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Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 3, 2005

New METI chief to try softer touch with Asian neighbors

Newly appointed Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Toshihiro Nikai said he favors a "patient, but persistent" approach toward improving strained relations with China caused by a protracted bilateral squabble over natural gas fields in the East China Sea.
JAPAN
Nov 2, 2005

Conservatives fight secular war memorial

A nonpartisan group of 233 conservative lawmakers adopted a resolution Tuesday against establishing a secular memorial for the war dead.
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 2, 2005

New defense chief promises less local burden from U.S. bases

The government will reduce the burden on communities with U.S. military bases by facilitating cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga said Tuesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 1, 2005

People power

After nearly a decade of stalling and prevarication over the replacement of Futenma Air Station in Okinawa, a solution has finally emerged from the dusty halls of power in Kasumigaseki and Washington.
EDITORIALS
Oct 31, 2005

Rengo's uphill battle

The process that saw Mr. Tsuyoshi Takagi elected to the presidency of Rengo (the Japanese Trade Union Confederation), Japan's largest labor organization, symbolizes the current situation that Japanese workers and labor unions find themselves in.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2005

Koizumi wants legal basis for military

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced hope Sunday that the Constitution will be revised to clearly stipulate the nation's possession of military forces for self-defense.
JAPAN
Oct 29, 2005

Nonpartisan panel established to study new war memorial

Senior lawmakers from the ruling coalition and the Democratic Party of Japan on Friday launched a nonpartisan panel to study the feasibility of establishing a new war memorial to bridge the rift between Japan and its neighbors over Yasukuni Shrine.
BUSINESS
Oct 29, 2005

Reform of state lenders in works

A Liberal Democratic Party panel studying reforms to eight government-backed financial institutions agreed Friday that Shoko Chukin Bank should be privatized.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 29, 2005

Panty snatching: is it a crime?

It's the change of seasons in Japan and the favorite time of year for TV weather forecasters as they make comments and give advice to their viewers. "It is normal for people to feel hot during the daytime but cold at night," observes one weather forecaster. "Tomorrow people should carry a foldup umbrella,"...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 29, 2005

Yuki Akimoto

Yuko Akimoto and her brother began the right way by choosing their parents well. Their father, Minoru Akimoto, has an M.A. from Michigan State University. From a business career at the top, he retired as executive vice president of Itochu Corp. Their poetic, music-loving mother, Taeko, runs her own musical...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 28, 2005

Journey to the end of the world

The name in Ainu means "the end of the Earth." And the bleakness and ruggedness of this lonely peninsula jutting out into the Sea of Okhotsk are such that little imagination is required as to how the Ainu -- the indigenous people of Hokkaido -- happened by the name of Shiretoko.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2005

Arduous birth of democracy

The democratization of a further third of the world's countries during the second half of the 20th century was a remarkable and inspiring achievement. At the start of the 21st century, however, the difficulties inherent in exporting democracy have become starkly apparent.
JAPAN
Oct 26, 2005

Court splits on Hansen's compensation

Judges were split Tuesday on two lawsuits filed by former Hansen's disease patients from South Korea and Taiwan -- the South Korean patients were denied compensation while the Taiwanese were awarded it.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Oct 26, 2005

Eagles not showing progressive thinking in hiring Nomura as new manager

What a difference a year makes.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 24, 2005

Triple bliss for Deep Impact

KYOTO -- Sunday saw the birth of Japan's sixth Triple Crown champion as Deep Impact rocked a record Kikkasho crowd of nearly 137,000 with a race that had hearts in mouths till the very end.
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2005

Don't appease China: Machimura

Japan should establish a more equal relationship with China rather than always trying to appease its giant rival, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Sunday as he defended Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's latest visit to Yasukuni Shrine.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 24, 2005

Government's policy yardstick should be based on per capita GDP, not GDP

Finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 advanced and emerging economies expressed strong concern Oct. 16 that high oil prices could decelerate growth and destabilize the global economy as they wrapped up their annual meeting on the outskirts of Beijing.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 23, 2005

Japanese emperors: Between the people and the gods

ENIGMA OF THE EMPERORS: Sacred Subservience in Japanese History, by Ben-Ami Shillony, Global Oriental, 2005, 312 pp., (cloth). This well-researched and scholarly study by Ben-Ami Shillony of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will interest not only students of Japanese history but also all those concerned...
Japan Times
Features
Oct 23, 2005

A more dignified way to die

Many of us struggle with difficult decisions regarding, say, our careers or relationships. But one decision that many of us avoid is "How do I want to die?"
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 23, 2005

Best to dig deep and study language from its roots

W hen I was growing up in Los Angeles during the 1950s, the L.A. County Board of Education decided that the children of the city should learn Spanish. While the language was not made compulsory, it was taught to us regularly with the usual visual aids, such as pictures of elephants, giraffes, mountains...
JAPAN
Oct 22, 2005

U.S. realignment talks in danger

Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono said Friday that Japan and the United States might not hold realignment talks next week if the two sides fail to agree on where to move the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Oct 22, 2005

Professional Design Solutions on a steady incline

There is a small graphic on Jeremy D. Thomson's name card that says a lot about him: two light bulbs inspired by Thomas Edison, who in failing hundreds of times chose to see the experience as having learned hundreds of ways not to make a light bulb.
MORE SPORTS
Oct 21, 2005

Deep Impact a win away from Triple Crown

Deep Impact -- it was a movie; it was a NASA mission; it's a super colt poised to make history this weekend in Kyoto when he makes his bid for the Triple Crown.
JAPAN
Oct 21, 2005

James Bond goes Japanese? Tokyo eyes MI6-style spy agency

The idea of a Japanese James Bond may sound hilarious, but serious discussions are under way in Japan on whether to create a secret intelligence service along the lines of Britain's MI6 to conduct overseas espionage.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2005

Visiting Yasukuni is constitutional right: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday rebuffed criticism of his recent Yasukuni Shrine trip, saying visiting the shrine is a right guaranteed by the Constitution.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2005

PIFF: Asia's magnet for movies

The Pusan International Film Festival, which took place Oct. 6-14, marked its 10th year with its biggest program ever -- 307 films from 73 countries. These numbers alone make PIFF the largest annual film-related event in Asia, and with the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) taking place in the Korean port city...
BUSINESS
Oct 19, 2005

Automakers pin hopes on motor show

The 39th Tokyo Motor Show opens Saturday, and industry officials are hoping the 16-day extravaganza inspires drivers to loosen their purse strings and buy a new vehicle.
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2005

Maehara backs changing war-renouncing Article 9

Democratic Party of Japan President Seiji Maehara said Monday that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution should be revised in a way that allows Japan to exercise its right to both self-defense and collective defense.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person