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EDITORIALS
May 29, 2005

Halting Internet-assisted suicide

The number of cases in which people solicit others on the Internet to commit group suicide is on the rise. To deal with this, a panel of learned people set up by the National Police Agency has called on Internet providers to disclose the names, addresses and birth dates of people sending such messages....
COMMUNITY / COUNTERPOINT
May 29, 2005

Causes and effects can encompass far more than 'specifics'

In January 1977, an express train traveling from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales to Sydney derailed on a curve near Granville Station, 21 km west of the city. The train -- which was three minutes late when it left the last stop on its 2 1/2-hour journey -- smashed into the pillar of a bridge, killing...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 29, 2005

In the spirit of humanism

THE CINEMA OF GOSHO HEINOSUKE, by Arthur Nolletti, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005, 243 pp., with photographs, $27.95 (paper). Though Heinosuke Gosho (1902-1981) is remembered in Japan where his films are still occasionally shown, he is all but unknown abroad. This neglect is not due...
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2005

Progress with North Korea?

A series of meetings provide reasons for cautious optimism regarding negotiations over North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. The prospect of substantial assistance from the South to the North permitted the resumption of long-stalled inter-Korean talks, while the United States and North Korea had a direct...
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
May 26, 2005

Parenting book gets princely praise

Parenting expert Dorothy Law Nolte enjoys a huge following worldwide; her 1998 book, "Children Learn What They Live," sold over 700,000 copies in her native U.S. and has been translated into 36 languages. The Japanese version was a steady seller -- until February this year, when the father of a certain...
BUSINESS
May 25, 2005

ATMs need to take foreign cards: critics

The inability of most automated teller machines at Japanese banks to accept foreign credit cards has long irritated tourists and short-term foreign residents in a country where cash still plays a key role in everyday life.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 22, 2005

It's not all quiet on the (Middle-) Eastern front after the abduction

After it was learned that Akihiko Saito, a Japanese national working for a British security company in Iraq, was captured by a militant group during an ambush, the media seemed so stunned by the revelation that they couldn't get their bearings. So they seized on the only source of local information they...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 22, 2005

Seeds of employment

There, in the heart of the concrete jungle that is Tokyo's Otemachi financial district, in the second-floor basement abyss of a 27-story building, is nothing less than . . . a farm.
Features
May 22, 2005

A growing trend

These are hard times for Japan's construction workers. The days when they were forever taking flak for digging up roads and causing traffic chaos, or teetering on the edge of scandals as they built yet more roads and bridges into the middle of nowhere are now long gone.
COMMUNITY / COUNTERPOINT
May 22, 2005

Last laugh to the lizards, and fair play for frogs an' all

Long ago in a land skirted by two oceans, there lived a people who worshipped lizards.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 21, 2005

Collaborating on Japan's photography masters

Mumi Trabucco and Kanji Embutsu share a passion for photography. Which is why -- if not how -- they have come to be working together on the two-day exhibition "Modern Masters of Photography -- Japan" to be staged at Prudential Tower in Tokyo's Akasaka-Mitsuke on May 28 and 29.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 21, 2005

Horton hears a Who in 'Dare-mura'

I am going to share something with you today that you must keep an absolute secret. You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you, especially not the police.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2005

Ultraloose monetary policy intact, for now

The Bank of Japan will keep its ultraloose monetary policy intact -- but may be inching toward tightening as concerns over the once-shaky financial system recede.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 19, 2005

Big names, big games, big show

The real "Bond . . . James Bond" is coming to video games. Electronic Arts has signed Sean Connery to reprise his role as British agent 007 in the video game version of "From Russia with Love."
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2005

Sharper sense of nuclear safety

The latest annual report from Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission is a troubling reminder that accident prevention remains a key priority for the nation's nuclear power industry. The head of the commission acknowledges in the foreword that last August's tragedy in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture -- Japan's deadliest...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2005

Composing with an eye on the big picture

The Aichi Expo, with its theme on "Nature's Wisdom" and its pavilions packed with technological wonders, obviously sees no irony in its situation. This contradiction may be highlighted, however, when composer Philip Glass brings his ensemble to perform the music of "Koyaanisqatsi." Directed by Godfrey...
Japan Times
Features
May 15, 2005

Never-ending playtime

Remember when you were little and the days were long and filled with play? Back then, too, your playmates likely included a happy band of figures and stuffed animals that took on lives of their own in your imaginary world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 14, 2005

Takashi Kikuchi

The College Women's Association of Japan is already preparing for its 50th anniversary print show in October. Proceeds from this show each year are allocated to CWAJ's scholarship and education fund. Most beneficiaries are female graduates of different nationalities planning advanced studies in Japan...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 14, 2005

The true scoop behind Japan's baseball superheroes

Another spring and another baseball season for the sports-numb nation of Japan. And once again the TV-viewing public is being regaled with starry-eyed tales of wonder regarding its established heroes: Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and, this year -- perhaps due to the shortage of heroic clay here in Japan...
BUSINESS
May 14, 2005

'Indoor dogs' on rise as small pets become part of the family

"Beware of Dog" signs are becoming increasingly rare as a growing number of people choose to keep their pets inside with them and not outside to guard the house.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
May 12, 2005

Fetuses found to inherit mother's trauma

Stress can motivate us, but it can also get us down. And though it might just make us feel blue, it can also kill us. It depresses levels of sex hormones and people stressed by deadlines are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2005

The eternal flamenco

The fiery folk art of flamenco is more than just a dance -- it's an entire culture. And that culture -- the dances, songs, guitar-playing and rhythms -- are all fueled by the mysterious spirit of duende.
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2005

The crimes of Mr. Taylor

West Africa appears to be a political tinder box. Real democracy is a distant dream and the life span of governments is determined more frequently by bullets than by ballots. Not only are there civil wars in several countries but the combatants (on both sides) commit atrocities against civilian populations....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 10, 2005

What you reading these days?

Lisa Jarvis Student, 21 Harry Potter. The whole series is really great, but I'm a big fan of "Prisoner of Azkaban." I have a lot of friends who like it so it's interesting to sit down and talk about it.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 10, 2005

Japan's gender debate

Grave risks Thank you very much for your article "Turning back clock on gender equality."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 2005

Reflecting truth and beauty

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn, who writes and performs under the moniker Mirah, records for K Records, the proudly lo-fi label headquartered in Olympia, Wash., and run by indie rock's most dedicated iconoclast, Calvin Johnson, singer in band Beat Happening.
COMMENTARY / World
May 7, 2005

Jubilee breathes new life into Bandung

SINGAPORE -- Indonesia recently brought together 80 leaders of the "decolonized peoples of Asia and Africa" to celebrate the historic 1955 Bandung conference of nonaligned nations.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2005

Knitting trip around Japan ties up more projects

One Japan-related project attracts attention at "Knit 2 Together: Concepts in Knitting," organized by the U.K.'s Crafts Council and on show in London until May 15, from where it will set out to tour Britain as part of the "Knitting and Stitching Show 2005."

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