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EDITORIALS
Apr 10, 2009

Wanted: campaign platforms

The focus of Japanese politics is shifting to the question of when Prime Minister Taro Aso will dissolve the Lower House for a snap election. The Lower House members can retain their seats for slightly more than five months at most because their term expires Sept. 10. In addition, Mr. Aso, whose government...
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Apr 9, 2009

Imperial army war vet haunted by horrors in China

23rd in a series
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 6, 2009

Demand-supply gap is driving Japan's precipitous slide

The Japanese economy is stuck in a tailspin. With industrial output sinking 10.2 percent in January and 9.4 percent in February, economic activity could drop to half in another six months.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 5, 2009

Two decades past Poland's 'compromise'

WARSAW — "Poland — ten years, Hungary — ten months, East Germany — ten weeks, Czechoslovakia — ten days."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 5, 2009

Dead ends, about turns abound in the politics of roads

About a year ago, the government was all in a lather about extending the gasoline tax. Local governments and the ruling coalition, not to mention interested bureaucracies, wanted to continue the tax because they said the revenues were necessary to build more roads. Opposition parties were against the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2009

Horie says he, Okubo both were railroaded

Livedoor Co. founder Takafumi Horie was back in the media spotlight Thursday, drawing a parallel between what he said was the unfair treatment he received from prosecutors and the recent indictment of a top aide to Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 3, 2009

Bookstore offers a place for political debating

"You have to fight your way in with a knife every time you want to talk," said Good Day Books manager Stephen Kott. "A bookstore is a natural venue for something like this."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2009

'The Duchess'

I'm not sure if "The Duchess" was as good a film as my enjoyment of it would indicate, but after a mere five minutes of trailers for "Monsters vs. Aliens" and (shudder) "Transformers 2," I was ready to embrace any film that offered actual dialogue and acting, not head-splitting volume and an endless...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 3, 2009

Managers beware: Herren hits Japan

"That's always been their therapy: to bring it together, at least for themselves, in their own environment and their own space. You know, like flowers and rainbows, beautiful people everywhere, and everything's nice."
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2009

Netanyahu's fig leaf buffer

LONDON — "I am not afraid of Bibi (Netanyahu). I will not be anybody's fig leaf," said Ehud Barak, leader of Israel's Labor Party, defending his decision to join the hard-right coalition government formed by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. But off in the distance there was a curious whirring noise....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2009

Group of 20 too diverse to succeed

HONG KONG — Amid great fanfare, pestered by a rainbow alliance of protesters, and protected by almost blanket security costing $30 million for a mere seven hours of meetings and making London a virtual no-go area, the leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) countries meet this week, promising to restore hope...
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2009

Aso orders new stimulus, extra budget

Prime Minister Taro Aso ordered the government Tuesday to come up with a new set of economic measures, including the drafting of an extra budget, aimed at digging the economy out of recession.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 29, 2009

Japan shows how a good's no good unless it's a character good

"Novels you can eat" was the title of an article in the Asahi Shimbun on March 16. It drew on the initiative displayed by a confectionery-maker in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, to commemorate this year's 100th anniversary of the birth of bohemian author Osamu Dazai. That initiative involves a box of 18...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2009

Iran's promising presidential contender

WASHINGTON — Iran's presidential race just got more interesting, with former Prime Minister Mir Hussein Mousavi throwing his hat in the ring and former President Mohammad Khatami withdrawing his. This development poses the most significant challenge yet to current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad —...
JAPAN
Mar 23, 2009

Famous Yoshida home gutted

A fire early Sunday destroyed the residence of the late Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida in Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture, one of the most prominent venues in modern Japanese politics and a place where Prime Minister Taro Aso spent some of his youth.
COMMENTARY
Mar 23, 2009

Costly transfer to Guam

PARIS — It was welcome news for the struggling government of Prime Minister Taro Aso that the Obama administration has given Japan a high priority in its foreign policy agenda. In mid-February, Hillary Rodham Clinton chose Japan as the first country to visit as U.S. secretary of state, and later that...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 22, 2009

The cowardly whisper of politics

A few weeks ago I watched "All The President's Men" for the first time in more than 20 years. Set in the early 1970s, it was a potent blast from the past, but what struck me wasn't the relative youth of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman or the pre-Internet drudge work that their real-life characters,...
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2009

Legacy of a 'disappeared' family in Argentina

Politics can have a devastating effect on a country and its people, as I discovered during a recent trip to Argentina.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Mar 22, 2009

Our mantra of continuous growth has left us on ecological brink

If print media are any indication, change is in the air. Readers are sourcing news in new ways, and newspaper sales are declining as a result.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2009

Activist views homeless in realistic light

Social activist Makoto Yuasa caused a stir by bringing poverty out into the open when he teamed up with unions and nonprofit organizations to open a tent village for jobless people in Tokyo's Hibiya Park over the yearend holidays.
JAPAN
Mar 21, 2009

All eyes on Okubo as DPJ treads water

The political funds controversy hanging over the Democratic Party of Japan is likely to start boiling Tuesday when prosecutors decide whether to indict DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa's top secretary, Takanori Okubo, whose period of custody ends the same day.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2009

Baha'i in Japan slam Iran for holding members accused of spying for Israel

KOBE — Japan's Baha'i community is calling on the government to join the growing list of countries and international organizations that have condemned Iran for its arrest of seven of its members.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2009

S. Arabia's Shiites stand up

BEIRUT — On Feb. 24, violent confrontations between Shiite pilgrims and the Saudi religious police and security forces occurred at the entrance to the prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina. The timing and location of the clashes may have serious repercussions for domestic security, if not for the regime...
Japan Times
SOCCER
Mar 17, 2009

Velappan lifts the lid on Asian soccer's desert storm

KUWAIT CITY — Although he left the Asian Football Confederation two years ago after 30 years' service, former secretary general Peter Velappan is still a respected and influential voice in the Asian game. On a recent visit to Kuwait, the Malaysian sat down for an interview with Al Watan TV and told...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 16, 2009

LDP is running on empty

Amid the dwindling approval rate of Prime Minister Taro Aso, triggered by a series of gaffes coming out of his own mouth and by disgraceful behavior of his right-hand man in the international arena, the conventional wisdom would call either for him to resign and hand over the reins of government to Ichiro...
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

'Individuality' a hard sell of late

Regarding Elizabeth Warner's March 8 letter, "Student individuality gone to seed": Being opinionated should perhaps not be confused with having opinions. Beware of opinionated people anywhere, anytime. But my main point has to do with the notion, much debated over the years, that the merits of individuality...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 15, 2009

Now that the Celtic tiger's turned tail, whither the Emerald Isle?

Irish patriot, poet and eminent surgeon Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957) once played a wily prank on a drunken acquaintance. He stuffed the poor chap, who was catatonic, into a sack and sold him to The Royal College of Surgeons strictly, one would assume, in the interests of medical science. His friend...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 15, 2009

Invoking 17th-century demons and desires

On the opening day of Shin-Yoshiwara — Edo's new pleasure quarters — Matsunaga Seiichiro, a 26-year-old swordsman stands on the Asakusa Nihon Embankment and looks across at the city. He then descends into streets filled with music, danger, alcohol and prostitutes, and thus begins his journey to manhood...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2009

Unnerving trip to stellar deficits

BALI, Indonesia — With stock markets around the world having beaten a hasty retreat recently, a cautionary tale might be found by looking at the United States, since it is ground zero for current economic and financial upheavals.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 14, 2009

Premier sides continue to shine in Europe

LONDON — In recent years there has been a call for a European Super League.

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years