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Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 14, 2009

Painting pictures from an artistic lyrical palette

As a narrative goes, lyricist Chris Mosdell's story is anything but a straightforward one.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Feb 13, 2009

An abandoned history of Chinese influence

Edo Period (1603-1868) paintings from Osaka have been relatively neglected in comparison with paintings from Tokyo and Kyoto. A canonical list of works and a historical framework were written up in Tokyo in the 1890s in a series of influential lectures by scholar Okakura Tenshin, setting the directions...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2009

Nation grapples with pot-smoking sumo wrestlers

Sumo wrestlers with pot bellies, yes. Sumo wrestlers with pot? Now that's harder to grapple with.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2009

U.N. official urges steady presence in East Timor

The United Nations should extend its peacekeeping operations in East Timor for at least another year to establish long-term security in the fledgling nation, a high-ranking U.N. official said in a recent interview in Tokyo.
EDITORIALS
Feb 10, 2009

Seizing opportunites to expand

The current global economic downturn is deepening as the twice-yearly World Economic Outlook of the International Monetary Fund indicates. While it predicts that the world economy will grow by 0.5 percent in 2009, down from the 2.2 percent forecast earlier, the outlook for developed countries is bleaker....
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2009

Foreigners and the strong yen

One of the negative effects of the economic crisis and strong yen will be fewer foreigners in Japan. The strong yen has hit foreign students, interns and trainees hard, especially those from Asian countries. This past year, Japanese schools and companies have accepted dramatically fewer people from abroad,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Feb 7, 2009

Long-shot meeting, longtime love

After training under a dyer for six months in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, art student Satoko Yamagishi decided she needed a break. In October 1998 she went to Montreal, where she met Philippe Lavoie, a Canadian computer chip designer studying Japanese.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2009

Aso riles LDP over postal stance

Liberal Democratic Party members expressed dismay Friday at Prime Minister Taro Aso's remarks the previous day that he originally opposed postal privatization and was willing to review the splitup of the service.
JAPAN
Feb 7, 2009

Pakistan seeking $25 billion

Pakistan may call for additional annual aid of up to $5 billion over the next five years to fight terrorism and alleviate poverty, the adviser on finance to Pakistan's prime minister said Friday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2009

'Anime,' 'manga' grab spotlight at major exhibition

At the Japan Media Arts Festival, prepare to jet into the sky like Superman and dance with speakers blasting at your hips, as the nation's largest showcase of cutting-edge "anime," "manga" and high-tech arts gets more interactive.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 6, 2009

Primary approach adds up for GO!GO!7188

"Last year we toured Japan with bands such as Mongol800, and while we were messing around with the other bands on stage, we came to rediscover how much fun it is to just make a noise," says Akiko Noma, better known as Akko, bassist with off-kilter rock band GO!GO!7188.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2009

Moving Tsukiji to new site raises fears of toxic seafood

Tokyo's Tsukiji, dubbed "the fish market at the center of the world" for its influence on the global seafood trade, is being forced to move to a site laced with benzene and cancer-causing chemicals.
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2009

Japanese thinker from the Gulag

On Aug. 9, 1945, the Soviet Army started invading Manchukuo, a puppet state of the Japanese military in today's Northeast China, violating the Japan-Soviet Neutrality Pact. Many Japanese, both civilians and soldiers, perished there and the Soviet Union took many Japanese to labor camps in Siberia and...
Reader Mail
Feb 1, 2009

Open the gate wider to U.S. beef

It's time Japan open its market to more U.S. beef. Before I moved back to Japan in December, I was a beef producer in the state of Iowa. I have nine years' experience living in Japan, so I am not unaware of how Japanese think with regard to food safety, etc. I had several guests from Japan in recent...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 31, 2009

Milking bovine tourism in '09

Happy Chinese Moo Year! It's the Year of the Cow. And you know what that means: bovine tourism. No, I don't mean cows stampeding to Japan for the "Visit Japan Campaign." I'm talking about the role of cows in Japanese culture and famous places of bovine interest within Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2009

Mr. Aso outlines goals

In a policy address before the Diet on Wednesday, Prime Minister Taro Aso, as expected, gave priority to helping the nation tide over the current economic crisis. Correctly observing that all of the world is simultaneously entering an unprecedented recession and that Japan cannot escape it, he noted...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 30, 2009

A whale of a shortsighted subsidy program

BEPPU, Oita Pref. — After stepping off the train and onto the platform at Ogata station, in the Tosa area of Kochi Prefecture, Shikoku, travelers are greeted by a sign with two whales: "Welcome to Ogata, where the whales also greet you."
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2009

'Proactive diplomacy' pledged

Japan will demonstrate its leadership through "proactive diplomacy," including sending civilian aid to Afghanistan and passing new laws for antipiracy activities in Somalia, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2009

MSDF's hands tied on antipiracy tour

With Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada's orders to prepare the Maritime Self-Defense Force for dispatch Wednesday, the government has officially given the green light to an antipiracy mission around the Horn of Africa.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 29, 2009

Toyota, Honda production cuts typify global auto woes

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., Japan's three-largest carmakers, all cut global production in December as the recession and a credit crunch dampened demand for new automobiles.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2009

China's clout grows as U.S. economy weakens

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After 9/11 when China sided with the United States in the war on terrorism, Chinese leaders expected a quid pro quo: Perhaps Washington might make some concessions on the "Taiwan issue." But then U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell emphatically dismissed this idea.
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2009

China's ambitious defense plan

China has made public a white paper titled "China's National Defense in 2008." For the first time, China has acknowledged its policy of improving the operational capabilities of its navy on the open seas, although its move in this direction has been obvious in recent years. Recent examples of this move...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 27, 2009

Burakumin, 'musical jobs': readers respond

Koseki at root of problem I wish to thank you for the excellent article "Breaking the silence on burakumin" on Jan. 20. I work for the Buraku Liberation Center in Osaka and was featured in the Aug. 2, 2008, issue (search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080802a1.html). One point I would add is that it is...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic