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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2007

The road to Myanmar passes through Beijing

NEW YORK — Three hard facts set the boundaries for the talks that United Nations negotiator Ibrahim Gambari is undertaking as he shuttles between Myanmar's ruling generals and the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2007

The camera and the truth

With his fake documentary purporting to show serving President George W. Bush's assassination, director Gabriel Range has made this year's most controversial movie
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2007

Faces of youthful ambition

Shigeo Anzai, a photographer of artists, says he loses interest when a subject becomes too famous. That's why his retrospective at the National Art Center, Tokyo, is full of pictures of young, fresh faces.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2007

'Stoopid ninja' keeps on learning

T he first time I ever heard cicadas was in 1963, during my very first summer in Japan. I was wandering through a small mixed woodland where some small boys were flitting from tree to tree, playing ninja. I, as a strange young foreigner passing through, became their target for assassination. Being just...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2007

China can change Myanmar

HONG KONG — Buddhist monks, the most pacific of dedicated religious people, marched through the streets of Myanmar's main cities Yangon and Mandalay last week in protest against years of hardship, gross mismanagement and corruption inflicted on their long-suffering people.
LIFE / Language
Oct 2, 2007

Giving Japanese names as tricky as picking buns

When you see an obvious mistake, should you point it out or just keep silent? It was coming up to Christmas, and I was in the bakery beside the station getting a sandwich for my lunch, when I noticed something new on the shelves: hot cross buns.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2007

'Doing something' may pose perils during a credit crunch

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Every financial crisis is inherently unknowable — before it occurs, and as it occurs. By contrast, we understand past crises very well. Accountants go over the books, the participants tell their tales to the newspapers (or sometimes before a judge), politicians explain why...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2007

Price of saving a tree in Latin America

PRAGUE — Latin America is blessed with more than its fair share of wildlife and lush forests. A third of the world's mammal species and more than a quarter of all known reptiles and bird species can be found there.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 30, 2007

Fighters clinch PL by routing Marines

Trey Hillman is sure making his last run memorable.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 30, 2007

Bilingual blanks are nothing to kobosu your guchi about

Last week in this column, I addressed the trials and tribulations of bringing up a child to be bilingual — both for parents and children. As anyone who has been down that road knows, it's what Japanese people would call shinan no waza (an arduous task).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 29, 2007

Hamilton Armstrong

"Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Sep 29, 2007

Putting the red light on human trafficking

"Neary grew up in rural Cambodia. Her parents died when she was a child, and in an effort to give her a better life, her sister married her off when she was 17. Three months later, they went to visit a fishing village. Her husband rented a room in what Neary thought was a guest house. But when she woke...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 28, 2007

Rebel yell from the desert

Saharan bluesmen Tinariwen traded guns for guitars, then set about gaining an army of famous fans
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2007

Hype on nuclear power is misleading

NEW DELHI — Talk of a "global nuclear renaissance" remains just that — all talk. Notwithstanding the strong public relations campaign by the nuclear power industry and its powerful lobbying groups, nuclear energy is hardly the answer to the twin challenges of carbon mitigation and energy security...
COMMENTARY
Sep 27, 2007

Crunch: a question of trust

LONDON — Financial markets all round the world, from New York to London to Tokyo, have been rattled by the recent squeeze on credit and lending, which originated in the United States. All kinds of lessons have been drawn from the experience, many of which boil down to the simple adage that dubious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 27, 2007

Tokyo gallery walkabout

Tokyo's galleries have woken from their summer slumbers — or, more likely, beach naps — with a vengeance. The current wave of openings started out in the east, at the complex of galleries in Kiyosumi, with shows that are set to close this Saturday (two were reviewed here this month).
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2007

LDP appointments illustrate Fukuda's isolation

The appointments of four executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party highlight a weakness of Yasuo Fukuda — the lack of close allies within his own party.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Sep 26, 2007

Horned turban shell

* Japanese name: Sazae * Scientific name: Turbo cornutus * Description: One of the most prized of all marine gastropods, the horned turban shell — more familiar to sushi aficionados as sazae — has a large, thick, green-gray shell and a snail-like body. The shell has about five spirals, which turn...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 25, 2007

Nobuaki Kakuda

Nobuaki Kakuda, 46, is a karate fighter with the Seido Kaikan organization and the executive producer of K1, the Japanese sport that matches up practitioners of a variety of martial arts, such as karate, kickboxing, kung fu, tae kwan do and boxing. One of the world's strongest fighters, Kakuda is in...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 25, 2007

Is it all over for Nova?

"The dark clouds that have been hanging heavily over us will be cast aside," reads the English translation of Nova Corp. CEO Nozomu Sahashi's memo faxed to staff Friday. "I said previously 'the darkest time is before the dawn,' and finally the first light of dawn can be seen."
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2007

Fukuda rewards key supporters

New Liberal Democratic Party President Yasuo Fukuda chose four veteran heavyweights for the party's top posts Monday, including education minister Bunmei Ibuki as secretary general, the LDP's No. 2 position.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 25, 2007

Running circles round the Emperor

Some people run it, some cycle it, some simply walk it. Any way you do it, the route around the Imperial Palace has become Tokyo's best-known track.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan