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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 30, 2006

Time-capsule Tokyo along a street where I lived

In the early 1980s, my wife and I lived in a tiny flat in Soshigaya on the Odakyu Line in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. The eldest three of our four children were born then, and I have only the fondest memories of pushing a pram up and down the kilometer-long shotengai (shopping street) between the station...
COMMENTARY
Jul 28, 2006

North Korea's waning respect for China

HONG KONG -- Strange as it may seem, there was an unofficial American group in Pyongyang on July 5, when North Korea conducted a series of missile tests. Stranger still is that a key North Korean official spoke to them quite frankly about what he thought of China, ostensibly Pyongyang's ally.
SOCCER
Jul 27, 2006

Nakazawa may quit national team

Japan and Yokohama F. Marinos defender Yuji Nakazawa, who played for Japan in all three matches at the World Cup in Germany, indicated Wednesday that he may end his international career.
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2006

Fitting memorial for war dead

With the governing Liberal Democratic Party set to elect its new leader in September -- when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi step downs as LDP president (and hence as prime minister) some LDP lawmakers are proposing ways to solve the ongoing row over Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni Shrine. Visits...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 23, 2006

Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness

Who are the Jews? What do Jewish writers have in common with each other? What, strictly speaking, is a "Jewish" writer . . . and, for that matter, what is meant by "strictly speaking"?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 23, 2006

The many hazards -- especially for kids -- of living the high life

Some news stories make you laugh and some make you cringe. If you live in an apartment you may have done both while reading the July 13 story in this newspaper about an employee of Schindler Elevator K.K. getting trapped in a Schindler lift in the same Tokyo residential building where a teenager was...
EDITORIALS
Jul 22, 2006

Funding scandal shakes ivory tower

It came as a shock last year when former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo Suk's claims that he had created stem cells by cloning human embryos turned out to be fraudulent. A recent case at Waseda University in Tokyo is no less surprising, although it mainly concerns the irregular use of...
JAPAN
Jul 22, 2006

Activists worry free speech being eroded

fliers on my days off for more than 30 years. "I was told when I became a central government employee in 1972 that engaging in political activities may result in punishment," he admitted.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

Online paper OhmyNews set to recruit writers

OhmyNews International, a joint venture preparing to publish a Japanese edition of the South Korean online newspaper OhmyNews, said Thursday it will start recruiting people as registered writers.
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

Hirohito visits to Yasukuni stopped over war criminals

Emperor Hirohito expressed strong displeasure in 1988 over Yasukuni Shrine's decision in the late 1970s to include Class-A war criminals on the list of people honored there, sources said Thursday, citing a memorandum by a former Imperial Household Agency official.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 21, 2006

Unagi slips into a more refined mode

The dog days of summer will soon be upon us, and panting hard on their heels comes the annual unagi feeding frenzy. Across the length and breadth of the country, vast numbers of slithering eels will be slaughtered, filleted, broiled and basted, all in the name of hallowed tradition.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2006

The beginning of the end of Guantanamo

NEW YORK -- The "war on terror" has forced democracies to grapple with the extent to which they can afford to protect the civil rights and liberties of both their citizens and foreigners. The debate has been most intense in the United States, where the refrain that the U.S. Constitution is not a "suicide...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 17, 2006

Better schools trump caste preferences

BOMBAY -- The United States has long been divided over what it calls "affirmative action," a system of racial preferences intended to overcome the lingering consequences of slavery and discrimination against black Americans. India is now becoming divided in much the same way, and for much the same reason...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 16, 2006

And now for some good news -- on tap for everyone

We have become so used to environmental portents that whenever we hear good news we blink in disbelief, so blink away: It appears that the various concerted efforts to get people in Japan to save water has paid off.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 9, 2006

Home from home from home

Three days ago marked an anniversary of my own personal day of independence. Thirty years ago, on July 6, 1976, I became an Australian citizen and legally forfeited my U.S. citizenship.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 4, 2006

Travel firm rapped over foreigner ticket policy

The nation's largest discount travel agency, HIS, which also runs foreigner-friendly No.1 Travel, has based the price of some air tickets from Japan on the nationality of the traveler, possibly in breach of Japanese law, The Japan Times has learned.
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2006

Regaining the spirit to build

I had thought that Japan's Internet mogul Takafumi Horie, arrested Jan. 23 by public prosecutors for allegedly violating the securities and exchange law, was likely to be the last person to "pay the price" for the excesses associated with the nation's bubble economy from 1987 to 1990.
COMMENTARY
Jun 26, 2006

South Korea and China also stir the pot

NEW YORK -- A friend of mine in Tokyo has sent me two recent proposals to improve Japan's relations with its neighbors. One, by the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, deals with China and is addressed to both the Japanese and Chinese governments; the other, by the Kansai Association of Corporate...
EDITORIALS
Jun 22, 2006

A disappointing Diet session

The 164th regular Diet session -- the last Diet session for Mr. Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister -- has ended without fanfare. The session was tasked with making an overall review of his reforms, achieved or unachieved, since he took the reins of power in April 2001. But lawmakers have failed to fulfill...
CULTURE / Books
Jun 18, 2006

The lore and legend of Asian lawmen

"The Calf Strung Up beneath The Cart" will cause you agony profound; "The Ass tied tightly to The Post" will make you scream and leap around; "The Phoenix drying both her Wings" to death itself will bring you near; "The Boy who Sits and Contemplates," the stoutest soul will cause to fear; And if "The...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 15, 2006

Breaking the Iran stalemate

NEW YORK -- The conclusions of a study led by former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix are important to overcome the present stalemate with Iran. According to the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, "the first line of defense against the spread of nuclear weapons is to make states...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 11, 2006

Can art be judged apart from its creator?

Last month the Comedie Francaise, France's sole state theater, made a momentous decision. "Voyage to the Sonorous Land, or the Art of Asking" by Austrian playwright Peter Handke had been scheduled for production in January 2007 at their second venue in the Latin Quarter. But in early May, theater administrator...
EDITORIALS
Jun 7, 2006

Education policy on trial

In the spring of 2004, a retired teacher urged parents attending a Tokyo high school graduation ceremony to remain seated during the playing of the national anthem. Last week, the Tokyo District Court fined him 200,000 yen for "obstructing" the ceremony.
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Magazine appeals ruling on sources

The president of Themis magazine on Tuesday appealed a Tokyo District Court ruling that the source for a 2002 article on tax evasion by the Japanese subsidiary of a U.S. health food company must be revealed if it was a tax official.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 30, 2006

Japan ready to battle 'culinary imperialists'

Earlier this year I was commissioned by a British newspaper to research a Japanese company called Hakudai, which was reputed to be putting whale meat into dog food.
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2006

Weak effort to equalize votes

The Upper House has passed and sent to the Lower House a bill to revise the Public Offices Election Law in order to rectify disparities in the relative value of a vote in Upper House elections. The bill, submitted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito, is likely to...
JAPAN
May 25, 2006

Abe looks to enter LDP race after G8

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe hinted Wednesday he will officially announce his candidacy to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after the mid-July summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in St. Petersburg, Russia.
SUMO
May 24, 2006

F2 is born -- you read it here first!

F2! F2! F2! Rather a strange way to start an article on the recently completed Natsu Basho but as the dust continues to settle and as sumo fans around the world slowly adjust to life after the tournament, I for one believe the man with the Emperor's Cup now sat proudly on his sideboard is increasingly...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 24, 2006

A road to ancient history's ruin

Irish politician Dick Roche is in the business of government, and his two-decades-long career has touched on public administration, finance, transportation and economic planning and development.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building