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Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Japanese NGOs focus on relief, reconciliation -- and coffee co-operatives

The violent troubles in 2006 drove many staff of Japanese nongovern- mental organizations out of East Timor. The NGOs I visited had modest offices and accommodations, and the staff lived frugally -- unlike the "lords of poverty" I have encountered elsewhere in the international development community....
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 19, 2007

Abe must not neglect Japan-U.S. ties

Since coming to power four months ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has successfully mended fences with China and South Korea, reinforced diplomatic and economic foundations in Europe, and built bridges in Southeast Asia. But he has not visited his closest ally, U.S. President George W. Bush, although Abe...
EDITORIALS
Feb 3, 2007

New hope for Nepal

The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is undergoing a transformation that could lead to its rebirth as a peaceful nation. But the country's path will not be an easy one. Assistance from the international community for reconstruction will be indispensable.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2007

North Korea talks should also discuss escapees, forum told

OSAKA -- The plight of Japanese citizens and Japanese-born Koreans who voluntarily went to North Korea in the 1960s but escaped to return to Japan is a human rights issue that needs to be included in the six-party talks on denuclearizing North Korea, a symposium in Osaka concluded Sunday.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 14, 2007

Asia's shift in global importance

Chasing the Sun: Rethinking East Asian Policy, by Morton Abramowitz and Stephen Bosworth. New York: A Century Foundation Book, 2006, 165 pp., $15.95 (paper). Slowly but surely, the United States is waking up to the profound changes afoot in the structure of global power. The rise of China is one sign...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 3, 2007

Principal draws on his business savvy to run school

First of three parts Kazuhiro Fujihara had a long career at major publisher Recruit Co. launching businesses, including setting up a firm that makes trading cards for the popular cartoon character Pokemon and launching a magazine in 1995 aimed at buyers and sellers of used goods.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2006

No payoff in dialogue with Iran, Syria

PRAGUE -- Despite frequent claims to the contrary, the fundamental problem in the Middle East is not intervention by the West but rather the apparent inability of the Western powers to conduct either war or dialogue. This leaves everyone in the region at the mercy of the Middle East's oppressive regimes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 22, 2006

2006: The year that hip-hop finally grew up

The idea that rock is exclusively a young man's game hasn't held water for three decades. While there's still something off-putting about Mick Jagger's determined athleticism in the service of a catalog that's older than Justin Timberlake, there's no denying he can still fill football stadiums, and not...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2006

The gravest violation of human rights

December 10 was Human Rights Day.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2006

Bringing an end to bullying

The Education Resuscitation Council's call for efforts to stamp out bullying at school and measures to cope with bullying-related problems shows that the government is serious about the problem. But both the government and the public must realize that bullying is so difficult a problem that it will not...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 25, 2006

Odd choice of enemies, allies

LONDON -- You have to admire his timing. Just before Russian President Vladimir Putin left for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) annual meeting in Hanoi this month, he sent out a strong warning to the world leaders he expected to meet there.
EDITORIALS
Nov 25, 2006

Progress in fight against warming

The countries that attended the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Nairobi agreed to review the pact in 2008. The Nov. 17 agreement is a step forward since it was feared that serious conflict between developed and developing countries might torpedo the conference. It is hoped that...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006

Revolution in market values

LONDON -- "Economic reform" has been the banner slogan of Japanese governments for the last 10 years, and the new government promises more of it.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 7, 2006

Pulling the wool

I s the world's second-largest economy, Japan feels it deserves the respect and privilege accorded the club of rich countries.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2006

Study of nuclear issue demands caution

North Korea's underground nuclear test of Oct. 9, which has drawn a flurry of sharp reactions in the international community, has also brought the perennially simmering question of Japan's nuclear option to the surface again.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Nov 5, 2006

Joi Ito: Master of multitasking

Joichi Ito, better known as Joi Ito, defies any one simple label.
EDITORIALS
Nov 3, 2006

Debate that sends the wrong signal

Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa continues to call for debate on whether Japan should arm itself with nuclear weapons. On Oct. 30, he said to the effect: What if North Korea launches a nuclear-tipped missile aimed at Japan. Do we say, "America, please help us"? Before we can say...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 29, 2006

TV Asahi's "Quiz Presentation Variety Q-sama," Fuji's "Kinyo Prestige" and more

SLack of imagination has not stopped TV producers from coming up with new outlets for all the comedians looking for work. Every week TV Asahi's variety show "Quiz Presentation Variety Q-sama" (Mon., 8 p.m.) offers about a dozen comedians and other tarento the opportunity to present their own quizzes,...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2006

International role of NPOs

All over the world, culture is being pushed to the sidelines. I am not referring here to commercialized, globalized culture produced purely for entertainment. By "culture," I mean the provision of culture as a public good, such as through foreign-language education, intellectual exchange or groundbreaking...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2006

Lower corporate taxes can fuel recovery

BANGKOK -- It is a hopeful sign that professor Masaaki Honma of Osaka University has been set to be appointed chairman of the tax panel that briefs the prime minister. This would be a happy departure from the position of the current chairman of the tax panel, Hiromitsu Ishi, who consistently advocated...
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2006

N. Korea: Who's to blame?

SEOUL -- "It's all Bush's fault!" "No, it's all Clinton's fault!" Has anyone engaged in this increasingly counterproductive debate over who should be blamed for North Korea's nuclear test ever stopped to consider that it might actually be Kim Jong Il's fault? . . . and that North Korean's "Dear Leader"...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2006

China squeezes Pyongyang

A series of meetings last week among the foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, South Korea and China were significant for helping the four nations confirm their mutual cooperation in implementing sanctions against North Korea following its first nuclear-weapons test Oct. 9.
COMMENTARY
Oct 16, 2006

Abe off to impressive start

In his summits with Presidents Hu Jintao of China and Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea last week, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the first step toward improving relations that had soured between Japan and the two countries under the rule of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi. His initiative also opened a...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2006

Iraq's Christians at risk of annihilation

LONDON -- The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil war between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But in this looming war of all against all, it is Iraq's small community of Assyrian Christians that is at risk of annihilation.
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2006

Weakness prods Pyongyang

Though impoverished and starved, North Korea owns nuclear arms and is developing long-range ballistic missiles, thus posing a growing military threat to the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 1, 2006

Hisashi Inoue: Crusader with a pen

So wide-ranging are 71-year-old Hisashi Inoue's talents and activities that it is difficult to know which to focus on at the expense of others.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 26, 2006

Foreigners make leap from classroom to club

While it appears that only the most basic of artistic demands are placed upon the "gaijin tarento" that pop up periodically on Japanese TV screens, it would be a mistake to assume that Japan fetishizes foreigners in the entertainment business.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan