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ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jun 28, 2009

Priorities and politics 'must change fast' to head off global calamity

The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer declared: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
JAPAN
Jun 27, 2009

Upper House mulls transplant law

The Upper House began deliberations Friday on two amendments to the organ transplant law.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jun 27, 2009

Standard of living meets house of correction

Recently I had coffee in the Ginza with a friend from abroad, a Japanese gentlemen making a rare pilgrimage back to the land of his upbringing.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CONTROLS ON FOREIGNERS
Jun 26, 2009

With some concessions, DPJ backs crackdown

Ritsuo Hosokawa, justice minister in the Democratic Party of Japan's shadow Cabinet, says he succeeded in softening the tone of the government's immigration reform package.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CONTROLS ON FOREIGNERS
Jun 26, 2009

LDP's point man on immigration bills

First in a series
JAPAN
Jun 24, 2009

High court OKs Sugaya retrial

The Tokyo High Court said Tuesday a retrial will be held for Toshikazu Sugaya, who was released from prison earlier this month after new DNA evidence contradicted initial tests that led to his conviction in the 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Tochigi Prefecture.
LIFE / Digital
Jun 24, 2009

How will iPhone 3GS fare in Japan?

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3GS, the newest in the iPhone series, will debut on June 26, plunging into Japan's cell-phone market, where competition is getting more intense as phone carriers release impressive summer 2009 lineups.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 21, 2009

My son, I give you power over the people

Last Monday, TBS's noontime show "Hiruobi" was covering Kim Jong Un, the son of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and presumed successor. One commentator on the show, an editor for an entertainment magazine, wondered what the citizens of North Korea really thought of this dynastic system. "In Japan right...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 21, 2009

Pain of Kashmir blocks realistic relations

HONG KONG — One of the most important, painful, politically controversial but essential tasks for the new Indian government of Manmohan Singh is to get relations with its neighbor and rival Pakistan onto a smoother footing for the sake of both countries, as well as for the peace and stability of the...
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

An organ in U.S. won't be cheap

Japanese who traveled to the United States to get new hearts were charged as much as about $1.63 million for the operation in 2008, or five times higher than in previous years, medical sources well-versed in organ transplants said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

80 in LDP said to favor change of leader

More than 80 Liberal Democratic Party members support a leadership vote to challenge unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso ahead of the general election this year, the campaign's organizer said.
Reader Mail
Jun 18, 2009

Useful but unofficial translations

The title of the June 10 article "Laws, legal terms get official translation" is misleading. As shown on the Web site in question and indeed on the predecessor site: "These are unofficial translations. Only the original Japanese texts of the laws and regulations have legal effect, and the translations...
/ Sarah Furuya Coaching
Jun 18, 2009

Ship inspections could be a recipe for conflict

KUALA LUMPUR — In response to North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test, the U.N. Security Council has passed a resolution (1874) that expands and tightens the sanctions specified in its earlier resolution (1718), passed in response to North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006. But it goes a step further...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 16, 2009

Eco-points credited with sales boost

People are snatching up hybrid cars, solar panels and energy-efficient TVs, wooed by government incentives designed to battle a recession while conserving energy.
Reader Mail
Jun 14, 2009

LTTE surely fit the definition

While I agree broadly with Gregory Clark's assertion (June 11) that the "terrorist" label is applied too broadly by the West, the particular example of the Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka is a puzzling choice indeed. The LTTE, at the peak of its activities, specialized in the indiscriminate bombing of targets...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jun 14, 2009

Is a national 'Manga Museum' at last set to get off the ground?

When it was announced in April that ¥11.7 billion had been set aside in 2009's supplementary budget to create a new National Center for Media Arts (NCMA) — a museum for manga, anime, video games and technology art — the news was greeted in the same way that most cultural-policy issues are in Japan....
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2009

Taiwan's Chinese characteristics

In her June 4 letter, "Careful whom you call 'Chinese,'" June Dreyer contradicted the claim in my May 27 article, "Cross-strait gap narrows," that most Taiwanese think Chinese, speak Chinese and are Chinese like any other Chinese people.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2009

Laws, legal terms get official translation

Japanese businesses might operate on a global scale, but foreign firms often run into a wall — the language barrier — when trying to understand the ins and outs of this nation's legal system.
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jun 9, 2009

Golf group puts spontaneous socializing back into game

Most Japanese golfers would probably agree with Tor Dahlstrom, a Norwegian diplomat and longtime Japan resident, when he says that "golf is a social game." They might disagree, however, on the way that golf is social.
JAPAN
Jun 9, 2009

Akihabara split on whether to reopen pedestrian strip

A year after a man went on a murderous vehicle and stabbing rampage in Tokyo's Akihabara district, business owners and local residents still traumatized by the attack are split over whether to again close off one of the area's main streets to cars on Sundays and holidays.
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2009

Feasible anti-emission goal

In July 2008 the Japanese government adopted a target for 2050 of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent from 2005 levels. At the same time, a special panel was created to deliberate midterm reduction goals (through 2020).
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2009

Keeping the faith in globalization

CHICAGO — As governments do more to try to coax the world economy out of recession, the danger of protectionism is becoming more real. It is emerging in ways that were unforeseen by those who founded our existing global institutions.
Reader Mail
Jun 7, 2009

Unreasonably light sentence

Regarding the June 4 AP article "Ozeki Kaio says harsh treatment is integral": I am an avid fan of sumo and have been watching the televised bashos for almost 10 years now, five of them while in Japan. I have great liking and respect for sumo veteran Kaio, basically because of the way he conducts himself...
EDITORIALS
Jun 5, 2009

Extended Diet wrangling

The Lower House on Tuesday extended the current Diet session by 55 days through July 28. Prime Minister Taro Aso had decided on the extension and got the consent of Mr. Akihiro Ota, leader of Komeito, the Liberal Democratic Party's junior coalition partner.
COMMENTARY
Jun 4, 2009

The path with North Korea

What is North Korea up to? Is it trying to undermine the six-party talks in order to force Washington to deal with Pyongyang directly, as some experts claim? Or, as others maintain with equal certainty, is it sending a signal that it is not interested in talks at all, given current domestic political...
Reader Mail
Jun 4, 2009

It's hard to please everyone

Cynthia Seton writes in her May 28 letter, "Different take on universities," that Japanese national universities are often notorious for treating non-Japanese quite differently. I agree to a large extent. I worked as a low-paid post-doctorate fellow at a prefectural — not national — university for...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight