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JAPAN
Mar 9, 2007

Abe endorses LDP probe into wartime sex slaves

The government will provide documents to aid a new investigation by the Liberal Democratic Party into Japan's wartime sexual slavery, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Mar 9, 2007

This wine school gets better with age

Japan's oldest and largest wine school, the Academie du Vin, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Something of an institution in Japan's wine world, the academy has turned out more than 30,000 graduates in its two decades of operation. But rather than rest on its laurels, the school continues...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2007

Telling the truth at Yasukuni

Since last summer, I have been engaged in the process of modifying exhibits at Yasukuni Shrine's Yushukan history museum. The project is expected to be completed in July.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007

A spiritual conversation

The foreign music press has a weakness for weird Japanese music.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 18, 2007

Yoshu Chikanobu: the neglected master of Japanese prints

Chikanobu: Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints, by Bruce A. Coats, with essays by Allen Hockley, Kyoko Kurita and Joshua S. Mostow. Leiden: Hotei/Brill Publishing, 2006, 208 pp., 280 color illustrations, $99 (cloth) This is the first monograph in English on the Meiji Era print-maker Yoshu Chikanobu...
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2007

Libel suit attacks free speech: defendant

in some Western countries, and laws and the some courts in Europe and the United States protect people who are sued in this way. Legal experts say Japan has no similar safeguards. The article at the center of the case, "The Lies Behind the Hits/Does Johnny's Get Super-VIP treatment?!/The Honeymoon Between...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 4, 2007

Drawing on some humorous animal characteristics

A JAPANESE MENAGERIE: Animal Pictures by Kawanabe Kyosai, by Rosina Buckland, Timothy Clark and Shigeru Oikawa. London: The British Museum Press, 2006, 112 pp., £16.99 (cloth) The Meiji Era artist Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89) is said to have had his first memorable encounter with an animal as a little...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 14, 2007

Bullet train straight to the heart of Japan

Shinkansen: From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan, by Christopher P. Hood. Oxford: Routledge, 2006, 266 pp., $125 (cloth). The needle-nosed bullet train racing past the base of Mount Fuji is one of the most enduring images of Japan, a postcard mix of high-tech and traditional beauty. This retains...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 13, 2007

English foibles bear humorous and educational manga

It's New Year's Day and the Yamada family, dressed in kimono, gather around the table for a feast, and to review English phrases they learned the previous year, like "take a breather" or "playing hooky."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 6, 2007

Bear with me on this

Hiker beware. For the woods are full of bears. And they will get you if you don't watch out.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 31, 2006

Make sure you read the best Asia books

The holiday season is upon us, and as we look toward 2007, why not make a resolution to read some of the best books about Asia? We introduce a few of our contributors to help you decide what not to miss Donald Richie's selections: RASHOMON AND SEVENTEEN OTHER STORIES by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated...
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 24, 2006

Penmanship: A lost art is rediscovered

At this time of the year, you may have received and sent any number of Christmas cards. Or, in the Japanese tradition, you might still be panicking about writing all the New Year's postcards that the nation's army of mailmen and women endeavor to deliver on New Year's Day.
CULTURE / Books
Dec 24, 2006

Word power: 'The way' and the way you say it

OGYU SORAI'S PHILOSOPHICAL MASTERWORKS: The Bendo and Benmei, edited and translated by John A. Tucker. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 478 pp., $56 (cloth). One of the foremost thinkers of our time, Noam Chomsky, has argued that the United States is a rogue state. To arrive at this conclusion,...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Dec 19, 2006

Men's restrooms

Dear Alice,
CULTURE / Books
Dec 17, 2006

Getting the best view of Japan's history

JAPAN AND THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS: Complete Record of Reported Events 1853-1899, compiled and introduced by Terry Bennett. Global Oriental, 2006, 411 pp., with illustrations, £125 (cloth). The Illustrated London News was among the first journals to carry illustrations of contemporary events. The...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Dec 5, 2006

"Bad Kitty," "Junie B. Jones ... is on Her Way!"

"Bad Kitty," Michele Jaffe, Puffin Books; 2006; 294 pp. It's ha-ha-hard being a teenager, particularly if you're Jas Callihan, all of 17, half-Jamaican half-Irish, with a height to rival King Kong's and a nonexistent chest. In author Michele Jaffe's hands, nothing could be more hysterical than the gaffes...
EDITORIALS
Nov 26, 2006

A line in the sand for Ian Thorpe

When he was 18, Australia's golden giant of swimming, Ian Thorpe, remarked, "I don't know where the line is in the sand, but when I get there, I hope to jump over it and continue improving all of my career."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 26, 2006

The persistence of culture

KYOTO: A Cultural Sojourn, photos by Gorazd Vilhar, text by Charlotte Anderson. Tokyo: IBC Publishing, 2006, 116 pp., profusely illustrated, 2,800 yen (cloth). The final plate in this exceptionally gorgeous photo collection is the jagged, mirrored facade of Kyoto Station, a structure so spectacularly...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Nov 21, 2006

Samurai Scarecrows

Dear Alice,
EDITORIALS
Nov 19, 2006

Law students who can think

The annual national bar exam was once reputed to be Japan's most difficult examination. Virtually anybody could take the exam, but only about 3 percent of the applicants passed it. Some hapless applicants spent many years preparing for it, riveted to the text of a compendium of laws that became their...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 12, 2006

No ordinary guide to China

SHENZHEN: A Travelogue From China, by Guy Delisle, translated by Helge Dascher. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 2006, 152 pp., $19.95 (cloth). Surely those dinosaurs who believed that comics were suitable only for stories of men in tights have all died off. With the popularity of comics growing by leaps...
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2006

On cue with the ministry's script

The recent revelation that the government has manipulated the process of promoting education reform raises the basic question of whether the government is morally qualified for education-related administration at a time when the Diet is discussing a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006

Clues to living in a stress-filled society

We live in a high-pressure, high-stress society. In Japan, the symptoms of extreme levels of stress are seen in the "death from overwork" syndrome and a tragically high suicide rate. Vicious bullying among children is likewise a reflec- tion of this stress.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Abe says he will tackle Constitution, including Article 9

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to revise the Constitution, including the war-renouncing Article 9, because he believes it has become outdated over the 60 years since the end of the war, a government official quoted him as saying Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2006

Where's the will to break energy status quo?

Berating the Kyoto Protocol for failing to cut greenhouse-gas emissions is a bit like kicking the dog at a party when someone passes wind. Sure, it's nice to skirt the blame, but don't fault the Kyoto accord for society's flatulence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2006

An Asian woman becomes aware

Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2006

Pope showed bias in misguided moment

HONG KONG -- What theological devil tempted Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month to make a byzantine reference to a long-forgotten Christian emperor who, under siege in Constantinople (now Istanbul) from Muslim forces, made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad's instruction to spread Islam by...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Tracing the genealogy of gekiga

Presented a copy of the latest English-language collection of his work, Yoshihiro Tatsumi turns it over in his hands and says, "This looks too beautiful to be a comic book."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Sep 15, 2006

Ristorante Lastricato: Such quality, such flavor. Bellissimo!

Lastricato lies on the main street of Ushigome, a quiet neighborhood not far from Kagurazaka but quite distinct in character. At first glance, it looks typical of the many mid-range little ristoranti that dot the city these days. Compact but not cramped, chic but not self-conscious, it is worth dressing...

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan