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JAPAN
Feb 9, 2007

Portugal optimistic EU will OK constitution: foreign minister

presidency," Amado said. According to Amado, the No. 2 priority of the 18-month program, which includes a six-month stint with Slovenia in the presidency next year, is to make the EU "a strong player" in the world, particularly in terms of innovation and technology. This is followed by migration issues....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2007

Rinocerose

Rinocerose know how to entertain a crowd. Just ask Scottish songstress KT Tunstall, who performed in front of a less than impressive number of people on the main Green Stage at Fuji Rock last summer while the French dance duo entertained the throngs on an adjacent stage at the same time. Rinocerose's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 9, 2007

Pottering around with pop music

When Tori Kudo was a 13-year-old growing up in Matsuyama, Shikoku, he didn't spend his evenings at cram school like classmates, but instead played cheesy piano in nightclubs as a member of a professional big band.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 9, 2007

Treading on thick ice

Among the places in Japan where, over the years, my trusty old backpack and I have poked about in Japan -- from the southern tip of Okinawa Island, to the far-flung Ogasawaras 1,000-km south of Tokyo, and to Wakkanai and Rishiri Island in northern Hokkaido -- very high on my list of top 10 destinations...
BUSINESS
Feb 8, 2007

Mixi ready to face MySpace in Japan market: president

The president of Mixi Inc. expressed confidence Wednesday the country's most popular social networking Web site will not be beaten by the world's biggest site, MySpace, which has 140 million members worldwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 8, 2007

Brilliant choices reveal seldom seen masterpieces

Despite oft-heard subversive remarks to the contrary, the Japanese have a very highly-developed sense of humor -- it's just different, that's all. While Westerners are baffled by TV comedy shows here, or -- at a higher level -- traditional kyogen stage performances, Japanese will blink through a Monty...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Feb 7, 2007

Magic drops ball with on-air comments

NEW YORK -- Better to be a wise ass than a dumb ass, that's my policy. Magic Johnson takes the opposite approach.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 6, 2007

French luxury lobby captain mulls Japan's brand fixation

Japan is famous for its fondness of luxury brands, particularly those from France. In fact, when the money spent shopping on vacation is included, Japanese consumers may buy as much as 45 percent of all luxury goods sold worldwide, analysts at the HSBC Group in Paris recently estimated.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2007

Yanagisawa ouster calls linger

will continue to talk about his remark until the Upper House election" in July, said Ikuo Kabashima, a University of Tokyo professor who studies voting behavior. "The negative image will probably continue to follow (the LDP) in every election that takes place." Yanagisawa made the remark during a Jan....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 6, 2007

Loneliness of the long-distance impresario

Stand-up comedy can be a surprisingly lonely profession at times.
MORE SPORTS
Feb 5, 2007

Bears, Colts ready for Super battle

No one will argue that Peyton Manning is already one of the best NFL quarterbacks of all time.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2007

A coldhearted ruling

The Tokyo District Court last week rejected a damages suit filed against the government by elderly war-displaced Japanese from China. The ruling is not only harsh but also appears blind to history. It turned down the plaintiffs' argument that the Japanese state should compensate them for failing to swiftly...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2007

Close Europe's gender gap

NEW YORK -- Last spring, The Economist trumpeted "womanpower" as the driving force for the world economy. But if Europe's economy is to become more competitive and innovative, it is not enough that women enter the labor market in droves. To reap the full fruits of women's talents, they must be in more...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Feb 5, 2007

BOJ should have yen for watching stock economy, not just go with the flow

In its Policy Board meeting from Jan. 17 to 18, the Bank of Japan kept the key short-term interest rate unchanged at 0.25 percent on the grounds that prices and consumer spending were still weak. The decision triggered a yen selloff in the currency markets, pushing the yen down to around 122 against...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 4, 2007

Upson saga illustrates how much power today's players have on transfers

LONDON -- West Ham United should beware after signing Matthew Upson from Birmingham City.
Reader Mail
Feb 4, 2007

Japan doesn't need a cinema war

This year is the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre (December 1937). No doubt a new film by director Satoru Mizushima, which is to depict the event as "nothing more than political propaganda," will further inflame relations between Japan and China. In 2007, the world faces global warming, the...
Reader Mail
Feb 4, 2007

Decisions only Tokyo can make

Regarding Brad Glosserman's Jan. 24 article, "Abe's aggressive agenda": Reinforcing what he calls Japan's "junior partner status," Glosserman recommends that the United States "help" Japan in its formulation of its vision of its emerging power and its "strategy to use it." He then warns that "Washington...
Reader Mail
Feb 4, 2007

Fight one 'myth' with another

It is so utterly ridiculous to read time and again about certain segments of Japanese society continuing to choose to deny the events and the brutality of the Nanjing Massacre, and now they even want to make a "documentary" to show that it was a myth.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2007

Overbearing education proposals

An interim report submitted by the Education Resuscitation Council to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is long on proposals designed to tackle various challenges in Japanese education but short on reasons why some problems have developed. Without in-depth background analysis, it will be difficult to find correct...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 4, 2007

Super temp worker who saves day is a nonconformist heroine

Prior to the start of the current Diet session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the ruling coalition would not submit previously announced bills to revise the Labor Standards Law. The move was seen as being cautionary, since there will be an Upper House election in July and the bills would have contained...
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2007

Telecom satellite has power glitch

One of the world's largest geostationary satellites has developed a glitch in an experimental telecommunications system, authorities said Friday.
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2007

Osaka plans another homeless eviction

OSAKA -- The Osaka Municipal Government is once again cracking down on the homeless, preparing to clear out a small group next week from a park that will be the site of a major international sporting event in August.

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