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EDITORIALS
May 23, 2007

Certification for better services

A new certification system has started in which the justice minister can certify private-sector organizations that help resolve civil disputes outside courts. This system is based on the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) law, which went into effect April 1, 2007, and will help offer the public more...
EDITORIALS
May 22, 2007

ADB's struggle with success

The Asian Development Bank was founded four decades ago to help lift Asia out of poverty. At the time, per capita GDP in the region was less than $170; the 31 founding countries sought to create an institution that would help them gain access to scarce capital and speed their development.
BUSINESS
May 18, 2007

Rakuten refuses to limit TBS stake goal to 20%

Rakuten Inc. President Hiroshi Mikitani said Thursday that he won't limit his acquisition goal for shares of Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. to 20 percent.
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2007

Freer trade with ASEAN

Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have reached an agreement in principle on the modalities of free-trade negotiations that they hope to wrap up by the end of August. If the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement is signed in November as hoped, it will be Japan's first free-trade...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 13, 2007

Combining East and West in dramaturgy

AN ACTOR'S TRICKS by Yoshi Oida and Lorna Marshall, foreword by Peter Brook. London: Methuen Drama, A&A Black Ltd., 2007, 102 pp., £10.99 (paper) Yoshi Oida, born in 1933, is one of Japan's most interesting actor-directors. Trained in the classical stage disciplines, particularly that of the Kyogen,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 12, 2007

Gang of Four holding out hope courts will drop West Ham

LONDON — Celebratory glasses will be raised by those who escape relegation from the Premiership, but a nasty whiff of sour grapes surrounds the final round of fixtures tomorrow Sunday.
BUSINESS
May 12, 2007

Pentax can let go of Hoya ties: camera exec

Backed by brisk earnings in 2006, a senior executive at Pentax Corp. said Friday the firm was confident it could go it alone without Hoya Corp.
BUSINESS
May 9, 2007

Nippon Steel eyes India tieups as sector girds against takeovers

In late March, Nippon Steel Corp. President Akio Mimura was in New Delhi to attend a board meeting for the International Iron & Steel Institute.
EDITORIALS
May 8, 2007

Grand strategy for the Middle East

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has returned from a five-country tour of the Middle East. Ostensibly, Mr. Abe was focusing on energy security but his visits encompassed much more than that. Mr. Abe was raising Japan's diplomatic profile in a region that is vital to its national security — and that of the...
BUSINESS
May 6, 2007

Asia finance chiefs agree on foreign reserves pool

KYOTO — Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with Japan, China, and South Korea on Saturday hammered out a basic agreement to pool some of the region's $2.7 trillion in foreign reserves to prevent the kind of currency runs that led to the Asian financial crisis a...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
May 6, 2007

Karel Van Wolferen: Insights into the new world disorder

When Karel Van Wolferen released his seminal book "The Enigma of Japanese Power" in the dying months of the bubble economy, the normally staid monthly magazine Chuo Koron described its impact as akin to being struck by a bolt of lightning. For once, the hype was merited. Little before had matched the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 5, 2007

ADB meet looks beyond poverty to energy

KYOTO — Stressing "clean and green" development projects and vowing greater efforts to reduce poverty, the Asian Development Bank kicked off its 40th annual meeting Friday in Kyoto.
JAPAN / CHARTER TURNS 60
May 4, 2007

LDP wants to cut freedoms: DPJ

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe doesn't understand the basics of the Constitution and wants to use it to reduce human rights, not protect them, according to the head of a constitutional study panel for the Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 2, 2007

Japanese firms flock to booming Vietnam

HANOI — Fueled by the latest investment boom, Vietnam is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2007

America mismanaging missile defense

PRAGUE -- Missile defense has suddenly emerged as a divisive issue in Europe. Rather than enhancing European security, the Bush administration's plan to deploy elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic threatens to increase strains with Russia and deepen divisions with America's...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 30, 2007

Tobacco's road from fashion to filth

NEW YORK -- If a recent article in the Science section of The New York Times is any indication, the idea that the history of the tobacco industry in the United States has been nothing less than perfidy has taken hold among the socially conscientious. Titled "Tracing the Cigarette's Path From Sexy to...
Reader Mail
Apr 29, 2007

Whitewashing is the problem

I agree with Setsuko Tokita ("America has its own atrocities," April 18) that the United States has no reason to be proud of certain chapters of its history, including slavery, as well as the forced relocation and extermination of most of the Native American population. However, to my knowledge, no American...
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2007

Improving consumer lifestyle choices key to meeting CO2 goals

Consumer behavior holds the key to Japan's ability to fulfill its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming, as rising greenhouse gas emissions in the household and transport sectors make it increasingly hard to achieve the nation's goals, said participants in a recent symposium...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 27, 2007

'Flandres'

In "Flandres," the region referred to in the film's title (located in northern France) is breathtaking in its untarnished beauty. The light -- golden and buttery -- drenches the landscape in an intricately magical, Vermeer-like way. There is, however, nothing remotely idyllic about the film itself; the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 27, 2007

Melt-Banana take aim again

'It was my first time to kill so it affected me a lot," says Melt-Banana's vocalist Yako, before breaking into a cackle befitting a Shakespearean witch. "But it wasn't a cute bambi. It was a big deer. You told us about (the Sex Pistols song) 'Who Killed Bambi.' It's you who made us keep thinking about...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 24, 2007

Yuji Sato

Marine, a 5-and-a-half year-old black Labrador retriever, just might be one of the world's most unexpected heroines in the fight against cancer. Marine's nose is capable of detecting 18 different types of cancer on a person's breath and has already been mechanically replicated as a sensor the size of...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2007

Peril in denying China's past

I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but Japan shouldn't be so readily taken in by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's recent speech in the Diet. This is because China, despite the flowery good language forwarded by Wen, is still a totalitarian regime willing to interfere in another country's domestic politics. ...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2007

Hardly a utopia for criminals

In his April 11 letter, "Reduction in crime is relative," James Holland misunderstands the purpose of my original letter ("Migrants are to be welcomed," April 1). It was not only to dispute claims of rampant crime in Britain and the alleged culpability of "unassimilated" foreigners, but also to challenge...
COMMENTARY
Apr 19, 2007

Nuclear basics for the alliance

HONOLULU -- Nuclear strategy has become a core concern in the U.S.-Japan alliance. North Korea is the immediate trigger for Japanese anxiety, but similar uncertainties lie just beneath the surface when Japan contemplates China as well. U.S. assurances are needed -- both to Japan and to potential adversaries...
EDITORIALS
Apr 18, 2007

Medical care for the terminal stage

The health ministry has formulated a guideline on terminal care stipulating that respect for patients' wishes is "the most important principle" when carrying out medical treatment for those in the terminal stage. The guideline, aimed at preventing single-handed decisions by doctors, is the first government...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 17, 2007

Roaches and rent

Death to 'gokiburi' JB put pen to paper to vent spleen on the perennial pests that roam -- or rather scuttle about -- these islands.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?