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COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2007

China's tough leap forward

BRUSSELS — Ever since Deng Xiaoping's aphorism "Black cat, white cat, who cares as long as it can catch mice" was burned into Chinese souls by the successive horrors of the Great Leap Forward, its resulting famine and the Cultural Revolution's shambolic savagery, China has seen 10 percent-plus growth...
BUSINESS
Aug 17, 2007

Rural universities feel pinch of lower enrollments

Hagi International University in Yamaguchi Prefecture filed for court protection from creditors in June 2005, owing ¥3.7 billion after the number of freshmen enrollments and students declined sharply.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 17, 2007

A cooling swim good enough to (almost) die for

It's hot. Sweltering hot. And humid. And it's not going to cool down any time soon.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 17, 2007

'I was totally squished, but it was ace'

It's apt that Rock in Japan takes place in between Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic. While Fuji sprawls myriad bands over a vast, scenic site and Summer Sonic hosts acts for a younger crowd in an exhibition hall and stadium, RIJ combines the best of both.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 17, 2007

'Rosso Come Il Cielo'

In many ways Mirco was a typical 10-year-old boy; skittish, puppyish and with a very short attention span. One second he'd be playing with a spinning top, and a nanosecond later he'd be running down the street in pursuit of the next fun thing. Mirco was the only child of adoring parents living in the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 17, 2007

Summertime and the grazing is easy

It's holiday time and the Food File is off for a break, but not before tidying up a few loose ends. This column is a summer miscellany — call it a chop suey (from the Cantonese shap sui, meaning "odds and ends") — on a few of the places we've visited and enjoyed in recent months.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2007

'Izakaya' morale-boosting ritual catches on

Twenty-five minutes before the 5 p.m. opening, staff at Teppen, a Japanese-style bar in Tokyo's Shibuya district, and employees of other businesses gather around the counter for a daily meeting.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 12, 2007

Forsake not the elderly, for they bear a great bounty

They are remodeling the station near where I work in Tokyo, and I marvel at the diligence of the security guards directing pedestrians inconvenienced by the building work. Virtually all the guards are seniors, most likely retirees from other forms of employment. I usually arrive at my station by 6 a.m.,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 12, 2007

Japan's Paradise Lived

It's a strange world we're about to enter.
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2007

Opportunities for baby boomers

The first group of 6.7 million baby boomers, born in the years 1947-49, have reached or will reach the retirement age of 60 this year. About 3.6 million of them — almost equivalent to the population of Yokohama — are expected to retire as salaried workers in 2007-09. As they reach the age of 60,...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Aug 7, 2007

Still the king of alcohol in Japan

The unbearably hot and humid summer is peak beer season in Japan. Here are some facts about the nation's beer market and its taxes, as well as regulations related to the alcoholic beverage:
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Aug 7, 2007

"The Boyhood of Burglar Hill," "Little Rabbit's New Baby"

"The Boyhood of Burglar Hill," Allan Ahlberg, Puffin Books; 2006; 181 pp.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2007

A grand champion is rebuked

The Japan Sumo Association has suspended yokozuna Asashoryu from the next two grand sumo tournaments for playing soccer in his home country Mongolia after he had notified the association that he would sit out the Aug. 3-20 summer regional tour in eastern Japan (not Tokyo) because of injuries.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 4, 2007

Speech contest aims to pull nation together

Up until a few years ago, Tom Gerrard was an entrepreneur with an eye to mainstream business. He then underwent a radical shift of attitude and interest, changing the name of his company in 2004 from Comm Pro (Communication Professionals) to Global Learning.
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2007

Managing Japan's foreign reserves

Some government officials, including Financial Services Minister Yuji Yamamoto, are calling for more effective management of Japan's foreign-exchange reserves, the world's second largest at about $910 billion. During a recent visit to Singapore, Mr. Yamamoto proposed that Japan consider investing foreign-currency...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 3, 2007

All-male troupe sing requiem 'Tengai'

All-male celebrity choir Roppongi Dansei Gasshodan Club (better known as Rokudan) will perform a concert on Aug. 21 as a precursor to the inaugural Karuizawa Arts Festival 2007 (Aug. 20-26). Rokudan will sing the cantanta "Tengai" by renowned Japanese composer Shigeaki Saegusa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 3, 2007

Chats backstage at Fuji

'Mine's best' 'It's been lovely," said former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker toward the end of his Friday afternoon set at FRF '07. And indeed it was. The JT caught up with Cocker backstage after his show and asked him to elaborate.
COMMENTARY
Aug 2, 2007

Expect oil to hit $100 a barrel and beyond

LONDON — Nine of the last 10 serious downturns in the world economy followed a spike in the price of oil, and we are heading for another spike, with oil back up near the peak of $78.40 a barrel that it reached almost exactly a year ago.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Aug 1, 2007

A tale of morels

I have a Canadian friend, Nedd Kenney, a brilliant scholar, musician and fieldworker who now lives on Baffin Island off the northeast coast of Canada. It was Nedd who got me my first bhodran (Irish drum), and came to my house in Kurohime, in the Nagano Prefecture hills, to give me some tips on playing...
COMMENTARY
Jul 31, 2007

'Sugar daddy' relationships and HIV

NEW YORK — Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the world's leading AIDS scientists, warned at an international conference on AIDS in Sydney, Australia, that the world is losing the battle against the virus. He indicated that increased emphasis should be placed on prevention efforts, particularly with regard...
COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2007

Blame game since Lockerbie

LONDON — Libya is the land of make-believe, and from a safe distance it can seem comical. The 65-year-old teenager who runs the place, Col. Moammar Gadhafi, has an even stronger commitment to fashion than my 15-year-old daughter (although she has much better taste). But it's a very ugly regime close...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2007

Keeping abreast of developments on the small screen

Arts and entertainment criticism of the sort practiced in the West is still relatively sublimated in Japan, where pop-culture hyoronka (critics) tend to be either pundits or PR flacks who rarely say anything overtly negative about the things they review.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 27, 2007

'Inland Empire'

A man and a woman are glimpsed, in murky black-and-white images, in a Polish hotel room, their faces mosaiced out. "You want to f*** me?" she asks. "Shut up and take off your clothes," he answers. "I'm frightened." she says. Cut to full color and a girl wrapped in a red sheet, crying, and watching TV....

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji