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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2005

Scholar troubled by Japan's direction

Few intellectuals in Japan today are as deeply committed to peace and democracy as Rokuro Hidaka is. The 88-year-old sociologist is a witness to Japan's aggression in China and, during the war, even went as far as proposing that Japan withdraw its troops from China, return its colonies and lay down foundations...
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2005

LDP's new Constitution will widen SDF's role

The Liberal Democratic Party on Monday unveiled a rough outline of its planned constitutional amendment, which says the Self-Defense Forces should be defined as a military tasked with defending Japan and joining international peacekeeping efforts.
Japan Times
Features
Aug 22, 2004

'Stray dogs' dig the dirt

"Bluebottle fly" was what he says he was called by the police. But freelance journalist Shunsuke Yamaoka is now getting a buzz from watching the law deal with wrongdoers he exposed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2004

'Cat paradise' sad gloss for pet dumpsite

"Please do not mention the name of this place in your article," the woman begged during an interview. "Please."
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 20, 2004

Bill of rights

As the government moves to beef up the country's military preparedness, once again the issue of the protection of foreigners' rights has been raised.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2004

A step in the right direction

Japan will soon express its willingness to become a party to the twin protocols of the four Geneva conventions that were approved in 1949 to protect war victims and prevent the kinds of abuses that had occurred during World War II. The supplementary protocol agreements, adopted in 1977, set humanitarian...
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2004

Crackdown has publishers running scared

Yasunori Okadome last month suspended publication of his profitable monthly gossip magazine Uwasa-no-shinso (The Truth Behind Rumors), due to fears that a lawsuit could put him out of business for good.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2004

Last resort to protect privacy

Over the past two weeks Japanese media have made much of a privacy issue involving the eldest daughter of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. It all started with an article in a popular weekly describing the daughter's private life. Responding to a request from her lawyer, the Tokyo District Court...
JAPAN
Jan 15, 2004

Koizumi urges LDP-DPJ effort to revise Constitution

Constitutional reform is no longer a taboo issue and the Liberal Democratic Party should work together with the Democratic Party of Japan to submit bills to this end to the Diet, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2004

Court targets obscene comics

A Tokyo publisher was found guilty in a landmark criminal trial Tuesday of distributing obscene comic books containing uncensored sex scenes.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2004

DPJ set to submit own proposals on Constitution

The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday it will issue constitutional amendment proposals by 2006.
COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2003

Courageous decision on Iraq

LONDON -- The Japanese government's decision to send members of the Self-Defense Forces to take part in humanitarian efforts in Iraq was a courageous one.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Sep 29, 2003

Debate on Emperor's role in war lives on

NEW YORK -- Will the nearly 60-year-old debate on the Showa Emperor's role in World War II ever end?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 17, 2003

Safe hydrogen power needs nuclear energy

Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States, said in 1928 that "the slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner plate to the full garage." Soundbite culture had taken hold even then, and Hoover's words were quickly paraphrased as "a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot."...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2003

Ministry protests refugee newspaper story

The Justice Ministry has protested against an article run by the Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday that said the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau is recommending that a former North Korean agent be granted refugee status, according to ministry officials.
COMMUNITY
Mar 15, 2003

Historian seeks clear U.N. mandate for peace

German-born Klaus Schlichtman is a peace historian. An academic who found his way late in life -- a "seeker" in every sense of the word.
COMMENTARY
Mar 4, 2003

Signs of a thaw in cross-Strait relations

HONG KONG -- In a potentially significant move, China is reported to have pulled back some of its missiles along the Fujian coast facing Taiwan, something that the United States and Taiwan have been urging China to do for some time. An article in Taiwan's United Daily News on Thursday reported that "the...
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2003

Editor suspended for Chimura story

The editor in chief of the Shukan Asahi magazine has been suspended over an article published in the weekly without the permission of a couple who have returned to Japan after being abducted by North Korean agents, it was learned Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Nov 5, 2002

Extensive debate on the Constitution

A Lower House constitutional research panel last week released an interim report summarizing nearly three years of its discussions. The voluminous document covers a wide range of subjects, including the Emperor system, roles of the Self-Defense Forces and basic human rights. However, it leaves open the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2002

Beijing forcing Chen to take own road

NEW YORK -- Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's posture toward China has undergone a significant change recently -- from showing infinite good will to proclaiming that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and that Taiwan's future should be determined by the people of Taiwan. He now supports legislation...
COMMENTARY
Jun 15, 2002

Japan remains very abnormal

When the framers of Japan's postwar Constitution included the much-debated Article 9 prohibiting the nation from ever having armed forces or from ever going to war, they had a reason. They saw Japan as a nation with an incurable propensity to slip into militarism.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 14, 2001

Taiwan deserves to be a U.N. member

NEW YORK -- The United Nations admitted Tuvalu, a tiny South Pacific island state, as its 189th member last fall, but not Taiwan despite the latter's efforts for the past decade. The U.N.'s action seems incongruous even by a simple comparison.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 2, 2001

U.S. courts move forward on POW claims

A ruling by a California judge late last month is a major defeat for U.S. State Department and Japanese government officials who argued that former American POW slave laborers cannot sue Japanese firms for compensation because of the 1951 Peace Treaty, and a major victory for the ex-POWs and their growing...
LIFE / Digital / SURFERSPUD
Oct 4, 2001

A look at terror

www.newyorker.com/FROM_THE_ARCHIVE/ARCHIVES/?010924fr_archive05 As modern journalism sinks ever deeper into its spoon-feed-me mentality, William T. Vollman, a novelist and magazine reporter, actually does the hard research. Before embarking on an assignment to Afghanistan to find out what the Taliban...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2001

Changing defense role raises questions

By far the most important relationship to the United States in the Asia-Pacific region is that with Japan, and Washington hopes to strengthen these ties, a former deputy secretary of defense said.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2001

The Japanese Constitution gets a provocative look

FIVE DECADES OF CONSTITUTIONALISM IN JAPANESE SOCIETY, edited by Yoshio Higuchi. University of Tokyo Press, 2001, 368 pp., 8,000 yen. A major stumbling block for Japan on its road to becoming a more influential member of the global community has been a profound absence of voice. Japanese politicians,...
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2001

No case for direct election

LONDON -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is reported to have said that the only change he wants to make in the Japanese Constitution is to insert an article providing that the Japanese prime minister be elected by the people of Japan rather than by the Diet. In this he is endorsing a proposal originally...
JAPAN
May 8, 2001

Koizumi vows no sanctuaries from reform

The Prime minister's main policy points (Full text) The following is the gist of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's policy speech delivered Monday in the Diet.
JAPAN
Apr 28, 2001

Koizumi floats popular vote for nation's prime minister

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has broken the norm in his Cabinet lineups, on Friday called for revising the Constitution to introduce a popular vote for the nation's top leader.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building