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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 4, 2006

Students bring school to book

It was payday, and Shawn Hannold's bank account was empty. A phone call from a coworker alerted Hannold the paychecks hadn't shown up in the accounts that morning.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 4, 2006

Permanent residency and names

Permanent residency Having been granted permanent residency a couple of years ago, I have been concerned about ensuring that I do not jeopardize it by overlooking any technicalities.
COMMENTARY
Apr 3, 2006

If 'affluence' fails to please

One measure of "affluence," whose meaning can be ambiguous, is per capita gross domestic product. While GDP growth indicates a quantitative expansion of the economy, its size is by no means a measure of social well-being or people's happiness.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 2, 2006

It's a different war through the eyes of civilians

LEAVES FROM AN AUTUMN OF EMERGENCIES: Selections From the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary Japanese, edited by Samuel Hideo Yamashita. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 332 pp., with b/w photos, $26 (paper). There are a number of reasons for keeping diaries -- to preserve time, to account for it,...
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2006

The opposition regroups

Mr. Seiji Maehara's decision to step down as chief of the Democratic Party of Japan, and to take responsibility for a recent e-mail fiasco in the Diet, came suddenly but too late. He leaves the spotlighted position without living up to party members' hopes that he would energize their goals. His resignation...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 2, 2006

A torso squeaks -- but what does it say about the media?

OK, this is confession time. Even though I have lived in Japan for decades, there is something that still absolutely drives me up the wall -- so high up the wall, in fact, that I feel like Spiderman on a Shinjuku skyscraper.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 2, 2006

Taking tanka to a new and timeless plane

Machi Tawara made a spectacular debut as a tanka poet at the age of 25 in 1987, and since then the Osaka-born artist has devoted her life to condensing her world into those neat, rhythmic but not rhyming, 31-syllable compositions.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2006

DPJ positions to change with new guard

Seiji Maehara's decision Friday to resign as Democratic Party of Japan president will probably test the largest opposition party's solidarity and its conservative stance on defense, according to observers and DPJ sources.
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2006

Six privatized companies licensed to run highways

The government licensed six privatized corporations Friday to operate the nation's highways on condition that they complete repayment of interest-bearing debts within 45 years retroactive to their privatization last Oct. 1.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 1, 2006

A few gestures of renown -- really

A non-Japanese-speaking friend of mine was telling me a story of how he once tried to talk his way onto a dinner cruise, even though he knew all the seats were booked. Persistence, he figured, plus his clumsiness with the language would work its "gaijin" spell on the English-burdened clerk, who he just...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Mar 30, 2006

Yakult looking to get back on top of CL

HANSHIN TIGERS -- The Tigers seem to be taking turns finishing in fourth and first place every other year. Fourth in 2002 and 2004, first in 2003 and 2005, and if not careful, they could drop to the second division in 2006.
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2006

DPJ has dawdled long enough

With the Diet's passage of the fiscal 2006 budget, the Koizumi administration has cleared an important hurdle. But the Diet is in a sad state following the Democratic Party of Japan's blunder in its handling of an e-mail message presented by a DPJ lawmaker alleging shady financial ties between disgraced...
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

Firms raided in floodgate bid-rigging

Investigators from the Fair Trade Commission searched about 40 offices of more than 20 machinery makers Tuesday over suspicions that they rigged bids on contracts for public floodgate projects.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

Bill in works to officially allow military use of space

In a shift away from a nearly 40-year-old commitment to an exclusively nonmilitary space program, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party announced plans Tuesday to draft a bill that would authorize Japan's military to use space for self-defense.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

Okinawa base opponents make a stand at Henoko

HENOKO, Okinawa Pref. -- To understand just how determined the opposition in Henoko, Okinawa, is to Tokyo's plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station here, just go to the turquoise waters off Camp Schwab.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2006

Harvard students meet lawmakers

becomes the next prime minister, there would be no improvement in Japan's relations with South Korea and China," the student said on condition of anonymity. However, the student also said Maehara was an engaging politician who gave "clear comments" on the party's stance against acts of worship at the...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2006

Panel: If no spending cuts are taken, how about 22% sales tax by 2015?

The consumption tax will have to rise to 22 percent from the current 5 percent by fiscal 2015 if the government is to achieve a sound balance between tax revenues and outlays, unless major spending cuts are made, an advisory panel to the finance minister said Monday.
SOCCER / World cup
Mar 27, 2006

Injury casts shadow on Yanagisawa's World Cup prospects

Japan international Atsushi Yanagisawa's chances of playing at this summer's World Cup were left hanging in the balance Sunday after tests revealed the Kashima Antlers striker has fractured a bone in his right foot.
MORE SPORTS
Mar 26, 2006

Skating wasn't part of Mom's original plan for Mao, Mai

All parents have dreams for their children.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2006

Foreign Ministry kept contracted studies secret

The Foreign Ministry has refrained from disclosing 58 percent of the research projects it commissioned from affiliated organizations or outside experts since 2002 due to confidentiality reasons, an internal ministry document showed Saturday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 26, 2006

Consumer credit companies have your money, and the media, in their pockets

On Jan. 13, the Supreme Court found in favor of an individual who had sued a consumer credit company for charging too much interest. By doing so, the court rejected the controversial "gray zone" that such companies take advantage of in their business.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2006

Full solar eclipse bound for Web

A Webcast by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and other organizations will allow Japan to watch a full solar eclipse darken the daylight skies of Africa and Central Asia on Wednesday evening in Japan.
Japan Times
Features / JAPAN FASHION WEEK FALL/WINTER 06-07
Mar 26, 2006

Half a century of fine memories made from an impeccable 'fusion'

A stroll around Hanae Mori's retrospective, being held until April 11 at the New National Theater in Shinjuku, is for me like wandering back down memory lane: I remember admiring the floral dresses -- peonies or wisteria -- when, in a flash of brilliant color, they burst onto the catwalk for the first...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 26, 2006

One nation's icon carries a torch of conscience for all

On March 6, the Polish film and theater director Andrzej Wajda celebrated his 80th birthday. In fact, all of Poland celebrated it with him. I was in the country that week, and I have never before seen such total media interest in a cultural figure. Wajda is certainly Poland's "living national treasure."...
Japan Times
Features / JAPAN FASHION WEEK FALL/WINTER 06-07
Mar 26, 2006

Rochas re-mixed

Among the new kids on the block at Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo this season, the only one in the menswear department was the Rochas line by Masatomo, whose elegant but unpretentiously tailored pieces are created under an agreement between Tokyo-based Renown Inc. and the venerable Paris-based Rochas.

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