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Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 15, 2008

An outside eye on Japan

In a nation traditionally seen as a monoculture, there's a multinational range of flowers blooming in Japan's current cultural crop. In the last several years there has been an influx of foreign-born creators — whether architects, designers or writers — and they are thriving in the local scene.
Reader Mail
Apr 13, 2008

Critical issue is free speech

The author of the letter "Better to stay home than dis the flag" obviously does not understand the foremost point of the protest by teachers in Tokyo and the rest of Japan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 13, 2008

Landmark case spotlights 'Japanese-style nationalism'

"The most critical thing for us Japanese in the 21st century is to free ourselves from Japanese-style nationalism, both politically and culturally." So said author Kenzaburo Oe to me in the autumn of 1995, a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008

The world's hungry billion

COPENHAGEN — Hunger has slipped from the rich world's consciousness. Televised images of Third World children with distended bellies no longer shock viewers. Polls show that developed nations now believe that the world's biggest problems are terrorism and climate change.
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2008

See it on catwalk, buy it through cell phone

Screams erupted from 22,000 young women in flowery frills, boots, really short shorts and glittery jewelry whenever a model — dressed similarly — waltzed down the runway in a Tokyo stadium.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 7, 2008

No end in sight to India's fiscal follies

NEW DELHI — India's new budget for 2008-2009 says less about the country's current financial health than it does about the irresistible tendency of Indian governments to use the national budget as a pre-election cudgel. Every year, India struggles to reconcile the irreconcilable: stimulate economic...
COMMENTARY
Apr 6, 2008

Voice of Taiwanese heard around Asia

HO CHI MINH CITY — Sure, the election of the next president of the United States will be the most closely watched election in Asia or anywhere else this year. America, for all its stumbles, is still the No. 1 superpower: So whomever the American voter picks, the world is stuck with.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 4, 2008

The marvel of Miyanoshita

Guests stroll through the Fujiya Hotel like wide-eyed tourists drinking in the sights in an exotic port of call. They gaze at the dragon spiraling around a banister, the snake slithering up a support atop which sits a monkey, the elaborately carved tableau of Shogun Minamoto Yoritomo hunting wild boars,...
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2008

Magazine aims to report on reality of life in North

The magazine Rimjingang, whose Japanese version was published for the first time Thursday, aims to let the world know what is really happening in North Korea through the eyes of its own citizens and to connect them to the outside world, the magazine's editors said.
Reader Mail
Apr 3, 2008

Piece captures spirit of Ireland

I am a 17-year-old student from Ireland. While on the Internet, I stumbled across the March 30 article by Roger Pulvers titled "Ireland -- from the quintessence of reaction -- to what." I have never read an article that has captured my imagination so greatly. Never has my nation's soul and the identity...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2008

Last stand before Russia's next chance

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday through Friday, NATO will hold its biggest summit ever in Bucharest, the capital of its new member, Romania. Incredibly, NATO has invited its fiercest critic, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to attend. For the first time since 2002, he will. His presence is an embarrassment...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 30, 2008

The big mysteries behind small things

THE ART OF SMALL THINGS by John Mack. London: British Museum Press, 2007, 224 pp., with 200 color illustrations, £19.99 (cloth) Here is a splendid catalog of the world made small — miniature works in the collection of the British Museum: Elizabethan rings, Benin masks, Netherlandish rosary beads,...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2008

Hashimoto's cost-cutting plans under fire

OSAKA — If Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has his way, employees now working on international human rights issues may become school security guards and a popular women's center will be sold off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 28, 2008

The revolutionary tale of Mikami's enka blues

Kan Mikami once beat the crap out of David Bowie.
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2008

Prolonged unrest in Tibet could unravel China's monocracy

NEW DELHI — The monk-led Tibetan uprising, which spread across Tibet and beyond to the traditional Tibetan areas incorporated in Han provinces, marks a turning point in communist China's history. It is a rude jolt to the world's biggest and longest surviving autocracy, highlighting the signal failure...
Reader Mail
Mar 27, 2008

Not just a matter of discrimination

Patrick Hattman, in his March 20 letter, "Basis for discriminatory legislation," raises some important questions about nationality settlements after World War II and "race" in Japan's postwar Constitution and Nationality Law.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2008

Scary signs in BOJ debacle

HONG KONG — Even Google couldn't believe it. Asked to supply its best information about Koji Tanami, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's second "best available" candidate to be governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the search engine instantly responded, "Do you mean Bank of Japan tsunami?"
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 26, 2008

Can three experts all be wrong on looming disaster?

If you ask British scientist James Lovelock about the future of humanity, be prepared for a shock.
COMMENTARY
Mar 23, 2008

Nonbelievers in the 'existential threat'

LONDON — When Adm. William J. "Fox" Fallon was chosen to replace Gen. John Abizaid as the commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) in March 2007, many analysts didn't shy away from reaching a seemingly clear-cut conclusion: the Bush administration was preparing for war with Iran and had selected...
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Mar 21, 2008

Shinsuke: A sip of sake in shitamachi

Slowly but surely word is getting out to the rest of the world: Japanese restaurants don't have to be formal, exquisite and jaw-droppingly pricey. Quite the opposite, in fact: Eating out in Tokyo can be casual, friendly, affordable and fun.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2008

Sentimental barrier to economic growth

Protectionist sentiment and fear of globalization are on the rise. In the United States, presidential candidates appeal to anxious voters by blaming the North American Free Trade Agreement for the erosion of the country's manufacturing base. Liberal trade initiatives have run into trouble in Congress,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 16, 2008

Is Obama another JFK, Bush, or both?

LOS ANGELES — Admirers of Barack Obama who glibly and favorably compare the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency to John F. Kennedy always assume that they are doing the former a favor. But there's another way to look at it — and it's less pretty.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 16, 2008

Ireland wrestles with a plethora of polemics

First of two parts
Reader Mail
Mar 16, 2008

A Japan that can say 'no' to Ishihara

Regarding the March 9 article "Shinginko loan defaults hit 28.5 billion": There's more than a hint of irony in the name of the failed bank, the creation of which Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara virtually forced Tokyo taxpayers to cough up for.
EDITORIALS
Mar 16, 2008

Renewable energy surges forward

Renewable energy is developing rapidly in terms of investment and energy production. The Renewable Energy 2007 Global Status Report made public in late February is food for thought for energy policymakers, citizens, and power and other companies. Renewable electricity generation capacity reached an estimated...
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2008

Burma sanctions don't work

NEW DELHI — Burma today ranks as one of the world's most isolated and sanctioned nations — a situation unlikely to be changed by its ruling junta scheduling a May referendum on a draft constitution and facilitating U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's third visit in six months.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 14, 2008

Digging up a real gem of an Indian curry

Northern Indian cuisine — which features some of the country's most elaborate dishes — was largely influenced by the Moghuls, who invaded India from the Middle East in the eighth century. In addition to red meat, the Moghuls enjoyed poultry, nuts, saffron and ghee. Over the centuries a distinctive...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2008

Taking the next step on Iran

LOS ANGELES — The approval of fresh sanctions on Iran marks the third time that the United Nations Security Council has been galvanized to stem the Islamic Republic's feared uranium enrichment efforts. Unfortunately, the new sanctions are unlikely to be any more effective than the first two rounds....

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami