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COMMENTARY
Mar 21, 2007

Crusading to cut carbon emissions

LONDON -- The obvious route is not always the best one. Throughout Europe the governments and political parties, as well as the central European Union Commission in Brussels, are all vying with each other to prove who is the greenest. The simplest way of doing this is to produce ever more ambitious plans...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 20, 2007

Demise of crime magazine historic

Making headlines worldwide last month was the publication of a magazine entitled "Kyogaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu ("Shocking Foreigner crime: the Underground File"). On sale at major Japanese bookstores and convenience stores nationwide, Gaijin Hanzai (GH) attributed criminality to nationality, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 18, 2007

Organized chaos marks a 'sacred' romp

When the clock struck midnight on the morning of February 18, 9,000 loinclothed men screaming the collective "yahoo" word "washoi" at the top of their voices threw themselves into a desperate struggle to grab and hold on to one of the two large or even any of the lesser "good-luck" sticks blessed by...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 16, 2007

'Perfume'

"Perfume" is a film that comes to us with impeccable art-house credentials: It's a story about aestheticism, the appreciation of smells, and thus bathed in sensuality. Its director, Tom Tykwer, is responsible for the art-house hit "Run Lola Run," as well as an ethereal adaptation of a Krzystof Kieslowski...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2007

Foreigners march for worker rights

Workers from all parts of the globe battled wind and rain Sunday to give speeches, performances and then trudge through the streets of Shibuya, Tokyo, calling for job security and equality for all.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 13, 2007

Mamoru Oshii

Animation and live-film writer and director Mamoru Oshii, 56, is best known for making the animated 1995 movie "Ghost in the Shell," which was a strong influence on the Hollywood movie "The Matrix" (1999). The work Oshii is most satisfied with is the 2004 sequel to that film, "Innocence" (which was nominated...
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2007

A romantic political platform

Regarding Hidesato Sakakibara's March 4 letter, "Myth of Japanese homogeneity": Education minister Bunmei Ibuki may be "clueless" about Japan's degree of homogeneity -- but where did Sakakibara get the idea that the "Jomon" and "Yayoi" people were "races"? And in what musty anthropology tome did he read...
CULTURE / Film
Mar 9, 2007

From Nazareth to Amsterdam

Director Hany Abu-Assad grew up in Nazareth before moving to Amsterdam to study at college with the goal of becoming an engineer. His route to filmmaking began as a boast. Trying to impress a girl he liked, he told her he was a director. He wasn't, but the seed was planted. With "Paradise Now" he received...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2007

Bans on ethnic and racial information well-founded

PARIS -- Race has always been a provocative subject when the needs of science and statistics intersect with politics. Now that debate is once again heating up in France, as the planned introduction of "ethnic statistics" has caused a fierce dispute that touches the very heart of French republicanism....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 4, 2007

What is becoming of my grandfather's wisdom?

These days it's tough to be a journalist. This may sound like a whinge, but whinges may sometimes reflect a real situation. Oh, it's fine if you agree with the line of thought acceptable to governments, religious organizations or interest groups. But if you dare hold up a mirror to them, you may run...
Japan Times
JAPAN / WHEN A CITY GOES BUST
Mar 1, 2007

Yubari tries downsizing to solve fiscal crisis

The announcement in June that Yubari, Hokkaido, has effectively gone bankrupt rolled like an earthquake across Japan, jolting numerous local governments suffering their own financial problems. This two-part series examines the situation in Yubari and in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, which also is in dire...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2007

A doctor comes to Yubari with the courage to dream

YUBARI, Hokkaido -- Since Yubari's financial collapse came to light last June, many residents have decided to jump from the sinking ship and seek more prosperous environs elsewhere.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 24, 2007

Nobody willing to take blame for fiasco with fans in France

LONDON -- Supporters are told they are the most important people in football . . . the sport's biggest sponsors . . . yet when they are randomly batoned and bloodied by French policemen, as around 500 Manchester United fans were at the Champions League tie against Lille, nobody seems responsible.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2007

In Harlem, living on a prayer

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in a narrow, unassuming Harlem church, three sopranos fill the room with the first reluctant notes of a gospel hymn. "Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hill," they sing.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 24, 2007

Toyoko Fry

Lady Fry, wife of British Ambassador Sir Graham Fry, is director of the Art of Dining Exhibition on March 7. All proceeds from this event go to Refugees International Japan, a volunteer organization with world-wide relief projects.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2007

Workers seek raises as firms plead need for competitiveness

Eager to share in the swelling profits of Japan Inc., unions are growing more aggressive in this year's "shunto" annual wage negotiations, seeking pay raises higher than those won a year ago.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2007

Roofs raised in prayer

Most people are only too aware of the devastating effects of global warming -- the breaking up of polar ice shelves, weather patterns going haywire, glaciers in retreat, that documentary starring Al Gore. But the thermal consequences of all the carbon that humans assiduously upload into the atmosphere...

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’