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JAPAN
Oct 31, 2008

Economic mess arrived to trump election chance

Prime Minister Taro Aso announced his intention Thursday to postpone dissolving the Lower House and calling a snap election.
Reader Mail
Oct 30, 2008

International sense in Japan

Regarding the Oct. 19 letter "Tourists treated differently": If Japan really wants to attract foreign tourists, it needs to acquire an authentic international sense. In my opinion, that means being able to appreciate foreign visitors as they are without relying on information from the media.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 29, 2008

Obama, McCain all but ignore poverty issue

PRINCETON — Barack Obama worked for three years as a community organizer on Chicago's blighted South Side, so he knows all about the real poverty that exists in America. He knows that in one of the world's richest nations, 37 million people live in poverty, a far higher proportion than in Europe's...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Oct 29, 2008

Carlesimo likely to be first coach out door

NEW YORK — How many NBA fans think the league is better off without the Sonics in Seattle?
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2008

Aso simmers down, defends glitzy nightlife

Prime Minister Taro Aso countered growing criticism Thursday about his wining and dining at high-end hotels and restaurants by saying his haunts are public places open to anyone.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2008

A more self-reliant Japan

Regarding Robert Dujarric's Oct. 18 article, "Japan in a post-U.S. world,": I agree that Japan needs to chart a more self-reliant path. The financial decline of the United States has been hyped a bit too much and too much of the U.S. gains in southwest Asia have been ignored by left-friendly reporters....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 23, 2008

Kabuki mecca's days numbered

The Kabukiza Theatre, a Tokyo landmark and the mecca of the traditional performance art, will soon vanish to be replaced by a new office-theater complex despite pleas from architects to preserve the building.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 21, 2008

Japan's spies: What cloak, dagger?

How ill is Kim Jong Il?
Reader Mail
Oct 19, 2008

A suspicious use of power

I'm not surprised by the contents of the Oct. 12 Associated Press article "Alaska inquiry finds Palin abused power." More than a decade ago, when U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was a mayor, she asked the city librarian if the librarian would be open to the suggestion that certain...
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2008

The challenge of compassion

I want to congratulate The Japan Times for the good points and observations made in the Oct. 12 editorial "Refugees in Japan." I live in Canada and have been involved with social and religious organizations on behalf of migrants and refugees for a number of years. I believe that, when it comes to humanitarian...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 12, 2008

Austria's fear and loathing still democratic

NEW YORK — Two far-right parties, the Austrian Freedom Party and the Movement for Austria's Future, won 29 percent of the vote in the latest Austrian general election — double their total in the 2006 election.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2008

Nikkei tanks as fear grips Asia

A massive selloff on Wall Street and escalating fears of a global recession sent Asian stocks plunging Friday, with Japan's key index shedding nearly 10 percent to close out its worst week in history.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2008

Extra budget first, general election later: Aso

Prime Minister Taro Aso said Monday he is not considering dissolving the Lower House for now, as the Diet began deliberations on the ¥1.8 trillion extra budget.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 6, 2008

After the Dear Leader has passed

SEOUL — Korea is a unique country. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and is now remembered only as history to most people around the world. The Korean Peninsula, however, remains divided along ideological lines, and the two Koreas coexist as living remnants of the Cold War....
Reader Mail
Oct 5, 2008

Out of Gloria Steinem's league

Since everybody is entitled to his opinion, let me say how tired I am of men telling women what real feminism is, and what they don't have a right to do with their own bodies. I refer to Bob Austenfeld's Sept. 25 letter, "Right to life has priority."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 3, 2008

Classical maverick tackles pop music

"In about 20 years, we will rarely hear Brahms in the concert hall; we will mostly hear contemporary music." A bold prediction, particularly as dwindling audiences for classical music have most orchestras keeping to the tried and true, with only the occasional token nod to the obscure or challenging,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2008

New tourism agency to act as policy 'control tower'

The Japan Tourism Agency will be established Wednesday with the aim of attracting more foreign tourists to the country.
JAPAN
Oct 1, 2008

Nakagawa shakes up press with move to plant Hinomaru in briefing room

Rightwing Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa created a stir Tuesday by backing a plan to display the Hinomaru flag in the ministry's press briefing room.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 30, 2008

Berlitz strike grows despite naysayers

As union representative for Berlitz General Union Tokyo (Begunto), let me set the record straight.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2008

Kawamura promises to keep Aso from tripping over his own feet

As right-hand man to the prime minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura says his job is to make sure that Taro Aso doesn't stumble.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 28, 2008

Fanfare greets Tabuse in return

UTSUNOMIYA, Tochigi Pref. — For 40 minutes of action, all eyes focused on him. Pride, curiosity and excitement characterized the occasion.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2008

Israel looks ready for an atypical leader

HAIFA, Israel — Famously irreverent, Israelis tend to call their leaders by their first name or childhood nickname. But don't be fooled: Tzipora "Tzipi" Livni is nobody's close friend. Her dry style, personal remoteness and forced smiles make her an atypical Israeli. Perhaps the country needs exactly...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 27, 2008

Impact of Tevez ruling could be profound in future

LONDON — So now we know. There is such as thing as a one-man team.
BUSINESS
Sep 26, 2008

Economists split over Nakagawa's dual financial duties

Prime Minister Taro Aso's appointment of Shoichi Nakagawa to head both the Finance Ministry and the Financial Services Agency drew mixed reactions Thursday as economists wondered whether the move will help Japan cope with global turmoil or compromise the FSA's regulatory role.
JAPAN
Sep 25, 2008

Aso gets quick start, names new Cabinet

Hawkish Liberal Democratic Party President Taro Aso was elected prime minister Wednesday and immediately formed his new Cabinet.
Reader Mail
Sep 21, 2008

Shameful response to gropers

I lived and worked in Tokyo from 1996 to 2004. I agree with Sumire Shigehara -- the writer of the Sept. 14 letter "Women-only train cars are shameful" -- that Japan's public transportation is far superior to that of any city in the United States. However, while I understand that women-only cars may at...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2008

Asia still suffering from a 'leadership deficit'

WASHINGTON — Predictions of the 21st century as an Asian century led by burgeoning Asian economic, political and military powers appear on course with the impressive and growing wealth and power of such rising Asian states as China and India, backed by the already well developed economies of Japan,...
CULTURE / Books
Sep 14, 2008

Troubled by ghosts of East Asia

EAST ASIA'S HAUNTED PRESENT: Historical Memories and the Resurgence of Nationalism, edited by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa and Kazuhiko Togo. Westport, CT., Praeger Security International, 2008, 265 pp., $75 (cloth) Arguments over the past among nations are a sure sign of anxieties about the future. East Asia's...

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past