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COMMENTARY / World
May 19, 2008

If there is a god, then why is there suffering?

Do we live in a world that was created by a god who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all good?
JAPAN
May 19, 2008

Japan team finds bodies at school

BEICHUAN, China — The search by a Japanese relief team for signs of life turned into a grim recovery of bodies Sunday at a school in one of the hardest-hit areas of last week's earthquake in western China.
EDITORIALS
May 19, 2008

Rising costs of living

Price rises are hitting both consumers and enterprises. Among consumer goods, rises in the prices of food and energy, closely tied to people's daily lives, are conspicuous, and companies hit by higher raw materials costs hesitate to raise wages. These factors tend to depress consumer demand, thus damping...
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

A little slack for letter-writers

M. Randolph's May 4 letter, "Improve content, including letters," and A. Charles Muller's May 8 letter, "Use fewer letters when quality lags," both agree that my letter-writing is an example of how NOT to write an opinion letter, citing lack of supporting ideas or clear logic. Sticks and stones! Letters...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2008

Natural disaster relief system

The cyclone in Myanmar and earthquake in China are grim reminders of how neighbors need to help one another. Asian countries have a duty to offer assistance to one another, and to accept it. The refusal of aid by the military junta in Myanmar exposes citizens to more suffering than necessary. In the...
OLYMPICS
May 18, 2008

Shibata out to prove self again in Olympics

Ai Shibata made history in 2004, becoming the first Japanese female swimmer to capture a gold medal in an Olympic freestyle race. In her mind, though, her triumph in the 800-meter freestyle at the Athens Olympics is, well, ancient history.
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 2008

'Woman Warrior' to 'Passport Baby'

LONDON, SPECIAL TO THE J (AP) Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" opens: " 'You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.' " LONDON — Since this fictional memoir was published in 1975, the telling of Chinese women's lives has become...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
May 18, 2008

Handsome is not enough: beauticians make the man

Perhaps no words send shivers down a company employee's back more than when your boss gravely tells you that he'd "like to have a chat with you." So, when mine at the English-language conversation school that I was teaching at said this to me a few years ago, my heart sank to the ground.
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

Why 30,000 suicides a year?

In his May 15 letter, "Suicide image is misrepresented," William Wetherall seems to dismiss the concerns of so many in Japan about this country's shamefully high suicide rate.
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

America likes to make examples

In his May 11 letter, "U.S. knew what it wanted in Iraq," Peter Morrissey claims that to this day the world still can't pin down exactly why the United States invaded Vietnam -- "except possibly to replenish the military industrial complex." I thought I might take a stab at it anyway.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 18, 2008

African Festa opens eyes in Yokohama

YOKOHAMA — With the Tokyo International Conference on African Development to be held in Yokohama later this month, a two-day cultural event kicked off Saturday to bring a taste of Africa to Japan's famous harbor city.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2008

Mr. Siniora gambles and loses

It is increasingly clear that the administration of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is the government of Lebanon in name only. In deciding to confront Hezbollah last week, Mr. Siniora badly miscalculated, and was forced to make a humiliating retreat. Now, the country teeters on the precipice of a civil...
BUSINESS
May 17, 2008

Annual GDP pace hits 3.3% in quarter

Despite growing signs of a global economic slowdown, Japan's gross domestic product expanded at a better-than-expected 3.3 percent annualized rate in the January-March quarter as exporters continued to increase shipments to emerging countries, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
SOCCER
May 16, 2008

Zenit dominates Rangers in UEFA Cup final

MANCHESTER, England (AP) Zenit St. Petersburg's UEFA Cup victory over Glasgow Rangers was marred by fan violence.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 16, 2008

'The Bucket List'

One of the fuzzier concepts floating around the cloud of pop psychology that has descended upon America in the last decade —like some wizard's curse of stupefaction — is that of "closure." A term lifted from Gestalt psychology by way of grief counseling, its popular meaning has become merely the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 16, 2008

Into the Land of the Dead

Second of two parts
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2008

Giving nonprofits their due

Ten years have passed since the promulgation of the Law Concerning the Promotion of Specific Nonprofit Organization Activities (NPO Law). Many people benefit from NPO services. The central and local governments need to adopt measures to strengthen NPOs' financial bases and overall ability to carry out...
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2008

Misguided use of space

The Diet is expected to enact soon a bill establishing a basic law on space. The bill, passed by the Lower House in a plenary session, represents a drastic departure from Japan's traditional "peaceful purposes only" space policy and could lead to extensive use of space for military purposes. Regrettably,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 16, 2008

'Yama no Anata'

Film remakes are usually reinterpretations. Gore Verbinski's "The Ring" (2002) has not only a different location (Pacific Northwest) but a different story line and mythology from Hideo Nakata's original "Ring (Ringu)" (1998).

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