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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2003

Japan, don't send your soldiers

ARKADELPHIA, Arkansas -- A recent New York Times carried the story that Japan will send 600 ground troops to southeastern Iraq. I read this news with sadness as I prepared to lead a discussion in my upper level class in 20th-century U.S. history on the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Dec 13, 2003

Third Eye New Year's Party Picks & more

For the first time in several countdowns, the Tokyo crowd has to choose, or at least compromise, on where to be on New Year's Eve.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2003

Magazine sold by homeless spreads

An Osaka-based magazine that helps homeless people earn money by selling the publication on the street is spreading to other cities.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2003

Fear rules Uzbek majority opposition

LONDON -- Uzbekistan President Islam Abduganievich Karimov will have been watching recent events in Georgia very closely. Could a "revolution" like the one that ousted President Eduard Shevardnadze happen in Uzbekistan?
COMMENTARY
Dec 6, 2003

Keep doors open to refugees

LONDON -- If you're reading this on a plane or in a hotel, you're part of the problem. But even if you're sitting snugly, smugly at home, you may not be the solution.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 28, 2003

Peacefulness that's action-packed

Airplanes are the worst. I hate flying and avoid doing so as much as possible. But to compound my suffering, the day I flew down from Tokyo to Shikoku was also the day a typhoon was heading there, too. So, as the plane was being buffeted in midair, and I sat clutching the arms of my seat for dear life,...
COMMENTARY
Nov 19, 2003

China's social mores shift as economic growth soars

HONG KONG -- The profound economic changes that China has undergone in the last quarter century have resulted not only in dramatic skyscrapers in all its major cities and a marked rise in the standard of living, but also in changing social mores, with attitudes today contrasting sharply with those of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 19, 2003

Old man, take a look at yourself

If you thought that Neil Young was turning into a cranky old coot, his new album, "Greendale," is proof that he already is one. There are many who think he was cranky as far back as 1969, when he shot his baby down by the river. And in one of his two (count 'em!) hit singles, he identifies fully with...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 16, 2003

From manifest destiny to voter apathy

The media kept referring to last week's House of Representatives poll as the "manifesto election," because it was the first time Japan's political parties had spelled out their platforms. The inexperience showed. In their printed versions, the manifestos were considered all but incomprehensible, and...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2003

Refugee status denial puts family in limbo

Khin Maung Latt of Myanmar, his Filipino wife, Maria Hope Jamili, and their two daughters have no place to call home but Japan, and they are on shaky ground.
EDITORIALS
Nov 10, 2003

Being prepared for SARS

We must fully prepared for any new outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome this winter. Four months have passed since the World Health Organization declared that SARS was under control. The WHO is of the opinion that even if SARS flares up again, infection will not spread as long as countries take...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 9, 2003

Dancing through the storm in a D-cup

Much of the reporting about the Oct. 29 incident at Northwest University in Xian, China, in which three male Japanese exchange students danced in a university festival wearing brassieres and "fake genitals," gave the impression that the students' faux pas was a matter of cultural differences. What this...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 9, 2003

In with le new!

It's Beaujolais Nouveau time again, and Japan -- despite its piffling per capita consumption of just three bottles of wine a year -- will suddenly become a nation of tipplers and quaffers (if not connoisseurs) of this fresh-from-the-vine red wine from France.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2003

Voters put Tanaka, Kato scandals behind

As Makiko Tanaka and Koichi Kato try to stage their political comebacks, voters in their districts appear to have dismissed the money scandals that forced them out of the Diet and instead believe they can change politics for the better.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 26, 2003

The Road Ahead

The heat built up as our five-hour bus ride from Delhi took us toward the searing Thar Desert. Then, after clocking up 260 km heading south on the national highway, buildings began to grow as we approached Jaipur, capital of the state of Rajasthan. Our journey may have been equivalent to traveling between...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2003

Japan slowly pulls head out of sand on smoking ills

During the five years since a landmark suit against tobacco manufacturers and the government was filed, slight but steady progress has been made in regulating cigarette sales and advertising.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2003

Hibakusha stage protest ahead of Bush's Tokyo visit

A group of people who survived the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki urged Washington to scrap its nuclear weapons at a protest rally ahead of President George W. Bush's visit to Tokyo on Friday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 12, 2003

From Padaung backwater to the halls of Cambridge

FROM THE LAND OF GREEN GHOSTS: A Burmese Odyssey, by Pascal Khoo Thwe. London: Harper Collins, 2002, 304 pp., $24.95, (cloth). Toward the end of this captivating memoir the author confesses that while studying at Cambridge, "Sometimes I locked myself up in my room for three or four days, just to have...
JAPAN
Oct 12, 2003

Adequate emergency care could have saved 40 percent of patients' lives

About 40 percent of the people who died at emergency medical centers across Japan could have been saved if they had received adequate emergency care, according to a recent study by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2003

World holds vested interest in a successful South Africa

PRETORIA -- The last 10 to 15 years have not been the best advertisement for the human species. Our brutality toward fellow human beings, including children and women, seems to plumb ever-lower depths. The positive side of identifying with fellow members of a particular religion, race, tribe or ethnic...
JAPAN
Oct 2, 2003

Public largely unaware of new helper dog rules

Hotels, restaurants and other public facilities are required by a new law to let disabled people bring their helper dog along, but apparently few people know about it.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 27, 2003

Public baths: naked amusement parks

Want some culture? Go the "sento," or public bath. Not one of those fancy, remodeled ones, but an old, downtrodden one. The best sentos are found in old neighborhoods. Look at the people going in and out. No one should be under the age of 80. These people have been going to the sento their whole lives...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 21, 2003

An endless supply of meat for loan sharks

Half the job of solving social problems is getting the word out. This is especially true when it comes to criminal activities like fraud. Victims of fraud are by definition people who don't know enough about fraud to realize when they're being ripped off.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 14, 2003

Standing up to the loan sharks

On the morning of Aug. 13, a 70-year-old Yokohama man hanged himself in his home -- driven over the edge by debt. In total, he owed 17 million yen to banks, consumer-loan companies and even his children and relatives. In addition, 1,120,000 yen of his debt was to eight yamikinyu (loan sharks).
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2003

Online group united by anger

In an age of increasing disenchantment with political parties, both among voters and electoral candidates, there is one group whose level of support is still growing.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 10, 2003

Foreign execs coached through local game

The American executive blurted out a series of questions he had been unable to ask for a year.
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2003

Exams fail to rock the boat

LONDON -- Summer is examination season in Britain with results posted in mid-August. These are important for young people as entry to university, especially a more prestigious one, depends on the results they achieve.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 6, 2003

Drawing the line at the gentle bovine

Did you know that there's a dairy farm in Tokyo? Forty bovine residents live in Nerima Ward, where the city grew up around the Koizumi Bokujo diary farm. I myself, would be honored to have mooing neighbors. Especially as opposed to arguing spouses, screaming children and washing machines that start at...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 3, 2003

The Plan finally disbands, but the dialogue continues

Last January, The Dismemberment Plan announced that after 10 years, four well-received albums and countless tours that earned them a reputation for being one of the most consistently exciting live acts on the planet they were calling it quits.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear