, is that it's a convenient rectangular surface on which to place and display aesthetically pleasing colors and lines. But this does not really explain...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2009

Deciphering Iran

Tragedy often results when individual lives are caught up in great power politics. When state interests are placed on the scale, individuals are invariably overwhelmed — at best they are pawns in bigger games. It is not yet clear how journalist Roxana Saberi fits into the larger mosaic of U.S.-Iran...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
May 27, 2009

Appreciating kanji can unleash your inner art critic

As exotic as kanji (Sino-Japanese logographs) may appear to the uninitiated, most of those we encounter in everyday situations are intended to convey notices and other mundane or essential information, such as 禁煙 kin'en (no smoking) or 駅長室 (ekichō-shitsu, stationmaster's office).

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.