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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 29, 2008

Akihabara killer followed plot mapped by the media

After serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki was hanged on June 17, some death-penalty opponents wondered out loud if Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama had signed the execution order as a response to the indiscriminate murders of seven people on the streets of Akihabara nine days earlier. Of course, Hatoyama didn't...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 29, 2008

286 reasons to reflect on a Japan long gone, but worthy of reflection

I recently gave a talk on Japanese culture to a group of foreign students at Tokyo Institute of Technology. They hailed from a variety of places, including Scandinavia, the United States and Asian countries. I began by asking them to give me a keyword or two that they thought characterized Japanese life...
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Give caregivers room to choose

There has been quite a lot of debate of late about the use of immigrant labor from other Asian countries in medical jobs in Japan. The Japanese government hopes that an influx of foreign medical workers will at least partially offset this country's desperate shortage of qualified people in the medical...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 29, 2008

Quirky celebrity habits on TV

The premises for variety shows can get pretty arcane, none more so than the one that anchors "Ochanoma no Shinjitsu: Moshikashite Watashi Dake? (The Truth in the Parlor: Am I the Only One?)" (TV Tokyo, Monday, 9 p.m.).
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 29, 2008

Having faith in traveling

EXCURSIONS IN IDENTITY: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender and Status in Edo Japan, by Laura Nenzi. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 267 pp., illustrations IX, $57 (cloth) During Japan's Edo Period (1603-1867), Dr. Laura Nenzi tells us, "physical mobility (traveling along horizontal...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

Odile Lundy: Learning the sublime ikebana lessons of nature

Nature and humanity are brought together in ikebana, the Japanese art of arranging cut flowers.
OLYMPICS
Jun 28, 2008

Diver Ishimatsu has good shot at U.S. team for Beijing

For Olympic fans, there's a new Japanese-American athlete to keep an eye on. And she has the potential to be a household name for years to come.
Japan Times
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jun 28, 2008

Blair shifts focus on climate to Copenhagen conference

The Group of Eight leaders gathering next month in Hokkaido should not attempt to resolve all climate issues up to 2050 or even 2020, but instead focus on setting a clear course for an agreement at next year's U.N. conference in Copenhagen, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday in Tokyo....
ENVIRONMENT
Jun 28, 2008

A brief history of evolution: From ancient Greeks to Watson and Crick

Sixth Century B.C.: The idea that species could evolve into other species existed before Darwin and Wallace's theories. The ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander put forward early evolutionary ideas, for example. However it was not until the end of the 18th century, with the development of the sciences...
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2008

Teenage pop stars know how to operate

"It's kind of embarrassing," says Taylor Henderson, violinist with teen sensations Operator Please, as she recalls the Australian release of the Queensland band's breakthrough single, "Just a Song About Ping Pong."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Jun 27, 2008

"Nishi no Majo ga Shinda"

Director: Shunichi Nagasaki
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008

'In the Valley of Elah'

Iraq War movies are dying at the box office one after another. It doesn't matter if they're brutal expose ("Redacted"), touching family story ("Grace Is Gone"), or high-firepower entertainment ("The Kingdom") — nobody's buying.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 26, 2008

Why should Barack Obama's religion matter?

Whether Barack Obama is or, at one point, was a Muslim should be a trivial matter in any society governed by secular, democratic dictates that apply to all, on equal footage, regardless of race, gender or religion. But in a society that is taking a turn toward the right, the matter is anything but inconsequential....
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

A name for indentured servitude

Why are letters like Brian Clacey's on June 22, "Give guest workers a set contract," even published? Xenophobe Clacey does not live in Japan and his ideas are appallingly ignorant and selfish. Why not just call "fixed contracts" indentured servitude coupled with expulsion — should the foreign worker...
EDITORIALS
Jun 25, 2008

Facing a science challenge

The 2008 white paper on science and technology underlines the difficult situation in which Japan finds itself in the economic and science fields. The government report says that Japan is facing unprecedentedly fierce competition and warns that if Japan fails to ride out this "dreadful storm," it may...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jun 24, 2008

Women's shoe designer Moe Enomoto

Moe Enomoto, 28, is a women's shoe designer whose Sellenatela brand is carried by exclusive stores in Tokyo's Ginza and Daikanyama districts, and in San Francisco's hip Venus Superstar Boutique. Fascinated by beauty and driven by a desire to empower women of all lifestyles, Moe hopes that her shoes give...
BUSINESS
Jun 24, 2008

Manufacturer confidence at four-year low

Confidence among manufacturers for the April-June quarter fell the most in at least four years because of surging commodity costs and waning demand for cars and electronics, a government survey showed Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 23, 2008

The global food crisis: It's time to empower the world's have-nots

HONG KONG, (AP) The Times of London ran a cartoon offering its "solution" to the world food crisis as leaders gathered for their recent Rome summit: It showed Pope Benedict XVI holding a cross in his left hand and a packet of "extra safe" condoms in his right.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 23, 2008

The savings exodus and Japan's pursuit of higher financial IQ

On May 20, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry and the Financial Services Agency jointly submitted a request letter asking the heads of national and private universities across Japan to improve the quality of financial education.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 22, 2008

Fortune-teller detective mystery, manga drama of the business world, Ethiopia trivia special

Misuzu Maruyama (Kumiko Okae) is one of Ginza's most popular street fortunetellers, but she's also an amateur detective. In the two-hour mystery special "Uranaishi Misuzu Jiken wa Unmei no Kanata ni (Fortune Teller Misuzu's Incidents Are Beyond Fate)" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.), Misuzu plies her trade in...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 22, 2008

The many different ways Japan spells 'nationalism'

A HISTORY OF NATIONALISM IN MODERN JAPAN: Placing the People, by Kevin M. Doak. Leiden: Brill, 2006, 292 pp., $93 (cloth) There is no shortage of writing about nationalism in modern Japanese history. Nonetheless, the object of investigation has not always been clear, and until recently the term "nationalism"...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 22, 2008

Has Japan's dogged idealism of '68 become truly poodled?

On June 7, The New York Times' op-ed columnist Bob Herbert wrote an intriguing piece about the United States in 1968, recalling the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy exactly 40 years ago, and also referring to Sen. Barack Obama clinching the 2008 Democratic Party nomination for the presidency....
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2008

Tribute to the good sense of a brighter Bush

LOS ANGELES — We in the West are always grateful and utterly relieved when East Asians manage to take significant steps away from the risk of serious conflict.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan