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JAPAN
Apr 26, 2006

Koizumi era one of change, tension

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who pledged to "destroy" his own Liberal Democratic Party when he became its president five years ago, will probably be remembered for putting in place much-needed structural reforms.
JAPAN
Apr 25, 2006

DPJ win helps Ozawa, reflects anti-LDP mood

The narrow victory of a Democratic Party of Japan candidate in Sunday's by-election in Chiba Prefecture has given a boost to the main opposition force's new president, Ichiro Ozawa, virtually assuring his re-election in the DPJ's presidential poll in September, political pundits say.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2006

Dark side of structural reform

Most economic pundits still support the idea of free competition in the market as the key principle of the society. As Japanese society becomes increasingly Americanized, however, a number of "fakes" have appeared in the market.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2006

CHIBA BY-ELECTION

Leaders of all the political parties vying for a seat in the April 23 House of Representatives by-election in the Chiba No. 7 district hit the stump Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 2, 2006

Accepting apologies is not so easy

JAPANESE APOLOGIES FOR WORLD WAR II: A Rhetorical Study, by Jane W. Yamazaki. London: Routledge, 2005, 256 pp., £65 (cloth). POLITICS, MEMORY AND PUBLIC OPINION: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society, by Sven Saaler, Munich: Deutsches Institut fur Japanstudien, 2005, 202 pp., 28 euro...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Mar 28, 2006

Takao Tsue

Takao Tsue, 80, is the Honorary Chief Priest of Osaka City's Imamiya-Ebisu Shrine, famous for the Toka Ebisu festival held every January, which attracts over 1 million people over three days. According to legend, the shrine was established in AD 600 by Shotoku Taishi, and written records show that Tsue's...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Women's voices

This story is part of a package on women in Japan. The introduction is here.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2006

John Howard is still the man

SYDNEY -- Instead of the usual rancorous Canberra power-play politics, Prime Minister John Howard has lately been all smiles as guest of honor at a series of dinners across Australia.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2006

Party to a lack of maturity

In a statement issued last week, the Democratic Party of Japan acknowledged that a fellow lawmaker used a fake e-mail to cook up a scandal implicating a senior official of the governing Liberal Democratic Party with the disgraced former president of Internet startup Livedoor Co.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 1, 2006

DPJ's Nagata apologizes but not for allegations

Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata apologized Tuesday for failing to prove allegations he raised in the Diet that Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie made a shady fund transfer to a son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2006

The world according to the Pentagon

The U.S. Department of Defense has released its vision of the world, the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The four-year review of U.S. military strategy provides the Pentagon's assessment of global trends and its responses to them. The QDR receives a lot of attention, but it is important to remember...
EDITORIALS
Feb 1, 2006

To be effective, Hamas must change

Aresounding win by Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections threatens to upend the Middle East peace process. The surprise victory confirms many of the more troubling speculations about the immediate impact of democracy in the region. But winning elections carries risk for radical groups, too: The...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2006

Cross-eyed over abuses by North Korea

HONOLULU -- Among the policy differences dividing the United States and South Korea, one that stands out is divergence over the issue of North Korea's abuses of the human rights of its own citizens.
EDITORIALS
Jan 12, 2006

Turbulent times for Mr. Bush

For U.S. President George W. Bush, 2005 turned out to be an unusually tough year. Having won re-election -- something his father had failed to achieve, Mr. Bush had started out on his second term as a historic second-generation president of the United States. But the initial euphoria proved short-lived....
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2006

A vacuum in Israel

A massive stroke has felled Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Recovery is uncertain, and most observers believe his political career is over regardless. The loss will be felt not only by Israel but also by Palestinians and the world. For all his shortcomings, Mr. Sharon has been a leader with a vision,...
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2006

Legions of bloggers, not so many readers

MANILA -- Hardly any other industry has developed as dynamically in recent years as the media sector. The impact of the so-called digital revolution is particularly evident in the way we communicate. Sending and receiving digitized data has become faster and faster; at the same time the costs have fallen...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2005

Mideast's democracy dilemma

The surprise showing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's national elections highlights the dilemma faced by democracy advocates in the West. The strong support for fundamentalist Islamic groups throughout the region directly challenges the assumption that free and open elections will lead to governments...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 1, 2005

The reign of Vivienne

From being prosecuted under Britain's obscenity laws for her risque punk fashions to twirling pantyless after receiving an honor from the Queen whose image she once defaced with safety pins, Vivienne Westwood has always had a habit of causing controversy.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2005

Mr. Sharon's gamble

Mr. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is known as "the bulldozer." The nickname is the result of his willingness to run over obstacles that he has encountered throughout his career. Recently, however, Mr. Sharon has demonstrated an agility and deftness that is most un-bulldozer-like. After engineering...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 24, 2005

The art of war

Considering Vietnam's modern history, it is hardly surprising that about a third of the exhibits in "50 years of Modern Vietnamese Paintings: 1925-75" at Tokyo Station Gallery depict warfare and soldiers in uniform, or are propaganda images fashioned from the odds and ends of figurative painting. Here,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

Nakasone hits Koizumi populism, Yasukuni visits

Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone warned the half-century-old Liberal Democratic Party against "pandering" to populism and urged it to hammer out far-sighted policies.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 19, 2005

Renuka Chowdhury

"Democracy gives opportunities," said Renuka Chowdhury. "There I was, a married woman, expecting my second child. I became active in politics, and have now been a member of Parliament for 20 years. I got onto a roller coaster, full of thrills and ups and downs. Sometimes it allows you no control."
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2005

Nonaka denies involvement in donation scandal

The mystery over a 100 million yen political funds scandal deepened Monday as a former secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party appeared in court claiming an alibi: He was not at a meeting where the covert donation was allegedly handed over to an LDP faction on July 2, 2001.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 2, 2005

The looking glass of Chinese history

MIRRORING THE PAST: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China, by On-cho Ng and Q. Edward Wang. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 307 pp., $50 (cloth). It was the 19th-century English historian E.A. Freeman who observed that "history is past politics, and politics is present history."...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2005

'Razor Gotoda' dead at age 91

Masaharu Gotoda, a former deputy prime minister, died of pneumonia Monday, his aides and government sources said. He was 91.
Sep 22, 2005

Firms betting on Russia amid political poker

A screen up front read "Welcome to St. Petersburg!" as top officials of Russia's second-largest city gave a presentation in Tokyo to lure Japanese investment.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 19, 2005

Junichiro Koizumi's great leap forward

HONOLULU -- The stunning electoral victory engineered by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan last week ought to make leaders in Washington, Beijing, Pyongyang, Seoul, and at the United Nations sit up and take note because it marks a great leap forward in Japan's emergence from the passive and pacifist...
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2005

Mr. Koizumi wins his mandate

Sunday's general elections gave overwhelming approval to the continuation of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform policy. The clear-cut, simple rhetoric employed by Mr. Koizumi, who focused on postal-service privatization and called it the cornerstone of reform during campaigning, won the hearts...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Society
Sep 11, 2005

Assemblywoman puts sex on the agenda

In April 2003, 28-year-old Kanako Otsuji became the youngest person ever elected to the Osaka prefectural assembly when she won the seat for Sakai City. It was a distinction made more special by the fact that there were only six other women in the 110-member assembly at the time. However, another distinction...
COMMENTARY
Sep 9, 2005

Give Lebanon space to heal

BEIRUT -- The tragic assassination of Rafik Hariri, both former and prospective Lebanon Prime Minister, on St. Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) set in motion a chain of events that gave the world hope in Lebanon's future.

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