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Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 23, 2009

Japan's creeping natural disaster

In October 2010, government officials from almost every country in the world will meet in Nagoya for the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP10). The aim of the Convention, which came into effect in 1993, is simple but momentous: To maintain the richness of life on...
Reader Mail
Aug 23, 2009

The relative 'evil' of stimulants

The Aug. 13 article "Sakai bust puts spotlight on narcotics evil" prompts the question: Is the stimulant (kakuseizai) that actress and pop star Noriko Sakai may have inhaled equivalent to heroin and other hard drugs? The answer is obvious.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2009

Japan has plenty of work to do in transforming how it governs

The world is changing dramatically and political governance is at stake.
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 21, 2009

Decentralization picking up steam?

OSAKA — Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2018. Following the historic Lower House election in 2009, the country passed legislation that abolished the 47 prefectures and thousands of smaller local governments.
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2009

DPJ to shed light on secret pacts

Will the Democratic Party of Japan shine a light on the government's darkest security secrets if elected to power, and if so, how will this affect relations with the United States?
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2009

Relief measure falls short

On Aug. 6, the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Prime Minister Taro Aso signed an agreement with representatives of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic-bombing survivors who had filed lawsuits seeking recognition as sufferers of radiation-related illnesses. Under the agreement, plaintiffs...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Aug 18, 2009

Power harassment plagues workplaces

Dear Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Yoichi Masuzoe, I can still recall the phone conversation with my spouse on June 2, when I was crying profusely due to harassment at work. Earlier that day, the manager of my unit asked me to resign, stating that one of the deputy managers didn't like me. On...
EDITORIALS
Aug 14, 2009

Smooth start to new trials

The first criminal trial under the lay judge system ended in Tokyo District Court last week, and a second such trial wrapped up in Saitama District Court on Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 14, 2009

For vet, Soviet labor camp as bad as war

24th in a series
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 14, 2009

Playwright Tomohiro Maekawa finds the uncanny in the mundane

In February this year, 35-year-old Tomohiro Maekawa's reputation was given a boost when he was nominated in both the best-playwright and best-director categories of the prestigious Yomiuri Theater Awards. Although Maekawa didn't walk away with an award; the nominations, coming just six years after he...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 14, 2009

Mexico's search for an artistic identity

What kind of art would best represent a rapidly developing country coming out of the social upheaval of a violent revolution — especially when it had, only a century before that, just thrown off the yoke of colonial rule? Twentieth-century Mexico faced just this question — how it attempted to answer...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 12, 2009

Party platforms offer no quick fix to job woes

Fourth in a series
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 12, 2009

Cameras that project pics; Apple ups its dominance

Projecting innovation: Up until this past year, imagination in the field of digital cameras was largely reserved for how you used them, not in the design of the devices themselves. But the threat from mobile phones with built-in cameras has triggered innovation. Nikon's Coolpix S1000pj, for example,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 2009

Breakthrough with North Korea?

The release by North Korea of two Korean-American journalists is a welcome event. The two women broke the law, but incarceration was excessive punishment and their release was long overdue. The delay suggests the fate of these two women was determined by forces much larger than the details of their particular...
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2009

Hitting the recovery road with eco-friendly products

On July 16 the State Statistics Bureau of China announced that GDP for the April-June quarter grew 7.9 percent in real terms from a year before, surpassing the 6.1 percent rate of the January-March quarter. After the Lehman Brothers shock last September, China's annual economic growth rate — which...
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2009

North Korea's way of trying to break the ice

LOS ANGELES — You will never get anything of significance done with North Korea unless you go right to the top. The essence of its political culture is a feral fusion of Asian family values ("father knows best") with rigid communist hierarchy.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2009

Pariahs of Asia and their nukes

LONDON — It is generally agreed that North Korea and Burma have the two most oppressive regimes in Asia. They rule over two of the poorest countries in the continent, and that is no coincidence whatever.
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2009

Quit patronizing the lay judges

Regarding the Aug. 4 article "Language in court to be simple" (about the start of the first trial in Japan under the new lay judge system): I heard similar statements on television several times on Monday, the day of the first trial — "We'll be careful so that the 'people' can understand what we are...
Reader Mail
Aug 9, 2009

Security options worth pursuing

In his Aug. 3 article, "Angst over opposition rule," Robert Dujarric presents four choices for Japan with regard to its defense security: (1) pursuing unarmed pacifism, (2) switching sides from being a U.S. ally to a Chinese junior partner, (3) tripling or quadrupling its defense budget by ridding itself...
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2009

Stronger case for videotaping

In preparation for the lay judge system, which recently started, public prosecutors and police began partially videotaping the interrogation of suspects on a trial basis in August 2006 and in September 2008. The videotaped scenes are of investigators reading the record of a suspect's oral statement to...
COMMENTARY
Aug 8, 2009

Disaster in Afghanistan

Thousands of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom and several other nations are struggling on in Afghanistan, with the Americans and British in particular suffering heavy casualties. But why are they there, and what are they trying to achieve?
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Aug 8, 2009

Goalkeeper Foster set for World Cup audition

LONDON — Carlo Ancelotti takes charge of Chelsea in a senior game for the first time on Sunday when it plays Manchester United in the Community Shield at Wembley.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2009

Lay judges relieved case over but enthusiastic about experience

The first serving lay judges expressed relief Thursday at having completed their duties and encouraged others to step up and benefit from what they called "a valuable experience."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

The 'big bang' at Echigo-Tsumari

It is a picture-book perfect shrine. Tiny and tranquil, it is framed by a red gateway at the top of a winding forest path. But there is one surprising intrusion on the scene: a shiny Coca-Cola bench matching the vermilion hue of the shrine sits under its roof.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 7, 2009

Allowing ourselves to be deceived by art

Whether enjoying the sight of shadow puppets against a wall or the suggestive placing of objects in an Austin Powers movie, people have long delighted in the playful use of images.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 7, 2009

English teachers photographed in anthropologically minded study

If aliens were to arrive in Tokyo wanting to document its inhabitants, they might end up taking photos like those now on show at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
BUSINESS
Aug 7, 2009

Sapporo sex shops count: BOJ poll

The Bank of Japan is counting brothels in Hokkaido to help determine demand for services as the country battles its deepest postwar recession.
EDITORIALS
Aug 4, 2009

Foundation of news gathering

The Tokyo High Court on July 28 overturned a September 2007 Tokyo District Court ruling that said three newspapers libeled a doctor at Tokyo Women's Medical College Hospital in a news report, and acquitted the news agency that originated the report. The high court ruling correctly understands the role...

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