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Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2006

Abe hopes shrine coyness won't miff China: Aso

A Japan-China summit could be in the works, but Tokyo is waiting for Beijing to move forward on negotiations, reappointed Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2006

Omi defends shelving sales tax hike talk

The new finance minister's statement Wednesday that discussion to raise the consumption tax will only begin next fall has sparked speculation that he will not carry out the last administration's long-term plans to cut the debt and that it's a ploy for his party to fare well in next summer's Upper House...
COMMENTARY
Sep 29, 2006

China-booster on U.S. side needs time

HONG KONG -- The new U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's visit to China provides hope that the increasingly bitter stalemate in economic relations between the two countries may be amenable to change. The problem is that protectionists in Washington may not be willing to give Paulson the time he needs....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

For someone who stands to gain from the hot topic of Japan's "Gross National Cool," Taeko Baba ought to be the last to pop the phenomenon's bubble.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2006

So much for Thai democracy

LONDON -- Democracy is fine as long as the voters elect the right people, but they often get it wrong. The Palestinians elected Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, so the Israelis and their allies overseas have to persuade them of the error of their ways with bombs, bullets and a financial blockade....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 28, 2006

An Asian woman becomes aware

Thirty-one year-old playwright, director and actor Keishi Nagatsuka has been turning heads since he staged his first productions while still a student at Waseda University. In 1996 in Tokyo, he founded the Asagaya Spiders company, which has received glowing critical acclaim and regularly plays to full...
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2006

Hawkishness is watchword for Abe team

The Cabinet and special advisers named Tuesday by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe share one dominant trait: conservatism.
EDITORIALS
Sep 25, 2006

Sustainable local government

On June 20, Mayor Kenji Goto of Yubari, Hokkaido, solemnly told the city assembly that his city would have to undergo compulsory financial reconstruction, the equivalent of recovering from the brink of bankruptcy. The city is the second local government to fall into this status in 14 years.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 25, 2006

What's in store for Thailand?

During a conference in Bangkok in August, signs of a three-way tussle among Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, his political opponents and the military were already evident. For example, a former army chief who remains influential as an adviser to the king made a point of wearing the uniform while addressing...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Dark tales of a neglected Tokyo underclass

ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, edited and designed by Adrian Tomine, introduction by Koji Suzuki. Montreal: Drawn & Quarterly, 200 pp., $19.95 (cloth). An old man is reduced by the debt that has ruined him to performing like a dog ("Why don't you spin around three times and bark?")....
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

Japan needs a Willy Brandt

BERLIN -- Junichiro Koizumi will resign as the Japanese prime minister at the end of this month and be replaced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe. Koizumi became prime minister in April 2001. After more than five years as prime minister, Koizumi's political record is checkered: He achieved big successes...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 24, 2006

Tracing the genealogy of gekiga

Presented a copy of the latest English-language collection of his work, Yoshihiro Tatsumi turns it over in his hands and says, "This looks too beautiful to be a comic book."
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2006

Koizumi moves out, signs off

Outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi moved out of the Prime Minister's Official Residence Thursday evening as he gets ready to hand the reins of government to new ruling party leader Shinzo Abe next Tuesday.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 22, 2006

Mix of local, international ensures club's longevity

With the global club scene experiencing mixed fortunes, as can be seen in Tokyo with smallish crowds at many clubs and dance festivals rumored to be struggling to attract big-name artists from overseas, one event space continues to draw people several years after first opening its doors. Air, in Daikanyama,...
SOCCER / J. League
Sep 21, 2006

Osim gets taste of victory after Abe fires late winner

CHIBA --Home, sweet home. Finally.
BASKETBALL
Sep 21, 2006

Apache's Bryant all smiles ahead of new bj-league season

Joe "Jellybean" Bryant walked into Ariake Colosseum Sunday with the same excitement as a kid entering a candy store.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2006

The next Palestinian struggle

LONDON -- An expert in international law and an old friend of the Palestinian people wrote me with utter distress a few days after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh were reported to have reached an agreement Sept. 11 to form a national unity government. The content...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 20, 2006

Cabrera powers Lions in crucial victory

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- A day after Julio Zuleta took over Invoice Seibu Dome, Lions first baseman Alex Cabrera wasn't going to be shown up again.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2006

Tokyo's Wako University staging exhibition on Minamata disease

Wako University is holding an exhibition through Sept. 24 on Minamata disease at its campus in Machida, western Tokyo, aiming to show how the mercury-poisoning disease has affected Japan's postwar society.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 17, 2006

Monsters out of the closet

MILLENNIAL MONSTERS: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, by Anne Allison, foreword by Gary Cross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, 332 pp., 48 b/w photos, $24.95 (paper). When I was a child, toys from Japan were kept in the cheapest bins of Woolworth's and Newberry's. Sparkler-wheels...
EDITORIALS
Sep 17, 2006

Have a nice 'sol'

It's that time again. Every so often, life on our planet just seems so bleak there's nowhere to look but out. That was certainly the case this past week. Not only did the usual whack-a-mole wars keep flaring and simmering, even good things had their dark sides. Here in Japan, the welcome birth of a prince...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Sarin gas victims greet execution news with relief, sadness

The news that Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara would be executed, was met Friday with relief and sadness from victims of the sarin gas attacks and their families Friday.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Abe holds tongue on Japan's war deeds

has sent signals" they want to improve the Japan-China relationship, he said. Abe's strategy has been to keep his opinions to himself about Japan's actions in the 1930s and 1940s.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2006

Fertilized human eggs not damaged by storage: study

The quality of human eggs fertilized in vitro and frozen is not affected by how long they are stored, as long as it is less than nine years, according to the results of a survey released Thursday by a hospital in Hokkaido.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’