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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 29, 2008

286 reasons to reflect on a Japan long gone, but worthy of reflection

I recently gave a talk on Japanese culture to a group of foreign students at Tokyo Institute of Technology. They hailed from a variety of places, including Scandinavia, the United States and Asian countries. I began by asking them to give me a keyword or two that they thought characterized Japanese life...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

David Bull: In the wake of Hokusai

From behind his shaggy beard, affable British-born Canadian woodblock printmaker David Bull ended our interview at his studio in western Tokyo with what sounded like a challenge.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 29, 2008

Hiroshige's colorful world of Edo

HIROSHIGE: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, by Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler. Taschen (ISBN978-4-88783-357-9), 294 pp., 2008, ¥15,750 (paper, with presentation box)
TENNIS
Jun 29, 2008

Gimelstob's comments cause stir

WIMBLEDON, England — Justin Gimelstob's disparaging comments about Anna Kournikova have created a stir at Wimbledon, where World Team Tennis teammate Serena Williams denounced the remarks as unprofessional.
Reader Mail
Jun 29, 2008

Theory full of logical fallacies

I was quite surprised to see John Spiri's June 17 Zeit Gist article, "Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global," because, despite Yukihisa Fujita's credentials as a Diet member, he is simply repeating the tired intonations of completely discredited theories regarding the events of 9/11.
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jun 28, 2008

Verifying North report crucial: G8

KYOTO — The Group of Eight foreign ministers ended their meeting Friday in Kyoto by stressing the importance of ensuring that North Korea abandons its nuclear activities.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 28, 2008

Tamesue, Murofushi qualify for Olympics

Dai Tamesue and Koji Murofushi qualified for the Beijing Summer Olympics, winning their respective events on Friday in the Japan Athletics National Championships at Todoroki Stadium in Kawasaki.
JAPAN
Jun 28, 2008

Third-grade English may get test run in fiscal 2009

The education ministry wants to start teaching English to third-graders on a trial basis at several hundred elementary schools nationwide in fiscal 2009, a ministry official said this week.
EDITORIALS
Jun 28, 2008

Make North Korea accountable

North Korea has filed a declaration of its nuclear programs with China, which chairs the six-party talks, and the United States has started a procedure to remove the North from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2008

Japan clarifies tax rules to help attract offshore investors

Japanese regulators are seeking to make taxation rules more transparent for overseas investors in the world's second-biggest economy in a bid to attract more funds from abroad.
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2008

Mitsubishi buys 34% stake in Cima

Mitsubishi Corp., the nation's biggest trading company, bought a 34 percent stake in Houston-based natural gas and oil wholesaler Cima Energy Ltd. to tap demand in the world's biggest energy market.
CULTURE / Music
Jun 27, 2008

Teenage pop stars know how to operate

"It's kind of embarrassing," says Taylor Henderson, violinist with teen sensations Operator Please, as she recalls the Australian release of the Queensland band's breakthrough single, "Just a Song About Ping Pong."
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 27, 2008

LDP's future as dicey as Humpty Dumpty's

BRUSSELS — Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has been in office less than 12 months, yet polls show popular support for his administration running around 20 percent. Fukuda and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) face a bleak future.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008

'In the Valley of Elah'

Iraq War movies are dying at the box office one after another. It doesn't matter if they're brutal expose ("Redacted"), touching family story ("Grace Is Gone"), or high-firepower entertainment ("The Kingdom") — nobody's buying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008

'One California Day'

All over California people move encased in metal and chrome, going from house to office in their cars. It's a contradiction of California living that, despite the beautiful weather and spacious streets, no one is outside.
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

Youth unemployment in the EU

I wonder if anyone else caught the contradiction in Giles Merritt's June 17 article "A Vanishing Europe and lifestyle." In paragraph 7, Merritt notes a looming labor shortage in the countries of the European Union, but several paragraphs down, he mentions "stubbornly high youth unemployment."
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

Antiforeign attitude unchanged

Regarding the June 21 article "Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants": Most wealthy advanced countries have a long, open history of allowing immigration because they accept it as their international duty. Although the trend has more recently been to try to curtail this, the percentage of immigration...
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2008

Ex-New Komeito chief lashes out at Soka Gakkai

Former New Komeito leader Junya Yano said Wednesday that Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest lay Buddhist organization, has been violating his human rights by threatening him and obstructing his freedom of speech.
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

The real risks from mad cows

The June 21 feature "South Korean Netizens mad over mad cow" wastes a great deal of space detailing the more ridiculous fears of South Koreans while ignoring the very real threat that does exist, not only to Koreans but to Japanese alike.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 26, 2008

The soul of the samurai on show

Referred to as the soul of the samurai, the Japanese sword is a wonderful blend of elegance and power, artistry and craft.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes