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EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2007

Bloc development in the works

The planning section of the National Land Development Council has penned a 10-year national land formation plan that the Cabinet will approve by the end of March after receiving it from the council. The plan is expected to gain public support. The central and local governments must work out ways to implement...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 25, 2007

Nuclear facilities as targets

LOS ANGELES — The drumbeat appears to be growing louder: Western leaders repeatedly declare that no option is off the table to stem Iran's nuclear ambitions. And, in mid-November, London's Sunday Times reported that Israel put defenses around its Dimona nuclear reactor on "red alert" 30 times, as worries...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2007

Japanese aren't the only victims

This is in response to two Dec. 16 letters, "Okinawans know their own history" by Ayako Hosoi and "Undue public influence on text" by Yoichiro Tamanyu. I largely agree with Hosoi and believe a great many Japanese do, too. Now change the word "Okinawa" in Hosoi's letter to "China," and then ask yourself...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 25, 2007

Who? Me? Otaku?

"Otaku" culture is spreading over the globe. Perhaps we are all otaku now? My wife tells me I'm an otaku — should I be worried? If you haven't encountered the word, here is Wikipedia's definition: "a derisive Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly 'anime' and...
Reader Mail
Dec 25, 2007

Americans seem just as gullible

In his Dec. 9 letter, "Japanese seem easy to brainwash," Grant Piper appears a little un-evenhanded in claiming that Japanese have cornered the market on susceptibility to brainwashing. I'm sorry to say Americans are just as easily brainwashed.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 25, 2007

What are you hoping Santa Claus will bring you for Christmas?

JAPAN
Dec 25, 2007

Japan's first ICC judge takes aim at 'culture of impunity'

governed by the rule of law," she said in a recent interview. Saiga, a career diplomat, has served as ambassador in charge of human rights and a member of the U.N. Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
EDITORIALS
Dec 24, 2007

Draft budget bypasses priorities

The government's draft budget for fiscal 2008, the first one compiled under the administration of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, points to the difficulties faced during its compilation amid a slowdown in the growth of tax revenues. Furthermore, the compilation is under heavy pressure from lawmakers of...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Dec 24, 2007

Tax transfers from rich areas to rural poses problems

On the surface, the ruling coalition's tax reform package for fiscal 2008 contains a number of promising proposals, including the transfer of local corporate tax revenue from better-off prefectures to fiscally distressed rural areas, a new system to let people combine stock investment returns with dividends...
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 23, 2007

When World Series ball becomes chew toy, there's lesson to be learned

Leave it to a pooch to put things in perspective.
Reader Mail
Dec 23, 2007

If yakuza had a penchant to serve

It was fascinating reading Peter Lyon's Dec. 16 article, "How to handle a mobster on the move." Now, if only there was a good way to utilize the public fear of yakuza gangsters for the greater public good.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2007

The many faces of a complex city

TOKYO TOKYO TOKYO, photographs by Gorazd Vilhar, text by Charlotte Anderson. IBC Publishing Co., 2007, 144 pp., ¥3,300 (cloth) The very title of this new collection by Gorazd Vilhar and Charlotte Anderson suggests multiple Tokyos. It posits a city so multifaceted that only various versions of it can...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 23, 2007

An odious and deadly trade in antiquities

GRAVE IMPORTS by Eric Stone. Bleak House, Madison, Wis., 2007, 328 pp., $14.95, (paper) All too many thrillers in which a Western agent sets out to infiltrate some insidious Asian organization come across as vestiges of works from the 1950s and '60s, the era of Ian Fleming and his numerous spinoffs....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 22, 2007

Tokyo American Club prepares to move

Michael Bumgardner is not only the general manager of Tokyo American Club; he's a "keeper of trees," as his ancestral German name Baumgartner suggests.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 21, 2007

Tasting the good life

Karuizawa is known as a getaway magnet for the rich, and based on a recent trip to the town in Nagano Prefecture, Japan's wealthy take their pleasures very seriously.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Dec 21, 2007

Grand Hyatt Disco, kagami-mochi and a rare glimpse inside Alux

Disco fever at the Grand Hyatt On Dec. 27, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo will be turning back the clock and cranking up the volume for a night of disco.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 21, 2007

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Don't expect any seasonal cheer from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. For almost a decade, the Los Angeles-based three-piece's dark brand of bluesy garage rock has been burning a trail across the music scene. The demons that fuel the band's successes are the same ones that have, in the past, caused them...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 21, 2007

The art of youth

An Aladdin's Cave of small, distinctive retail spaces, the Laforet building at a main crossroads in trendy Harajuku has been a shopping magnet for young people since it opened in 1978. This year, for instance, more than 3,000 lined up outside awaiting the start of its New Year sale. And whereas its Shibuya...
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2007

Tax reform minus the long view

The ruling coalition's tax reform proposals for fiscal 2008 are apparently aimed at getting votes in coming general elections. They fail to address long-term issues such as how to divide tax-revenue sources equitably between the central and local governments and how to overhaul the tax system to reconstruct...
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Dec 21, 2007

To survive a corporate scandal or to crumble

Reflecting a year that was jam-packed with food makers' scandals, including false labeling, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation announced earlier this month that "nise," meaning "fake," best symbolized 2008 in a single character.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight