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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 30, 2006

Harking back to the past in order to secure the immediate future

Thanks to continuing malfeasance on the part of some of its employees, NHK remains in the dog house, so it's tempting to view recent programming decisions with an eye for how they might boost the public broadcaster's standing among subscribers. For example, why has NHK revived not one, not two, but four...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 26, 2006

Scandal causes 8 JSF officials to step down

Eight members of the Japan Skating Federation executive committee will resign at the end of June over their alleged involvement in questionable business operations, federation officials said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2006

JR West's postcrash safety steps find skeptics

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- Each morning, express trains roar past houses and businesses along the JR Fukuchiyama Line, carrying passengers to and from work in Amagasaki and Kobe, or classes at Doshisha University's Kyotanabe campus in Kyoto Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Apr 25, 2006

Sweden's IKEA back in Japan after 20-year hiatus

Furniture giant IKEA marked its return to Japan with the opening of a store Monday in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, but some domestic rivals question whether the Swedish firm has learned enough about Japanese consumers to please them.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 25, 2006

Aso family's 'slave' link under scrutiny

While Taro Aso's public statements as foreign minister have done little to help ease tensions between Tokyo and the rest of Asia, a family connection to wartime forced labor has raised further questions over his ability to oversee good relations with Japan's neighbors.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 23, 2006

Has pachinko got the balls to survive if casinos are legalized?

In February, the Liberal Democratic Party formed a team to study the possibility of lifting the ban on casino gambling in Japan. About half of Japan's prefectures, as well as Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, have said they want to build casino resorts to attract foreign tourists.
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 23, 2006

... all mixed up ...

Doesn't she realize that I can't understand much of anything she says? Bobbing my head, trying to rest on torturously bent knees with a smile iced onto my face, I wonder why she is so desperate to get in all of those words. They don't really sound like words, but they are.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 21, 2006

Freewheeling across the Inland Sea

"Getting there is half the fun."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2006

Myths and misconceptions on Chernobyl

LONDON -- The 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 26, 1986, is prompting a new wave of alarmist claims about its impact on human health and the environment. As has become a ritual on such commemorative occasions, the death toll is tallied in the hundreds of thousands, and fresh...
COMMENTARY
Apr 15, 2006

2006 is all about democracy

HONOLULU -- The 2006 National Security Strategy (NSS) document has just been released. News coverage has focused on one word: preemption. Largely overlooked has been the much greater emphasis on the promotion of democracy as the primary objective of American foreign policy in the second administration...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Apr 15, 2006

When rankings go rank

One symptom of a society addicted to quick information is the popularity of lists.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Apr 14, 2006

Legendary lensman of rock

Jim Marshall's credentials as "THE rock 'n' roll photographer" are secured.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2006

Education bill advances after patriotism debate

A ruling coalition task force agreed Wednesday on a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education after a compromise was reached on the definition of patriotism.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2006

Asia's dysfunctional democracy

OXFORD, England -- The abrupt resignation of Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is but another sign of a disturbing paradox: the more "vigorous" Asian democracy becomes, the more dysfunctional it is.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006

Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil

In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Apr 8, 2006

Mary Kerwin

Born the eldest of five sisters in Minneapolis, Mary Kerwin said that superficially hers was an insular upbringing. Her grandfather was an immigrant from Norway. Her father was a Lutheran pastor and her mother a schoolteacher. "But while I was still very young, the Viking ancestry won out," she said....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 6, 2006

Your greatest fears become reality

Awee figure of a man, dressed in a cuddly gray Dangermouse jumpsuit, enters a wrestling ring screeching, "Dangermouse saves the day!" Three menacing-looking Japanese pro-wrestlers proceed to chase him around the ring, smashing fluorescent light bulbs on his head as he tries to fend them off with his...
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

33 metro teachers hit for symbol snub

The Tokyo Metropolitan board of education Friday punished 33 public school teachers who refused to stand to face the national flag and sing "Kimigayo," the national anthem, at March graduation ceremonies.
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...
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2006

Government drafts plans for reactor to succeed Monju

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency proposed a blueprint Thursday for nuclear technology development that envisions a 1,500-megawatt fast-breeder reactor to succeed the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 31, 2006

Here's one castle to crow about

They may be unloved and unwanted, but even their detractors would have to admit that Japan's crows are tough, resilient critters. It is, then, entirely appropriate that the oldest castle in Japan should be named after these intimidating birds. The Japanese of yore had quite a fondness for naming their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 31, 2006

Lapping up success

When she's not working as an actress or DJing at a Saami language radio station in Helsinki, Anni-Kristiina Juuso is a reindeer farmer in her native Lapland. "Yes, like my character in the film. So in many ways, I was totally in my element!" So laughs the 27-year old Juuso, who is one of few Lapp women...
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2006

Textbooks given state makeover

, which it controls.
BUSINESS
Mar 28, 2006

CCC, Aioi Insurance set to tie up

Aioi Insurance Co. and Culture Convenience Club Co., the operator of Japan's largest video rental chain, Tsutaya, said Monday they have agreed to begin preparations to set up a joint casualty insurance firm with an eye to cashing in on Tsutaya's large customer base.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2006

A fair ruling in Britain

In most legal rulings, even a casual observer can see reasonable arguments on both sides. This is not surprising. If both sides didn't have reasonable arguments, there wouldn't be a dispute to begin with, or any need for a ruling. But a decision handed down by Britain's Law Lords last week backing a...
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."...

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