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EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2007

Managing Japan's foreign reserves

Some government officials, including Financial Services Minister Yuji Yamamoto, are calling for more effective management of Japan's foreign-exchange reserves, the world's second largest at about $910 billion. During a recent visit to Singapore, Mr. Yamamoto proposed that Japan consider investing foreign-currency...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007

Fuji Rock 07: We came, we saw, we survived

From rioting with Iggy to bopping with The Chemical Brothers, JT writers mixed it up among the thousands at Naeba to bring you the highs — and lows — of Fuji Rock '07
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007

Chats backstage at Fuji

'Mine's best' 'It's been lovely," said former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker toward the end of his Friday afternoon set at FRF '07. And indeed it was. The JT caught up with Cocker backstage after his show and asked him to elaborate.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 3, 2007

'Ring' director's spooky tales

Almost a decade ago, long before "torture porn" was a successful horror subgenre, director Hideo Nakata unleashed "Ring." Not unlike the fatal images in the movie itself, "Ring" spread its brand of almost bloodless, atmospheric terror across the globe; Nakata himself tackled tinsel town to direct Naomi...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 2, 2007

"Les noirs de Redon: The Monstrous Friends You See When You Close Your Eyes"

Bunkamura Closes in 25 days
BUSINESS
Aug 1, 2007

Fast Retailing pitches $900 million

The operator of the popular Uniqlo casual clothing chain has submitted a "definitive proposal" to acquire Barneys New York from Jones Apparel Group for $900 million in cash, the company said Tuesday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 1, 2007

A tale of morels

I have a Canadian friend, Nedd Kenney, a brilliant scholar, musician and fieldworker who now lives on Baffin Island off the northeast coast of Canada. It was Nedd who got me my first bhodran (Irish drum), and came to my house in Kurohime, in the Nagano Prefecture hills, to give me some tips on playing...
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2007

Got Gmail? Got it on your mobile? KDDI to offer Google mail for free

KDDI Corp. will offer an e-mail service based on Google Inc.'s Gmail, expanding an existing alliance to win customers in the $75 billion wireless market, KDDI said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jul 31, 2007

What's the most important issue when it comes to voting?

COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 30, 2007

How a woman portrayed Hitler as human

NEW YORK — What kind of courage, or audacity even, is required to stage, in Washington, a play featuring Adolf Hitler — one provocatively titled "My Friend Hitler" and written no less than by Yukio Mishima? After all, not just Hitler, but anything associated with Hitler is condemned here. And Mishima...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2007

Striving for a place in the U.N.

(Last Monday the United Nations rejected Taiwan's latest application to become a member of the world body). When Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian received a vice chancellor and a professor of Pepperdine University on May 22, he said Taiwan had no intention of challenging the "one China" principle....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jul 29, 2007

Tokyo and Osaka family, Ginza hostesses social climbing, shipwreck treasure hunting special

Tokyoites and Osakans like to believe that they not only differ in terms of local customs, but that they practically come from different planets. This idea is at the heart of the "Summer Drama Special: Long Wedding Road" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.).
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2007

Kansai opens second runway, hopes 1.6 trillion yen was well spent

OSAKA — A formal ceremony was held Saturday morning to commemorate the opening of Kansai International Airport's controversial second runway, which will start operations Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 29, 2007

Kaiten zushi

It was a season of long days, heavy rain, loquats, hollyhocks and hydrangea.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2007

Keeping abreast of developments on the small screen

Arts and entertainment criticism of the sort practiced in the West is still relatively sublimated in Japan, where pop-culture hyoronka (critics) tend to be either pundits or PR flacks who rarely say anything overtly negative about the things they review.
EDITORIALS
Jul 28, 2007

Quake shakes nuclear power industry

News reports continue to shed light on the damage inflicted on Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant by the magnitude-6.8 earthquake that struck Niigata and Nagano prefectures July 16. Most worrying is a report that the tremors were more than double the quake-design benchmark...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2007

North Korea will still want its reactors

HONG KONG — The failure of the six-party talks to agree on a schedule for North Korea to declare and disable all of its nuclear programs shows that there are major obstacles ahead, although the first phase — providing for the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor — went relatively smoothly,...
MORE SPORTS
Jul 27, 2007

Murofushi keeping online diary

Koji Murofushi, Japan's record-breaking hammer thrower, is writing an exclusive online diary for the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF). Read his insights by logging on to www.iaaf.org/. Here's a snippet from a recent diary: "Humans cannot hope to beat animals in running or jumping...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2007

Scripting the exit from Iraq

LONDON — Prospects for Iraq and its people are gloomy. Responsibility for that rests partly with Saddam Hussein and his evil regime, but also with the Americans and their allies for botching the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion.
BUSINESS
Jul 27, 2007

BOJ yet to decide timing of rate increase, Noda says

The Bank of Japan has yet to decide when it will next raise interest rates, BOJ Policy Board member Tadao Noda said Thursday, declining to be drawn into speculating on whether the bank will increase borrowing costs next month.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji