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May 14, 2025
 

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CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 6, 2005

The attractive helplessness of a reluctant foreigner

THE TOWER OF LONDON: Tales of Victorian London, by Natsume Soseki, translated and introduced by Damian Flanagan, calligraphy by Kosaka Misuzu. London: Peter Owen, 2005, 240 pp., 12 illustrations, £14.95 (paper). In 1900 the Japanese government sent three young scholars to London to study and equip themselves...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2005

Key to a common currency

The Economist magazine forecast in a recent issue that a future multiple reserve currency system could include the Chinese yuan: "The world might drift toward a multiple reserve currency system shared by the dollar, the euro and the yen, or indeed the yuan at some time in the future."
COMMENTARY
Jan 26, 2005

Things look up to Downer

LOS ANGELES -- They say an optimist looks at the very same glass that the pessimist sees as half-empty and proclaims it to be half-full. By that measure, one of the world's foremost optimists has got to be Alexander Downer, Australia's minister for foreign affairs.
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2005

Tougher restrictions on foreign entertainers to be enforced in March

The planned restrictions on foreign entertainers, mostly affecting women from the Philippines, will be put in place during the first half of March, government officials said Sunday.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2005

Tracking sex-crime offenders

The Justice Ministry, concerned about the growing incidence of sex offenses against children, is set to launch a tracking system for convicted sex criminals, perhaps by the end of March. The idea is to try to reduce the possibility of their repeating similar offenses by having them keep the National...
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2005

The lobbyists who advertise

MANILA -- As the complexity of the issues facing our societies continues to grow, political decision-makers increasingly face the problem of how to handle what is often termed information overkill.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2005

Machimura says China ties beset by 'various concerns'

research activities by Chinese ships," he said. Machimura stressed the importance of securing Japan's natural resources, vowing to maintain exploration of continental shelves and marine resources around Japan.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 21, 2005

Has master manipulator Ferguson unnerved Wenger?

LONDON -- Earlier this season, the sports pages of English newspapers were delighted when the public row between Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsenal's Arsene Wenger kicked off (though no one expected it to be continuing and even gathering pace three months later).
JAPAN
Jan 21, 2005

Tokyo under fire for deporting refugees

Japan has long caught flak for being closed to asylum-seekers, and the deportation this week of two Kurds from Turkey — despite their U.N. recognition as "mandate refugees" — has brought the government under a fresh attack.
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2005

Unfinished tasks for Mr. Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, speaking at the Liberal Democratic Party's annual convention Tuesday, again expressed his resolve to privatize postal services, saying that "without constant efforts for reform, possibilities for Japan's development will be closed." Mr. Koizumi defines postal privatization...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 20, 2005

Examining the exotic ins and outs of marrying a foreigner

Elsewhere in the world, mixed marriages are no big deal. In Japan, however, the kokusai kekkon (international marriage) is still an issue tinged with exoticism and other-worldliness. Witness the enormous success of manga series "Daalin wa Gaikokujin" (My Darling is a Foreigner), and you'll see the point....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 12, 2005

What's in a name? The good, the bad and the absurd

From the (e-)mail bag, Patrick O'Mara from Washington, D.C., sent the following message: "I'm writing as a new fan to the game; my wife got me into (baseball) this past season, when the Red Sox finally overcame the Yankees. My question is why do they call it the "World" Series?
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 11, 2005

Gaijin in cyberspace

It's a pretty lively gathering. A group of eikaiwa teachers are noisily denouncing their employers, while nearby a pair of leery Charisma Men are swapping tales of sexual conquests, and next to them some language students are loudly debating the Yasukuni Shrine.
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2005

Improving Japan's leverage

To promote national interest in diplomacy, it is essential to set goals, establish basic policies to achieve them and work out overall strategies, while keeping in mind the links between individual goals and between those of nations and regions. However, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi lacks such strategies....
JAPAN
Jan 8, 2005

China's Yasukuni ire 'puzzles' Japanese

For Tokyo native Mie Kondo, 31, Yasukuni Shrine is no more than a scenic area she used to visit with her family and a sightseeing spot to which she still likes taking visitors.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 7, 2005

Hysterical reaction to 'Worst Decision Of All Time'

LONDON -- The reaction was as predictable as it was hysterical and misplaced.
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2005

Royal bridge to the people

The new year has been ushered in by the auspicious news of a long-awaited announcement: Princess Nori, the only daughter of the Emperor, is engaged to Mr. Yoshiki Kuroda, a Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee. We congratulate them heartily and hope that they will serve as a bridge between the Imperial...
COMMENTARY
Jan 1, 2005

Aim for change, not utopia

The 20th century was an era of utopias. Until the mid-1970s, many young Japanese believed that a socialist society was a utopia. While I was a student at a prefectural high school in Kyoto in the late 1950s, a classmate of mine with North Korean parentage returned to his homeland, which he thought was...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Dec 30, 2004

What is behind 'shocking' Hokkaido bid for World Heritage Site status?

Recently I was lucky enough to visit no fewer than six World Heritage Sites (WHS) in northern India. An astonishing cultural, ethnic and biological diversity is well represented in India's array of national parks (NP) and WHS, and, my goodness, they have a huge wow factor.
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2004

Civilian controls over military matters seen in the balance

As Japan prepares to redefine the Self-Defense Forces as a bona fide military, the government will have to address the sensitive question of how much say SDF officers should have in national security.
EDITORIALS
Dec 26, 2004

A summer date with Harry Potter

To the delight of her young readers, her publishers and booksellers everywhere, British author J.K. Rowling last week announced that she had delivered to the printers the manuscript of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Book 6 in her phenomenally popular fantasy series. It should have come as...
COMMUNITY
Dec 26, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Humanism

What could be said for the human being after Nanking, Dresden, Auschwitz, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Whatever the motivation, this is what we did to each other, and continue to do to this very hour. How can a writer write about goodness when people of all nations, autocratic or democratic, take up murder...
COMMENTARY
Dec 25, 2004

Strained Japan-China ties bode ill for region's future

HONG KONG -- Beijing's relations with Tokyo, already strained by the intrusion of a Chinese nuclear submarine into Japanese territorial waters last month, have been worsened by Japan's release on Dec. 10 of a new National Defense Program Outline that for the first time names China as a potential threat....
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2004

Public wants sanctions -- but at what price?

A large section of the public responded with predictable fury to recent revelations that a set of remains handed by North Korea to Japanese officials were not, as Pyongyang had claimed, those of abductee Megumi Yokota.
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2004

EU opens the door to Turkey

For more than four decades, European leaders have held out to Turkey the prospect of membership in their club. The odds that Turkey would join Europe shortened considerably last week, when officials from the European Union and Ankara agreed to commence discussions on Turkish membership next October....
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 21, 2004

Workplace worries

Bullying and dismissal I've been working for a private university for almost eight years. During that time, I have put up with constant "ijime" from two other teachers, who finally got their way and are having me fired. No reason was given for my firing.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2004

More gridlock in the Taiwan Strait

Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian had a disappointing weekend. His Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was unable to win a majority in parliamentary elections held Saturday. The result is likely to be continuing gridlock in Taiwanese politics, as different parties control the presidency and the legislature....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 15, 2004

Larger than life

Director and animator Sylvain Chomet had a different childhood (in Maison-Laffitte, in France) from the little boy in "Les Triplettes de Belleville," but the two had some things in common.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 14, 2004

Right side of the law

Sacked without notice I was working for an English-language school in Tokyo and got fired without any notice at all. My one-year contract doesn't expire for four more months. Can they do that?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 12, 2004

The short and the sweet of popular Japanese theater

A GUIDE TO THE JAPANESE STAGE: From Traditional to Cutting Edge, by Ronald Cavaye, Paul Griffith and Akihiko Senda. Foreword by Nomura Mansai. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 2004, 388 pp., many illustrations. 2,310 yen (paper). A convenient, pocket-size volume, this entertainment guide recommends "plays...
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.
Sculpted waves, sleek updos: Showa hairstyles are back in fashion
The larger-than-life hairstyles of Japan's Showa Era are unmistakable — and they're making a comeback.
Consumption tax set to dominate Upper House election debate
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan should produce its own AI defense solutions, Sakana AI CEO says
Sakana AI CEO David Ha speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Nissan gets ‘wake-up call’ with $4.5 billion annual net loss
Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa in Tokyo as the company releases its results
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.

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

Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after
Smile! It’s ‘Sanrio Time,’ now and ever after

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