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COMMENTARY
Dec 24, 2006

Next to the Iraq catastrophe, minor dramas marked 2006

LONDON -- In hard news terms, it's been one of the slower years: no great events, few surprises and no real shocks. But as the little events accumulated during 2006, the shape of the future gradually became clearer in three important dimensions.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Dec 9, 2006

Calling on the right brain for creative strategy

With his head shaved and outfitted in designer glasses and crocodile-style winklepicker shoes, Gordon Watson does not look like the stereotypical president of any type of company, let alone one selling life insurance.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Dec 3, 2006

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Japan's expat rebel with many causes blends music and a wider world view

Former Japanese pop heart-throb and musical pioneer Ryuichi Sakamoto talks about music, the state of the planet — and why he still reluctantly lives in New York City.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 1, 2006

High-end dining: two of our best

Change and entropy, as the philosophers might say, are the only constants. Nowhere is that more evident than in this mighty metropolis and its ever-evolving restaurant scene. New places open, others fade away, but the very best understand how to keep moving with the times.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / JAZZNICITY
Dec 1, 2006

Ub-X freely tinkers with the engine of jazz

Piano, bass and drums form the engine of jazz. Most jazz bands build on this foundation by adding other instruments, while a select few work from within to upend the conventions of the piano trio and fashion a completely new sound. Ub-X, one of the latter, is a group that sounds like no other.
EDITORIALS
Nov 29, 2006

Building a global NATO

Leaders of the 26 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are meeting in Riga, Latvia, to agree on a strategy for the future. That strategy will focus on two sets of issues: the problems that the organization will tackle in the years ahead and the countries that will join efforts to...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2006

Thaksin poses dilemma for Thai leaders

Thaksin Shinawatra, in exile in London, has given notice that he is still alive and very much kicking. Indeed, the deposed leader is playing a devilishly devious and clever, but potentially deadly, game for himself and for Thailand.
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2006

Tough advice from a friend

LONDON -- Embattled U.S. President George W. Bush has asked for new ideas to help him on Iraq and on how to disentangle from the Middle East morass. He will of course get plenty, but he needs to be very careful over what he chooses.
JAPAN / ACCORD STILL IN LIMBO
Nov 9, 2006

Okinawa race again base-centric

First in a series on the Nov. 19 Okinawa gubernatorial election
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 22, 2006

Macha's return for MLB-NPB series off after firing by A's

Apparently it is a jinx to be the manager of the Oakland Athletics and be named to head a Major League All-Star tour of Japan. For the second time in four years, an A's skipper has been changed after getting the assignment to lead a visiting team in the nichibei yakyu.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 21, 2006

India-American nuclear deal foundering

MADRAS -- The Indian-American nuclear deal signed in New Delhi in March seems to be foundering. The pact, which would give India access to American civil nuclear technology, must be approved by the U.S. Congress before it can become law.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 19, 2006

Cornelius pops back with touching sounds

Keigo Oyamada, better known as Cornelius, is one of Japan's most recognized musical exports. His innovative approach to electronic music on his 1997 breakthrough album "Fantasma," which has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide, and then on 2001's "Point" have won him fans in Europe, America, Australia...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 12, 2006

Darvish excels vs. Hawks

SAPPORO -- Messing this one up will be pretty tough.
EDITORIALS
Oct 9, 2006

Compensation from the accused

By May 2009, Japan will introduce a lay-judge system in which randomly chosen citizens will sit with professional judges to decide guilt or innocence in criminal trials involving charges such as murder, rape and arson, and then hand down sentences if the accused are found guilty. The aim is to insert...
Japan Times
LIFE
Oct 8, 2006

Japan Fashion Week tweaks time and place to suit style jet set

When Japan's beleaguered textiles industry belatedly decided to invest in organizing a fashion week to rival the best of Paris, Milan, New York and London -- and persuaded the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to back it -- they hoped a slick new event would garner valuable worldwide media coverage...
EDITORIALS
Oct 5, 2006

JAL flying through stormy skies

The international and domestic operations units of Japan Airlines Corp., the nation's flag carrier, merged Oct. 1. The merger means the complete reorganization of JAL and a new start for the airline. But the new JAL faces rough times ahead.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2006

The right kind of nationalism

LONDON -- The appointment of Shinzo Abe as Japan's new prime minister has aroused considerable Western interest, and not a little enthusiasm. People in the West like to see a clear-thinking younger leader emerge. And they like what they hear from Abe about Japan becoming fully qualified as a normal nation...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2006

Shinzo Abe's twin challenges

HONOLULU -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to make Japan "a country that is trusted and loved" by the entire world. On the face of it, this should not be that difficult a task. After all, in the past 60 years, no nation has been more committed to peace and more generous to its neighbors...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

For someone who stands to gain from the hot topic of Japan's "Gross National Cool," Taeko Baba ought to be the last to pop the phenomenon's bubble.
COMMENTARY
Sep 28, 2006

Japan's political resurgence

TOKYO -- The election of Shinzo Abe as postwar Japan's youngest prime minister signals more than a change at the helm. Abe not only symbolizes a generational change in Japanese politics but also is the face of an assertive new Japan intent on shaping the power balance in Asia in a way that China does...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 28, 2006

Fumio Nanjo to replace David Elliott

The Mori Art Museum's director, David Elliott, will leave his post at the end of October to take a position as the new director of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Turkey. The news was announced Wednesday at a press conference at Roppongi Hills, where Elliott spoke of his five years in Tokyo working...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 18, 2006

Chronically hungry children of America

NEW YORK -- While it is normal to expect high levels of hunger and poverty in a developing country, it may come as a surprise to observe such conditions in one of the richest countries in the world. The Food Bank for New York City recently reported that nearly 20 percent of children in the city rely...
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Sep 14, 2006

Psychedelic radar 09.15

Vision Quest: Sept. 16-18
BUSINESS
Sep 7, 2006

Fast expansion planned for Uniqlo

Fast Retailing Co., which runs the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, said Wednesday it will accelerate the opening of large stores across Japan, with 100 new outlets planned within the next three years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 5, 2006

Grim bar system may hurt legal reforms

Sept. 21 is awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread in campuses across Japan. It is the date on which results of the country's first new bar examination are announced. How well a school's students do on this test, which is projected to have a pass rate of about 40 percent, may have a serious...
EDITORIALS
Sep 3, 2006

Lessons from a paper chase

by Oji Paper Co., Japan's largest paper producer, for Hokuetsu Paper Mills Ltd., the nation's sixth-largest paper maker, was Japan's first-ever hostile TOB mounted by a major company against a domestic rival. The bid eventually failed as Oji President Kazuhisa Shinoda admitted Aug. 29 that the deal was...
BASKETBALL
Aug 24, 2006

Tall Blacks nail Japan

HIROSHIMA -- Live by the 3-pointer and die by the 3-pointer.

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