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COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2005

Avoiding sham democracy

LONDON -- There is all the difference in the world between democracy and constitutional democracy.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 5, 2005

Marinos face major threat from rejuvenated Jubilo

Here is a team-by-team preview of the 18 clubs in the J. League's first division this season:
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / THEN AND NOW
Mar 4, 2005

Happy in the haze of a hanami hour

The 1830s wood-block print below depicts hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) on the banks of the Sumida River. A group of young women and girls are on an excursion, and, with their elaborate hairstyles and fancy, uniform kimono, it appears they are apprentice geisha from licensed quarters nearby. Like teenage...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 1, 2005

More pet care, honey and advice on quacks

Pet service In reply to a dog owner in Tokyo last year seeking a sitter or pet hotel while abroad, here are Susan and Takashi Shiobara with a great service: Pet Mate, located in the Fuchu/Koganei area of west Tokyo, offers petsitting at the owner's home while they're away as well as dog walking services...
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2005

The British navy's pink carpet

'R um, sodomy and the lash" are the words Winston Churchill is popularly credited with using to sum up the traditions of Britain's Royal Navy. (A former assistant has said that Churchill never uttered the famous phrase but wished he had.) Either way, the idea that Her Majesty's naval forces have always...
COMMENTARY
Feb 25, 2005

Spots on Russia's shiny orb

MOSCOW -- By normal standards Russia should be a happy and contented country. Moscow is awash with money, mostly flowing in from the giant energy sector and hugely boosted by the doubling in oil prices the past year. Shops and restaurants are booming. Cinemas and theaters are multiplying and play to...
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Operation Evacuation

Not only are they a biodiversity disaster, but the millions of sugi (cedars) planted as official policy in the postwar years to yield cheap timber -- but which are now more expensive to harvest than the cost of imports -- have become a serious health hazard across Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 19, 2005

Cosmopolitan stands for cultural understanding

A gaggle of students leaving Cosmopolitan Consultancy in Kawasaki's Shin-Yurigaoka point the way to the front door. "Up, up," they urge, to the third floor, where Suzan Matkin awaits with slippers and English tea.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 18, 2005

Outcry over Arsenal's all-foreign squad is misguided

LONDON -- Arsenal became L'Arsenal or El Arsenal last Monday after Arsene Wenger chose an all-foreign squad of 16 for the 5-1 win over Crystal Palace.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 12, 2005

Freedom, when it suits U.S.

No one who watched the exhilaration and exuberance of Iraqis facing down the threat of bullets in order to cast their ballots can fail to have been moved. And for those who were actually in Iraq to witness this firsthand, battle-hardened and cynical journalists included, it must have been bliss indeed...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2005

FamilyMart to introduce 'konbini' to Americans

When FamilyMart Co. opens a store in Hollywood, Calif., in July, the first Japanese convenience store in the U.S. might not be perceived as such by locals.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 11, 2005

Brr -- diving in Atami in winter

As any scuba diver knows, when the diving itch hits, you just gotta scratch. But what if the itch strikes in midwinter when you have neither the time nor funds to fly to a tropical resort? Not to worry. Not only is it possible to dive around mainland Japan in the winter months, it can even be done on...
COMMUNITY
Feb 9, 2005

Prostitution, human trafficking thrive as a lucrative immorality

ISLAMABAD -- The countries making up the South Asia region support about one-quarter of the planet's population, with a large number of people unemployed and living below the poverty line. This socioeconomic situation has helped increase social crimes especially like human trafficking, especially of...
EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2005

Prohibition in Bhutan

The news out of the Himalayas last week was all about Nepal, where King Gyanendra on Tuesday dissolved the government and proclaimed a state of emergency. (The move was billed as an attempt to end an intractable Maoist insurgency; observers predict it will only feed the flames.) But if you think Nepal...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 6, 2005

"Matthew's Best Hit TV" and "Shojiki Shindoi" gets joint special on TV Asahi and more

Next month will mark the 10th anniversary of the sarin gas attacks carried out by Aum Supreme Truth cult on a Tokyo subway during the morning rush hour. On Tuesday, NHK's documentary series "Project X" (NHK-G, 9:15 p.m.) will take a detailed look back at the medical-emergency measures implemented immediately...
Japan Times
Features
Feb 6, 2005

Drawing on experience

At age 82, Shigeru Mizuki (above) is undoubtedly among the most popular -- and certainly one of the longest-standing -- cartoon artists in Japan. There is probably no Japanese adult who is not familiar with his name, or who has not at least glanced at the voluminous comics/animation series "Ge-ge-ge...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 3, 2005

No ends in sight to quell Matsuki's rage

Mr. Matsuki, our forester here at the Afan Woodland Trust in Kurohime, Nagano Prefecture, came to me just before Christmas in a very bad mood. He does get grumpy sometimes (he's quite famous for it), but this time he was very, very cross. He stormed into my house, not even bothering to say hello, came...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 2, 2005

All the glory that was Florence

Before the 15th century in Florence, the guilds had their own highly developed hierarchy with artisans fairly near the top. Visual artists were higher-grade craftsmen, and their work was considered a kind of manual labor. As religious and secular demand for art increased, and conscious reflection on...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2005

Better use of talented people

Ms. Chong Hyang Gyun, a second-generation South Korean resident who is a public-health nurse for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, has been fighting a legal battle the past decade to take up a managerial post. The 54-year-old civil servant has argued that the metro government's rejection of her request...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jan 28, 2005

2004: Year of the bounce; Serious Sirius

Calamitous. The world was a bouncin' in 2004.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2005

Foggy North Korean shuffle

BRUSSELS -- Recent events in North Korea have been interpreted in various ways and, generally, the wish has been father to the thought. The truth is difficult to discern, but indications are that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has placed himself firmly behind a reform program that may finally bring...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2005

Know your Shins!

Ask the band directly, what are The Shins about, and the four friends' free-for-all flow of deadpan wit, wild metaphor and the occasional outburst of song (evidence of not just a clever group of people but a happy one) stops cold.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2005

Sake breweries near Tokyo offer foreigners tastings, tours in English

Many of the well-known brands of sake are made in the rural, now snow-deep regions of Japan, including Niigata Prefecture, but what may not be widely known is that there are about a dozen breweries in Tokyo alone.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jan 20, 2005

Wondrous fall whiteout heralded a warming winter of discontent

T here is nothing quite like writing controversially for stirring up a response, and commonly those responses come as a mixture of extremes.
JAPAN
Jan 19, 2005

Despite rash of counterfeiting, bank-note transition to take a year

The debut of new currency with anticounterfeit technology appears to have prompted people turning out fake old bank notes to rush to use them, but it will probably take about a year before all the old money is taken out of circulation.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2005

Kobe remembers earthquake with candlelight vigil

KOBE -- This city on Monday morning marked the 10th anniversary of the January 1995 earthquake that resulted in the loss of 6,433 lives, with ceremonies paying tribute to reconstruction efforts and offering condolences and promises of further assistance to survivors of national and international disasters....
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2005

Underground flooding a big risk here: U.N. expert

in the world," said the Sri Lankan, an expert on hydrology and a former University of Tokyo professor. "If you think that a bank of a big river in the city broken (by heavy rains) and whole underground spaces like subways are flooded, it is very scary and (such a situation) can cause much panic." Herath...

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami