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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2006

Empire of debt has its limits

HONG KONG -- Recent news about U.S. current-account deficits with the rest of the world gives grim pause for thought from Beijing and Tokyo to London, and especially in Washington, for it shows the United States approaching the financial equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 19, 2006

Decades of peace have yet to heal Vietnam's wounds

VIET NAM AT PEACE, by Philip Jones Griffiths. London: Trolley, 2005, 312 pp., £39.95 (cloth). This is the final volume in Philip Jones Griffiths' epoch trilogy on Vietnam spanning 40 years. His classic "Vietnam, Inc" (1971) and "Agent Orange" (2003) focus on war and its consequences. Here, we are given...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2006

Ignored epidemic: violence against women in Russia

NEW YORK -- It is under-recognized and under-reported. It is also one of the most significant epidemics in the Russian Federation today. It is gender violence, manifested essentially as violence against women. A recent report by Amnesty International, "Russian Federation: Nowhere to Turn to: Violence...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 15, 2006

NHK has a public duty so how about free streaming from its library?

Since last August the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan (NAB) has been running a nationwide TV ad campaign to promote television commercials.
BUSINESS
Dec 23, 2005

S&P set to rate BTM-UFJ highly

Standard & Poor's Ratings Service said Thursday it expects to assign on Jan. 3 a long-term counterparty credit rating of A to Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, a new bank that will form Jan. 1 through the merger of BTM and UFJ Bank.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 22, 2005

Elemental expressions

Art comes in many forms, but all those forms have in common their intimate dependence on light (something to bear in mind on this, the shortest day of the year). Without this miraculous form of energy you wouldn't know the difference between an Old Master canvas, an Abstract Expressionist work or an...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 17, 2005

Japanese metal craft rings up to look like wood

Mary Fidler is pondering, wondering whether her logo as a designer, "mfide," rolls with sufficient ease off the tongue. It does, I assure her -- as long you know it sounds out phonetically as m-f-ide, and not m-fide.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2005

Hanging sparks Aussie debate

SYDNEY -- Singapore has hanged a convicted Australian drug runner and some Australians are demanding a boycott against this key trading partner. Rarely before have Australians been so upset over what they see as obsolete "Asian values."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 4, 2005

Japan's show-biz hacks fail to raise ante 24 / 7

Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Nov 30, 2005

'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests

Japan's annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins began Oct. 8 in the traditional whaling town of Taiji on the Kii Peninsula of Honshu's Wakayama Prefecture. These "drive fisheries" triggered demonstrations, held under the "Japan Dolphin Day" banner, in 28 countries. The protests went almost entirely...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Nov 6, 2005

Nihon TV's documentary series "Antenna 22," variety "Odoru! Sanma Goten!" and more

Nihon TV's long-running documentary series, "Super TV," changes its name this week. The first installment of "Antenna 22" (Monday, 10 p.m.) is about the "crisis" that the host-club business is facing as its most popular stars grow past their prime.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 20, 2005

A circus on the harbor

Following on its impressive inauguration in 2001, the second Yokohama International Triennale of Contemporary Art is finally here, albeit a year late, and I have to say it has turned out far better than I had anticipated.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 18, 2005

Ministry missive wrecks reception

Between Oct. 7-11, the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT), Japan's largest convocation of language educators, held its annual meeting in Shizuoka, a pleasant city between Tokyo and Osaka.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 8, 2005

Pressure on Eriksson to lock up World Cup berth for England

LONDON -- There are two ways of looking at the likely inclusion of Peter Crouch in the England team to face Austria in a crucial World Cup qualifying tie on Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2005

A light on senile dementia

In April the Welfare and Labor Ministry began a nationwide one-year campaign to help others better understand senile dementia. The campaign targets the mental disorder as a top-priority issue to tackle as the graying of the nation's population progresses. The core organization established for the campaign...
EDITORIALS
Aug 24, 2005

Salary reform for public servants

has recommended that the government reduce the annual salary of central government workers for fiscal 2005 by 0.1 percent, or 4,000 yen from the previous fiscal year's level, to bring it into closer alignment with the annual salary level for private-sector workers. More importantly, it has called for...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 5, 2005

Bar Camaron: An appetite for Andalucia

'Tis the season for grazing -- coaxing the appetite to life, while nibbling on snacks and sipping on something nice and cool. And this summer, more than ever before, Tokyo is discovering the pleasures of tachi-nomi (literally "stand and drink") joints and their upscale counterparts, which eschew all...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2005

Historic step for Northern Ireland

The Irish Republican Army has finally done what its critics have long demanded. Last week it formally announced that it was ending its armed campaign to free Northern Ireland from British rule. If carried out, this would, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair, constitute "a step of unparalleled magnitude"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 30, 2005

The benevolent Uncle Yama

Monday morning I awoke at 7 a.m. to chanting flowing through the window from the mountain in the back of my house. But something was strange -- the voice was not quite right. It wasn't the familiar deep voice of the priest, nor the younger voice of the priest's son. It was scratchy. Perhaps the locusts...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 29, 2005

70, and still a catch

A man in a cap and Wellington boots is holding a glistening metal pick in one hand, a small lump of flesh in the other. And he's beckoning me over.
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2005

Shinsei Bank sues DIC for 13 billion yen

Shinsei Bank said Tuesday it filed a damages suit against Deposit Insurance Corp. of Japan seeking 13.4 billion yen for losses incurred as a result of a long-standing dispute with a bankrupt real estate developer.
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 16, 2005

Priorities in the six-party talks

The next round of six-party talks, the multilateral negotiations over North Korea's nuclear-weapons programs, are scheduled to resume the week of July 25 in Beijing. While it is unclear what motivated North Korea to return to the talks, success will depend on whether the other five parties -- Japan,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Jul 8, 2005

No reason to fear the green fairy

Absinthe: muse of poets and painters, tipple of mass murderers. Is it a bringer of truth, or of madness and moral depravity? Known at its peak variously as the Green Goddess, Holy Water, the Green Fairy and "the life plasma of the gods and free thinkers," Absinthe was banned for nearly 100 years, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 3, 2005

Puccini's masterpiece transcends its age

Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is one of most beloved operas of all time. Musically rich, dramatically taut and shamelessly wringing every last drop of sentiment from its tale of innocence betrayed, it shows Puccini at the top of his form. Yet its seductive beauty and the emotional immediacy disguise...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 14, 2005

What's the deal with leaving Japan?

Leaving Japan DAVE WRITES: I am considering whether or not to return to my country after having worked in Japan for almost 10 years. I would like some information on what official procedures are necessary to end my stay here, particularly with respect to my visa, income taxes, pensions, and health insurance....
EDITORIALS
Jun 11, 2005

Democratic dilemmas in Mideast

Two election results pose deep dilemmas for democrats who support reconciliation in the Middle East. In recent municipal ballots in the Gaza Strip, the Islamic militant group Hamas made a surprisingly strong showing. Soon after, a coalition of parties led by Hezbollah swept elections in southern Lebanon....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 5, 2005

Will Japanese inertia never be the same again?

Who is to blame for the dead hand of inertia that has prevented Japan from forging ahead economically and politically in the last decade and a half?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2005

New weapon wielded in old tomb debate

A law enacted six years ago has given historians a new powerful weapon to challenge a long-held taboo preserved by the Imperial Household Agency: investigating the secrets of ancient emperors' tombs.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami