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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2009

Asia and the climate crisis

MANILA — The latest round of negotiations on a new global climate change agreement that recently concluded in Bonn showed promising signs that governments everywhere realize the urgency of cooperative action to address this global challenge.
Reader Mail
Jun 25, 2009

Good law gets public consensus

Regarding the June 20 editorial "Recognition of brain death": The Lower House's passage of the new bill is a very welcome step in the right direction, and the editorial misses the mark by falling back on a tired, old reason for not supporting this measure — a supposed lack of "public consensus."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 21, 2009

Tokyo spurned in the 'ultra miracle' of new film's linguistic embrace

On June 8, the evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on a fascinating phenomenon — one that may be a harbinger of a broad cultural and social movement in Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

Immigration revision set to be passed

The ruling and opposition camps have revised a contentious set of immigration bills in a way that increases government scrutiny of both legal and illegal foreign residents while extending additional conveniences, according to a draft obtained Thursday by The Japan Times.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 19, 2009

Time to speak Jamaican

If you've ever wanted to learn Jamaican patois, it just got a whole lot easier with the launch of an educational CD on which, set to music, is the alphabet and grammar as used in patois, designed to be used as a learning tool, in order to make it easy for anyone, non-Jamaicans and Jamaicans alike, to...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 14, 2009

Oranges and felons

The 19th-century Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson got it spot on about traveling when he noted that to do so hopefully was a better thing than arriving.
COMMENTARY
Jun 12, 2009

The deficits of democracy

LONDON — Britain and Japan have prime ministers who have not been endorsed by the electorate in a general election. Both are hanging on to power and argue that it is their right as prime minister to choose the date for the next election. Under our constitutions this is a valid claim, but is it in accordance...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 12, 2009

Is it a spider? Is it a monkey? Yes, it's a work by Ennosuke

As a "kabuki class" for beginners, the National Theater of Japan is presenting in its large auditorium until June 24 a performance by Ichikawa Ennosuke, the master of "super-kabuki" productions, which he started to develop in 1986.
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.
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).
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 7, 2009

Kang Sang Jung: Born but not Bred

Kang Sang Jung is one of the most influential ethnically Korean residents of Japan (zainichi). A political science professor at the University of Tokyo, he also gives lectures around the country, is a regular television commentator and has a column in the prestigious weekly current affairs magazine Aera....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jun 7, 2009

Director Tran talks of moving from violence to Murakami's famed 'Norwegian Wood'

Born in Vietnam and raised in France from age 12, Tran Anh Hung made an indelible debut as a filmmaker in 1993 with "The Scent Of Green Papaya." A delicate, sensual film, where the patter of rain on garden leaves or the rustle of wind on mosquito netting was as prominent as its story of a servant girl...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jun 2, 2009

Bugging the alien: a response

Re: Debito Arudou's May 19 Zeit Gist column "IC you: bugging the alien" on the proposed new IC-chipped alien registration cards:
COMMENTARY
May 29, 2009

China closing energy deals while oil is cheap

SINGAPORE — Cash-rich China is using a period of relatively low oil prices to improve its energy security and ensure that its economy has the oil-based fuels needed to sustain growth when recovery from the slump takes hold.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 29, 2009

Brahman

You might expect a band named after the Sanskrit term for "absolute reality" to be a bit, well, pretentious. But if their moniker is evocative of patchouli, long beards and even longer guitar solos, Brahman's music remains firmly grounded.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2009

Pyongyang rolls the dice again

North Korea has announced that it successfully carried out another underground nuclear test on Monday. The nuclear explosion came on the heels of the North's April 5 launching of a long-range rocket, which drew condemnation from the United Nations Security Council in the form of a presidential statement....
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
May 25, 2009

Paying Aso back with praise

Ranking officials at the Foreign Ministry appear more preoccupied with presenting Prime Minister Taro Aso as dexterous at diplomacy than promoting the national interest. One official has confided that it is now their turn to return the favor given to them when Aso was foreign minister.
LIFE
May 24, 2009

Traders' plans pay off in Motomachi

What was supposed to be a day spent savoring the delights of Motomachi Shopping Street for our Timeout Yokohama feature soon took on the nature of a quest.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2009

California crisis imperils Obama's agenda

BERKELEY, Calif. — While the new Obama administration is commanding global attention, America's future may be written — as so many times before — in and by its largest state. Once the lodestar for American optimism and achievement, California now illustrates the difficulties confronting the United...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 18, 2009

Will second wave of 'price destruction' finally spur change?

A major wave of what could perhaps be called the second round of "price destruction" is accelerating in Japan.
EDITORIALS
May 15, 2009

Sign of weakness in Pyongyang?

North Korea, which was condemned in a statement by the United Nations Security Council's president for its April 5 launch of a long-range rocket, has taken a provocative attitude of late. It has announced its withdrawal from the six-party talks for the denuclearization of the country and kicked out International...
JAPAN
May 13, 2009

Okada, Hatoyama top picks in DPJ field

Former Democratic Party of Japan leaders Katsuya Okada and Yukio Hatoyama emerged Tuesday as the most likely replacements for President Ichiro Ozawa ahead of the pivotal general election later this year.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CITIZEN JUSTICE
May 12, 2009

Day of public reckoning in criminal trial process looms

First in a series
JAPAN / Q&A
May 12, 2009

Historic change puts justice in public hands

With the "saibanin" lay judge system set to take effect May 21, Japan is gearing up for an important transition in its judicial system, in which citizens begin serving as de facto jurors in district court trials involving serious crimes.
LIFE
May 10, 2009

Playing the party odds for love

In Japan, women are traditionally subservient to men and — like children in the West — have long been schooled to be "seen and not heard." But in matters of the heart and homemaking, and in these times of increasing sexual equality, Japan's females — who were formerly hunted romantically — are...
EDITORIALS
May 10, 2009

World press freedom

In the middle of the Golden Week Holidays, newspapers around the world recognized their own special day on May 3: World Press Freedom Day. Officially established in 1993 by the U.N. General Assembly and organized annually by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), the day offers an annual report on...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 9, 2009

In search of picture-perfect Tokyo

Tokyo is infested with camera bugs. I can identify three species, at least.
CULTURE / Music
May 8, 2009

Bluesman Robert Cray plays it with soul

Robert Cray last performed in Japan 13 years ago at the Japan Blues Carnival — an experience that for him is now a bittersweet memory.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2009

Nuclear spin in Indian polls

DELHI OPINION ASIA — As elections progress, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress party are in more trouble over the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal than they will readily acknowledge, with the distinct possibility of losing power.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2009

Google crosses line with controversial old Tokyo maps

When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused...

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.