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COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 8, 2004

Hidden plight of detainees

'What did I do to the Japanese people," asks Merdem Yousif. "I came to Japan because I thought the people would be warm-hearted. It was my big mistake. I should have gone to another country."
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 6, 2004

Village Vignettes: Insiders seen from the outside

VILLAGE VIGNETTES, by Michael Smithies, illustrations by Uthai-Traisiwakul. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2004, 168 pp, $17.99 (paper). Michael Smithies, the well-known scholar and eminent historian of 17th-century Siam, lives in northeast Thailand, near the village that he describes in these sketches of its...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004

The unbearable heaviness of being

21 Grams Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu Running time: 125 minutes Language: English Opens June 5 [See Japan Times movie listings] "21 Grams" struts and shows off like a cowboy in a rodeo -- the director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu pulls out all the stops...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004

Insatiable appetite for destruction

The Day After Tomorrow Rating: * * 1/2 (out of 5) Director: Roland Emmerich Running time: 124 minutes Language: English Opens June 5 [See Japan Times movie listings] Stership Troopers 2 Rating: * * * (out of 5) Director: Phil Tippett Running time: 92 minutes Language: English Opens...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 2, 2004

He spins a top tale

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu made quite a splash with his 2000 debut, "Amores Perros," which put Mexican cinema back on the map. With his followup, "21 Grams," the former radio DJ and commercial director proves that was no fluke, fashioning a film that's every bit as intense and structurally innovative...
EDITORIALS
May 31, 2004

More debate on contingency bills

Japan's efforts to update its security legislation reached yet another milestone on May 20 when a Lower House committee approved a set of backup bills for laws dealing with military crises directly affecting the country. The package, if enacted, will complete three decades of security-building efforts...
EDITORIALS
May 30, 2004

Unsung heroism

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal, still far from over, has prompted a lot of reflection and a fair degree of consensus in the United States. Some, like U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, may quibble over whether the treatment meted out to Iraqi prisoners constituted "abuse" rather than "torture,"...
COMMENTARY / WASHINGTON UPDATE
May 30, 2004

Bush could use a streak of good news

WASHINGTON -- It has not been a good two months for President George W. Bush. In mid-March, the president's men took the rubber band off their enormous roll of cash and went to work with media designed to present a softer, gentler, yet strong president while painting their prospective opponent, Sen....
BUSINESS
May 29, 2004

FTC warns Citibank, Shinsei over unclear ads

The Fair Trade Commission warned Citibank and Shinsei Bank on Friday over misleading newspaper advertisements for time deposits in Australian and New Zealand dollars, FTC officials said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 25, 2004

The mane attraction

In 1979, Japan was in the Dark Ages. Dark that is, in terms of hair. No one dyed their hair any other color but black and when they reached for lighter tints, were considered a bit on the bizarre side.
JAPAN / POLITICS IN FOCUS
May 25, 2004

LDP factions commanding less loyalty

The Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, led by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, held its annual fundraising party April 21 at a Tokyo hotel and generated the majority of its annual revenues -- all in one night.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 22, 2004

McGrady looking at Suns, Rockets, Spurs, Lakers for future

NEW YORK -- For obvious reasons, Tracy McGrady has narrowed his choices to play next season -- or the following one, at the latest, should the Magic incomprehensibly fail to arrange a trade -- to four teams, all of whom flaunt a centrifugal force.
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2004

India: a defeat for the government, a victory for democracy

In his concession speech on May 13, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thanked the people of India for having given him their support for five years; promised full cooperation with Sonia Gandhi, leader of the largest victorious party, Congress; and noted that,...
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2004

Why India accepts a foreign-born leader

NEW DELHI -- The world's largest-ever election in India has produced the biggest upset, bringing to power a foreign-born woman leader, Sonia Gandhi, and radically transforming Indian politics.
EDITORIALS
May 16, 2004

Women, heritage and holy places

Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar...
JAPAN
May 15, 2004

Koizumi didn't pay pension premiums

The list of politicians who have not paid pension premiums found a star addition Friday with the revelation that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi did not make payments for almost seven years.
BUSINESS
May 13, 2004

Daiei, while still ailing, now deemed 'out of intensive care unit'

Once a month, bank officials in charge of struggling Daiei Inc.'s financial affairs hold a meeting to assess how well the leading supermarket chain is rebuilding.
JAPAN
May 12, 2004

Popular 'total control' asthma drug to get OK in 2005

The government is expected to approve a new asthma medication next year that is widely used overseas due to its effectiveness.
COMMUNITY / Issues
May 11, 2004

Kidnap crisis poses a new risk

When five Japanese were taken hostage in Iraq last month, huge public concern for their safe return quickly gave way to hostility and a campaign of vilification. A disastrous public appeal by the families of three of the hostages for the withdrawal of SDF troops from Iraq encouraged the government to...
COMMENTARY
May 9, 2004

Democratic model for developing nations

NEW DELHI -- At a time when international terrorism has intensified debate on the potential role of democracy in moderating extremist trends, the world's largest-ever election in India is a reminder that democracy and freedom are not luxuries but central to the building of stable, pluralistic and prospering...
JAPAN
May 7, 2004

Toyota Aristo tops car thieves' shopping lists

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Aristo sedan was the most popular target for car thieves in Japan last year, according to the results of a survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 5, 2004

'Kill Bill: Vol. 2': Back into the pit of vipers

True originality is a many-splintered thing. Let us recall that Shakespeare was indebted to Marlowe, Picasso drew inspiration from African totems and Van Gogh dug ukiyoe prints. Then this thing called postmodernism gave artists carte blanche to quote, sample, appropriate, reinterpret -- you name it,...
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2004

Obituary: Kiyoaki Murata

Kiyoaki Murata, a former editor in chief and managing editor of The Japan Times, died of cardiac infarction at a Tokyo hospital Saturday. He was 81.
JAPAN / TALKING SHOP
Apr 26, 2004

Diagrams help equity investment pro when words get jumbled

Where there is a diagram, there is a way.
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2004

'A long fuse has been lighted'

With the earlier-than-usual arrival of warm weather, the influenza season in Japan is almost over, and the number of patients reported to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is down 40 percent from last year. However, the danger of the bird flu virus mutating and a new type of influenza breaking...
Features / LIFE OR DEATH
Apr 25, 2004

'I became an accessory to legal murder'

'The death penalty is legal murder, and as someone who has stood by and watched it being carried out, I am an accessory to murder."

Longform

An illustration features the Japanese signs for "ganbare" (good luck) and the Deaflympics, which will be held between Nov. 15 and 26.
A century of Deaf sport finds its moment in Tokyo