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EDITORIALS
Sep 30, 2006

Being a father in Japan

A comparative survey on parenting in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, France and Sweden by the National Women's Education Center, Japan, underscores problems that Japanese fathers must deal with. The problems range from the few hours they spend with their children, and their dependence...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

The art of making classical music fans

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- September is traditionally the time when opera companies and orchestras return to their home cities from Aix, Salzburg, Tanglewood and countless other summer festivals. This is also marked (on both sides of the Atlantic) by the return of worries about how classical music is financed....
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 24, 2006

Monkey business can be serious literature

MONKEY by Wu Cheng-en, translated by Arthur Waley. London: Penguin Books, 2006, 352 pp., £9.99 (paper). After many years out of print, this famous translation, originally published in 1942, is this autumn back in the bookstores. It is a partial rendering of a 16th-century Chinese classic text, otherwise...
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Numerical goals established to ensure better-built houses

The government has set numerical goals to improve the durability and quality of houses.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Bizarre bouts of self-expression

Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 13, 2006

Own goal clouds progress

Tomorrow sees the start of a three-day meeting in the Eternal City that concerns one of the most promising and controversial scientific research areas of our time: stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to transform into any cell and tissue type in the body, and thus have the potential to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 12, 2006

Permanent residency

As more foreigners choose to remain in Japan long-term, increasing numbers have sought a status change to reflect their commitment to the country and make it easier to build a stable life here.
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2006

Irwin never met a critter he didn't like

LOS ANGELES -- I have long been in awe of the late Steve Irwin, perhaps in part because I never personally met him.
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006

Confucius and his 'golden age'

Is what Confucius said true? Can music, poetry and decorum govern the world? Do rulers, by cultivating benevolence in themselves, plant benevolence in their subjects, and harmony in the polity?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 10, 2006

War's heroes and villains: Two sides of the same coin

For two days, on Aug. 18 and 19, 1966, Australian soldiers fought a battle at the village of Long Tan in South Vietnam. Though vastly outnumbered, they held their ground. Subsequently, they were given medals for bravery by the then-government of South Vietnam; and in May 1968, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

Abe's conservative lineage runs deep

looked very much influenced by his grandfather in terms of foreign policy and the anpo," said Hirotsugu Akiu, a classmate of Abe's at Seikei University. When Abe was 6 years old, he often visited his grandfather's residence in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, where rioters opposed to the new treaty set fire to pieces...
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2006

Insurers covering more suicide debt

There were 3,649 cases of suicide in fiscal 2005 that resulted in the person's consumer loan debts being paid off by their life insurance companies, the Financial Services Agency said Wednesday.
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 3, 2006

An 'outsider' speaks out

Later this month, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi concludes what may have been Japan's most flamboyant premiership ever, pundits aplenty are sure to lavish his five-year term with glowing praise.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 2, 2006

Quiet on the set. Ready . . . Action!

"All I need is the backing," says the man. "Then I've got a surefire hit."
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 28, 2006

Thatcher deserves severe sanction for outrageous tackle

LONDON -- Many people in England reflect on the pain and anguish of the Thatcher Era and the misery caused by the former Prime Minister when she was in power.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006

Man's plunge into the Eros trap

ERO-SAMURAI by David D. Duff. iUniverse Inc., 138 pp., 2006, $14.95 (paper). Hearing several malicious comments about this book, I was eagerly predisposed toward it. Sub-titled "An Obsessed Man's Loving Tribute to Japanese Women," this is not the first politically incorrect work on Japan, but because...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 24, 2006

Crafting the tea demon in Hagi

Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), in his theory of self-actualization, said, "If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 22, 2006

Kazuaki Ohashi

Kazuaki Ohashi, 37, is a philosopher whose love of a challenge has propelled him from studying the fear of death to a life of business and parties. CEO of Web design firm Koo & Co., and EN, an English language school, he is also the volunteer organizer of events that introduce traditional Japanese dance...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2006

Too little, too late for Russia

LONDON -- In his recent State of the Union speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the "most important [matter] for our country is the demographic problem." He said Russia's population is declining by 700,000 a year -- this from a base of 143 million. Russian demographic experts suggest that the...
CULTURE / Books
Aug 20, 2006

Summertime, and the dying is easy

RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN by Marshall Browne. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, 288 pp., $23.95 (cloth). SAYONARA BAR by Susan Barker. London: Black Swan Books, 2006, 430 pp., £6.99 (paper). For Detective Inspector Hideo Aoki of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the sprinklings of misfortune have become...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Aug 15, 2006

Lanterns

Dear Japan Times,
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 15, 2006

What's your greatest achievement?

Pari Solanki Market research, 25 Climbing Mount Kenya was probably my greatest achievement so far. It took me three days to get to the top and I felt great once I was there. I cursed myself all the way up, but once I got there it was amazing.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 13, 2006

His Emperor's reluctant warrior

Samurai-born and steeled in Japan's harsh military culture, Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi had lived five years in North America but was largely unknown to Washington's leaders when he was ordered to defend Iwo Jima "at all costs." The U.S. would pay dearly for underestimating him.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 12, 2006

World Family Club says it's OK to be different

Meet Mark Segerlund, happiness personified. With a house in Tokyo, a retreat on Chiba's Boso Peninsula that offers unparalleled sunsets over the Pacific, a dog that he dotes on and a job he adores with near equal passion, he says he is home, and this is not hard to believe.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 11, 2006

Examining one nation's identity

Seven films by directors from Armenia and its diaspora will be screened as part of the "Armenian Film Selection," taking place Aug. 11-12 and Aug. 19 at two Tokyo venues, Athenee Francais Cultural Center in Chiyoda Ward and Uplink Factory in Shibuya. Four films -- Harutyun Khachatryan's "Return to the...

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