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COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2006

No more tax money to U.S.

The administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has played down Japanese public sentiment against the U.S. military presence, believing that most people approve of it in general but object when their own community is affected.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 26, 2006

Consumer credit companies have your money, and the media, in their pockets

On Jan. 13, the Supreme Court found in favor of an individual who had sued a consumer credit company for charging too much interest. By doing so, the court rejected the controversial "gray zone" that such companies take advantage of in their business.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2006

Weather services compete in blossom forecasting

One would think Eishin Murakata has a pleasant, relaxing job. Every spring, he strolls each day to the same cherry tree in central Tokyo and gazes up at its boughs. When he spots a full bud on the verge of blossoming, he carefully snaps a photograph.
EDITORIALS
Mar 21, 2006

Court misses the big picture

Protecting a news source is the most important ethic of a reporter. But the Tokyo District Court has mounted a frontal attack on this principle, endangering freedom of press and the people's right to know. The court decided March 14 that when the possibility exists that a news source is a public servant,...
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2006

Foreign Ministry mind game

Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, 87, director general of the Foreign Ministry's American Bureau from January 1971 to May 1972, was in charge of negotiations with the United States on the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control. In recent media interviews, Mr. Yoshino admitted that Japan secretly shouldered $4 million...
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2006

Breathing room for detainees

The treatment of suspects arrested for questioning in criminal cases and of defendants undergoing trial has long been a human-rights issue in Japan. This problem will be partially resolved by a government bill to be sent to the Diet. Still, a bigger problem exists: the use of police holding cells as...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Equality still has a long way to go

International Women's Day, commemorated March 8, was a chance to celebrate women's achievements. But it also highlighted the fact that discrimination continues to be a major problem for women around the globe -- and Japanese women, unfortunately, are no exception. In fact, the world's second-largest...
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2006

Murakami irate over auction of manuscripts

Popular novelist Haruki Murakami said in a monthly magazine released Friday that a number of his manuscripts have been put up for auction on the Internet and at secondhand bookshops without his permission.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Mar 11, 2006

No more nude surfing in Bali

A few weeks ago, while surfing on the Bukit, Bali's southernmost peninsula, where the population is small and the waves big, I paddled my board out among a group of three young Japanese surfers who were obviously on vacation. They chatted among themselves, not really giving me much notice, when suddenly...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 5, 2006

A few bows too many for shamed DPJ lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata

One picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words, and the one that graced the front page of the Feb. 24 Asahi Shimbun is worth more than all the kanji expended on the Democratic Party of Japan's e-mail fiasco.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2006

Reshaping the welfare state

LONDON -- A market economy is efficient, but it is not just. Because wages are determined by the law of scarcity, some people cannot earn enough money to live a decent life.
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2006

World must allow Iran's uranium program: Mottaki

Iran will not stop its uranium enrichment efforts and other countries should ensure it has the right to have a nuclear program for "peaceful purposes," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 24, 2006

Eels' mystery spawning site found: report

Japanese researchers have solved part of the mystery of where Japanese eels go to spawn, having discovered one spot in the Pacific Ocean, west of the Mariana Islands.
Japan Times
Features
Feb 19, 2006

An innocent abroad brings his twisted genius to Japan

I first heard about Momus, the alter-ego of the Scottish musical maverick Nick Currie, in 2002, when a writer friend directed me to an article that Currie had written on the coolness of Tokyo's up-and-coming Nakameguro district.
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2006

Mizuho exec admits stealing data for mob

Tokyo police arrested a Mizuho Bank official Wednesday on suspicion of embezzlement for allegedly leaking customer information to a company linked to the mob.
BUSINESS
Feb 4, 2006

Bourse reform proposals due this month: Yosano

Financial Services Minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday that his advisory panel will issue recommendations on stock market reforms by mid-February.
OLYMPICS
Jan 31, 2006

Blogs by Olympics participants to be banned

The Japanese Olympic Committee is telling athletes competing at the Turin Winter Olympic Games not to open web logs because the Olympic Charter bans athletes' journalist activities when the games are on, and violators will be disqualified.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 31, 2006

Hospital death exposes 'tip of malpractice iceberg'

Loyd Cummings tried to ignore his headache when it began on Aug. 7, 2003. But the electronic technician, who was working in Japan on U.S. Navy radars, eventually collapsed from an aneurysm -- a bulge in a vein in his head.
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2006

Much ado about an old Chinese map

A little squall ruffled the staid world of historical scholarship earlier this month after a Beijing lawyer and amateur collector produced a tattered, bamboo-paper map that at first glance appeared to undermine an axiom of Western history. The map, which Mr. Liu Gang said he bought in a Shanghai bookshop...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 29, 2006

With Horie's downfall, who can young Japan look up to?

The media has had a field day with Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of the communications firm Livedoor.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 27, 2006

Japan's future up for discussion

With the Japanese government edging closer to revising war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution and Japan's Self-Defense Force prolonging their mission in Iraq, American filmmaker John Junkerman brings the timely documentary "Japan's Peace Constitution (Eiga Nihon-koku)" to the Roppongi events and...
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2006

Access to courts no given under freedom of press, judge rules

The Tokyo District Court dismissed a journalist's suit Wednesday over the press club system and government discrimination against freelance reporters, ruling media access to court proceedings does not fall under freedom of the press.
EDITORIALS
Jan 21, 2006

A new empire is shaken

Mr. Takafumi Horie, president of the high-flying Internet services company Livedoor Co., has once again been thrown into the media spotlight as a criminal investigation into his business activities begins.
JAPAN
Jan 20, 2006

Diet session no cakewalk for majority coalition

When the 2006 ordinary Diet session kicks off Friday, the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling alliance will face several battles to reach its goals -- from within the coalition.
EDITORIALS
Jan 18, 2006

Cases highlight custody issues

Two recent incidents have drawn public attention to the Japan-U.S. agreement on handling U.S. military members suspected of committing a crime in Japan. In one case, a sailor arrested after a car accident was transferred to U.S. military authorities. In the other -- the robbery and fatal beating of a...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 17, 2006

Finding space in gay Japan

At first glance, homosexual life in Japan can seem quite repressed. Public displays of affection are next to nil, gay Japanese men often live secret lives and it's hard to notice a gay presence at all unless by venturing into Tokyo's "gayborhood," Shinjuku Ni-Chome.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 15, 2006

Fighting on the beaches peels away Aussie veneer of tolerance

It has already been a long hot summer in Sydney, Australia, where I am writing this article, and the season still has at least two months to go.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji