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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2007

United vision of justice can defeat terror

BRUSSELS -- Three years ago this month simultaneous bomb attacks struck trains in Madrid. Islamist terrorists killed 191 people and wounded over 2,000. Last month the suspects went on trial in a Spanish court.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 13, 2007

COSMIC WONDER, Shibusei and Monocle magazine

Cosmic reconceptualization
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2007

Bigger issues to deal with

Regarding Hidesato Sakakibara's Feb. 28 letter, "Term 'gaijin' has run its course": Sakakibara's awareness that the term "gaijin" upsets many foreigners living in Japan is nice to know. It doesn't bother me, though, because there are too many other important things to deal with. And the habit will never...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 11, 2007

What happens when blog bullies get hot under the collar

In April last year, Jiji Press technology reporter Tsuruaki Yukawa felt as if he had enemies all around him.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 11, 2007

Jimmy Wales: Power to the Wikipeople

An Internet search for almost anything these days will likely lead you straight to Wikipedia, the worldwide online encyclopedia.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2007

Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they're not Asian

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's refusal to apologize anew for Japan's sex-slave policy during World War II has a different meaning in Japan than it does abroad. The issue has come around again because the U.S. Congress is considering a resolution to demand that Japan clearly accept responsibility for the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2007

Hit's failure to woo Japan baffles inventor

In the U.K. over Christmas, 300,000 electronic Test Tube Aliens flew off toy store shelves to encourage kids to be both active and interactive nurturers.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2007

China acknowledges a gap

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's announcement at the National People's Congress that gross domestic product is targeted to grow by about 8 percent in 2007, down from at least 10 percent during the four previous years, not only reflects an attempt to prevent economic overheating but also points to the Chinese...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 9, 2007

Richie turns painter again

"Donald Richie: Still Lives and Nudes" will come as a pleasant surprise to those under the impression that Richie's substantial oeuvre begins and ends with his writing.
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
Mar 8, 2007

Mideast's new tower of Babel

LONDON -- The turnaround in U.S. policy on Iraq is truly breathtaking. From firmly refusing to talk to Iraq's awkward neighbors, namely Iran and Syria, the Bush administration has suddenly changed its tack. It seems that talking to them -- without of course necessarily agreeing with them -- is now acceptable,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 8, 2007

Confusing the categories

Maybe it's just as well that the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura was as deserted as it was, because the sculpture of Wakiro Sumi is art that whispers rather than shouts. At one of Tokyo's busier museums or galleries, with your head still abuzz with the screech of traffic, the blitz of advertising, and...
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Mar 7, 2007

Coo-ee! Or how to snipe posh pigeons

Iwas just turned 20, and earlier in the year I had quit teachers' training college in the genteel Cotswolds town of Cheltenham in rural western England. I was earning money by working part-time at a slaughterhouse as a skinner, helping out as a bouncer at a jazz club and fighting in two or three professional...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 7, 2007

Air-conditioned masks and other gadget goodies

Gadgets are like chocolates -- they might not always be good for you but indulging in them is one of life's rare guaranteed pleasures and Japan is to gadgets what Belgium is that other guilty pleasure.
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Mar 4, 2007

Garrison: Hard work key to success

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league -- Japan's first professional basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Matt Garrison of the Niigata Albirex BB is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2007

Pop star Utada divorces video director husband

Hikaru Utada, the U.S.-born pop star whose debut album "First Love" set a sales record in Japan and sold millions more across Asia, said Saturday she has ended a 4 1/2-year marriage to the director of her music videos.
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2007

Appreciate the Cabinet you get

I know many foreigners feel frustrated at what they perceive as racism and discrimination in Japan. Perhaps it exists, but more often than not I just face it with humor and see the humorous side of things.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 4, 2007

Nagai goal lifts Reds in opener

SAITAMA -- Urawa Reds coach Holger Osieck sees something in Yuichiro Nagai not many others do. His faith in the forward paid off Saturday when he crashed in a brilliant late goal to secure a 2-1 win over Yokohama FC as the new J. League season got underway.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 4, 2007

Unearthing proverbs, essential to life but hard to swallow

ZEN OF VEGETABLE ROOTS, calligraphy by Siu-Leung Lee, paintings by Fu Yi Yao, translated by Siu-Leung Lee. Yuzankaku, 2006, 254 pp., 2,800 yen (paper) The original "Zen of Vegetable Roots" integrates the philosophy of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in a collection of more than 750 Chinese proverbs...
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2007

Sexualization of schoolgirls

While in Japan with my Japanese wife visiting relatives, I was somewhat shocked at many of the books/magazines available. Now I'm not a naive soul and support, even commend, the Japanese approach to sex. However, magazines featuring girls under the age of 13 in swimsuits and underwear is unhealthy both...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2007

Europe sleeping through a cocaine siege

NEW YORK -- European leaders need to get serious about Europe's cocaine problem. The "white lady" is seducing a steadily growing number of Europeans, and remaining in a state of denial will only worsen the consequences.
BUSINESS
Mar 3, 2007

Battery woes caused by impacts: Sanyo

Sanyo Electric Co. on Friday defended its laptop-computer batteries that have been recalled, saying the problem resulted from strong external impacts to the batteries and was not a problem with the batteries themselves.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 3, 2007

Walter Roberts

His father asked him, when he was about 5 years old, what he wanted to be when he grew up. The little boy Walter Roberts replied, "I want to be an actor."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Mar 3, 2007

That's OK. I thought it was the horse

Here's a joke I once read in a worn volume of rib ticklers. A bit off color, but my ribs loved it.
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2007

Robots strut their human compatibility

The custom of serving tea is getting futuristic in University of Tokyo research about how robots and other technology can support and blend with human life.

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