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JAPAN
Feb 29, 2008

Smoking ban elusive despite WHO warning

The World Health Organization issued a report in February on the global tobacco epidemic, urging countries to enforce effective smoking bans in public places.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 29, 2008

Yoshihiko Matsui: The return of the underground king

Born in 1956, Yoshihiko Matsui worked with indie icon Sogo Ishii on his early films, including the seminal 1980 biker pic "Kuruizaki Thunder Road (Crazy Thunder Road)."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Feb 25, 2008

Is ethnic passing finally becoming passe?

NEW YORK — Just about the time Bliss Broyard's book "One Drop" came out last year, I received the latest book from my prolific friend Inuhiko Yomota, "Japan's Marrano Literature."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 24, 2008

Rightwingers who scream the loudest allowed to win in Japan

Major media coverage of the legal standoff between the Japan Teachers Union (Nikkyoso) and the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo had little effect on the standoff itself, mainly because coverage didn't really take off until everything was over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 22, 2008

Takagi taps the color of sound

Is Masakatsu Takagi a musician that makes video art or a video artist that makes music?
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 22, 2008

Manga makes it to the museum

More than anything, it reminded me of the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau. Not the new, four-winged fortress near Tennoz Isle, but the old and cramped one in Otemachi. And it wasn't because of the exposed plumbing running along the corridor ceilings. No, it was the number of people inside; they seemed...
COMMENTARY
Feb 21, 2008

Aussie personalist diplomacy

Australia is never short of surprises. One is the way it has produced a prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who can talk directly with the Chinese leadership in their language. Reports say his Mandarin Chinese is excellent.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2008

Loss of father to ALS inspires play about disease

The death of their father a decade ago gave Rumi and Takuya Iryo a new goal in their lives — raising public awareness of the disease he died from, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2008

Chasing out rich foreigners

LONDON — Of all the unwise policies of recent years that have steadily undermined the Thatcher legacy of British economic dynamism and enterprise, perhaps the worst and most ill-judged is the current attempt to drive out the super-rich foreigners who have hitherto found Britain such an attractive place...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2008

China's path deserves respect, not fear

LOS ANGELES — Let's not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Congressional grumblings about currency and balance-of-trade issues, and equal grumps from the U.S. Democratic Party's leftwing (over human-rights issues), could leave the impression that U.S. policy toward China has been a dismal failure....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 17, 2008

Vultures circle as idol Koda licks her wounds

If the furor over comments that J-pop superidol Kumi Koda made on the radio a few weeks ago teaches us anything, it's to "be careful what you joke about." There are two problems with using humor in public: Either the joke falls flat and nobody laughs, or the topic is beyond the pale and people are offended...
Reader Mail
Feb 17, 2008

U.S. needs to work on its PR

As an American living in Japan, I found the reports of this incident very disturbing. For once I would like to see headlines that say "U.S. Military Contributes to Rebuilding Post-Typhoon Damaged Areas," or "U.S. Military Seen as a Positive for Local Communities," or, better yet, "U.S. Military Officers...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 15, 2008

What to do with all that unwanted green tea?

To the uninitiated, the idea of a green-tea recycling market is likely to inspire visions of used tea-leaves rescued from strainers. Not so for Nobuyuki Kakizaki, the manager of tea-shop Uogashi Meicha Tsukiji Shinten, located in Tokyo's Tsukiji district. For him it's an event held early each February...
COMMENTARY
Feb 13, 2008

Our responsibility to protect

WATERLOO, Canada — Then Secretary General Kofi Annan's famous "challenge of humanitarian intervention" in September 1999 provoked a furious backlash from many countries. Yet a mere six years later, the norm, reformulated as the "responsibility to protect" (R2P), was endorsed by the world leaders gathered...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Feb 13, 2008

Let science empower you

The setting: The 350-year-old Royal Society in London, whose magnificent neo-Classical base overlooks the Mall, which has Buckingham Palace at one end of the boulevard and Trafalgar Square at the other. The speaker: Lord Rees of Oxford, the Astronomer Royal. Martin Rees is the current president of the...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2008

Wise man from Japan now the black pope

HONG KONG — An American Maryknoll priest in Hong Kong preached that the greatest blessings in life come when you least expect them, a rain shower on a hot day, a friend unexpectedly turning up, remission in a crippling illness, an inspiring idea just when your brain seemed to have turned into blancmange....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2008

War rages against 'elites' of tolerance

AMSTERDAM — When "tolerance" becomes a term of abuse in a place like the Netherlands, you know that something has gone seriously wrong. The Dutch always took pride in being the most tolerant people on Earth.
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2008

Let the Crown Princess breathe

Regarding the Feb. 7 Associated Press article "Crown Princess panned for living high": The Crown Princess's free-time activities make up one of the biggest nonstories I think I've ever read. Going riding and dining at a Mexican restaurant are hardly indulgences that are going to tip the country back...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 10, 2008

There's no way of stopping the poisoned food sent from abroad

Last week, when the Chinese government sent five experts to talk with Japanese counterparts about those pesticide-tainted frozen gyoza (Chinese dumplings) imported from their country, the head of the team, Li Chunfeng, expressed concern over the feelings of Japanese consumers. He also offered a veiled...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2008

Tsukiji too popular to function

Visiting the famed Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo's Chuo Ward is an awesome experience for foreign tourists and it can never be too early in the morning to go.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Gas levy vital for maintaining rural roads

Provisional higher tax rates for gasoline and cars are now the main bone of contention in the divided Diet. The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc has submitted a bill to extend the rates, due to expire March 31, for another 10 years. Revenues from the levies are used to build and repair...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2008

Celebrating black Americans in Yamanashi

American diplomat Ayanna Hobbs is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm. She's just finished her weekly Japanese class, and thinks it the most amazing coincidence that her wonderful teacher happens to be from Yamanashi, the prefecture that lies so close to her heart.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 1, 2008

Sergio Mendes

"It's been a mutual love affair," says Sergio Mendes explaining his popularity in Japan by phone from Los Angeles. "That's why I come almost every year."
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2008

Women key to fixing demographic crunch

KYOTO — Japan, the world's most rapidly graying nation, can learn from Europe how to cope with an aging society, especially in such areas as increasing the participation of women, according to experts and journalists at a recent conference.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’