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COMMENTARY / World
Feb 17, 2008

Can the EU learn the lessons of empire?

WASHINGTON — If a European Union bureaucrat could travel to Vienna during the last years of the 19th century, he would be surprised at how closely the Habsburg Empire resembled today's EU. Like the EU, Austria-Hungary was an experiment in supranational engineering, comprising 51 million inhabitants,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 17, 2008

Organic food, JFK conspiracies, dealing with terminal cancer in a new way

Recent scandals concerning food produced in Japan and overseas have increased consumer interest in organic produce, which is seen as being both safer and healthier. On Tuesday, TV Tokyo's business-documentary program, "Gaia no Yuake (The Dawn of Gaia)" (10 p.m.), will look at organizations that are trying...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2008

A return to Japanese sensibility

SHAME IN THE BLOOD by Tetsuo Miura, translated by Andrew Driver. Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007, 216 pp., $24.95 (cloth) Of all the major postwar Japanese writers, Tetsuo Miura is the least translated. One or two of his short stories found print in English-language magazines during the 1970s, and my own version...
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2008

Bangladesh tries to shake corrupt image

DHAKA — Ever since its hard-won independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh has struggled to shake off something just as unwelcome as foreign rule: its image as an impoverished and politically corrupt backwater.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 15, 2008

The teetotaler who conquered clubland

After winning arguably the biggest prize in dance music, any club DJ might be forgiven for going on the sort of Dionysian rampage that would leave Keith Richards begging for mercy. Not High Contrast.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 15, 2008

Chuck Brown is good to go-go

Chuck Brown doesn't know when to quit. That's not a character flaw — it's a trait that gave the world the musical equivalent of a marathon.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Feb 15, 2008

What to do with all that unwanted green tea?

To the uninitiated, the idea of a green-tea recycling market is likely to inspire visions of used tea-leaves rescued from strainers. Not so for Nobuyuki Kakizaki, the manager of tea-shop Uogashi Meicha Tsukiji Shinten, located in Tokyo's Tsukiji district. For him it's an event held early each February...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 13, 2008

For Fukui city of Obama, choice of U.S. candidate is a no-brainer

OSAKA — If you're traveling through Fukui Prefecture over the coming weeks, don't be surprised if you see signs, posters or even souvenir goods that say "Obama for Obama"
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 10, 2008

Eyewitness: Burma from the inside

Burma's Bloody September came home to people in Japan with the slaying of veteran freelance photojournalist Kenji Nagai on Sept. 27, 2007 in Yangon during a mass demonstration. The video clip showing him being gunned down by a Burmese soldier at point-blank range was repeatedly aired, arousing public...
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 10, 2008

Stricken land of soldiers and slaves

The Saffron Revolution is Burma's 9/11; much will never be the same again after the killing, arrest and torture of monks by the government.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 9, 2008

U.S. resists its own medicine

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the United States' epic financial crisis continues to unfold, one can only wish that U.S. policymakers were half as good at listening to advice from developing countries as they are at giving it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 8, 2008

Harmony (in his head)

An eight year hiatus is a long time for a filmmaker, especially for someone as iconic in indie film as Harmony Korine.
EDITORIALS
Feb 7, 2008

Right to assembly is undermined

The Japan Teachers' Union (Nikkyoso) has been holding an annual large-scale event since 1951 in which teachers from across the country share their experiences and discuss wide-ranging issues such as children's aptitudes, teaching methods, gaps in education opportunities, bullying, etc. But for the first...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2008

Crown Princess panned for living high life

First, Crown Princess Masako feasted on classy Mexican fare from a 13-dish special menu in her honor. Then it was roast duck and shark's fin soup at a top Chinese eatery. A month later, she enjoyed a sumptuous repast at a French restaurant where the course featured exquisite black truffles.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2008

Handling the Taiwan issue

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Opinion polls indicate that one-third of Americans believe that China will "soon dominate the world," while nearly half view China's emergence as a "threat to world peace." In turn, many Chinese fear that the U.S. will not accept their "peaceful rise." Americans and Chinese must...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2008

Making the best students brighter

A night "cram school" for top achievers run by a private company has begun at the publicly run Wada Junior High School in Tokyo's Suginami Ward. Some public schools have been pushing tieups with private cram schools offering supplementary instruction to help improve the scholastic ability of students....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 2, 2008

Celebrating black Americans in Yamanashi

American diplomat Ayanna Hobbs is a dynamo of energy and enthusiasm. She's just finished her weekly Japanese class, and thinks it the most amazing coincidence that her wonderful teacher happens to be from Yamanashi, the prefecture that lies so close to her heart.
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Feb 1, 2008

Referee row lifts handball's appeal

Team handball, the figurative water boy of sports, is suddenly in the game and earning the roaring approval of fans in Japan.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 1, 2008

Praise be for belly dancers

It's often said that good things (and bad ones) come in threes. But anyone who has seen Tokyo-based belly dancers The Afet Collective in action is likely to insist that great things come in sevens.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 29, 2008

G8: Meaningful or anachronistic forum?

Over the next six months, Japan will host a series of meetings of the Group of Eight countries, culminating in the Leaders' Summit at Lake Toya, Hokkaido, in July. Along with leaders of the G8 — Japan, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — the European Commission...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2008

Thais refuse to be intimidated

Thailand's generals must be wondering what they have to do to cow their countrymen. After they overthrew the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and forced voters to ratify a constitution that institutionalizes the military's influence over Thai politics, national elections still gave a majority...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 25, 2008

No deviation for celebrated techno star

In an era of dance music that sees almost every DJ attempt to defy genre, and producers seemingly incapable of making tracks without either screaming guitars or samples of pop hits from yesteryear, Sven Vath is refreshing in his conservatism.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jan 23, 2008

Mobage-town a rising-star site of mobile users, but filters loom

Just when mobile phone users may have thought the worldwide proliferation of video games and social networking services into the popular culture left little room for radical new tacks, the combination of the two has opened up new avenues.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2008

Temple hands remains of Korean war dead to kin

More than 60 years after the war, 50 South Koreans can finally take the remains of their loved ones home.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2008

Canada to Japan: Drop farm guard, join FTA

Free-trade agreements are actively being sought as countries worldwide try to boost trade and stimulate their economies, but Japan balks when it comes to liberalizing its agricultural market.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 20, 2008

Showa nostalgia documentary, baseball star interviewed, optical illusions

The Showa boom has yet to run its course. Appropriating the street address used in the title of the hit Showa Period movie series "Always: Sanchome no Yuhi," TV Tokyo pumps up the nostalgia on "Sanchome no Post: Natsukashii Rankingu SP (Sanchome Mailbox: Nostalgic Rankings Special)" (Monday, 7 p.m.)....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Hitting hairdressing's highs the flat-top way

Wielding a hair dryer in one hand, a comb in the other, and with another comb held between his teeth, hairdresser Hideki Sato, 34, tackles the jet-black locks of a male model.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight