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EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2008

Asian Erasmus

The Japanese government revealed plans last week to set up a network of academic exchange programs throughout Asia. Based on the European ERASMUS program, which helps students transfer and accumulate credits between EU universities, the proposal to be announced later by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 26, 2008

In need of a beach for snails

The more I travel around Japan, the more I realize I don't live in Japan. Nor have I for the past decade. I guess I've gotten so used to my safe, comfortable island life, that when I go to some other places in Japan, I am astounded to find it is not the same warm 'n' fuzzy place I'm used to.
EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2008

Another victory for justice

Mr. Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's most-wanted war criminals, has been arrested. After a 13-year manhunt, Mr. Karadzic was found, living openly in Belgrade. The arrest is one more indication that there is no refuge for those who commit atrocities and crimes against humanity. It also validates Europe's...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 26, 2008

Mazda resurgent as Ford finds need for small autos

Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally's crisis is Mazda Motor Corp. CEO Hisakazu Imaki's opportunity.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 25, 2008

Photographer finds affection in the Arctic

Love's warmth can be found in the coldest of places — and among the wildest of creatures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008

'Kung Fu Panda'

He's fat, he's lazy, he's an underachieving slob. But Po the Panda could just be the answer to the prayers of a martial-arts master in "Kung Fu Panda," this summer's animation blockbuster from Dreamworks, opening in Japan to precede the Beijing Olympics.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008

'Kimi no Tomodachi'

Kids often make friends easily — and lose them quickly. The boy who was your best buddy yesterday has today found a new friend, a new crowd, a new world that doesn't include you. He has moved on — and you're just part of the receding scenery.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 25, 2008

Spiritualized beat the reaper

Jason Pierce almost died in July 2005. Hooked up to a ventilator and suffering from double pneumonia, Pierce — aka J Spaceman — shrank to 45 kg and spent two weeks in intensive care in a London hospital. Things looked so bad that his girlfriend was offered grief counseling.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
Jul 25, 2008

Cooling it down with Tokyo's best

"Go around the beaches and let's have a list of the best seaside bars," said my editor. In this heat? Not a chance. But here's something better: five refreshing cocktail recipes from a quintet of great bartenders. Each of these invigorating drinks was designed to zap your summer indolence and clear the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 24, 2008

Julian Opie: Great rooms, blank faces

Julian Opie's work is about signals. In his portraits, a pair of dots signals the eyes, a single line signals the mouth — his imagery is a distillation of reality that presents you only with the essential elements needed for your brain to fill in the rest.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2008

Osama bin Laden: the Islamic bard of terror

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY — In Riyadh last March, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia decorated U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney with the Kingdom's Order of Merit. This gesture elicited hundreds of Internet postings from Arabs condemning the award as treachery and lamenting the pitiful state of leadership in...
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Jul 23, 2008

Veteran sheds hatred, finds Japan now like second home

21st in a series
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2008

Rights of rational beings who are not human

MELBOURNE — On June 25, in a historic vote, the Spanish parliament's Commission for the Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries declared its support for The Great Ape Project, a proposal to grant rights to life, liberty and protection from torture to our closest nonhuman relatives: chimpanzees, bonobos,...
LIFE / Language
Jul 22, 2008

Katakana makes Japanese trendy and accessible

Words and phrases in katakana may appear to be easily recognizable to non-native speakers of Japanese, but they are often fiendishly difficult. This generally comes as a surprise to Japanese, who naturally assume that we can understand katakana words readily, seeing as many of them originated in foreign...
EDITORIALS
Jul 21, 2008

Incongruous with the facts

The Tokyo High Court has upheld a 2005 Mito District Court decision that granted a retrial to two men who were convicted of a 1967 murder-robbery and spent 29 years behind bars. The case lacked material evidence and the prosecution relied on confessions to build the case.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 20, 2008

All this fuss over just a little drink at a . . . love hotel

The big tabloid scoop last week was snagged by the woman's weekly Josei Seven, which caught celebrity/announcer Mona Yamamoto and Yomiuri Giants shortstop Tomohiro Nioka in a love-hotel tryst. The reason the incident hit such a big nerve in the media is that the night the tryst took place was also the...
OLYMPICS
Jul 20, 2008

Kobayashi chases Olympic dream

Yuriko Kobayashi is Beijing-bound, but that's not her terminal station.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jul 20, 2008

Fly fanboys in the living room

Parents the world over would surely prefer their children not to throw things about. It's just plain bad manners, among other things. But Atsushi Kikuchi, a serious-looking father of two boys, positively encourages it. And, he evenmaintains, his sons' ballistic behavior has produced considerable benefits...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 19, 2008

A well-armed goddess

On July 2, at the lowest tide of the year, my neighbors and I prayed to the goddess of the sea. The islanders call her Benten (also known as Benzaiten), and she lives on her own special island, just off the coast of Shiraishi Island. Here she convenes with the sea and brings us luck, prosperity (well,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 18, 2008

Can iPhone infiltrate Japan's mobile tribes?

Kentaro Tohyama is proud of his new iPhone. He stood overnight in line to get it when the device became available in Japan for the first time. But the 29-year-old computer engineer isn't about to part with his made-in-Japan cell phone either.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

Pop Levi goes slightly wrong

"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years