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Japan Times
Features
Sep 18, 2005

In skeptical quest of a boom

"Why don't you write about the kimono boom?" they said, citing anecdotal evidence suggesting that the traditional gown of Japan was making a comeback. So, with several people at The Japan Times claiming they'd seen "a lot" of people wearing them recently, off I set to investigate.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2005

Trying to keep the train-groping perverts out of touch

Earlier this year when some Japanese train lines inaugurated women-only cars the Western media picked the story up as yet another example of Weird Japan, a place, they implied, where sexual deviancy was so culturally grounded that the only thing railway companies could do to protect female passengers...
Sep 17, 2005

Kan to again seek DPJ helm

Former Democratic Party of Japan leader Naoto Kan announced Friday he will run for the DPJ helm, following Seiji Maehara's decision the previous day to also run.
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2005

Trespassing case is political, activists tell court

Three peace activists on trial for trespassing at a Self-Defense Forces housing compound where they had been distributing antiwar leaflets told the Tokyo High Court on Wednesday their arrest and indictment is a form of political suppression and their case should be dropped.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2005

Human rights key to China's development

NEW YORK -- During a recent visit to Beijing, U.N. rights envoy Louise Arbour called attention to the serious human-rights situation in China and the need for improvements according to international human-rights standards. An important step in that regard would be for China to ratify the International...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2005

Scandal claims key Asahi, industry exec

The Asahi Shimbun's executive adviser said Wednesday he will step down from his post and resign as chairman of the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association to take responsibility for a fabricated report published in the daily.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2005

LDP leading in polls with a week to go

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is likely to win a majority Sept. 11, while the Democratic Party of Japan may not end up with the 175 seats it held when the House of Representatives was dissolved, a Kyodo News survey shows.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2005

1,132 candidates face off for Lower House election

Campaigning for the Sept. 11 House of Representatives election officially kicked off Tuesday with 1,132 candidates throwing their hats in the ring for 480 seats.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 28, 2005

Summer scorecard: road trips, managers, scraped bathtubs

Road Trip of Survival: The Hanshin Tigers came through their "Road Trip of Death" in pretty good shape. The team went 10-9 while away from their home Koshien Stadium (being used for the national high school Tournament) for 25 days from Aug. 1 and was still in first place in the Central League, leading...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 28, 2005

Soviet checkmate finished Japan

RACING THE ENEMY: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005, 382 pp., $29.95 (cloth). Wartime U.S. President Harry Truman's decision to use the atomic bomb remains controversial. Until Murray Sayle's seminal article in the New Yorker (July...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 28, 2005

Intelligent Design: One chance encounter explains it all

Ijust happened to be reading the Kansas City Star the other day when a fascinating article caught my eye. The Star reported, in its Aug. 2 edition, that the Kansas Board of Education has approved a draft of new science standards proposed by supporters of so-called Intelligent Design.
COMMENTARY
Aug 22, 2005

Victor's logic in hindsight

Every August Japan is filled with prayers for the 3.1 million Japanese who died in the Pacific War and feelings of resentment against the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This August, which marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, Japanese media have done intensive reporting to...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

Cartoon duo leads the way in a version of history that's no joke

The phrase "textbook row" has become a regular sighting in Japanese newspapers of late, as newly authorized history books for schools are accused, both at home and abroad, of "glossing over" the bloodier aspects of this country's warmongering, Imperialist past.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2005

Revisiting capital punishment

NEW YORK -- Recent statements on capital punishment by John Paul Stevens, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, to the American Bar Association could reignite the debate on this important issue. His statements followed several exonerations of death-row inmates through scientific evidence. He said these exonerations...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2005

Koizumi calls election for Sept. 11

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives on Monday and called a general election for Sept. 11 a few hours after the House of Councilors voted down the government-sponsored postal privatization bills.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2005

Nepalese children caught in the crossfire

NEW YORK -- The armed conflict in Nepal between the government and Maoist guerrillas is making victims of an increasing number of children, who have been subjected to a wide array of human-rights violations. Over the past several years, the U.N. Security Council has worked to develop a body of law intended...
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

Publisher hit for alleging murder role

Publisher Kodansha Ltd. was ordered Wednesday to pay 8.8 million yen in damages to a 49-year-old man for defamation, having suggested in one of its magazines that he had been involved in the murder of a family in Fukuoka in 2003.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 25, 2005

Depredation of species that get in our way

NEW YORK -- "Protected Birds Are Back, With a Vengeance: Cormorants Take Over, Making Some Enemies." This headline in the New York Times earlier this month, inset in a photo showing a few black birds atop a tree, struck me with the thought: So it has come to pass. Hadn't the same daily some years back...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2005

Defense chief given missile-intercept role

The Diet enacted a revised law Friday that allows the Defense Agency chief to order emergency missile interceptions without waiting for approval from the prime minister and the Cabinet.
COMMENTARY
Jul 23, 2005

Meeting China's 'challenge'

WASHINGTON -- In February 1946, George Kennan, then a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, sent an 8,000-word telegram to the State Department, warning about Soviet behavior. A little over a year later, a version of that telegram appeared in Foreign Affairs magazine, written by "Mr. X."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 22, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 07.22

Solstice Music Festival - July 22-24
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2005

Japan could sell new missiles: Ono

Interceptor missiles that will be jointly developed by Japan and the United States could be offered to third countries, Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 15, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 07.15

Friday 07.15
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Jul 12, 2005

Food tips, bad bikers and buffets

Food for thought On the subject of foreign food in Japan, Mike writes in to recommend the Flying Pig ( www.theflyingpig.com ).

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