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COMMENTARY
May 13, 2005

China cracks rights window

HONG KONG -- Last month, China issued a white paper that purported to show progress it had made on the human-rights front in 2004. It was immediately dismissed by human-rights organizations as little more than propaganda. While this may well be true, there are signs of significant progress on human rights....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 17, 2005

Make no bones about it, this place is like nowhere on Earth

The view is daunting. Colossal. Inland, thunderheads loom over distant mountains signaling heavy rains in the interior. To our left, considerably nearer, a thick bank of billowing sea fog rises several hundred meters high. The sun is just visible behind it, pale and wan; a ghostly eye peering down on...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Mar 25, 2005

Chummy in the Chome

Shinjuku Ni-chome is still alive and thriving as the headquarters for Tokyo's gay bar scene. Unlike other party centers in Tokyo, I wouldn't say much has changed of late in the Chome, as the area is usually called by those who frequent it. No one ever calls it Shinjuku Ni-chome because that would be...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2005

Poison pill an effective means of getting the best deal: U.S. expert

Hostile takeovers and ways to repel them are the hottest topics in Japan's corporate boardrooms these days.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2005

Japan and U.S. up the ante on Taiwan

HONG KONG -- China's relations with Japan, already strained because of territorial disputes and differing perceptions of history -- in particular, because of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's memorial to its war dead, including Class A war criminals...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2005

Finding Japan's place in the world

The Japan-United States security alliance took a critical step last weekend. The two governments released a joint declaration that made explicit what has long been left unsaid in their thinking about regional security. The new statement provides a foundation for the continued vitality and relevance of...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2005

Freedom, when it suits U.S.

No one who watched the exhilaration and exuberance of Iraqis facing down the threat of bullets in order to cast their ballots can fail to have been moved. And for those who were actually in Iraq to witness this firsthand, battle-hardened and cynical journalists included, it must have been bliss indeed...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 30, 2004

What is behind 'shocking' Hokkaido bid for World Heritage Site status?

Recently I was lucky enough to visit no fewer than six World Heritage Sites (WHS) in northern India. An astonishing cultural, ethnic and biological diversity is well represented in India's array of national parks (NP) and WHS, and, my goodness, they have a huge wow factor.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 20, 2004

NGO builds bridges between Japan, U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Most Americans still think of Japan as having a "weak" economy. Japan's reputation in the United States from an economic standpoint has not fully recovered from the bursting of the 1980s' "bubble."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 12, 2004

Nihon TV's "Sekai wo Kakeru Hiro-tachi" and more

The aura surrounding people who become successful abroad is perhaps more pronounced in Japan than in other countries. There's a sense that the cultural gulf separating Japan from the rest of the world is deeper and more difficult to cross, so when someone does it successfully it seems more impressive....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2004

'Dirty bomb' threat rising

SYDNEY -- The day terrorists start blackmailing democratic governments with homemade "dirty bombs" is closer than people think. World leaders must act now to prevent such a demonstrable nuclear catastrophe.
BUSINESS
Nov 11, 2004

EBC upset over bill to ban prepaid cell phones

The European Business Community in Japan on Wednesday criticized a plan by Japan's governing coalition to present a bill to the Diet, possibly during the current session, to ban the use and sale of prepaid mobile phones on grounds that they are often used in crimes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 10, 2004

Manga animates new millennium

Manga took a giant leap into its future on New Year's Day 1963, when space-age cartoon images from Osamu Tezuka's famed comic book "Tetsuwa Atomu (Astro Boy)" came to life in Japan's first original animated TV series. This was the birth of anime, which has now mushroomed into a multi-billion-dollar global...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 2, 2004

Justice reaches dead-end

In accusing 1,039 Japanese of war crimes at the Yokohama War Crimes Tribunals, 123 of whom were sentenced to death, U.S. officials apparently sought not to seek justice in a legal sense, but to establish the principle of ultimate accountability and set a benchmark for the punishment of future war criminals....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 30, 2004

Princeton chief praises Japan's scientists

The president of Princeton University has praised Japan for its contributions to the sciences and expressed hope that U.S. antiterrorism measures leave room for talented scholars from abroad to visit the United States.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 2, 2004

"A Gathering Light," "The Coldest Day in the Zoo"

"A Gathering Light," Jennifer Donnelly, Bloomsbury; 2004; 383 pp. "Tell the truth!" It's not just children who get that all the time: Writers do, too. The only difference is that writers don't have to treat the truth too literally, as Jennifer Donnelly shows us in "A Gathering Light."
Features
Aug 22, 2004

Keeping it in the club

On Oct. 16 last year, Hans van der Lugt, a correspondent for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, telephoned the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry with a simple inquiry.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Aug 6, 2004

A feel of the real Edo

The Marunouchi business district, the national government center of Kasumigaseki, and the Diet building in Nagatacho all stand on land that in the Edo Period (1603-1868) was reserved exclusively for daimyo lords.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2004

Winning battles, losing wars

The war against terror has forced governments to rethink national security. Protecting against invisible, anonymous threats requires extraordinary vigilance and exceptional measures. Ultimately, victory in this battle will rest on a broad consensus on what we are fighting for; only then can governments...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2004

Moderate Islam's voice must be heard

CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- The fact that every day a new "armchair" terrorism expert appears can be viewed as a welcome sign, for it shows that there is growing alertness to the new challenge of our times. Terrorism experts continue to argue over the best ways to confront unimaginable threats, but frequently...
BUSINESS / INDUSTRY TRENDS
Jul 7, 2004

Web surfers turn to fiber optics

Japan boasts some of the fastest and cheapest broadband services in the world, thanks to fierce competition waged by new entrants like Softbank Corp. against telecommunications behemoth NTT Corp.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2004

A step in the right direction

Japan will soon express its willingness to become a party to the twin protocols of the four Geneva conventions that were approved in 1949 to protect war victims and prevent the kinds of abuses that had occurred during World War II. The supplementary protocol agreements, adopted in 1977, set humanitarian...
BUSINESS
Jun 19, 2004

Shareholders' meetings to begin in earnest

Shareholders' meetings will get into full swing next week, with giants Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. meeting investors during the annual events.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 16, 2004

A 'Brazil-ness' beyond soccer and samba

I suppose that without some sort of unifying theme, every exhibition of artworks would be titled, simply and dully: "Art Exhibition." And so museums base their shows on a period, genre or, more recently, an intriguing turn of phrase. This I welcome, but exhibitions curated on the basis of the artists'...
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2004

Current account surplus jumps 23.1%

Japan's current account surplus for April widened 23.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.58 trillion yen, backed by strong exports, the main engine behind the country's economic recovery, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 5, 2004

Taking the long road to nowhere

Out on the straight freeways of higher enlightenment, many an astute Japan watcher has tied the cautious, noncommittal qualities of Japanese personality to various cultural and linguistic features, such as tightknit group society and ambiguous language structure.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2004

Koizumi diplomacy takes a bold step

BANGKOK -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to be commended for his pluck in venturing to North Korea at a time like this. Indeed, given the political maelstrom he is stepping into, his bold move has every chance of failure. There is predictable opposition from Japan's aging legions of anticommunists,...
Features
May 16, 2004

On the trail of manifest destiny

Two hundred years ago this week, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their Corps of Discovery set out to explore the American West. Sunday TIMEOUT asks what the expedition, its leaders and the Shoshone woman who was their guide still mean to us today
COMMENTARY
May 15, 2004

Has President Chen learned his lesson?

HONG KONG -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who narrowly won a disputed election in March, is without doubt the Bush administration's least favorite democratically elected leader.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan