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COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2008

Japan-China relations: Building a creative partnership requires creative approaches

"When Fukuda comes, Fuku ('fortune' in Japanese and Chinese) has arrived!"
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 30, 2008

Hitachi gives its HD camcorders even more memory; and cars look us in the eye

Going HD: As television sets get more advanced, so too do video camcorders, and that means going high-definition. Hitachi's recent DZ-BD7H camcorder records onto Blu-ray discs alongside its 30-gigabyte hard disk. But Hitachi has upped the stakes with its new DZ-BD9H, out in February and keeping the Blu-ray...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jan 28, 2008

Watching the world's biggest roadshow

NEW YORK — I was recently amused to read the following observation quoted in an intellectual history of modern Japan: "The system in which people vie to get elected head of state through indulgence in garrulity and by flaunting gestures like those of low-class actors is a singularly bizarre custom...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 27, 2008

Japan pro baseball teams gear up for preseason training camps

The 12 Japan pro baseball teams open spring camps this week on Feb. 1, in Okinawa, south Kyushu and Shikoku, and next week we'll give a rundown of who's training where and for how long. Meanwhile, here is a look at what has been happening in the final days of the off-season break.
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2008

Foreigner registration system to be revised

The government plans to abolish the current registration system for foreigners living in Japan and introduce a new regime similar to that for Japanese residents that will manage them on a household basis, Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama said Friday.
Reader Mail
Jan 24, 2008

Addressing the doctor shortage

Why can't we prevent emergency patients from dying without medical treatment? Aren't there enough doctors available to treat patients? Actually, about 5,000 new doctors are coming out in Japan every year, but fewer new doctors want to be surgeons.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jan 23, 2008

Mobage-town a rising-star site of mobile users, but filters loom

Just when mobile phone users may have thought the worldwide proliferation of video games and social networking services into the popular culture left little room for radical new tacks, the combination of the two has opened up new avenues.
BASEBALL
Jan 20, 2008

Whiting pays tribute to Boyer, Halberstam

In an exclusive piece, best-selling author Robert Whiting reminisces about two men, Clete Boyer and David Halberstam, both of whom died in 2007, who had a profound impact on his distinguished career.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2008

Inventor: nonembryo stem cells need controls

New, easy-to-handle technology to create the equivalent of human stem cells from ordinary tissue like skin must be regulated, said an inventor of the technology.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 11, 2008

Vega steals into the spotlight

A city of extremes, New York represents different things to different people. For singer- songwriter Suzanne Vega, its infinite variety is a constant source of inspiration.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2008

Education, fiscal reform fuel Osaka race

OSAKA — In a race with national implications, campaigning for the Jan. 27 Osaka gubernatorial election will kick off Thursday with three candidates.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2008

Let the IMF manage foreign reserves

PRINCETON, New Jersey — The world economy is increasingly threatened by volatile market reactions to global imbalances at a time when the International Monetary Fund has largely lost its original raison d'etre as the world's central monetary institution. These two developments should stimulate the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 1, 2008

A year of opportunity

While many of the trends that created anxiety in 2007 will continue, the new year holds considerable promise and opportunity. The arrival of new faces on the international political scene offers hope for new choices and new policies.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 29, 2007

Wringing out the year

When I arrived in Japan in the 1970s, I was both young and stupid. Now, over three decades later, I can only make half that claim.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2007

Reflecting on a year of anxiety

Citizens the world over must be eager to close 2007, a year marked by profound anxiety as vulnerabilities in the political and economic order have become visible and been repeatedly tested. Thus far, the system has survived, but strains are intensifying. If 2007 offers a taste of what lies ahead, we...
COMMENTARY
Dec 26, 2007

China puts muscle to policy

NEW DELHI — Rising economic and military power is emboldening Beijing to pursue a more muscular foreign policy. Having earlier preached the gospel of its "peaceful rise," China is now beginning to take the gloves off, confident of the muscle it has acquired.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 23, 2007

Japan's 'Hidden Christians'

"It is 12:30 p.m. in Nagasaki, on March 17, 1865. Father Bernard Petitjean, a priest of the French Societe des Missions Etrangeres, hears a noise at the back door of his little chapel. On opening he is surprised to find a group of 15 middle-aged Japanese men and women — surprised because all native-...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Dec 23, 2007

The many faces of a complex city

TOKYO TOKYO TOKYO, photographs by Gorazd Vilhar, text by Charlotte Anderson. IBC Publishing Co., 2007, 144 pp., ¥3,300 (cloth) The very title of this new collection by Gorazd Vilhar and Charlotte Anderson suggests multiple Tokyos. It posits a city so multifaceted that only various versions of it can...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Dec 21, 2007

Grand Hyatt Disco, kagami-mochi and a rare glimpse inside Alux

Disco fever at the Grand Hyatt On Dec. 27, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo will be turning back the clock and cranking up the volume for a night of disco.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 14, 2007

Party planner

New Year is almost upon us again, and for those not satisfied with the TV and sake followed by a shrine, there are plenty of places about Tokyo to listen to good tunes and get monkeyed. While the city may not boast New Year mega-lineups to compete with the likes of London and New York, there are enough...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Dec 11, 2007

Enlightened kimono and haute couture gone pop

Enlightened traditions The changing face of Roppongi — from sleaze capital to cultural center — continues with the opening of Shikunshi, a brand new gallery and contemporary kimono shop.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 7, 2007

Galactic keep it in their own backyard

In a business where some people will do anything to thrust themselves into the spotlight, for their latest release the New Orleans-based funk quintet Galactic did all they could to step out of it. Not even Hurricane Katrina could stop them.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2007

Rudd and Asia's security

SYDNEY — Kevin Rudd has been swept into power after 6 percent of the voters swung to the Australian Labor Party. With domestic issues dominating the contest, the Howard government's unpopular industrial relations policies became the focus of discontent and a central argument for political change.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 4, 2007

Digital terrestrial TV coming but work remains

More than half a century has passed since commercial television debuted in Japan, and now TVs are a main component of the mass culture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Nov 25, 2007

An insider detects desperation

Tokyo Motor Show is one of the world's most important biennial automotive exhibitions, and I get to see them all. It attracts everyone who's anyone in the motoring industry, drawing phenomenal crowds — 1,4525,800 people over 17 days from Oct. 26 to Nov. 11. And more than any other car show in the world,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIA-JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2007

Changing world asks more of Japan

Japan is an "underachiever" that needs to play a larger international role commensurate with its resources and capacity, the head of an influential U.S. think tank told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
LIFE / Digital
Nov 21, 2007

Product placement seeks online consumers' wallets

Product placement within the entertainment industry has become widely accepted as commonplace. You only have to watch "Casino Royale" — the most recent movie in the James Bond series — to see that in-film advertising is big business. From cars and laptop computers to entire airlines, if it can be...
COMMUNITY
Nov 20, 2007

Starting today, 'gaijin' formally known as prints

Today sees the introduction of a law requiring the majority of foreigners entering Japan to be fingerprinted and photographed. This change has been met with howls of protest from foreign residents and the foreign media, who have pointed to the fact that the only terrorist attacks on Japanese soil have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Nov 16, 2007

Kyoto's Ultra-man in bedroom revolution

"Shotgun Blues" is the latest track off Hidenori Fujiwara's turbo-charged musical conveyor-belt of rock 'n' roll madness, and it's a blast of bluesy punk that sounds like Kings of Leon being chain-whipped by Iggy Pop in a dark alley.

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