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EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2006

Politics of an energy boost

Recent events surrounding energy-development projects overseas highlight resource-poor Japan's vulnerability. They underscore the need for both the government and the private sector to develop a multipronged long-term strategy that will enable the nation to flexibly cope with unexpected changes in the...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Nov 19, 2006

Athletes extol sensation of 'iron calm' at the limit

People have been enjoying a wide variety of sports since at least the time of Ancient Greece. In the Athens 2004 Olympic Games alone, athletes competed in about 300 categories of 28 sports -- and the list seems to get longer every time.
COMMENTARY
Nov 17, 2006

Tough advice from a friend

LONDON -- Embattled U.S. President George W. Bush has asked for new ideas to help him on Iraq and on how to disentangle from the Middle East morass. He will of course get plenty, but he needs to be very careful over what he chooses.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2006

Islamic extremism threatens Bangladesh

MADRAS, India -- Bangladesh is the latest South Asian flash point where democracy stands threatened. Bloody street battles between two rival political parties -- led by two women who hate each other -- and other violence have swept the small country northwest of India in recent weeks. The military is...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 11, 2006

The overrated and the underrated

Several months ago I devoted a column to aspects of Japanese life that I felt received too much or too little attention in the eyes of foreign visitors.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2006

Climate change to test our adaptability

NEW YORK -- If there was any remaining doubt about the urgent need to combat climate change, two reports issued last week should make the world sit up and take notice.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 10, 2006

'Sovereignty has to be taken'

Cillian Murphy certainly has romantic-lead looks, but his filmography reveals an actor more committed to a diverse career. Many viewers will recall his portrayal of the twisted Scarecrow character in "Batman Begins," but he also played a determined survivor in Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" and a transvestite...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006

Clues to living in a stress-filled society

We live in a high-pressure, high-stress society. In Japan, the symptoms of extreme levels of stress are seen in the "death from overwork" syndrome and a tragically high suicide rate. Vicious bullying among children is likewise a reflec- tion of this stress.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 8, 2006

Rationality again on rack of 'faith'

How can certain events that took place in 17th-century Italy have much relevance to those of the 21st? I'm thinking of the way one of the greatest men in history, the father of physics, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), was treated by the Roman Catholic Church.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 7, 2006

An uneasy introduction to a grandchild

According to an announcement last month by Nagano Prefecture obstetrician Yahiro Nezu, a woman nearly 60 years old has served as a surrogate mother for her daughter. Last spring the woman gave birth to a baby that had been conceived externally using a fertilized egg provided by her daughter and the daughter's...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 3, 2006

Local volunteers revive cello competition

The 1st Gaspar Cassado International Violoncello Competition in Hachioji begins Nov. 23, relaunching a contest that first began in Florence, Italy in 1969.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Nov 2, 2006

Joe Bryant and Apache reaching out to community

It's 10:45 on Tuesday morning. Tokyo Apache coach Joe Bryant and his players are busy preparing for another day in the gym. They bring the necessary attire -- sneakers, baggy shorts, jerseys -- and, of course, their basketballs. They have a special audience, too.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 26, 2006

Lower corporate taxes can fuel recovery

BANGKOK -- It is a hopeful sign that professor Masaaki Honma of Osaka University has been set to be appointed chairman of the tax panel that briefs the prime minister. This would be a happy departure from the position of the current chairman of the tax panel, Hiromitsu Ishi, who consistently advocated...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 21, 2006

Astrologer reaches out with readings of counsel

His certification as an astrologer reads Tatsuhiro Percival Nakajima. Why? The gentle Japanese -- still coolly dressed for summer -- replies smiling: "Because I am the Fool."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2006

An intro to Tokyo's film fest

The Tokyo International Film Festival, Japan's biggest, glitziest film fest, opens Saturday, Oct. 21, and runs for nine days at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills in Roppongi, Bunkamura in Shibuya and other venues around the city. The selection is huge, beginning with the four main sections: the Competition,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 20, 2006

On a trail out of the real world

The fellow passengers on the weekend "holiday special express" from Shinjuku to Okutama or Musashi-Itsukaichi -- an hour northwest of Tokyo -- are a strange melange: There are lots of young men -- often much the worse for wear -- going home after a night of heavy drinking; there are young girls heading...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 19, 2006

Shomei Tomatsu retrospective traces post-war experience

At age 15 in 1945, Shomei Tomatsu was working at an aircraft assembly plant in Nagoya. U.S. B-29s were bombing the industrial city so relentlessly that by the end of World War II, nine out of 10 of its buildings were destroyed -- compared with five out of 10 in Tokyo.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 17, 2006

The false hopes of tax cuts

NEW YORK -- There is a movement in medicine to require that applications for licenses to sell a new drug be "evidence-based." By contrast, trained economists view their discipline as having already achieved this scientific standard. After all, they express their ideas with mathematics and arrive at quantitative...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 16, 2006

Global imbalances, economic and political, must be rectified

As countries throughout the globe undergo radical economic changes from the impact of globalization, there exist two major imbalances in the world today.
CULTURE / Books
Oct 15, 2006

From the center of Korean conflict

KOREA WITNESS: 135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm, edited by Donald Kirk, Choe Sang-Hun. Seoul: EunHaeng NaMu, 2006, 13,000 won/$13.83 (paper). To adventurous Western writers and journalists in the late 19th century, the opening of Japan in 1868 was an opportunity too good...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 14, 2006

English language disaster in the making

"Hello!" said a smiling boy next to me on the train. "Well, hello," I said, startled that anyone should actually use this phrase unaccompanied by at least a giggle and at most rolling on the floor laughing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Oct 13, 2006

Fall in for some wine adventures

A s a welcome series of typhoons scrubs away the last of the summer heat, we find ourselves at long last putting away the beer-bottle openers and breaking out the corkscrews. Fortunately for wine lovers, this fall offers no shortage of temptations.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami