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COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2006

A faux debate to justify aggressive war

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has faced surprisingly little serious opposition to his disastrous foreign policy. The left was divided over Iraq and many of those who opposed Bush did so for partisan or even personal reasons. Unfortunately, little has changed.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 8, 2006

Worldwide sounds

In Britain, dance culture went into overdrive in the late 1980s, largely because of one thing: Ecstasy. As well as helping shy people dance, Ecstasy also meant that people could stay up for the entire weekend, partying at raves to acid house music. These same clubbers also needed a place to head to after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 7, 2006

Web gives niche interests a chance in the free market

Economists right back to Adam Smith in the 18th century have exalted the concept of the free market, where all commodities can be bought and sold without tariffs or subsidies. In Western neoliberal political thought, market freedom had become viewed by the 1980s as an extension of personal autonomy....
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2006

Witness testifies Livedoor doctored earnings with shady stock trades

A key prosecution witness testified Tuesday that Internet company Livedoor Co. doctored its earnings by selling and buying its own stock, as the trial of its former president, Takafumi Horie, entered its second day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 5, 2006

Grim bar system may hurt legal reforms

Sept. 21 is awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread in campuses across Japan. It is the date on which results of the country's first new bar examination are announced. How well a school's students do on this test, which is projected to have a pass rate of about 40 percent, may have a serious...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2006

What is expected of Mr. Abe

With Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe's formal announcement of candidacy in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election, the tripartite race between Mr. Abe, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki has heated up. Given Mr. Abe's great popularity, it is likely...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2006

Declining sources of pride

The 9/11 terrorist attacks five years ago added a new page to world history, posing a new threat to global security. Following the attacks, the Bush administration in the United States demanded that the international community choose between democracy and dictatorship, between good and evil. Calling...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2006

India may finally embrace capitalism

ATLANTA -- For most of India's postcolonial era, the views guiding economic policy and those expressed by opinion makers reflected a deep-seated contempt for markets. Despite the failings of socialist economic policies at home and the successes of market reform elsewhere, India has been slow to embrace...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 2, 2006

Michael Gorman

A conventional way of life would never have suited Michael Gorman.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 2, 2006

Quiet on the set. Ready . . . Action!

"All I need is the backing," says the man. "Then I've got a surefire hit."
BUSINESS
Aug 31, 2006

Government seeking ways to boost global competitiveness of handsets

A government panel began considering ways Wednesday to strengthen the international competitiveness of the domestic mobile phone industry as the country's 11 handset makers together account for only 10 percent of the global market.
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2006

Education, jobs focus for Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki will call for enhanced public schooling and tax incentive measures for companies willing to employ senior citizens as part of his platform for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election, sources have said.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 29, 2006

What's your opinion of gender roles in Japan?

Nikki Halligan Linguist, 26 In my last job, men were promoted over women. The discrimination came from the women, who would fawn over the male staff and mistreat female staff. In my current job, I was promoted because of a lack of females in the industry.
CULTURE / Books
Aug 27, 2006

Cultural insight past the twaddle

FULL METAL APACHE: Transactions Between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop America, by Takayuki Tatsumi, foreword by Larry McCaffery. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 272 pp., 2006, $22.95 (paper). Literary theorist and critic Takayuki Tatsumi's new book, "Full Metal Apache," is both good and bad....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / CERAMIC SCENE
Aug 24, 2006

Crafting the tea demon in Hagi

Psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), in his theory of self-actualization, said, "If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 23, 2006

Forest green tree frog

* Japanese name: Moriao-gaeru * Scientific name: Rhacophorus arboreus * Description: A cute little, beautiful green frog; males are 4-6 cm long, females are 6-8 cm long. The backs can be mottled with brown speckles, and the number of these speckles varies according to where in the country they live....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 22, 2006

Rakugo and a noisy neighbor

Rakugo Ewan, teaching in Tokyo, is interested in Japanese story-telling. "I don't know if you have heard but story-telling in the U.K. is enjoying quite a revival. Edinburgh has the first center for story-telling ever created in the world, funded by the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the Church of...
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2006

Despite Oji's likely failure, M&As catching on

Japan appears to have entered a new era of mergers and acquisitions with Oji Paper Co.'s recent takeover bid for Hokuetsu Paper Mills Ltd.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 12, 2006

Bon -- the spirit of ancestor worship

The Bon holiday is here, when everyone returns to their hometown to visit family and pay homage to their ancestors. It's a built-in way of forcing your grown children to come back to visit you, even if you're dead.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2006

Tokyo Tower likely to get culture status

With its days as a television broadcasting tower numbered, the company that owns Tokyo Tower wants to register it as state-designated cultural property, company officials said Thursday.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2006

2,339 pools don't pass drain grille muster

Nationwide, 2,339 school and public swimming pools do not meet safety standards because their drain and intake grilles are not properly bolted in place, according to a government survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 10, 2006

Kyogen meets contemporary theater

For the past 20 years, Kazuhiro Morisaki has promoted the comical performing art form of kyogen, but that doesn't make him a purist.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2006

Japan to share expo-tise with China

The government will set up a panel of experts Wednesday to share its experience hosting the World Exposition last year in Aichi Prefecture with 2010 expo host China, the trade minister said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2006

1,900 pools are missing or have insecure intake grilles

The education minister said Tuesday public swimming pools may face on-site inspections after a survey found 1,900 of them nationwide have drain-related safety problems.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 9, 2006

Make better rural life a priority: Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki promised Tuesday to place priority on revitalizing rural areas and creating a society where people who work hard can lead untroubled lives if he becomes prime minister by winning the Sept. 20 Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2006

Center gives refugees reason for hope

has been commissioned by the government to provide followup (to refugees who have been recognized)," said Shin Ohara of RHQ. "I think all foreigners living in Japan face hurdles, but for refugees it is especially hard to be adopted into Japanese society for various reasons, including the language barrier." The...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 8, 2006

Setsuko Hashimoto

Setsuko Hashimoto, PhD, 52, is Director of Marketing at Biacore K.K., a global supplier of instruments for academic, pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. A top class scientist with keen business sense, she formed the Swedish company's Japanese subsidiary, and has been the driving force behind it's...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 6, 2006

Many happy returns to my Tokyo village past and present

As readers of this column last week may recall, I wrote there about a period in the early 1980s when my wife and I lived in the western Tokyo suburb of Soshigaya in Setagaya Ward. Three of our four children were born in the local hospital, and we have only the fondest memories of the old neighborhood....
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 6, 2006

Shu Uemura: A life in pursuit of beauty

Hailing from a conservative family of businessmen and bankers, as a young man in occupied Japan, Shu Uemura dreamed of becoming an actor. But, fearing that his weak constitution would hamper his chances of success, he instead enrolled at Tokyo Beauty Academy -- the only man in a class of 130.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 5, 2006

'Gimme Wings' raises singer-songwriter's profile

Sixteen years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a song entitled "Feel Like a Bird." The lead song and the title of his first album, released June 17, is "Gimme Wings." "I guess that suggests I haven't got very far," he jokes. In fact he's come quite a distance, but with still a way to go.

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