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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 14, 2006

Beware the muted enemy within remilitarizing Japan

On April 30, the Asahi Shimbun reported on the results of a Cabinet Office survey of public opinion regarding the Self-Defense Forces (SDF). The telephone survey was conducted between Feb. 16 and 26, with 1,657 of the 3,000 people contacted replying. Overall, 84.9 percent of respondents indicated they...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 9, 2006

Local fury at Hardy perennial

Last month, as they have every year for decades, a small crowd of people gathered under fat cherry blossoms in Tokyo's Aoyama Park, carrying red lanterns, placards and peace symbols.
CULTURE / Books
May 7, 2006

Following the great haiku poet on the road

BASHO'S JOURNEY: The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, translated with an introduction by David Landis Barnhill. State University of New York Press, 2005, 191 pp., $19.95 (paper). The great haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was first represented to the West just over a century ago. This was in W.G. Aston's...
BUSINESS
May 3, 2006

New Corporate Law to foster additional M&As

In the weeks before the Corporate Law took effect Monday, Izumiya Co. announced measures to prevent hostile takeovers, expecting the law's provisions to encourage mergers and acquisitions.
LIFE / Language
May 2, 2006

Manga fans take their Japanese to another level

Manga are the engine of Japan's new multibillion dollar export success, its pop-culture sofuto sangyo -- software industry -- which includes anime, video games, and music. Not surprisingly, perhaps, more and more foreigners are also using manga to learn Japanese.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 1, 2006

Global inflation changing economic fundamentals

Ajoint statement released April 21 by finance minis- ters and central bankers of the Group of Seven major economies in Washington noted that the global trend in economic expansion has entered its fourth year, with inflationary pressures relatively contained despite the surge in crude oil prices.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 30, 2006

Recalling lady umpire Perry Barber and Cooperstown cookies

Reader Dennis McCormick from Hyogo Prefecture recently wrote to ask, "Do you remember about 15 years ago an American woman umpire came to Japan and worked a few Japanese games in the Kansai area? I don't recall her name, but I was surprised when I found out she was not a regular umpire in one of the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 30, 2006

On the road to . . .

"Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, . . . Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages . . . ''
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 25, 2006

Aso family's 'slave' link under scrutiny

While Taro Aso's public statements as foreign minister have done little to help ease tensions between Tokyo and the rest of Asia, a family connection to wartime forced labor has raised further questions over his ability to oversee good relations with Japan's neighbors.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2006

Science crisis in the making

Last November I delivered a lecture on complex-system economics at a world-famous institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I also attended a conference on science education in the same city, along with a physicist from Turkey who was visiting there at the time.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 4, 2006

"Regarding the Sink," "Magyk: Septimus Heap Book One"

"Regarding the Sink," Kate Klise, Harcourt; 2005; 127pp.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 2, 2006

Engaging with China beats other option

LOS ANGELES -- Is China only playing nice with the United States now in order to buy time and consolidate its power so that it has the capacity to hurt it later? You'd be surprised how many Americans think this -- or maybe you wouldn't!
Japan Times
Features
Apr 2, 2006

Taking tanka to a new and timeless plane

Machi Tawara made a spectacular debut as a tanka poet at the age of 25 in 1987, and since then the Osaka-born artist has devoted her life to condensing her world into those neat, rhythmic but not rhyming, 31-syllable compositions.
BUSINESS
Mar 31, 2006

Moody's bullish on gadget makers

Japanese consumer electronics makers enjoy relatively high credit ratings in keeping with their edge in the global marketplace, according to a report released Thursday by Moody's Investors Service.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 22, 2006

Self-interest and those Greenland pigs

Why do some societies last for hundreds, even thousands, of years, while others soar, dazzle but then fizzle like short-lived summer fireworks?
BUSINESS
Mar 21, 2006

Brokerage outlook stable: Moody's

Moody's Investors Service said Monday the credit outlook this year for Japanese securities firms it monitors is stable, based on better economic growth and a pickup in individual investment, which it says will mitigate earnings volatility.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 14, 2006

Who is paying the price of health care?

Japan's health-insurance program is touted as being egalitarian, with treatment available at any medical institution in the nation to those people who pay monthly insurance premiums and 30 percent of their medical treatment, including diagnoses, tests and prescriptions.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 13, 2006

U.S. current account deficit may trigger shift in global savings

The current account deficit of the United States topped $800 billion in 2005. Ben Bernanke, who recently became chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, told a lecture in the spring of last year that the U.S. deficit level is "passively" determined by income, asset prices, interest rates, currency exchange...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 12, 2006

Money laundering and global debt

CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, by Raymond W. Baker. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2005, 438 pp., $27.95 (cloth). Reviewed by JEFF KINGSTON The scandalous tolerance of massive money laundering by global financial institutions contributes to poverty...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2006

Murakami irate over auction of manuscripts

Popular novelist Haruki Murakami said in a monthly magazine released Friday that a number of his manuscripts have been put up for auction on the Internet and at secondhand bookshops without his permission.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 11, 2006

Good Day to hear all about Ranald MacDonald

Never heard the name Ranald MacDonald? (Not easily forgotten, for sure.) This is about to change, thanks to the book "Native American in the Land of the Shogun: Ranald MacDonald and the Opening of Japan" by American author Frederik Schodt.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2006

Employees dislike new pay system

Fujitsu Ltd.'s company Web site is being flooded with angry e-mails from unhappy workers, especially young people.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 10, 2006

Dancer brings the supernaturalto creature at bottom of garden

After a two-week run playing to full houses and widespread acclaim in December, "Skellig" is back. Based on British novelist David Almond's book, which won the author the Whitbread and the Carnegie children's book prizes in 1998, "Skellig" is a play that tells the story of the hero Michael (Konousuke...
MORE SPORTS
Mar 9, 2006

Veteran writer Wiggins honored with FSAJ award

Longtime sports columnist and sumo television announcer Dave Wiggins was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the second annual Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan Media Awards dinner on Monday night in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2006

Can monarchical systems survive?

LONDON -- Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has recently claimed that his copyright was infringed by a popular newspaper that printed extracts from his diary about the handover of power in Hong Kong in 1998. The diary revealed the prince' distaste for the Chinese leaders whom he described as...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 5, 2006

Doomed voice of truth screams out still against evil

Among the writers who most astutely characterized the morality of the 20th century, none may have been more accurate than the Norwegian novelist, essayist and playwright Jens Bjorneboe. His was a powerful voice of truth, and we need now, more than ever, to listen to it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 23, 2006

'Drawing Restraint 9': Matthew Barney's latest film stands on ceremony

There is a scene near the end of Matthew Barney's new movie "Drawing Restraint 9" where your greatest fears about the film come true. And no, it isn't a typical moment of blood-saturated transformation as in his "Cremaster Series" -- it's actually before the knives come out.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 15, 2006

Japan Times wins award for animal rights coverage

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) today announced that The Japan Times is this year's winner of its prestigious International Genesis Award, given in recognition of its Nov. 30, 2005 "breakthrough expose" headlined: " 'Secret' dolphin slaughter defies protests."

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