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JAPAN / Q&A
Apr 15, 2010

Financial behemoth has huge footprint

The postal system has been on the path toward privatization, but a recent Cabinet decision to double the ceiling on postal savings accounts and maintain a large government share in the postal group has turned the clock back on reform.
JAPAN / POSTAL REFORM ROLLBACK
Apr 15, 2010

Postal privatization retreat assailed by finance sector

The decision by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Cabinet to roll back postal privatization has infuriated private financial institutions that assume there won't be a level playing field if the government keeps its stake in Japan Post's savings and insurance units.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2010

JBIC vows to help companies regain global edge

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation will take more risks to help companies win overseas projects after they lost bids in Abu Dhabi and Vietnam, the head of the state-run lender said.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2010

Who should lead the IMF?

HONG KONG — With the popularity of Nicolas Sarkozy plummeting in French opinion polls and with Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) winning a good reputation as head of the International Monetary Fund, speculation is already swirling about when Strauss-Kahn will formally quit the fund to seek glory as president...
LIFE / Digital
Apr 14, 2010

Tech pushes Japan's music scene; industry won't budge

The music business reinvents itself every 20 years or so — basically every time a new format comes down the pike. But the industry has never faced the kind of fundamental challenge presented by the digital file-sharing revolution.
COMMENTARY
Apr 10, 2010

A reality check in Asia

The hearts of Asia-Pacific strategists are all aflutter. The desire of Japan's new government to "rebalance" its foreign policy between East and West and the subsequent tensions between Tokyo and Washington are seen as portents of a shift in the regional balance of power. Propelled by a global recession...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 9, 2010

Kings face uphill fight to retain title

The Ryukyu Golden Kings have faced plenty of adversity this season. Losing shooting guard Shigeyuki Kinjo and big man Jeff Newton, the league's regular-season and playoff MVP last season, for significant chunks of time, has tested the team's resilience and competitive spirit.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2010

Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul wins inaugural Asia Art Award

SEOUL — A new chapter in Asian contemporary art commenced in Seoul on Thursday when Thai artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the inaugural Asia Art Award.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 9, 2010

'Alice in Wonderland'

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small, but the ones that Tim Burton gives you don't do anything at all. Go see "Alice."
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 8, 2010

Taxi driver Shahidul Islam Khan

Shahidul Islam Khan, 40, is a cab driver at Royal Limousine in Tokyo. Born in Bangladesh, Khan moved to Japan in 1994 and ran a successful import business until 2008 when the economic downturn forced him to close shop and start driving instead. In the notoriously difficult Japanese cab system, Khan is...
BUSINESS
Apr 5, 2010

Sharp boasts 3-D mobile tech

Sharp's latest 3-D displays deliver bright, clear imagery without the cumbersome glasses usually required for such technology. Now the bad news: They only work on a 7.5-cm screen held 30 cm from the viewer's face.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Apr 4, 2010

70 times safer than the roads themselves

NEW YORK — The Toyota saga, though quiet for the moment, will continue. "Lawyers Vie for Lead Roles in Toyota Lawsuits," said a headline in The Wall Street Journal (March 15). The company's "legal bill for unintended-acceleration cases will be in the billions," predicted Jeremy Anwyl of Edmunds.com,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 4, 2010

Warming to Ryukyu culture

The air is stifling in the cement interior of the Ishikawa Dome, despite the sides being open to the weather. I shift my limbs, in danger of losing circulation on the unforgiving benches, while my right arm furiously works my paper program as a fan in a desperate effort to gain respite from the Okinawan...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2010

Mika Tsutsumi: Spotlight on the States

Mika Tsutsumi is a spirited journalist and writer whose work turns a spotlight on the widespread hardships and poverty caused by official policies and the behavior of businesses in the United States.
JAPAN / ARRIVAL OF E-READERS
Apr 3, 2010

Apple turns the medium into the message

Amid the media hype over the iPad's potential to transform Japan's conservative publishing industry, experts say the tablet computer's potential is even broader: The gadget might change the way people view videos, play video games and music, or even how they get an education.
JAPAN / ARRIVAL OF E-READERS
Apr 3, 2010

Publishers don't see iPad revolution anytime soon

Many in the U.S. publishing industry feel Apple's release of the iPad, a multipurpose tablet computer with a built-in electronic reading device, will revolutionize the way consumers read and push the market into the digital age — just as the firm's iPod and iTunes did with music.
EDITORIALS
Apr 3, 2010

Freedom of expression for all

The Tokyo High Court on March 29 acquitted a former worker of the now-defunct Social Insurance Agency who was indicted on allegations that he distributed copies of a Japanese Communist Party newspaper. He had been charged with violating Article 102 of the National Public Service Law, which prohibits...
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2010

Okada hints 'feasible' Futenma option in works

NEW YORK (Kyodo) Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada says he has told the United States that an undisclosed Japanese proposal for the relocation of the Futenma military base is more feasible than the current plan hammered out in 2006.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'The Wolfman'

"The Wolfman" stars Benicio Del Toro, which normally means I would readily suffer pain and humiliation and even demonstrate some nonexistent rock- climbing skills if need be, just to see my beloved. It's a lonely quest in Japan, where Del Toro doesn't have quite the following he deserves: He's too craggy,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2010

'Kakera (A Piece Of Our Life)'

Sexual orientation is often defined in black-and-white terms: You're either straight or gay — or kidding yourself. Author Gore Vidal has famously objected to this binary classification, claiming that there's no such thing as homosexuality, only homosexual acts.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2010

The pope's Easter mystery

HONG KONG — As more than a billion Roman Catholics prepare to commemorate the most sacred mysteries of their faith culminating at Easter next Sunday, most eyes will be on the small elderly man in the Vatican palace to see whether he can steer the church through the turbulence tearing it apart.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 30, 2010

A fresh approach to Japanese food

Nicolas Soergel graciously brings two tiny plates to the table. They each contain three pinkish "umeboshi" (salted, dry plums), but those on one of the plates have been preserved for just one year; the ones on the other plate — whose skins are a little more wrinkled — are three years old. "Please...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 28, 2010

Lifesaving dialogue past due between Islamic world and West

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — The relationship between the West and the Islamic world is worrisome. Recent events in Western and Muslim countries show the tension between these two civilizations.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 28, 2010

Tri-lingual system proposed for world communications

May 15, 1939
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2010

Writer's idle hands drawn to dirty work

In Paul Theroux's 1977 short story "Diplomatic Relations," an American diplomat in Malaysia receives a letter from a female colleague, his former lover, warning of her impending visit. Their reunion in a Singapore hotel is brief and awkward, and the diplomat's sentiments, summed up in the final line...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2010

All interrogations must be taped: Sugaya

Toshikazu Sugaya, convicted of murder in 1993 and freed from prison last June, and others believed wrongfully convicted are calling for full videotaping of police interrogations to help prevent crime suspects from being forced to make false confessions.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2010

Hatoyama hopes to keep promises, find fiscal balance

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed confidence Friday in achieving fiscal discipline and keeping the government's election pledges at the same time, saying he intends to continue cutting down wasteful spending and avoid a consumption tax hike.

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?