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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 10, 2009

Turkey aims to reconnect with its neighbors

ANKARA — Nowadays, the international media are obsessed with the question of who "lost" Turkey and what that supposed loss means for Europe and the West. More alarmingly, some commentators liken Turkey's neighborhood policy to a revival of Ottoman imperialism. Recently, a senior Turkish columnist went...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2009

Asia's new strategic partners

The recently concluded India-Australia security agreement has come at a time when tectonic power shifts are challenging Asian strategic stability. Asia has come a long way since the emergence of two Koreas, two Chinas, two Vietnams and a partitioned India. It has risen dramatically as the world's main...
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2009

¥7.2 trillion stimulus plan is unveiled

After haggling with a junior coalition partner over the size, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday announced a ¥7.2 trillion economic stimulus package aimed at lifting the sagging economy and overcoming deflation.
JAPAN
Dec 8, 2009

Hong Kong looks to Japan's automated tombs

Hong Kong, one of the world's most densely populated areas, is looking to Japan for a solution to a perennial issue — what to do with the dead.
COMMENTARY
Dec 8, 2009

A hint of hedging on Afghanistan

LONDON — It couldn't have taken three months to write the speech that President Barack Obama gave at West Point last week (Dec. 1), but clearly much thought went into his decision to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. Some aspects of his strategy even suggest that he understands how little...
BUSINESS
Dec 7, 2009

Globalized road to recovery will be bumpy, U.K. economist warns

Even though many economies appear to be emerging from recession, the road to recovery is going to be pocked with setbacks and slippages in the coming year, with prospects for future growth clouded by the long-term effects of the global financial crisis, a British expert said at a recent seminar in Tokyo....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2009

Tuna farming getting a boost as species suffers

KUMANO, Mie Pref. — Thousands of tuna, their silver bellies bloated with fat, swim frantically around in netted areas of a small bay here, stuffing themselves until they grow twice as heavy as in the wild.
Reader Mail
Dec 6, 2009

Tattoos and Japanese tradition

I agree with all of Debito Arudou's Dec. 1 article, "A level playing field for immigrants." It's sad to see Japan, which is supposed to be one of the leading countries, falling short. The article should have included a section on how to teach Japanese society to be less fearful of non-Japanese people,...
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2009

DPJ takes page from old LDP playbook

The first extraordinary Diet session under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan-led administration ended Friday with the legislature approving 10 of the 12 government-sponsored bills during the 40-day period.
EDITORIALS
Dec 4, 2009

Secret pacts on Okinawa

For the first time, a former high-ranking diplomat testified in court on Tuesday that secret pacts existed between Japan and the United States over the May 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2009

Rudd wrestles with refugee crisis

SYDNEY — Just when links between Indonesia and Australia were looking good, along come Sri Lankans fleeing in leaky boats. Suddenly the Indian Ocean marks a diplomatic and humanitarian standoff of grim proportions.
COMMENTARY
Dec 2, 2009

Commonwealth reaches out

Every two years the heads of government of the 50-plus states of which the Commonwealth consists, embracing almost a third of the planet's entire population and several of its most dynamic economies, meet to discuss issues of common concern.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Dec 2, 2009

Signing Iverson would be mistake for Philly

NEW YORK — Other than generating some desperately (the operative word) needed excitement among the missing masses and possibly selling enough tickets for the remainder of the 76ers' 5-11 season to rationalize investing in a pro-rated $1.3 million veteran minimum contract, I can't visualize anything...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 29, 2009

Benitez under gun as Mourinho speculation swirls

LONDON — Sunday sees the most significant day of the season so far. It is a time for football lovers to encourage the wife to go shopping, ensure the fridge has sufficient supplies and then sit back to enjoy a feast on the box.
EDITORIALS
Nov 28, 2009

Glimpse of justice at retrial

The retrial of Mr. Toshikazu Sugaya will hopefully reveal how and why a false charge was made against him that resulted in him serving 17 1/2 years of a life sentence for the May 1990 murder of a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi, Prefecture. He was released last June after a new DNA test revealed...
JAPAN
Nov 28, 2009

LDP calls Hatoyama to account

Revelations that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama received ¥900 million from his mother — allegedly as a loan — has put the Democratic Party of Japan on the defensive, as opposition parties, the ex-long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in particular, seek to grill the fledgling administration over the...
EDITORIALS
Nov 27, 2009

9/11 trials a victory for justice

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that it will prosecute the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, and four accused conspirators, in a New York City courtroom. That decision has triggered a firestorm in the United States, with critics...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 27, 2009

'Black Gaisha ni Tsutometerundaga mo Ore wa Genkai Kamo Shirenai'

Films about Japanese organization men, from bureaucrats to salarymen, have long broadly divided into two categories — the serious ones, that portray work life as a sort of holy war, fought by loyal, self-sacrificing blue-suited soldiers, and the comic, whose characters range from pompous idiots to...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 27, 2009

'8 Days' that shook Japan's art world

In the chronologies you find appended to Japanese art books, it looks something like this: Title: "Joseph Beuys Exhibition"; Dates: June 2 — July 2, 1984; Venue: Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo
Reader Mail
Nov 26, 2009

Mountains of tectonic evidence

Regarding Jeff Ogrisseg's Nov. 22 article "Our growing Earth?" and related articles: I am extremely disappointed in The Japan Times' decision to run a nearly two-page spread on the scientifically bereft growing Earth hypothesis. Ogrisseg's credulous account of this hypothesis uses the same old tired...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2009

The irresistible rise of the Chinese renminbi

BEIJING — China is making a big push to encourage greater international use of its currency, the renminbi. It has an agreement with Brazil to facilitate use of the two countries' currencies in bilateral trade transactions. It has signed renminbi swap agreements with Argentina, Belarus, Hong Kong, Indonesia,...
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2009

Hatoyama silent on funds probe

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama remained mum Tuesday on his ever-widening fundraising scandal, saying he trusts prosecutors to judge whether he is liable for any misconduct.
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2009

Two smart guys trying to figure it all out

LOS ANGELES — The two looked over the precipice and gasped at the steepness of the drop. They looked down at a desert of dashed hopes and old skeletons, scraping the bottom of the canyon.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 22, 2009

Obsessed with 'ugly' women

When I read the news item in early November about the three men in Tottori Prefecture whose mysterious deaths were linked to a woman already under arrest for fraud, I associated them with the similarly mysterious deaths of several other men linked to a Tokyo woman who was under arrest for swindling....
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Nov 21, 2009

Frontale, Antlers, Gamba taking J. League title race down to wire

The 2009 J. League title race looked like it would turn into a cakewalk when Kashima Antlers stretched ahead of the pack earlier in the season, but history tells us nothing can ever be taken for granted.
JAPAN
Nov 20, 2009

Hatoyama to U.S.: turn over suspect

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama called on U.S. military authorities Thursday to pressure a suspect to report for police questioning in connection with a fatal hit-and-run in Okinawa on Nov. 7.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan