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JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Middle school teacher to sue Tokyo over 'illegal' dismissal

A junior high school teacher who was fired in March plans to sue the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and its education board over what she is calling illegal punishment, sources familiar with the case said Wednesday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 12, 2006

Owning the bragging rights to work addiction

The Japanese were once famed for their work ethic. Now, shigoto-chudoku (workaholism) has been franchised out to the rest of the world and become a fact of globalized life.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 27, 2006

Korean voices from Japan's colonial past

HIDDEN TREASURES: Lives of First-Generation Korean Women in Japan, by Jackie J. Kim, introduction by Sonia Ryang. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2005, 240 pp., with b/w photos, $32.95 (paper). Jackie Kim, an unaffiliated freelance writer, has here compiled the oral histories of 10 first-generation...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Aug 23, 2006

Bottled water and problems that flow

Having just spent several weeks in the United States, I can report with confidence that, more than ever before, Americans have their hands full.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2006

Rakugo and a noisy neighbor

Rakugo Ewan, teaching in Tokyo, is interested in Japanese story-telling. "I don't know if you have heard but story-telling in the U.K. is enjoying quite a revival. Edinburgh has the first center for story-telling ever created in the world, funded by the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the Church of...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 6, 2006

A blue mood for poetry

POEMS OF DAYS PAST / ARISHI HI NO UTA, by Nakahara Chuya, translations by Ry Beville. The American Book Company, 2005, 81 pp., $19.99 (paper). RIGHT EYE IN TWILIGHT / MIGI-ME NO BYAKUYA, by Ban'ya Natsuishi, translations by Ban'ya Natsuishi & Jack Galmitz. Wasteland Press, 2006, 58 pp., $12 (paper). Both...
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2006

Paper hits North's missiles, China buildup

nuclear (arms) issue, are a destabilizing factor for the entire international community," the report reads. "The range of North Korean missiles is expected to be extended (farther), including possible derivatives of Taepodong-2 missiles," the paper, released Tuesday, says in reference to Pyongyang's...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 1, 2006

Can NHK justify its huge collection costs?

NHK spends a massive 76.9 billion yen per year on its fee collection system, which equates to some 12.4 percent of the national broadcaster annual operating income.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2006

Tokyo school to get nationalists' civics text

The Tokyo metropolitan board of education said Thursday it will put a junior high school civics textbook authored by nationalists in one of its schools in the next academic year, metro officials said.
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2006

December to see TOEIC speaking, writing tests

Responding to growing demand for tools to assess English speaking and writing abilities, U.S.-based Education Testing Service said it will launch speaking and writing sections of the Test of English for International Communication here in December.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 18, 2006

Morijio

Dear Alice,
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

The difference gaman can make

THE ART OF GAMAN: Arts and Crafts From the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946, by Delphine Hirasuna. Berkeley/Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 125 pp., 2005, $35 (cloth). In Japanese, the word "gaman" means the display of calm forbearance and poise in the face of adverse circumstances beyond one's...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 16, 2006

For Fumiko Hayashi, not every cloud has a silver lining

FLOATING CLOUDS by Fumiko Hayashi, translated by Lane Dunlop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006, 328 pp., $27.50 (cloth). Toward the end of her life Fumiko Hayashi (1903-1951) said that she did not think her work would outlive her. Happily, she was quite wrong: She remains one of Japan's most...
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2006

Japan, Chile agree to continue FTA talks

Japan and Chile agreed to continue working to settle their differences on market access in goods, after wrapping up their latest round of talks Friday on a free-trade agreement, a Japanese official said.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2006

FTA negotiations with Chile resume

Japan and Chile began five days of official talks Monday in Tokyo aimed at concluding a bilateral free-trade agreement by the end of the year.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 27, 2006

Beckham's illness news to Eriksson

MUNICH -- Sven Goran Eriksson admitted England captain David Beckham kept him in the dark about the illness that caused him to vomit on the pitch after scoring his match-winning free-kick against Ecuador on Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2006

Shakespeare with a mouse-click

'Can this cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?" Shakespeare wondered in his play "Henry V." "Or may we cram within this wooden O the very casques that did affright the air at Agincourt?" Since the curtain rose this month on a new Web site that puts all of Shakespeare's plays at our fingertips, those...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 24, 2006

Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey

A new book published by the University of Hawaii Press appeared recently on bookshelves in Japan. Painstakingly written by Beatrice M. Bodart-Bailey, it is titled "The Dog Shogun: The Personality and Policies of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi."
BUSINESS
Jun 13, 2006

Official nixes latest WTO proposal on farm tariffs

Vice farm minister Mamoru Ishihara said Monday he is opposed to the latest WTO proposal calling for an average cut of 54 percent in tariffs on farm goods and based on ideas put forward by the Group of 20, a coalition of developing-country exporters.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 14, 2006

Letting history speak for itself

TRADITIONAL JAPANESE ARTS AND CULTURE: An Illustrated Sourcebook, edited by Stephen Addiss, Gerald Groemer and J. Thomas Rimer. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 254 pp., 64 color plates, $29 (paper). For nearly half a century, an important text for learning about Japanese culture in general...
JAPAN
May 13, 2006

Hussein's novel coming

A historical novel that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein wrote shortly before the U.S.-led invasion of his country in March 2003 will go on sale in Japan on May 19, the publisher said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 30, 2006

Could the fortress have been saved?

SINGAPORE BURNING: Heroism and Surrender in WWII, by Colin Smith. London: Penguin, 2006, 512pp., £9.99 (paper). Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore, "The worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history." This inglorious surrender to Japan on Feb. 15, 1942, came about largely because...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 30, 2006

Shower of light on Eastern philosophy

LIGHT FROM THE EAST: A Gathering of Asian Wisdom, by Frank MacHovec. Stone Bridge Press, 175 pp., 2005, $16.95 (paper). The notes to this book tell us that author Frank MacHovec is a retired psychologist who began his study of Eastern philosophies as a Marine during the Korean War, one who wanted to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 25, 2006

Toshie Kobayashi

Toshie Kobayashi, 76, has been working six days a week, since she was 14 years old. As a highly skilled typesetter, she made a good living until the 1980s, when digital systems replaced her and analog typesetting machines. At 54, she registered with a cleaning service, and ever since then she has been...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 23, 2006

Detective fiction written for the love of Tokyo

THE SNAKE THAT BOWED, by Edward Seidensticker, based on works by Okamoto Kido. Tokyo: Printed Matter Press, 2006, 144 pp., 1500 yen (paper). Edward Seidensticker, the most eminent translator from Japanese to English, is a man of many parts. Not only has he given us "The Tale of Genji," "The Makioka Sisters,"...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2006

Science crisis in the making

Last November I delivered a lecture on complex-system economics at a world-famous institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I also attended a conference on science education in the same city, along with a physicist from Turkey who was visiting there at the time.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 11, 2006

Linguistic art of cutting and running gets a tweak

Last week, a girlfriend of mine was at an over-30s-only go-kon (singles drinking party) and came back sorely disappointed. Her gripe was that all the men there -- handsome, well-off and working for high-profile companies -- were nigegoshi (noncommittal, making ready to cut and run) from start to finish....

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