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EDITORIALS
Nov 16, 2010

Tax reform needs vision

The government and the Democratic Party of Japan have started discussions on tax reform for fiscal 2011 and beyond. Both should learn a lesson from their experience just after the DPJ came to power in September 2009. At that time discussions at the government's Tax Commission did not go smoothly. The...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Kan holds talks on disputes with Hu, Medvedev

YOKOHAMA — Prime Minister Naoto Kan finally managed to hold bilateral meetings Saturday with his Chinese and Russian counterparts in Yokohama, giving him a chance to sort out diplomatic tensions that have emerged over separate territorial rows.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Islamic community lays down roots

Noon prayers at Tokyo Camii, also known as Tokyo Mosque, began peacefully with Imam Ensari Yenturk reciting verses from the Quran, while worshippers, who included a middle-aged Japanese man, bowed and offered prayers toward Mecca.
LIFE
Nov 14, 2010

Bali beckons 'literary tourists'

Ubud, an enchanting town in tropical Bali's undulating hills, has arrived with panache on the global literary scene.
COMMUNITY
Nov 13, 2010

Dream becomes reality for Scottish manga creator

It sits in a place of beauty, incongruously bordered between Japanese stone art and a vivid blue ink painting: "2000 A.D.," a classic British comic book from the 1980s. The apocalypse orange cover shrieks "Revenge of the Warlock" but — muted by a plastic overlay to protect its condition — the sci-fi...
CULTURE / Music
Nov 12, 2010

Indie breakout, 'kimchibilly' rockers bring Seoul to Japan

While K-pop continues to gain greater recognition worldwide, South Korea's prolific, small underground-music scene is still struggling to find audiences outside of Seoul.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2010

Managing vs. throttling

The police Wednesday identified a Japan Coast Guard member in Kobe as a suspect in the Nov. 4 leak onto YouTube of video footage showing a Sept. 7 collision between a Chinese trawler and two Japan Coast Guard patrol ships off the Senkaku Islands. Earlier, documents apparently linked to the security police's...
JAPAN
Nov 10, 2010

Hotels find profit in catering to families

One autumn afternoon in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi Prefecture, a group of children and their parents were driving to a field to pick fresh vegetables for pizzas they planned to make there.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2010

Miniskirts hit Mount Fuji as 'yama girls' take on trekking

Forget the ice ax and ¥50,000 climbing boots. The "mode du jour" for today's mountain hikers is the miniskirt and leggings.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2010

Gillard fighting rough seas over Asian refugee flow

SYDNEY — Is she up to the job? That rude question is being spoken out loud by Australian voters in the wake of the first Southeast Asian tour of new Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 9, 2010

Muslims in shock over police 'terror' leak

This time last month, Mohamed Salmi says he was just another anonymous foreigner living and working in Japan. Today he fears his life here may be over, and receives phone calls from reporters asking him if he is an al-Qaida "terrorist."
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2010

Building a 'Little Yangon' in Tokyo

With its proximity to the Waseda and Gakushuin universities and crisscross of train lines, Takadanobaba is known to most Tokyoites as either a college town or a commuting hub. It's a cheap place to go for a drink, a place to grab a quick bite on the way home from work, or perhaps to pick up some used...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2010

A Kyushu tale of two cities in one

Fukuoka, the biggest city in Kyushu and a key gateway linking Japan to the rest of Asia, has the air of a modern metropolis. But the city is also rich in traditional culture and its residents' long-standing hospitality toward visitors is well known.
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2010

Erosion of Argentina's wealth and work ethic

BUENOS AIRES — Perhaps there is no better observation of the government of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner than the one given by Mario Vargas Llosa, the latest Nobel laureate in literature. Vargas Llosa said Kirchner was leading a corruption-riddled government.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 7, 2010

Welsh worries for Japan's woods

Larch trees were introduced to Britain from eastern Europe in the 17th century for their ornamental value in gardens — and the larch is indeed a pretty tree.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 5, 2010

Flamenco now dancing to a very different beat

Once a year, Hiroki Sato leaves behind the bustle of Tokyo to return to the hills of Andalusia, Spain, the place where flamenco was born. He can barely walk the streets for a minute before someone calls his name, and in a village where flamenco courses through the very veins of the community, impromptu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2010

Architect's floating future vision

The inexorable rise of Tokyo Sky Tree on the city's skyline has once again raised the question of what a future Tokyo might look like. The exhibition "Sousuke Fujimoto Architects: Future Visions — Forest, Cloud, Mountain" at the Watarium Museum attempts to get people thinking along these lines, while...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Nov 2, 2010

'Homogeneous,' 'unique' myths stunt discourse

Last month I attended an international lecture by one of Japanology's senior scholars. I'll call him Dr. Frink. Decorated by the Japanese government for his contributions to the field, he talked about Japan as a "unique" state that never really changes, even as it slips to third place behind China's...
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Nov 2, 2010

Tokyo: What are your feelings about the Nov. 7 poll in Myanmar, the first for two decades?

Ashin HtarwaraMonkAs everyone knows, this is a sham election. It's controlled by the military government, so nobody — no Burmese in any country — recognizes this election.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2010

No war orphans to visit this year

Many Japanese children became separated from their parents in northeastern China in the confusing days toward the end of World War II and were left behind. They are the children of those who immigrated to Manchukuo, Japan's puppet state. These children became victims of Japan's wartime policy of sending...
COMMENTARY
Oct 31, 2010

The West's Mideast obsession

LONDON — The media in the Middle East carry a lot of Middle Eastern stories, of course, but why do most of the other media in the world do the same?
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2010

More effective disclosure

The freedom of information law went into force April 1, 2001. But since then, there have been persistent criticisms of the current information disclosure system. Decisions made by government ministries and agencies in response to disclosure requests have appeared arbitrary. Reasons given for refusing...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 31, 2010

Why does distance ameliorate a war crime?

NEW YORK — One aspect of the modern sense of war, be it delusional, duplicitous or both, was palpable in two articles paired at the top of the front page of The New York Times toward the end of September. The headline of one said "Drug Use Cited In Killings of 3 Civilians"; the headline of the other,...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2010

Hearing China's take on Senkakus

The most recent territorial dispute over the Senkaku (Japanese name)/Diaoyutai (Chinese name) Islands, located southwest of Okinawa (or north of Taiwan if you prefer), was triggered on Sept. 7 when a Chinese trawler attempted to ram two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The blurry details of the collision...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2010

Dolphin hunters, activists set to hold parley in Taiji

A town whose annual dolphin hunt was bloodily depicted in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove" is hosting the first-ever meeting between antihunting activists and its fishermen to try to find common ground between the two sides.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 29, 2010

Tokimonsta serves up 'future beats' on her post-hip-hop menu

DJ and producer Jennifer Lee, better known as Tokimonsta, is in the business of "future beats."

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight