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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 31, 2008

Hopes for next president

LONDON — Around the world, America's presidential election campaign has attracted as much attention as domestic political controversies in each of our countries. The interest the world has taken in America's vote is the best example of America's soft power, and a lesson in democracy from the world's...
COMMENTARY
Oct 27, 2008

Better governance for a global age

WATERLOO, Ontario — The financial crisis roiling the world is the result of serious shortcomings in domestic financial governance that have also highlighted gaps in the global governance of international finance and capital.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 22, 2008

A plea for the wetlands

Representatives of 158 nations will converge next week on Changwon in South Korea, where they will spend nine days, from Oct. 27 to Nov. 4, talking about how to save the world's wetlands.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 18, 2008

Full steam ahead for England as Capello pushes all the right buttons

LONDON — For £6 million a year success should be almost guaranteed, but football does not always work like that. However, at the moment Fabio Capello's salary is looking a bargain because on Planet Football managers and players can earn vastly inflated salaries as long as the team is winning.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2008

'Pumping station' or bust

Last week I discussed two key points in dealing with the U.S. financial crisis: The first was that U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's plan to buy up bad assets is not the priority; a liquidity facility is. The second was that a "wolf-pack" psychology will prevail without a "pumping station" of liquidity...
COMMENTARY
Oct 2, 2008

Averting Asian water wars

As the most pressing resource, water holds the strategic key to peace, public health and prosperity. The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow will be over water. And nowhere else does that prospect look more real than in Asia.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 2, 2008

Explosive new anime packed with surprises

'I was looking to do something different, but at the same time if it was too unique, it could fail," says Masayuki Miyaji, director of PlayStation Network's new anime series "Xam'd: Lost Memories." "But then if it fails, that might even be more fun."
EDITORIALS
Sep 29, 2008

Making aid work

In 2000, world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which were aimed at raising the standard of living in the developing world. Among other things, the eight goals called for cutting by half the number of people worldwide who live on less than $1 a day, achieving universal primary...
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Sep 17, 2008

Oil wealth has big impact on Asia's soccer landscape

When the Asian Champions League began back in March, few outside of Uzbekistan had heard of Kuruvchi. Now, with the club preparing for Wednesday's Asian Champions League quarterfinals after an extraordinary summer, the world is certainly paying attention.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2008

Critics dispute Michelin regard for Tokyo

Paris might still be good if you've got a big wad of cash and want the best of the best. But Tokyo is really where it's at foodwise, at least according to the French people who keep track of these things.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 26, 2008

Dewi Sukarno

Dewi Sukarno, nee Naoko Nemoto, 68, is the widow of Indonesia's first president, Sukarno. When she married him in 1959, the then 19-year-old Japanese beauty was no accidental Cinderella: From age 5, she had meticulously prepared herself for a leading role in history. Much like Hideyoshi Toyotomi, the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2008

Russia's neurotic invasion

At the very moment China was getting a "gold medal" in diplomacy for the success of the opening ceremony in Beijing, Russia earned a "red card" for the extreme and disproportionate violence of its military intervention in Georgia.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 24, 2008

Biomimicry: Natural by design

I magine being able to maintain a perfect temperature and humidity in your home year round, without spending a single yen in electricity or gas bills. That's exactly what Professor Emile Ishida of Tohoku University in northern Japan is striving to achieve — and he got the idea from termites.
BUSINESS
Aug 23, 2008

Wal-Mart gives credit-starved companies samurai bond with Japan

Corporate borrowers are turning to Japan for cash that is becoming increasingly hard to get anywhere else in the world.
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS: TRACK AND FIELD
Aug 22, 2008

Bolt blazes to 200m gold in record 19.30

BEIJING — Usain Bolt confirmed his greatness in style, starting in Lane 5 and ending in a one-for-the-ages celebration before a worldwide audience.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2008

New 'Tang' Dynasty for rapidly rising China?

PRAGUE — On Aug. 8 the world watched with awe the amazing spectacle of the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing. We saw the electronic unrolling of Chinese scrolls replete with great historic symbols and were mesmerized by dancers creating "harmony," using their bodies as ink brushes. Two thousand...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2008

Free trade system is in danger of extinction

In July, the Doha negotiations, promising freer trade, broke down, ostensibly over a small technicality in safeguard rules. In reality, the talks collapsed because nobody was willing to take the political short-term hit by offending inefficient farmers and coddled domestic industries in order to create...
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Aug 18, 2008

Rivals heap praise on fastest man Bolt

BEIJING — The Los Angeles Times billed it as the "clash of the dash."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2008

Water shortage: China's looming problem

SINGAPORE — The Chinese government has made a huge effort to improve air quality and beautify Beijing for the Olympics. But it cannot apply a short-term "fix" to another problem that visitors to the Games will not see — the steady depletion of underground water supplies in northern China, where the...
OLYMPICS / 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS
Aug 9, 2008

Beijing joyfully steps forward

BEIJING — There are numerous slogans plastered on walls and Web sites with equal frequency in Beijing. The "One World, One Dream" Olympic motto and "Light the passion, share the dream" theme for the torch relay are prominently featured.
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2008

Say no to 'NPT' of climate change

Climate change has been correctly identified as a threat multiplier. Yet it has already become a divisive issue internationally before a plan for a low-carbon future has emerged.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 27, 2008

Was the 'Japanese Renaissance' lost at sea?

Last week, Japan celebrated Umi no Hi (Marine Day). First observed as a national holiday in 1996, Marine Day marks the anniversary of the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido on July 20, 1876.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 27, 2008

Athletics squad faces pressure in Beijing

There was a mild dose of optimism Japan would collect a bunch of medals at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka. Some said the nation's athletes would benefit from the home stadium advantage and the fact they were acclimated to the hot, humid summers in Kansai.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2008

Do images of scarcity drive prices higher?

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Could the television image of the Greenland ice cap crumbling into the ocean because of global warming — indirectly and psychologically — be partly responsible for high oil and other commodity prices? The usual explanation of today's scarcity and high prices focuses on explosive...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2008

The rising middle classes want their wheels

BEIJING — W hat becomes immediately apparent on entering the 10th annual Beijing car show is the emotional intensity with which China has thrown itself into its greatest consumerist passion to date: the first throes of an affair with the car. The entire nation, it turns out, is in love with them, is...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2008

Let's hope it's over soon

The world is now in the grip of a first-class financial crisis. Some will be hit harder than others, but no one is going to escape. Final confirmation of this has arrived with the news that the two giant mortgage companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pillars of American life that underwrite, or insure,...
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2008

Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global: readers' responses

A number of readers wrote to the Community Page in response to John Spiri's June 17 Zeit Gist article on Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yukihisa Fujita. Following is a selection of the responses.
OLYMPICS
Jul 4, 2008

Clay looking good for decathlon gold

Decathletes are a special group of athletes.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Jul 3, 2008

Bold Kobe bares its teeth to show Olympic soccer is just not worth it

Clubs grumbling over international callups is nothing new, but Vissel Kobe's decision last week to deny Japan the services of striker Yoshito Okubo for the Beijing Olympics may prove to be a watershed moment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2008

Fukuda's heart for G8 leadership

This fragile earth of about 6.5 billion souls faces grave and unprecedented challenges: soaring prices of oil and basic commodities that fuel daily life; price increases that make staple foods like rice and wheat too expensive for millions of poor people; a savage profusion of natural and man-made disasters...

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.