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EDITORIALS
May 3, 2007

Supreme Court passes the buck

The Supreme Court last week rejected five lawsuits in which former wartime slave laborers and sex slaves from China sought compensation. It ruled that the 1972 Japan-China Joint Communique, which restored bilateral diplomatic relations, should be interpreted as saying that all rights to seek compensation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2007

Breakthrough women

In 18th- and 19th-century Japan, the presence of female artists in painting circles slowly increased until in the 20th century, social reforms allowed them access to secondary education and vocational schools as well as art training, patronage and chances to compete in national exhibitions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 3, 2007

Banners for the boys

Celebrated on May 5, Japan's Children's Day originated as an ancient Chinese festival from the old lunar calendar that marked a day to ward off evil spirits and pray for good health.
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

Sumo offers stable life to man from Mongolia

dashed himself against the other without a word. The hierarchy was too severe. I hit out against a younger wrestler, who made much of his seniority only because of his advanced initiation," Kyokutenho said. The communal living with some 25 Japanese wrestlers, and the sumo wrestler's stew, with unpalatable...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 2, 2007

Doctor fights for health of foreigners in detention

In summer 2005, a man from Myanmar seeking asylum in Japan was found dead in his Tokyo apartment. But because he had no family here, the results of the autopsy were not released and the cause of death remains unknown to this day.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
May 2, 2007

Life can be sweet down in the forest

Mr. Matsuki, our forester, is six years older than me, so he was born in 1934. When World War II ended, life in the countryside of Japan was tough, so sugary sweets, chocolates and suchlike were scarce. He recalls that, as a boy, he learned that the twigs or branches of a certain native Japanese tree,...
JAPAN
May 1, 2007

U.S. admiral confident of missile shield effectiveness

proven that capability. I have great confidence in that capability," he said. The commander of the Hawaii-based fleet admitted the system is "very expensive" but said it is because of the advanced nature of the technology involved and that he is pleased with the progress in developing the capability...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 1, 2007

Blasting off for Golden Week

Tired of sitting in front of computers all day long? Sick of sucking up exhaust as you walk down the street? Have you been pondering life's meaning and, above all, our meager existence in this world?
Reader Mail
Apr 29, 2007

U.S. squarely faces its history

In regard to the letter submitted by Setsuko Tokita, although it is true that there was a long history of African slavery in the United States, the U.S. government finally put an end to slavery once and for all during the bloodiest conflict in American history, the Civil War. However, the institution...
Reader Mail
Apr 29, 2007

Abe made the right move

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may well be starting another period of tremendous enlightenment in Japan through attaining the painting "Annunciation," by Leonardo da Vinci, for the Japanese public to study.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 29, 2007

Gorilla snot and Tokyo sauce

TABLOID TOKYO 2, by Geoff Botting, Ryann Connell, Michael Hoffman, Masuo Kamiyama, Mark Schreiber; Illustrations by Hirosuke Ueno; foreword by Mark Schreiber. Toyko: Kodansha International, 2007, 288 pp., profusely illustrated, 1,400 yen (paper) The success of the first volume of "Tabloid Tokyo" has...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 28, 2007

La vida LaRocca: Slugger enjoying playing with Buffaloes

Last season was a tough one for Orix's Greg LaRocca.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2007

Citigroup bags Nikko Cordial for 920 billion yen

Citigroup Inc. announced Friday its public tender offer for scandal-tainted Nikko Cordial Corp. has succeeded, resulting in the biggest buyout -- at 920 billion yen -- of a Japanese firm by a foreign company.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 28, 2007

Homeless jet-setter brings life, hope to scores

A little over a year ago, composer and songwriter Joseph (Joe) Curiale had a residence in Hollywood with a flashy car parked in front. Now he is technically homeless. A homeless jet-setter, he jokes.
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2007

Remembering Mr. Yeltsin

Standing atop a tank in August 1991, appealing to Muscovites to defy a coup attempt by old-guard politicians against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev -- this is the image of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin that will remain embedded forever in our memories. Although Mr. Yeltsin, who passed away...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2007

Drought dampens Aussie economic boom

SYDNEY -- Weird is the only word for it. In the midst of its biggest-ever economic boom, Australia is drying up. Underground, minerals are being dug up and shipped to Asia at record rates for record prices. Above ground, a drought is so bad that this food-exporting country may not be able to feed itself....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 26, 2007

Japanese/Chinese production tackles history

In 2002, the FIFA World Cup of soccer hosted by Japan and South Korea boosted already flourishing cultural exchanges between the two countries in areas such as pop music, shopping and television dramas. The same year, the scriptwriter and director Oriza Hirata, who founded the Tokyo-based Seinendan Theater...
EDITORIALS
Apr 25, 2007

Elections bolster Mr. Abe

Unlike opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should be relieved by the results of Sunday's Upper House by-elections. Mr. Abe will now likely have the support to push through the Diet a bill for a national referendum procedure for a constitutional revision...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 24, 2007

Yuji Sato

Marine, a 5-and-a-half year-old black Labrador retriever, just might be one of the world's most unexpected heroines in the fight against cancer. Marine's nose is capable of detecting 18 different types of cancer on a person's breath and has already been mechanically replicated as a sensor the size of...
EDITORIALS
Apr 23, 2007

Progress in abduction probes

The National Police Agency, investigating the 1973 disappearances of a mother and her two children, has concluded that the two children were abducted by North Korean agents. The NPA will obtain a warrant for the arrest of a woman suspected of having masterminded the abduction and put her on an international...
Reader Mail
Apr 22, 2007

Peril in denying China's past

I hate to rain on everyone's parade, but Japan shouldn't be so readily taken in by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's recent speech in the Diet. This is because China, despite the flowery good language forwarded by Wen, is still a totalitarian regime willing to interfere in another country's domestic politics. ...
BASKETBALL
Apr 21, 2007

Hatano's 'unyielding heart' the secret weapon for champ Osaka

Kazuya Hatano called himself a "non-committal" person. But the decision he made was perfectly correct.

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