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Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2009

Foreigners size up lay judge system

The launch of the lay judge system for criminal trials is being observed with great interest overseas, where public participation in court cases is well established, a prominent expert on the U.S. jury system said.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 15, 2009

Former AIG manager cooks up new career as chef

The collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other U.S. financial giants changed people's lives around the world, and David Cisan, a former manager at American International Group in Japan, is one of them.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 14, 2009

Cory Aquino's legacy of enriched freedom

MANILA — The death of former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino — "Tita Cory" to most of the 92 million people of the Philippines — left behind a precious inheritance: a legacy of freedom that the Philippines came to share with oppressed peoples around the world.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Aug 14, 2009

The spiritual side of making wine

Between the cold steel of enormous fermentation tanks and the state-of-the-art equipment in the tasting rooms of today's modern wineries, it's hard to believe that there is any element of the winemaking process that is not governed by the strict dictates of science. So imagine my surprise when, visiting...
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2009

Sakai bust puts spotlight on narcotics evil

The recent headline-making police search and arrest of actress and pop star Noriko Sakai shocked fans both at home and abroad and cast a harsh spotlight on "kakuseizai," or stimulants, which she and her husband allegedly used.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 8, 2009

Everyone knows it's windy

Most people don't find much humor in typhoons. But maybe that's 'cause they don't look.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 8, 2009

Working humbly to serve everyone

Ian De Stains has a place in a decades-old British order of chivalry created by King George V in 1917. Yet after knowing him, this may be hard to believe.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2009

Pension premium delinquency

The premium payment rate for Kokumin Nenkin (national pension) — a public pension system for self-employed people, part-time workers, jobless people, etc. — fell to a record 62.1 percent in fiscal 2008. The situation suggests that modifications should be made to the plan under which the Social Insurance...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 4, 2009

Party offers a third way: happiness

As a historic general election looms on Aug. 30, Japan's long-suffering electorate faces a clear choice: vote for the conservative party that has virtually monopolized power since 1955, or opt for its more liberal but untested rival, which promises long-awaited reform. For those with a taste for the...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Aug 4, 2009

Unlike humans, swine flu is indiscriminate

The biggest news a few months ago, now affecting every prefecture in Japan, has blipped off our radar screens. For the time being.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 28, 2009

Japan's funerals deep-rooted mix of ritual, form

Funerals in Japan incorporate a unique mixture of religion, tradition, culture, ritual and geography that to the outsider may appear perplexing.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 26, 2009

China vets shock archivist with 'horrible things they did'

In 1999, Sinitirou Kumagai dropped out of university, got on his motorbike and set out to begin what he now calls his "life work" — traveling from one end of Japan to the other to record the testimonies of former soldiers stationed in China between the 1930s and the end of World War II in 1945.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 25, 2009

Lifetime of travels at root of keen insights into Japan

One person you want to meet for a coffee in Tokyo: Stephen Mansfield. The British author and photojournalist has written 10 books (14, including collaborative work) and produced over 2,000 published articles for newspapers, magazines and journals since 1992.
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Jul 25, 2009

Belgian no waffler on love, life in Japan

Pascal Latui, 28, first fell for Yumiko, 36, on a backpacking trip in Japan in June 2006. She was a receptionist at the Tokyo youth hostel where he was staying.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jul 17, 2009

East German backs Japan's public theaters

Peter Goesnner was born in Leipzig, in the former communist East Germany, in 1962. His dream was to be a great football player, but 40 years later, the witty, easy-going German is in Tokyo directing "Sekishoku Elegy" ("Red Elegy") by absurdist playwright Minoru Betsuyaku. Staged in 1980 for only one...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jul 15, 2009

Fish-shaped 'taiyaki' is always evolving

"Taiyaki," a fish-shaped pancake of sorts made of flour and filled with "azuki" sweet bean paste, has been around for a century.
JAPAN
Jul 13, 2009

DPJ scores big win in Tokyo assembly

The Democratic Party of Japan was cruising Sunday night to a clear victory in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election, taking over as the No. 1 force from the Liberal Democratic Party.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 12, 2009

Ethnic profiling threatens very ethos of EU

BRUSSELS — Several years ago, as terrorism, immigration, and unrest in suburban Paris were at the top of the news in France, a French police officer confided to a researcher: "If you consider different levels of trafficking, it is obviously done by blacks and Arabs. If you are on the road and see a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 10, 2009

Sabu masterfully helms a floating canning factory

After debuting as a writer/director in 1996 with "D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner," a kinetic comedy of three men chasing each other around, Sabu has been a regular on international film circuits, and is especially liked by the Berlin International Film Festival where he has had six films screened in the past, of...
EDITORIALS
Jul 9, 2009

Uighur resentment boils over

Ethnic riots that erupted in the capital of China's Xinjiang region reveal the extent of resentment that the mostly Muslim Uighur people harbor against the Chinese government's policy toward them. The riots, believed to be the biggest ethnic unrest acknowledged by Chinese authorities since the establishment...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Jul 7, 2009

Charity clothes swap proves big hit, perfect fit with Tokyo ladies

For many people, clothing has a way of accumulating. Heaps of clothes rise ever higher in rooms and closets and stay there for months on end. Much of the clothing is outgrown, unwanted or rarely worn at best. It's a familiar scenario, especially for those people who love to shop.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jul 7, 2009

Calderon case shows need for new mind-set

Dear Japanese lawmakers,
Reader Mail
Jul 2, 2009

Suicide mirrors others' disinterest

In the June 18 article "The safety nets for would-be suicides," Yasuyuki Shimizu, director of the suicide-prevention organization Lifelink, is quoted as saying that most people have regarded suicide as a personal problem, not society's. In her June 25 letter, "Enjoying what surrounds us," Japan Times...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 26, 2009

How to conjure worlds from the fewest words

One evening in late May, a cozy rehearsal room in Yokohama was more like a drill hall as Mikuni Yanaihara called for another run through a dance scene in her latest play, "Gonin Shimai" ("Five Sisters").
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009

Punchy posters urge Tokyoites to mind their manners

It doesn't take a genius to realize that public spaces in Japan are filled with numerous audible and visual reminders about the importance of maintaining personal decorum.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 21, 2009

Comedy with a sting in its tales

As a reporter, I don't particularly enjoy being swamped with breaking news to cover. That's when the pressure really becomes intense to get all the quotes and check all the facts in as short a time as possible.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2009

Recognition of brain death

The Lower House, by a 263-167 vote Thursday, passed a bill to (1) recognize brain death as actual death and (2) allow organ transplants from a brain-dead person of any age if his or her family members approve and if the person had not openly rejected the possibility of becoming a donor.

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