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JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Seoul rejects offer of talks in Singapore

Seoul has rejected a proposal to meet on the sidelines of an international security forum starting Tuesday in Singapore to discuss the diplomatic row that has erupted over Tokyo's claim to South Korea-held islets in the Sea of Japan, Japanese officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Life without parole finding support in Diet

With less than a year before Japan embarks on the lay judge system, some lawmakers are raising concerns that having to choose between the death sentence and the second most severe punishment — life with the possibility of parole after 10 years — will be too daunting a burden for the nonprofessionals...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 18, 2008

30th Pia Film Festival opens

The 30th Pia Film Festival, Japan's largest and most influential independent movie event, kicks off July 19 in Shibuya, Tokyo, showcasing works by amateurs who could be the next greats of the film industry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 18, 2008

Pop Levi goes slightly wrong

"It was a very obsessive thing," says Jonathan Pop Levi about the recording of his new album of warped pop music, "Never Never Love." "It took six days a week for 12 hours a day for four months to get it to sound that way. Especially in the vocals; if a computer could do a perfect impression of a human,...
Reader Mail
Jul 17, 2008

Leadoff street view seems lame

Regarding Debito Arudou's July 8 Zeit Gist article, "Beware the foreigner as guinea pig": I couldn't help but notice the curious order in which opinions about the article were placed in Views From the Street (at the bottom of the page). The first opinion not only is a biased and bigoted viewpoint of...
EDITORIALS
Jul 17, 2008

Fishermen fed up

The one-day stoppage of fishing operations on Tuesday proves that current high oil prices are acutely affecting economic activities. Most of Japan's 200,000 fishing boats took part in the fishermen's strike throughout the country, the first and largest of its kind.
BUSINESS
Jul 16, 2008

Nukaga chases investment by oil producers

Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga headed out Tuesday on a visit to the Middle East and Central Asia to call for cash-rich oil-producing countries to invest more in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2008

Filipinos visit lawmakers in quest for citizenship

Sixteen Filipinos whose fathers or husbands were Japanese men who had moved to the Philippines before and during the war asked lawmakers Tuesday in Tokyo for help obtaining Japanese citizenship.
EDITORIALS
Jul 16, 2008

North Korea's nuclear programs

The six nations in negotiations on the denuclearization of North Korea last week agreed on basic principles for verifying the North's declaration of its nuclear programs.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jul 15, 2008

Keidanren hedging bets on LDP

The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) is showing signs of changing its unflinching support for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, as it seeks closer ties with the No. 1 opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jul 15, 2008

Famed electronics hub still sparks the curious, bizarre

Tokyo's Akihabara district draws throngs not only with its hundreds of electronics shops but also because it is the mecca for "otaku" computer geeks, and fans of "manga" and "anime" pop culture.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2008

Japanese-type game show a hit in U.S.

A new Japanese export is luring U.S. consumers: television game shows that inflict pain, suffering and humiliation for a laugh.
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2008

Ready to leave and let be

Debito Arudou's July 8 Zeit Gist article, "Beware the foreigner as guinea pig," is a subjective and all too-real view of Japan today. I moved here from Canada with my Japanese wife two years ago with the intention of living our lives out here. For the longest time I chalked up any reason I might come...
Reader Mail
Jul 13, 2008

LPG conversions cost too much

I would like to think I am an environmentalist. Japan is one of the leading countries in recycling and reducing emissions. I am proud to live here.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 13, 2008

Self-praise abounds in the pages of wheeler-dealers' own obituaries

Japanese politicians are known for their perseverance and ingenuity, and the Diet may well be the last place in the country still offering lifetime employment.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 13, 2008

When it's not quite convenient to protect the planet

"They work all day but still can't pay the price of gasoline and meat / Alas! Their lives are incomplete — Warren Zevon.
EDITORIALS
Jul 13, 2008

The price of ramen

When the price of a bowl of ramen goes up in Japan, people take notice. Rising costs for the wheat that makes the noodles, and the energy that keeps the soup bubbling, have started to appear at the register. When even this most Japanese of meals comes under pressure from larger economic forces, the world...
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2008

Consumer gloom hits record level

Higher gasoline prices and food costs have eroded the spending power of Japanese consumers and sent them to their most pessimistic level ever, according to records that have been kept for the past 26 years.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past