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May 14, 2025
 

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JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 11, 2007

Funds law no match for wily politicians

Almost every day it seems another politician is making headlines over a money scandal. Four members of embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet — administrative reform minister Genichiro Sata, and farm ministers Toshikatsu Matsuoka, Norihiko Akagi and Takehiko Endo — have been forced from their...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 25, 2007

Carpenter bee

* Japanese name: Kumabachi * Scientific name: Xylocopa appendiculata * Description: A large, stout, noisy insect, the carpenter bee spooks most people when they see one. It should not spook any reader of this column, though: the bees are mostly harmless. In fact, males are completely harmless, and females...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 15, 2007

Former foes find common ground in court together

The shoot of "Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)" that began on June 2 has ended. The film is in the can — as they say — and is now being edited.
Reader Mail
Jul 1, 2007

Considerations of a troublemaker

I assent from the bottom of my heart to Roger Pulvers' description of compulsive reverence toward others in his June 10 Counterpoint column, "In Japan show reverence where it's due." There is nothing that alienates me more from this country and its people than what I would call "the double-edged sword...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 24, 2007

Maj. Gen. Okada: a rare leader who took the blame

How do you make an anti-war film? I don't mean those gore-driven "war is hell" spectaculars that often seem like a sub-genre of horror movies. I am referring to a work that prompts people in any country to say, "We must never allow this sort of thing to happen again — not to our own people and not...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 27, 2007

Baby hatch gives rise to empty moralizing

Every year the national Parent-Teacher Association conducts a survey to find out which television shows people either want or don't want their children to watch. Two programs always make it to the top of the disapproval list: "London Hearts," a variety show hosted by the coarse comedy duo London Boots,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 20, 2007

An exemplar of where the war-crimes buck stops

Over the coming months in this column, I will return a few times to a film titled "Ashita e no Yuigon (Best Wishes for Tomorrow)." I have been very fortunate to be able to write the script for this together with its director, Takashi Koizumi, whose last film, "Hakase no Aishita Sushiki (The Professor...
CULTURE / Books
May 6, 2007

In Japan, dogs 'wan,' cats 'nya' and cows 'mo'

HIRA HIRA KIRARI: Michey's Word Play, Onomatopoeia 1, 2, 3, by Mitsuko Hasse, illustrated by Haruko Nakaune, translated by Darrel Frentz. Fuzambo International, 2006, 155 pp., 2,000 yen (paper) Those familiar with The Japan Times' bilingual page will know Michey, the star of Word Play, a cartoon column...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 24, 2007

Drawn-out dentistry, legal help

Do you have a problem? Is there something you need, whether it be information, a service or an item that you cannot find?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 11, 2007

Bye-bye 'Borneo'

For how much longer will the name "Borneo" conjure up the same sense of magic as it does now, or as it did when I was a child?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2007

What's 'separate' about humankind?

In a sense, I'm a mind reader. In writing this, I believe that you think that I want you to think that I intend to persuade you of something I believe. Got that?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Feb 21, 2007

A wildlife odyssey to rank with any

Being both a columnist and an author is to be constantly in the midst of a kind of battle -- between short-term bursts of effort and rapid gratification, and long-term strategic planning, exertion, and inevitably delayed gratification.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 4, 2007

Whatever befell Japan's heady '60s hopes?

Over the past two weeks in this column, I have looked at Japanese society in the 1980s and '90s in order to trace how the nationalistic policies of the current Shinzo Abe administration, particularly in the educational and military spheres, are the outcome of developments in the preceding decades.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Dec 26, 2006

Easy Desk Aluminum, Waste Me Not Calendars, Plusminuszero's Humidifer, Metaphys' celtis game

The new year brings with it a perfect opportunity to make life improvements, or at least pretend to do so. This month's column, therefore, is about making you more productive, better organized (with a touch of eco-related ingenuity), enhancing the air around you -- as well as adding a bit of fun to our...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 13, 2006

Randolph's rep tarnished by mistakes

NEW YORK -- Last time Zach Randolph checked in with me late in his rookie year was also the only time . . . until we spoke by phone a few weeks ago.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 26, 2006

Dealing with death the Japanese ways

There is a quiet revolution taking place in the attitudes and practices concerning death and burial in Japan -- striking changes that shed light not only on how Japanese people today view death, but also life and the relationships that underpin it. So this week and next, I will explore contemporary issues...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Nov 7, 2006

'When Santa Fell to Earth,' 'Brooklyn Rose'

'When Santa Fell To Earth,' Cornelia Funke, Chicken House; 2006; 173 pp. Timeless. That's the word for fiction of this sort. How else can a story originally published in German in 1994 Eand now translated into English for the first time Emake for such great reading? Cynics might say that it's got to...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 22, 2006

Macha's return for MLB-NPB series off after firing by A's

Apparently it is a jinx to be the manager of the Oakland Athletics and be named to head a Major League All-Star tour of Japan. For the second time in four years, an A's skipper has been changed after getting the assignment to lead a visiting team in the nichibei yakyu.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 6, 2006

Welfare's not fair when it comes to single mothers

In show business, you can't look as if you made up your own labels. Only someone as big as Michael Jackson gets away with calling himself the King of Pop.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 19, 2006

Home comforts in a natural idyll

It's 07:30 and I'm just back from hiking to the 1,860-meter summit of Mount Yashigamine, having set out at 4 a.m. and been soaked to the skin in the rain along the way, and I am slipping into a welcoming hot bath -- squeezing in a soak, as well as a mountain, before breakfast.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jul 9, 2006

Wild times in the Lost World

The scene looks straight out of Jurassic Park. Huge vehicles thrash through the churned earth burdened with winches and cranes, steel crates and giraffes. Tough guys in uniforms bellow instructions or saunter about holding guns, netting, ropes to restrain buffalo, and all sorts of other neat "boys' toys"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Jul 4, 2006

"The Possum Always Rings Twice: A Chet Gecko Mystery," "Strange Happiness"

"The Possum Always Rings Twice: A Chet Gecko Mystery," Bruce Hale, Harcourt; 2006; 112pp.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 15, 2006

When rankings go rank

One symptom of a society addicted to quick information is the popularity of lists.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Apr 5, 2006

Patrolling the seas from on high

On February 28 this year, I was invited by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force base at Hachinohe to give a lecture on naval history to the officers of Fleet Air Wing Two. So for me it was to be a sudden switch from the coral seas and pleasant climate of Okinawa (with which I regaled you in this...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 12, 2006

Weekly magazines joust over trillion-yen fortunetelling trade

It is often said that if you really want to understand what is happening in Japan you should read the weekly magazines. Though the weeklies' journalistic standards are considered less rigorous than those of the daily newspapers, they are less reluctant to step on toes that belong to people who might...
LIFE / Language
Jan 31, 2006

Three is the magic number for haiku and Japan

"The easiest to hurt are these three: The eye, the elbow and the knee."
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jan 25, 2006

Saving our environment one step at a time

Having ended 2005 with a rant (see below), let me begin 2006 on a more positive note by introducing some valuable environmental education resources.
COMMENTARY
Dec 20, 2005

A job dogged by historical comparisons

HONG KONG -- Not all modern Chinese leaders are alike. First there was Mao Zedong. History's judgment suggests he could and should have done a lot better as boss man of the Middle Kingdom after the World War II, to say the least.
Transport ministry issues warning to Haneda Airport operator
The operator of Tokyo's Haneda Airport has been warned by the government over its inappropriate transactions.
Xi defiance pays off as Trump meets most China trade demands
Then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visits a school in South Gate, California, in February 2012. Experts say Xi won big in his standoff with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Nissan shares surge as carmaker set to cut 20,000 jobs in huge overhaul
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars and car parts imported to the U.S. have been painful to most global brands, but crippling in Nissan’s case.
Japan might be playing long game in U.S. tariff talks
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House earlier this year. Ishiba said Monday that farmers won't be sacrificed for automakers in Japan's tariff negotiations with the U.S.
More details emerge about stabbing near Tokyo University metro station
Yoshitaka Toda, the suspect in Wednesday's knife attack at Todaimae Station on the Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line, leaves a police station in the Japanese capital the same day for a pre-detention medical examination.
Japan set for bigger role in Philippines after SDF’s debut in key drills
Philippine Army Brig. Gen. Michael Logico, who was involved in managing the latest iteration of the Balikatan U.S.-Philippine drills, told The Japan Times that he expects military ties with Japan to surge even further once Tokyo ratifies a key visiting-forces agreement with Manila.
In China’s ‘Michelin Guide,’ Tokyo leads overseas listings with 30 entries
China's Black Pearl Restaurant Guide held its award ceremony overseas for the first time, picking the dining capital of Singapore to promote its brand to an international audience.
Who could become Japan's next prime minister?
Clockwise from top left: Former economic security minister Sanae Takaichi, former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi
With a new Shibuya studio, Apple Music bets big on Japan
Apple Music personalities (from left) Ebro Darden, Kentaro Ochiai, Zane Lowe and Mino came together for a special recording in late April to discuss music and celebrate the newly opened Apple Music studio in Tokyo.
Escalation fears rise in Japan following Chinese moves near Senkakus
A Japan Coast Guard vessel sails in front of the Uotsuri islet, one of the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. Concerns are growing in Tokyo after a Chinese government helicopter violated Japan's airspace around the uninhabited islets.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society
Fujitsu crafts sustainable innovation for itself, society

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