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Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 25, 2007

JFW: An outsider looks in

With 39 shows, the fourth Japan Fashion Week, from March 12 to 16, was the biggest to date. And, with several top brands announcing their imminent emigration to the runways of Paris,the cosmopolitan cachet was further enhanced by the presence of foreign journalists invited as official guests -- among...
Reader Mail
Mar 25, 2007

Assimilation under strict codes

In his March 18 article, "As London shows, assimilation is what migration's about," Roger Pulvers writes of the great advantages to Britain through mass immigration. I don't know how well Pulvers knows London, but as a long-term resident let me make a few points in counterbalance.
LIFE
Mar 25, 2007

Young Tokyo designers set to grace the world's runways

Last season's Japan Fashion Week (JFW) was held before the New York Fashion Week, which is traditionally the first event on the annual international catwalk circuit. But this time, Tokyo reverted to its regular slot after the Paris Collections that have since time immemorial wrapped up the industry's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 25, 2007

There's a world of languages Japanese too can learn

It seems to be conventional wisdom -- if "wisdom" is the word -- that Japanese people do not excel at mastering foreign languages. Some surveys of the results of international English-proficiency tests have them occupying the murky depths, below even the likes of North Koreans. Does the "Dear Leader,"...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 25, 2007

NHK upholds freedom of the press so long as it doesn't annoy anyone with its content

It has been two months since the Tokyo High Court ruled in favor of the Violence Against Women in War Network in its lawsuit against NHK regarding coverage of a December 2000 international people's tribunal, and while the verdict did not receive much press when it was first announced, it continues to...
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Mar 24, 2007

Baker has learned nuances of game from 'Jellybean'

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with players in the bj-league -- Japan's first professional basketball circuit -- which is in its second season. Dameion Baker of the Tokyo Apache is the subject of this week's profile.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2007

Nakasone claims his 'ian-jo' was for R&R

Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone on Friday denied he set up a military brothel during World War II when he was a naval officer, claiming the facility he built was only for "rest and recreation" for the engineering corps he led.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 24, 2007

Metal, sweat and fire come together in elegant art

In a cavernous brick warehouse on a quiet block in Brooklyn, N.Y., a woman kneels near a row of furnaces that heave with glowing orange flames.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 23, 2007

Joubert claims gold

Brian Joubert validated that there is such a thing as a lucky charm. Daisuke Takahashi, meanwhile, gave the host nation another athlete named Daisuke to be passionately proud of -- someone who doesn't throw a wicked assortment of pitches.
BUSINESS
Mar 23, 2007

International 'anime' fair opens in Tokyo

Giant balloons depicting Pokemon characters and boy detective Conan filled the air at the Thursday kickoff of the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2007 in Tokyo, as 270 companies, including 55 from overseas, came together for the world's biggest animation festival.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 23, 2007

A treasure chest of tradition

The capital of Ishikawa Prefecture greeted me like it does most travelers: with a downpour. The train's rain-streaked windows blurred my first views of a city in a storybook setting. Kanazawa averages 178 soggy days a year, so it's fitting that the station's glass dome fans out like an umbrella.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2007

Substance, not usual campaign noise

and Yoshito Hori, head of the Globis Group, look on at a March 2 event in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward promoting use of platforms known as manifestos in politics. PHOTO COURTESY OF WASEDA UNIVERSITY
Reader Mail
Mar 21, 2007

Is U.S. qualified to throw stones?

Why does the U.S. House of Representatives have to take up the "comfort women" issue now? Of course, the United States is a champion of basic human rights; it watches for any violation around the world. But shouldn't the U.S. make sure that its hands are 100 percent clean? Has it fully exercised its...
Japan Times
JAPAN / INNOCENT VICTIMS
Mar 21, 2007

Child-guidance centers lacking: experts

Child abuse in Japan may be expanding faster than social workers can keep pace, but there's another side to the story as well: Many people outside the government child-welfare system are working hard to push those figures down. Meet two of those people, lawyer Fumiaki Isogae and foster mother Kazuko...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Mar 21, 2007

Viewing nature in the best possible way

Ibegan writing natural history notes back in 1968; the immature handwriting in my first dogeared notebook is a reminder that then I was just a lad of 13. I was growing up in semi-rural Worcestershire in central England, and that was the year when, asked by my parents what I would like for my birthday,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 20, 2007

Where do you browse online?

COMMENTARY
Mar 20, 2007

China is sidelined and upset

LONDON -- Just before the beginning of this year's meeting of the National People's Congress, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao sent a message to NPC members about to arrive in Beijing: Chi- na is still a socialist country led by a communist party and will remain so for at least another hundred years....
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2007

Convicted Horie stays defiant, slams court

Disgraced dot-com tycoon Takafumi Horie slammed his conviction and harsh sentence for securities fraud Sunday, insisting he committed no crimes and that he had more than paid for any mistakes by losing his company.
COMMENTARY
Mar 19, 2007

British crime and punishment

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair, on assuming office in 1997, said his government would be tough on crime and its causes. Although police numbers have increased with police pay, the proportion of reported crimes that have been solved has not shown significant improvement. Filling out bureaucratic...
Reader Mail
Mar 18, 2007

The subcategories of Japanese

Philip Brasor's March 11 article, "Female foreigners are OK in Japan, so long as they're not Asian," criticizes Japan for not yielding to pressure from the United Nations to conduct a survey of its minority women. He then refers to a nongovernment organization survey that "did not target foreigners,...

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