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COMMENTARY / World
Jun 12, 2009

Losers can live with Lebanon's 'West' vote

BEIRUT — Lebanon's voters have handed a clear defeat to the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance. In a smoothly run and peaceful election, the pro-Western March 14 alliance emerged with a clear majority of 71 seats, compared to 58 seats for its rivals. The results elicited a nearly audible sigh of relief...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2009

Bangladeshi minister pushes for investment

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hashina's special envoy, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, called on Japan Wednesday to increase direct investment in his country, which is aiming to emerge as a midlevel developed country by 2021.
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2009

Emissions goal draws fire from all sides

OSAKA — Prime Minister Taro Aso's announcement Wednesday that Japan will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 appears to have pleased nobody.
Reader Mail
Jun 11, 2009

Taiwan's Chinese characteristics

In her June 4 letter, "Careful whom you call 'Chinese,'" June Dreyer contradicted the claim in my May 27 article, "Cross-strait gap narrows," that most Taiwanese think Chinese, speak Chinese and are Chinese like any other Chinese people.
MORE SPORTS
Jun 11, 2009

Ongoing swimsuit issue creates awkward distraction for athletes

Exactly a year ago, in the midst of the chaos about swimsuit issues before the Beijing Olympics, Kosuke Kitajima appeared in an arena wearing a T-shirt that read: "It's me that swims."
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2009

Honda takes on Suzuki's small cars in India

Honda Motor Co. has introduced its first small car in India to reverse a slump in sales and challenge the dominance of Suzuki Motor Corp. in a country where most people drive hatchbacks.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2009

Reaching out to the Muslim world

Few speeches in recent history have been as widely anticipated as the June 4 address of U.S. President Barack Obama to the Muslim world. The speech, delivered in Cairo, was the high point of a four-nation trip to the Middle East and Europe. The speech is intended to signal a "new beginning between the...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 10, 2009

A turning point in Japan for the right to equality?

A year ago this week, the Supreme Court of Japan issued a judgment that struck down a clause in the Nationality Act as being a violation of the Constitution. There are good reasons for everyone in Japan to celebrate that decision. While little noted outside of specialized legal journals at the time,...
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2009

First son says younger sibling being groomed

A man believed to be the eldest son of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il said in a TV Asahi interview aired Tuesday he thinks reports that his youngest brother will become the North's next leader are true.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 10, 2009

Tech expo: Never send chef to do robot's job

Japan's state-of-the-art robot technologies have reinvented factory assembly lines and wowed the world with humanlike androids, but wider applications loom and a Tokyo exhibition that kicked off Tuesday will serve some of them up — literally.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jun 9, 2009

Narita airport — worth long struggle to build?

Narita International Airport has played a key role in the aviation industry since it opened in 1978.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 9, 2009

Easter answers; credit crunch

The letter published in April about Easter in Japan — or rather the lack of it — provoked quite a response. The general consensus appears to be that Easter is too hard to pin down on the calendar for commercialization. Here are a couple of responses:
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2009

Educating Americans about Muslim voices

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama has extended an open hand of friendship in his landmark Cairo speech to the Muslim world — seeking to engage Muslims with a commitment of mutual respect. No one can doubt his sincerity. From his first days in office, he has emphasized the importance of embarking...
EDITORIALS
Jun 8, 2009

What price victory?

The world welcomes the end of the civil war that has ravaged Sri Lanka for decades. Unfortunately, questions have emerged about how the conflict was brought to a close and whether war crimes were committed in the final bloody days of fighting. The Colombo government has dismissed the allegations as unfounded;...
COMMENTARY
Jun 8, 2009

Feasible anti-emission goal

In July 2008 the Japanese government adopted a target for 2050 of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent from 2005 levels. At the same time, a special panel was created to deliberate midterm reduction goals (through 2020).

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