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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Aug 27, 2006

TBS's "Message," TV Tokyo's "Dawn of Gaia" and more

Aug. 28 marks the 53rd anniversary of the very first broadcast of a television commercial in Japan, and as a way of commemorating the event TBS has produced a special two-hour drama, "Message" (Monday, 9 p.m.), about Toshi Sugiyama, who is considered the most innovative TV commercial director in the...
BASKETBALL
Aug 22, 2006

Angolans making waves at world champs

HIROSHIMA -- The world must take notice now.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2006

Paper hits North's missiles, China buildup

nuclear (arms) issue, are a destabilizing factor for the entire international community," the report reads. "The range of North Korean missiles is expected to be extended (farther), including possible derivatives of Taepodong-2 missiles," the paper, released Tuesday, says in reference to Pyongyang's...
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2006

Harm in delayed action

The recent revelation that 21 people have died of carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by malfunctioning gas water heaters points to a lack of awareness and slow action on the part of the parties involved -- the manufacturer and its parent company, Paloma Industries Ltd. and Paloma Co., the Ministry of Economy,...
JAPAN
Jul 14, 2006

Abe denies upholding pre-emptive strike as defensive right

is being attacked with missiles" from that base. He added that an overseas first strike would fall within the legal parameters of self-defense "if there is no way to defend against an attack on Japan." Those comments, which followed North Korea's test-launching of seven ballistic missiles that fell into...
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2006

Moral boost for Mr. Putin

Russia's most wanted man is dead. Shamil Basayev, the leader of Chechen rebels who has masterminded acts of terror that have claimed hundreds of lives, was killed this week in an explosion. His death is a victory for the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a blow to the cause Basayev headed;...
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2006

Tokyo snubs Pyongyang threat over sanctions

Japan rejected North Korea's demand Friday to drop new economic sanctions over the North's Wednesday missile launches, ignoring Pyongyang's threat of "stronger measures" and "devastating consequences" unless it reversed its decision.
JAPAN
Jul 7, 2006

Taepodong-2 launch failed, Japan says

North Korea's launch of a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile ended in failure, even though Pyongyang counted it as a success along with the test-firing of six other shorter-range missiles, a top Defense Agency official said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2006

Korean residents ponder fallout of missile launch

. The pro-Seoul Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) denounced the missile tests and called on Chongryun to pressure North Korea to refrain from further tests.
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2006

A public-relations disaster

LONDON -- Politicians and officials are sometimes their countries' worst enemies. Some politicians and officials behave ineptly and tactlessly in ways that damage the national interests of their country.
JAPAN
Jul 1, 2006

Tokyo, Fukuoka apply for '16 Olympics

is all smiles Friday with Tsunekazu Takeda, chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee, at the JOC secretariat in Shibuya Ward as he submits the capital's proposal to host the 2016 Olympic Games. KYODO PHOTO
EDITORIALS
Jun 23, 2006

Downshifting in Iraq

The government announced Tuesday that Japan will withdraw its Ground Self-Defense Force troops from southern Iraq, ending their 2 1/2-year noncombat mission. It is fortunate that, so far, not a single GSDF member has been injured or killed during this time and that the GSDF troops have not had to fire...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 16, 2006

Zarqawi myth proved useful

LONDON -- The convenient emergence and sudden disappearance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi signals the end of an era. Although Washington and London insist on telling us that the "good news" of his death doesn't necessary mean an end to Iraq's bloodshed, the giddiness in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's...
SUMO
Jun 15, 2006

With Wailing Walls and Dead Sea dips, who needs the World Cup?

Sumo, unlike football -- (the proper one as opposed to the pads and helmet version) -- never stops.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 6, 2006

Murakami arrested over insider trading

Outspoken investment fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami was arrested Monday for alleged insider trading linked to his investment fund's purchase of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. shares between late 2004 and early 2005.
COMMENTARY
May 12, 2006

Fixing the freedom to move

LONDON -- Recent marches in the United States by Latin Americans calling for some 12 million illegal immigrants to be given the right to reside and work in "the land of the free" are the most striking manifestation of a problem that affects every advanced country, although the issue is disguised in Japan....
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2006

Bracing for a new level of oil prices

Oil prices hovering at a historically high level are threatening to destabilize the world economy. Domestically they could exert a cooling effect on the economy just as it appears to be emerging from a long period of deflation, thus undermining the foundation for economic recovery. The public is now...
EDITORIALS
Apr 26, 2006

Learning from Chernobyl

At 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear-power accident in history occurred at Chernobyl, Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Twenty years after the accident, the name "Chernobyl" and a view of the 90-meter-high concrete and steel sarcophagus covering Reactor Four at the power...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 26, 2006

A voice of reason countering Big Oil's clout

The United States government may be hemorrhaging money in Iraq, but the financial condition of America's oil companies and their top management couldn't be rosier.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2006

Myths and misconceptions on Chernobyl

LONDON -- The 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 26, 1986, is prompting a new wave of alarmist claims about its impact on human health and the environment. As has become a ritual on such commemorative occasions, the death toll is tallied in the hundreds of thousands, and fresh...
COMMENTARY
Apr 8, 2006

Pack journalism can be lethal

Some call it pack journalism. It is also lazy journalism.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2006

Foreign Ministry kept contracted studies secret

The Foreign Ministry has refrained from disclosing 58 percent of the research projects it commissioned from affiliated organizations or outside experts since 2002 due to confidentiality reasons, an internal ministry document showed Saturday.
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2006

Containing a growing divide

The growing economic gap in Japanese society under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform policy is emerging as a major national political issue. Critics in the opposition camp as well as the ruling coalition charge that deregulation and intensified competition have divided society into winners and...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2006

New auto jobs, not quotas

WASHINGTON -- U.S. automakers are in dire straits. While non-U.S. brands are gaining market share, both GM and Ford have announced major plant closings and substantial layoffs. For some, these announcements have raised the specter of a return to the policies of the 1980s, when the United States imposed...
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2006

'Gender-free' hard to define, harder to sell

Last year's cancellation of lectures on human rights in Kokubunji, Tokyo, has pitted key feminist scholar Chizuko Ueno and free-speech advocates against conservatives in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government opposed to the use of "gender-free" -- a term whose definition varies but somehow conjures up negative...
OLYMPICS
Jan 31, 2006

Blogs by Olympics participants to be banned

The Japanese Olympic Committee is telling athletes competing at the Turin Winter Olympic Games not to open web logs because the Olympic Charter bans athletes' journalist activities when the games are on, and violators will be disqualified.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2006

Cross-eyed over abuses by North Korea

HONOLULU -- Among the policy differences dividing the United States and South Korea, one that stands out is divergence over the issue of North Korea's abuses of the human rights of its own citizens.
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2006

The feud can end anytime

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should realize that he holds the key to settling the growing discord with China even as Beijing adds fuel to the fire by urging the Japanese government to restrict news media reports on the alleged security threat posed by China.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 12, 2006

Battle-ready Nakata turns down shot to play for Israeli club

Japanese international defender Koji Nakata, who is having an unhappy spell at Marseille, said Wednesday he has decided not to join an Israeli club.

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