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COMMENTARY
Mar 15, 2007

North Korea prefers Bush?

Japan's distress over the rapid progress in U.S.-North Korean talks for normalization of relations is palpable. The government as well as the mainstream media seem united in hopes that Washington will delay normalization until North Korea meets Japan's demands over the abductee issue -- the return of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 15, 2007

Baba Zula: from the belly of the beats

Underground music maniacs, the real hardcore otaku (obsessed fans), have long raved about the Turkish psychedelic music of the 1960s and '70s -- crazy reverb-drenched, twangy-guitar tracks that sounded like The Ventures if they'd been a belly-dancer backing band with a taste for hashish and quarter-tone...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2007

Saudi peace proposal just an opening bid, Peres says

A revived Mideast peace proposal by Saudi Arabia represents progress in the Arab position, but all its elements need to be fully negotiated, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2007

What's 'separate' about humankind?

In a sense, I'm a mind reader. In writing this, I believe that you think that I want you to think that I intend to persuade you of something I believe. Got that?
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2007

Teacher traces aversion to 'Kimigayo' to the war

Toru Kondo is a good man.
SOCCER
Mar 13, 2007

Multiplex hands over Wembley

SYDNEY (AP) London's Wembley Stadium has been officially handed to its owners by Australia's Multiplex Group after more than a year of delays to the reconstruction of the iconic sports ground.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 13, 2007

Where do you hang out in Tokyo?

JAPAN
Mar 11, 2007

Sex slave history erased from texts; '93 apology next?

Former education minister Nariaki Nakayama takes pride in an achievement he and about 130 fellow members of the Liberal Democratic Party took the past decade to accomplish: getting references to Japan's wartime sex slaves struck from most authorized history texts for junior high schools.
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2007

Choosing denial over justice

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is following the latest trend: denial. Iran's president denies that the Holocaust happened and he has many followers. Some groups deny statistics showing violence against women despite the quantity or quality of data. I am going to follow the trend: I will deny myself the visit...
Reader Mail
Mar 11, 2007

Just what is Abe trying to say?

Last Sunday our fickle prime minister, Shinzo Abe, stated that he would stand by the 1993 apology for forcing Asian women to have sex with Japanese troops during World War II. This reader is terribly confused: Just three days earlier Abe had reiterated that there was no evidence of "coercion" by Japan's...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 11, 2007

What happens when blog bullies get hot under the collar

In April last year, Jiji Press technology reporter Tsuruaki Yukawa felt as if he had enemies all around him.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 10, 2007

Many questions facing Wenger and underachieving Gunners

LONDON -- In France Arsene Wenger was known as the Nearly Man.
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2007

Aeon to pay 46 billion yen for 15% Daiei stake

The Aeon supermarket chain said Friday it will take a 15 percent stake in troubled Daiei for 46.2 billion yen, an alliance that will create the country's biggest retail group.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 9, 2007

Eagles of Death Metal

Eagles of Death Metal can be considered a parody band twice removed. Formed by Josh Homme and boyhood pal Jesse "The Devil" Hughes during a brief hiatus in Homme's successful campaign to turn Queens of the Stone Age into one of the world's most admired hard rock bands, EODM pushed QOTSA's 1970s revivalist...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 9, 2007

Violinist's 'virtuoso fun'

Promising young Japanese-American violinist Ray Iwazumi makes his Tokyo debut at Opera City Recital Hall on March 17. In an e-mail interview, Iwazumi himself described the evening's program of great Belgian works composed around the turn of the 20th century as an entertaining one, which will combine...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2007

Mr. Abe's trivial pursuit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent statements on the Japanese military's use of "comfort women" during the war years trivializes the real issue. By focusing on whether Japanese soldiers used physical force to recruit young Asian women into a form of sex slavery, he shifts attention from the government...
SOCCER
Mar 8, 2007

Reds' offense mediocre, goalkeeping brilliant in ACL win

SAITAMA -- Urawa Reds suffered a night of frustration in front of goal in their Asian Champions League debut as inspired goalkeeping and wasteful finishing limited the J. League title holders to a 3-0 victory over minnows Persik Kediri.
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2007

Aussie skiers spark land boom in Niseko

"When I started the business, people told me 'Ben, you're crazy, it's too expensive,' " he said. "But our buyers were saying the opposite: 'Ben, you're crazy. Why is it so cheap?' " suggesting properties in the area are still underpriced compared with overseas ski resorts.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2007

Realizing the potential of an aging society

Japanese society stands on the cusp of change. Starting from this year, large numbers of the postwar baby-boom generation will reach retirement age -- the so-called "2007 problem." The country's over-65 population already stands at 25.6 million, more than 20 percent of the total, and this percentage...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 8, 2007

Freedom leaves us consumed by doubt

On a small raised platform, a lone dancer, naked except for his white pants, slowly twists his convoluted body around metal chains suspended from the ceiling. Twelve other dancers, similarly undressed and bald, watch in silence from all angles of the tiny studio, their own bodies stretching and contracting...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2007

Overcoming Africa's north-south divide

PRAGUE -- The late President Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire once declared that the north African countries, which pride themselves on their Arabic descent, should be excluded from the then Organization of African Unity.

Longform

Mamoru Iwai, stationmaster of Keisei Ueno Station, says that, other than earthquake-proofing, the former Hakubutsukan-Dobutsuen (Museum-Zoo) Station has remained untouched.
Inside Tokyo's 'phantom' stations — and the stories they tell