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COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2007

Scaremongering about China, as usual

LOS ANGELES — It might almost seem like a game of geopolitical chicken: How far can we go in creating monstrous new fears about China?
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2007

Stopping sexual abuse of Russian kids

NEW YORK — One of the regrettable consequences of the uneven economic expansion that Russia has experienced in recent times has been the increase in child abuse, particularly child prostitution.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 9, 2007

The Japanese diplomat in Britain

JJapanese Envoys in Britain, 1862-1964: A Century of Diplomatic Exchange, compiled and edited by Ian Nish. Global Oriental, 2007, 255 pp, 55 (cloth) Next year Britain and Japan celebrate 150 years of diplomatic relations, and just on cue comes this book, "Japanese Envoys in Britain (1862-1964)," which...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 4, 2007

The scapegoating of Asa

The Japan Sumo Association has recently tag-teamed with the Japanese media to lay into Asashoryu, the Mongolian sumo champ who has all but dominated the sport for the past few years.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2007

Neoconservatism limps on

NEWARK, N.J. — Neoconservatism has served as a badge of unity for those in the Bush administration who have advocated an aggressive foreign policy, massive military spending, disdain for international law and institutions, an assault on the welfare state and a return to "traditional values."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 2, 2007

Cultural affinity bodes well for growing ties with India

Legend has it that in ancient times a mask made its way from India to Japan. One look at today's Noh mask called Beshimi would confirm this legend: Its tea-colored complexion, large eyes and ample nostrils certainly make it look nothing like a Japanese, but like a native of India.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2007

Narcotics trade boosted army scrip

Japan used the opium trade of Shanghai's major dealer to prop up the value of its military currency in occupied China during the war, according to a leading expert on China's wartime economy, citing a former secret document.
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2007

Thai character trumps flaws of politics

LOS ANGELES — When social scientists or journalists are in doubt, sometimes it's best to consult the artist.
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2007

America's dirty little victory

NEW YORK — "Just about everyone agrees that the recent conviction of Abdullah al-Muhajir, aka Jose Padilla, is a good thing," wrote rightwing pundit Neil Kressel in The New York Post.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 26, 2007

Marine sniper in a modern-day retelling of the legendary 47 ronin

Author Stephen Hunter's series character Bob Lee Swagger, the ex-marine sniper who gained the nickname "Bob the Nailer" for his wartime exploits in Vietnam, has few soft spots. One is his late father, Earl, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Honor for valor on Iwo Jima.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 22, 2007

Nuclear deal fueling opposition to Singh

NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's political future has come under a cloud over a controversial civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States that has helped isolate his party in Parliament.
COMMENTARY
Aug 20, 2007

Know that the devil is in the derivative

LOS ANGELES — Although Warren Buffet does have — I reluctantly admit — more money than I do (like maybe $50 or so billion more?), we do share a pair of common traits. The first is that this internationally famous investment banker (known as the "Sage of Omaha") tends to favor cautious, carefully...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 19, 2007

Something's up as 'buy' confidence slips

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — The sharp drop in the world's stock markets on Aug. 9 — after BNP Paribas announced that it would freeze three of its funds — is just one more example of the markets' recent downward instability or asymmetry. The markets have been more vulnerable to sudden large drops than...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 19, 2007

Osamu Tezuka: Fighting for peace with the Mighty Atom

The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, by Frederik L. Schodt. Stone Bridge Press, 2007, 248 pp., $16.95 (paper) When legendary manga and anime artist Osamu Tezuka visited the 1964 New York World's Fair, he met a man he had long idolized, Walt Disney. Tezuka...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2007

'Factotum'

The work of poet/author Charles Bukowski, America's "Budweiser Baudelaire," has always had a kind of contradictory appeal. On the one hand, Bukowski, a misanthropic alcoholic, delivered a harsh, no-holds-barred account of life on the skid-row underbelly of society. And yet he did so with such prosaic...
COMMENTARY
Aug 16, 2007

Japan, India: natural allies

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, weakened by a mortifying defeat in Upper House elections, will address the Indian Parliament later this month. This is an honor that U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao did not get during their state visits to India last year. India and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / OTAKOOL
Aug 16, 2007

How the Net made a bedroom rapper a star in Japan

The Acid Panda Cafe, an underground hip-hop club in Tokyo, is packed. The show is sold out. The racial makeup of the crowd is virtually all Japanese, except for the four African-Americans who hit the stage at 1 a.m. and launch into spirited rhyme. The words, inexplicably, are Japanese.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 16, 2007

"Hiroshi Teshigahara"

Museum of Modern Art, Saitama Closes in 53 days
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 12, 2007

Lauded in the West, ignored in the East

Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom, by Daisuke Miyao. Duke University Press, 2007, 380 pp., with 23 illustrations, $23.95 (paper) Kintaro Hayakawa (1886-1973), born in modest circumstances in Chiba, went on to have an extraordinary and unexpected life elsewhere. Now renamed Sesshu...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 11, 2007

Critic awaits callers in Imperial Hotel suite

The Imperial Hotel in central Tokyo's Hibiya district is a surprising place. Yes, of course the rich and famous stay there. But how many realize that this famed institution also rents out private office suites. On the fifth floor, for example, is where TV commentator and author Kenichi Takemura hangs...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Aug 10, 2007

A Good Year

Director: Ridley Scott Language: English
Reader Mail
Aug 8, 2007

Who can say no to tetrapods?

The reporting for the July 22 article "Tetrapods" was top-notch. When in Japan, I always found tetrapods quite a puzzling hubristic sight -- all the more because they defeat any possibility of lying down for a sunbathe. Although I am not a geologist or a structural engineer, and I see the point...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 5, 2007

Conversion in France's Foreign Ministry

PRAGUE — French President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of Bernard Kouchner as France's foreign minister was a brilliant political stroke. Having beaten his Socialist rival, Segolene Royal, Sarkozy decided to compound the Socialists' crisis by appointing to his government several political figures...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 5, 2007

Japan's war memories, so often misrepresented

JAPAN'S CONTESTED WAR MEMORIES: The "Memory Rifts" in Historical Consciousness of WWII, by Philip A. Seaton. Routledge, 2007, 258 pp., £75 (cloth) Stereotypical images of Japanese collectively in denial about the atrocities committed by the Imperial armed forces are grossly misleading and overlook...
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2007

'Sugar daddy' relationships and HIV

NEW YORK — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the world's leading AIDS scientists, warned at an international conference on AIDS in Sydney, Australia, that the world is losing the battle against the virus. He indicated that increased emphasis should be placed on prevention efforts, particularly with regard...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2007

Brazen demand for apology

Regarding Kiroku Hanai's article: I don't know whether he is aware of how offensive it is from an American point of view for people in Japan to ask that the United States apologize for using the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2007

Kaiten zushi

It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea.

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