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JAPAN
Jul 27, 2005

Panel backs considering women for throne

An advisory panel on the Imperial system said Tuesday that allowing a female to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne should be considered as an option to avoid an eventual succession crisis.
JAPAN
Jul 26, 2005

Japan begins quest for fastest supercomputer

The technology ministry aims to develop a next-generation supercomputer some 73 times faster than today's record-holder, ministry officials said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 26, 2005

Cutting butter with a saw?

The 2005 government white paper on the Japanese economy and public finances, which the Cabinet cleared earlier this month, has a chapter titled "From Public to Private: Restructuring the Government Sector and Its Challenges." It makes the following points:
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 24, 2005

Race across the Pacific

IN THE WAKE OF THE JOMON: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific, by Jon Turk. New York: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2005, 287 pages, with b/w illustrations, $24.95 (cloth). Midway through "In the Wake of the Jomon" comes a paragraph that poses all the questions Jon Turk ponders in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 24, 2005

It's the black comedy of Japan: 'Don't mention the war . . .'

A point that tends to be overlooked in the debate over textbooks that whitewash Japan's actions during World War II is that Japanese junior high school history classes rarely make it past the Meiji Restoration. Whether or not "comfort women" or the Rape of Nanking is mentioned in textbooks becomes an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 24, 2005

We call it 'metal,' they call it 'rock'

Detroit7's new release is the sound of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Kiyoshiro Imawano being shackled in a shower room together and sprayed with sulfuric acid until they dissolve into a messy pile of punk-rock metal gunk -- and the detritus we get on their new five-track "EP Vol. 1" is "bad" in a very good...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 23, 2005

'Breakthrough Japanese' book sees light of day

It is rare to be interviewed twice for this column. But Hitomi Hitayama, president of the executive Japanese language school Japanese Lunch, deserves the space because she has kept faith with her book project for so long. Also, the result -- "Breakthrough Japanese: 20 Mini Lessons for Better Conversation"...
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2005

Meeting China's 'challenge'

WASHINGTON -- In February 1946, George Kennan, then a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the State Department, warning about Soviet behavior. A little over a year later, a version of that telegram appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine, written by "Mr. X."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 23, 2005

Groping for answers on gropers

Beginning May 9, nine commuter lines in the greater Tokyo area began offering women-only train cars in response to the growing number of women being groped by men in the trains. The number of incidents reached 2,201 in 2004, up from 778 in 1996. Each line has designated one car from each train during...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 18, 2005

In final analysis, postal bills hold key to rationalizing the status quo

Now that he's back from the Group of Eight summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi faces an uphill battle to get his postal privatization bills approved by the House of Councilors.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Taking it easy in the urban jungle

These days, "relaxation" spots are as ubiquitous as Internet cafes and pachinko parlors. As people seek a quick fix for the stress of modern life, businesses offering anything remotely "therapeutic" or "healing" are springing up everywhere. Whether it's reflexology (foot massage) salons in office buildings,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 17, 2005

Whiteout and wounds in a world of birds

The first hint of what was to come were the three guys down near the jetty.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Is it a crime to want realism?

DRAGON'S EYE, by Andy Oakes. Overlook TP, 2005, 460 pp., $14.95 (paper). Eight horribly mutilated bodies are found chained together in Shanghai's Huangpu River. Four of the corpses, the autopsies reveal, turn out to be recently executed criminals; two others are European males; one appears to be an overseas...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 17, 2005

All hail the Land of the Free -- or else!

The United States of America is all akilter.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 17, 2005

TBS's special "Shiina Makoto no Kando Ni-man Mairu" and more

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne, the French author who is regarded by many as the father of the science-fiction novel. Over the last century, Verne's tales of adventure and discovery have inspired many people to become writers.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Dining where no solo woman dared

Reiko Yuyama believes that adventures are there to be had in daily life without having to go out into the wilderness. In that sense, she says she might be "more of an adventurer than Christopher Columbus or Naomi Uemura," the late, great Japanese explorer and climber who disappeared on Mount McKinley...
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2005

On the verge of decline

The countdown has begun ahead of Japan's plunge into a period of shrinking population that will have a serious impact on the nation's economy and society, especially the labor force and social welfare, including the pension system.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 17, 2005

How gei can one get? 'Pretend gay' is as far as it gets

"Talent," or tarento, is the cushiest job in Japan -- maybe in the whole world. Though you are expected to have some kind of skill (gei), once you achieve a level of regularity as a TV variety show guest, the work is self-perpetuating, though it's by no means guaranteed forever. And rarely do successful...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2005

Chinese victims of poison gas leak seek help, apology, may sue

About 40 Chinese plan to file a petition with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi next month demanding an apology, medical care and life support for injuries they sustained from a toxic gas leak from chemical weapons abandoned in China by the Imperial Japanese Army, according to their lawyers.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2005

The terrorists won't succeed

LONDON -- The British government's measured and firm response to the attacks in London on July 7 has had the support of all political parties. The resolution of the general public to get on with their life has not wilted.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2005

Store lobby targets costs of recycling

The Japan Chain Stores Association asked the government Friday to revise the present system for recycling food containers and packages to address what it claims is an unfair burden placed on large retailers in the form of recycling costs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 16, 2005

Kirk R. Patterson

This year, Temple University Japan received formal designation as the Japan campus of a foreign university. Before that, since 1982 in Tokyo, TUJ had the status of branch campus of Temple University in Philadelphia. U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer in giving the keynote address at this year's TUJ commencement...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2005

Interest now obsessive for first 'otaku' test

Thousands of young Japanese men are expected to take a nationwide exam next month that would, if they pass, grant them recognition as experts in the field of "otaku," or geeks.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2005

Firms found 405 data leaks in '04

Businesses reported 405 cases of personal data leaks in fiscal 2004, Cabinet Office officials said Thursday, citing reports submitted to various government agencies.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2005

Shutting down business fraud

Today's communities in Japan, especially impersonal big cities, are becoming hostile places in many ways for elderly people living alone. New gangs of criminals, who often pose as kind and soft-spoken business operators, are eager to swindle the elderly out of their life savings. These con artists know...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes