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Reader Mail
Apr 18, 2007

Depiction of Japanese history

In his March 29 article, "Abe needlessly fans the flames," Francis Fukuyama is right to assert that the Yushukan museum adjacent to Yasukuni Shrine is the bigger problem of the two because of its nationalist depiction of Pacific War history.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 29, 2007

Abe needlessly fans the flames

WASHINGTON -- Barely half a year into his premiership, Shinzo Abe is provoking anger across Asia and mixed feelings in his country's key ally, the United States. But will the Bush administration use its influence to nudge Abe away from inflammatory behavior?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2007

Ultra-rightist tilt posing clear, present danger to free speech

When ruling party lawmaker Koichi Kato criticized Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to Yasukuni Shrine, retribution from the rightwing was swift: An extremist set his house on fire and tried to commit ritual suicide.
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2006

Revisionists damaging Japan

LONDON -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has the reputation of being a tough nationalist. So far, however, he has shown himself to be a pragmatist in foreign-policy issues. His early visits to China and South Korea demonstrated that he wants to improve bilateral relations, which have soured in recent years....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2006

Telling another side of the story

James Bradley wrote the book "Flags of Our Fathers," on which one of Clint Eastwood's new films is based. "Flags" tells the true story of what is arguably the most famous photo in warfare, taken as his father and five other marines raised the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima in 1945.
JAPAN
Aug 2, 2006

Obituary: Kazuko Tsurumi

Sociologist Kazuko Tsurumi died Monday, her family said. She was 88.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Women's voices

This story is part of a package on women in Japan. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 12, 2006

Refuge of Last Resort

It is 9 o'clock on a freezing winter's morning in Sanya, eastern Tokyo, a blighted downtown district that was once famed as a day laborers' mecca. Now, it is home to thousands of aging men on welfare.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Dec 24, 2005

Shi Yu Chen

Step inside Argo restaurant and library cafe in Kojimachi, Tokyo, and you might suppose yourself in the dining lounge of a luxury yacht. It is true you don't look out over Greek islands. Instead, you have a high view of the moat and the parkland of the Imperial Palace, and the complex of the British...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2005

Inoguchi wants more money for kids

the low birthrate, so (the government) needs to reinforce measures" to tackle the problem, Kuniko Inoguchi, 53, a former professor of international politics at Sophia University, said in an interview Wednesday. "If the birthrate keeps falling, we will not be able to support our aging society." Japan's...
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2005

Rookie Katayama named to high-ranking post

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday named new lawmaker Satsuki Katayama as parliamentary secretary to the trade minister among his appointments of 22 senior vice ministers and 26 parliamentary secretaries.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2005

Koizumi reshuffles his Cabinet

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reshuffled his Cabinet on Monday and gave key posts to three possible contenders to succeed him in the country's top job.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2005

New, returning lawmakers step onto Diet's red carpet

Lawmakers elected Sept. 11, some under a cloud of scandal, started their first official duties Wednesday, attending a House of the Representatives special session.
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2005

Commemorating a mistake

Chaos theorists like to speculate how a butterfly flapping wings in Beijing might cause an earthquake in Latin America. But history could have something even more chaotic to say -- how a Japanese soldier's toilet stop near Beijing in 1937 plunged Japan into an eight-year war with China, rescued Europe...
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2005

Cardinal hopes next pope is like John Paul

Roman Catholic Cardinal Seiichi Shirayanagi, one of two Japanese eligible to vote for a new pope, hopes Pope John Paul II's replacement will offer more of the same.
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2005

Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy

Japan is now in serious territorial disputes with all of its neighbors -- Taiwan, China, South Korea and Russia. True, this could prove there is something wrong with all of Japan's neighbors. But it could also prove that there is something wrong in the way Japan handles territorial problems with its...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 27, 2004

ARI teaches leadership skills via organic farming

What is the connection between Hoichi Endo, a former member of Japan's Credit Union (CU), based in Tsujido, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Asian Rural Institute's group of students from developing countries learning leadership skills and organic farming in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture?
COMMUNITY
Jan 10, 2004

Buddha, Shinto artifacts make great new business

Having purchased a figuratively decorated enameled wall vase before Christmas for my daughter in Toronto, but not quite sure what I'd got, I headed for the home of Byron Monasmith in Tokyo's Shinanomachi.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2003

Is media scrabbling for scoops or scraps?

Since late July, when a special law allowing the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq was enacted, the Japanese media has engaged in a fierce battle to report when, where and how many personnel will be sent to the war-ravaged country.
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 24, 2003

A chill double-bill in the heart of Shibuya

When Matt Nieman and Greg Natali were kids growing up in Philadelphia, neither one of them could have imagined that they would end up living and running nightclubs in Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2003

Fashion guru takes helm at sock firm

Fukusuke Corp. has named noted fashion buyer Yukio Fujimaki as president of the time-honored sock maker, which is undergoing court-supervised rehabilitation, company officials said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2003

Web suicide sites have officials worried

The pattern has become eerily familiar. After forging a pact with strangers over the Internet, young people get together to carry out a carefully planned task -- suicide.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 28, 2003

Darius Hecq-Cauquil

Old-timers remember the late Masaru Ogawa, characterful senior editor of The Japan Times 40 years ago. Bilingual and bicultural from his birth and upbringing in the United States, he returned to Japan, married and brought up his family here.
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2003

Recovery debate overlooks sensible economic policies

Is there something in the Japanese mind that prevents sensible economic debate?
COMMENTARY
May 27, 2003

Is there something in the Japanese mind that prevents sensible economic debate?

Japan's semi-public National Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) recently gave more than three hours of prime time for a round-table discussion on how to save the economy. Predictably, much of the talking revolved around Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's claim that "structural reform" is the key to recovery....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 3, 2003

Time to reconnect? Home is where the hearts are

Living abroad has its ups and downs. There are times of euphoria -- total absorption and delight with one's adopted culture -- and there are the deep troughs, when negativity sets in and everything turns hateful and to be despised. There is also that infinitely more bewildering phase, when nothing feels...

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell