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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 3, 2008

To Gaijin Hell you'll go!

In Christian-predominant Western society, even if you don't grow up in a religious household, you have likely grown up hearing the common threat "You're going to go to hell if you do that!" For example, if you try to play a trick on your neighbor, your mother might say, "You'll go to hell for that!"...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 3, 2008

Rain or shine, Disney's parade rolls on

Although a cloudy day in April, and a little chilly from the morning drizzle, the temperature seemed a bit higher at Tokyo Disneyland, where many had come to enjoy a new parade, "Jubilation!" created to mark the park's 25th anniversary.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2008

Judicial independence infringed

Documents unearthed at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration show that the United States exerted pressure on Japan after a district court made a historically famous 1959 ruling that the U.S. military presence in Japan violated principles of the war-renouncing Constitution. The pressure...
EDITORIALS
May 2, 2008

Going back to school online

As the new school year started this April, one change in education stood out. Some universities in Japan have started to offer lectures over the Internet, on their Web sites, for free!
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2008

Meeting in Moscow

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and President-elect Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow over the weekend. Mr. Fukuda tried to establish a good rapport both with Mr. Putin, who will step down soon but is expected to wield power as the next prime minister, and Mr. Medvedev,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Apr 29, 2008

Seller of educational toys finds a niche

With relatively few parks to run around in, many children spend long hours either at cram schools or playing their hand-held game consoles.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 29, 2008

Judiciary's 'snake legs' exposed

On April 17 the Nagoya High Court ruled that the dispatch of Air Self-Defense Force personnel to Iraq was unconstitutional. While the ruling made news, it will probably not make much difference to Japan's foreign policy. Its significance may be nothing more than academic — after all, despite the headlines...
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2008

Wealth fund should promote development, Yamamoto says

A Japanese sovereign wealth fund should invest in projects that promote global development as well as provide returns, according to former financial services minister Yuji Yamamoto.
BUSINESS
Apr 29, 2008

Surging cost of fuel, food drives 1.1% jump in retail sales

Retail sales rose in March as households paid more for gasoline and food, leaving them less to spend on clothing and furniture, government statistics showed Monday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2008

U.S. must solve beef problem

On April 23, a spinal column, a part of the cow that is banned from import because it is considered at risk of spreading mad cow disease, was found in a shipment of beef from the United States. Though this violated a beef trade accord between Japan and the U.S., Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 27, 2008

Musashi: A do-or-die warrior not to be crossed

When he killed his first man, Miyamoto Musashi was a mere boy of 13 — in present-day terms, a first-year junior-high-school student.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 27, 2008

Taking readers back to the Occupation

FROM JAPAN WITH LOVE, text and photos by Mary Ruggieri, foreword by Richard Ruggieri. San Rafael, CA: Portsmouth Publishing, 2008, 264 pp., 400 monochrome photos, $24.95 (paper) From the autumn of 1946 to the spring of 1948 Mary Ruggieri was stationed in the Women's Army Corps as a member of the Allied...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 27, 2008

Weighing up a media culture that sees 58-cm waistlines as the norm

Earlier this month, the French Parliament began contemplating a bill that would make it illegal to promote extreme thinness. Following the death in 2006 of a Brazilian supermodel from complications associated with anorexia, the issue of young women purposely starving themselves for the sake of self-image...
Japan Times
LIFE
Apr 27, 2008

Deadly weapons forged as art

The slow, rhythmic thrust of a piston covered in tanuki (raccoon dog) skin blasted air from box bellows onto the searing-hot charcoal. A casual glance at his forge was, however, all that Yoshindo Yoshihara needed to know the fire's exact temperature.
BASKETBALL
Apr 25, 2008

Nakamura to coach new bj-league team

Longtime coach Kazuo Nakamura will lead the Hamamatsu Higashi Mikawa Phoenix in their inaugural season in the bj-league, it was announced on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2008

Fukuda, EU leaders agree to boost cooperation in climate-change fight

Japan and the European Union agreed Wednesday to step up cooperation in the fight against global warming, calling for a "highly ambitious and binding international approach" to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2008

Fukuda, Lee agree to push North

Japan and South Korea will work together to push for the denuclearization of North Korea and work closely with the United States to achieve world peace and stability, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and President Lee Myung Bak agreed Monday in Tokyo.
LIFE / Language
Apr 22, 2008

KY-style Japanese: Express yourself alphabetically

Waiting at the railroad crossing, I couldn't help but overhear the animated conversation that the two students standing behind me were having.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2008

China's foreign minister wraps up 'diplomatic' visit to Osaka, Nara

Politics was off the menu as Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi wrapped up his visit to Japan over the weekend with dinner Saturday in Osaka and lunch Sunday in the ancient capital of Nara.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2008

Torch tension mounts in Nagano

Tension is rising in Nagano, where thousands of spectators and demonstrators are expected to gather next Saturday when the city hosts the Olympic torch.
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2008

Torch relay lights up many issues

The most controversial Olympic torch relay in history will arrive in Japan this week. The relay route has been changed and another event canceled in Nagano amid worries over the many protesters who have followed the route as persistently as any athlete. This Olympic torch has turned out to be symbolic...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 21, 2008

Squabbling ruined chance for private-sector BOJ chief

The dispute over replacing the Bank of Japan governor, whose seat was left vacant when Toshihiko Fukui's five-year term ended March 19, was finally settled April 9 when Deputy Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa was officially promoted to chief of the central bank.

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