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EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2008

Making an impact on tourism

The government plans to inaugurate a Tourism Agency in October as an extra-ministerial bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The new agency will be aimed at attracting overseas visitors to Japan as their tourist destination and to make tourism an important industry of the nation....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Feb 1, 2008

Harboring dreams

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
Jan 27, 2008

If we're talking about tradition

If Japan truly believes its whale harvest is a tradition, then I have no problem with Japanese whalers following what the traditional owners of the land in Australia do: Do not use modern equipment, row out in traditional whale boats (what do they look like?), and hunt whales in the traditional manner. ...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 27, 2008

Justice Minister talks in death-penalty riddles

What does Japan's justice minister, Kunio Hatoyama think of the looming introduction of citizens' juries, also known as the lay-judge system — which is potentially the most revolutionary change set to affect Japan's trial system since World War II?
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Jan 26, 2008

Planells confident expansion Golden Kings will blossom with time

SENDAI — Hernando Planells, the head coach of the expansion Ryukyu Golden Kings, sat down after his team's 87-78 loss to the Sendai 89ers on Sunday and spoke at length about his players, the challenges of building a team from scratch and his overall impressions of the bj-league.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 25, 2008

No deviation for celebrated techno star

In an era of dance music that sees almost every DJ attempt to defy genre, and producers seemingly incapable of making tracks without either screaming guitars or samples of pop hits from yesteryear, Sven Vath is refreshing in his conservatism.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 25, 2008

Basking in the northern cold

Sapporo's famed Snow Festival — running this year from Feb. 5 to Feb 11. — began when a bunch of bored school kids in 1950 built a series of snow sculptures in Odori Park in the center of the city. Their enthusiasm during the hardships Japan was suffering after the war struck a chord with the population....
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2008

Prefectural lawmakers rally in praise of gas taxes

About 450 prefectural assembly members from the ruling and opposition parties staged a rally Wednesday in Tokyo to call on policymakers to maintain the current tax rates on gasoline, roads and motor vehicle tonnage.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / ON: DESIGN
Jan 22, 2008

Naoto Fukusawa, the peg pencil, Gallery Le Bain and more

Naoto Fukusawa: Beech Boy
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 22, 2008

Japan's hot springs part of social, geologic, historic fabric

Japan is dotted with mineral-rich natural "onsen" hot springs, both indoors and outside, many offering a warming dip amid a frozen setting.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 20, 2008

Nakanishi making most of second career

Tokyo Apache forward Shoji Nakanishi owned one of the bj-league's most obscure names as the calendar flipped from 2007 to 2008.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jan 19, 2008

Hiring of Keegan shows level of Newcastle's desperation

LONDON — When Kevin Keegan was asked in 1998 about managing Newcastle United,again his reply was: "No . . . I won't go back to managing Newcastle . . . that's 1,000 percent."
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jan 18, 2008

Hallelujah: The fiery flavor of Korean winter

A fter all the holiday feasting, the boozing and carousing, it comes as no little relief to get back to basics. Warming sustenance is what we crave in this coldest of seasons. And few things are more comforting, to body and spirit alike, than the hearty home cooking of the Korean Peninsula.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 16, 2008

Snow season's not what it was . . .

"Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with its tail." (Traditional proverb)
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 15, 2008

Whatever happened to Yamagishi?

Hideyuki Ikuhara's main responsibility at Yamagishi is feeding the pigs. It's a full-time job, but he expects no salary for his efforts. In fact, he quit his work developing high-tech televisions and gave up all his possessions for this lifestyle — and he couldn't be happier.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2008

'Le Faute a Fidel!'

Children are often much more conservative than adults give them credit for. Many prefer orderliness over chaos, predictability over confusion, and custom over trends that come and go.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 11, 2008

Vega steals into the spotlight

A city of extremes, New York represents different things to different people. For singer- songwriter Suzanne Vega, its infinite variety is a constant source of inspiration.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 11, 2008

In praise of picture-postcard Japan

As Ana and Roberto, my two good friends from Brazil, and myself gorged ourselves through the multicourse kaiseki dinner at the very pleasant and relaxed Tachibana Shikitei, a Japanese-style inn in Ishikawa Prefecture's Yamashiro Onsen, I convinced myself that food, when served on quality pottery —...
COMMENTARY
Jan 10, 2008

Mistaken economic policies

Another year, another budget. And yet another increase in public debt as tax revenues yet again fail to provide the funds needed even for the budget's highly restricted outlays.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 8, 2008

Bottle of water delivers wrong message

NEW YORK — "You really have to wonder at the utter stupidity and the irresponsibility sometimes of American consumers," Salt Lake City Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson said. "These false needs are provided, and too often we just fall in line with what Madison Avenue comes up with to market these unnecessary...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2008

Political temblors in Iowa

The United States has just concluded the first stage in the quadrennial spectacular — or is it a spectacle? — that is a presidential campaign. The Iowa caucuses were held Thursday evening and the two winners, Sen. Barack Obama and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, confounded their party establishments...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 6, 2008

Social realism enhanced by the pastoral

MOUNTAINS PAINTED WITH TURMERIC by Lil Bahadur Chettri, translated from Nepali by Michael J. Hutt. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, $22.50 (cloth) Originally published in the late 1950s, this novel — says the blurb — "is one of the few books almost every Nepali knows well." The reason is...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 4, 2008

Beijing: punk paradise in waiting

As Beijing enters its Olympic year, The Japan Times meets the Japanese mogul who's hoping to put the city on the musical map
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 3, 2008

A new challenge to old traditions

Many visitors to Japan would love to buy an ukiyo-e (Japanese genre painting) woodblock print while here, and then put it on their wall. Dr. Lakra, an Oaxaca, Mexico-based tattoo artist, bought his own, and then added his own improvements to them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2008

Peace, prosperity come at a price

It is self-evident that international peace is the foremost prerequisite for national security and prosperity. This is the common recognition of all advanced nations, but Japan, with regard to national interests.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 1, 2008

Seeking a life in balance

A task force set out earlier this year to bring more balance to the the grueling lifestyles that have become engrained in Japanese society over the past century. In November, a set of employment guidelines were formally adopted by the government.

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