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COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WEEK 3
Mar 15, 2009

Slow Life ambassador tickets hasty hordes

At a busy crossing in front of Tokyo Station, Bruno Contigiani, president of L'Arte del Vivere con Lentezza (The Art of Slow Living), an organization he founded in his native Italy, approached office workers one after another urging "Yuru yuru, shiawase" ("Go slowly, be happy").
Reader Mail
Mar 15, 2009

Same attacks against Israel likely

Regarding the March 10 editorial, "Durban II in danger": When I lived in Japan in 1984-1985, a popular foreign title was the fabricated conspiracy theory "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." So it is heartening to read an editorial on the critical issues that are already undermining the second Durban...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Mar 15, 2009

Alaska photographer remembered, three decades of Doraemon, Kansai retro-drama remake

Photographer Michio Hoshino, who died 12 years ago, is profiled in the documentary "Hoshino Michio Inochi e no Manazashi" ("A Look at the Life of Michio Hoshino") (NHK-E, Tues., 10:25 p.m.)
EDITORIALS
Mar 14, 2009

Stabilizing Afghanistan

The Obama administration is working out a strategy to stabilize Afghanistan, where the level of violence has risen due to a resurgence of the Taliban. A high level of cooperation in the international community will be key to the successful reconstruction of the nation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 14, 2009

Japan Cat Network seeks help in Tokyo expansion project

American Susan Roberts, of the Kansai-based Japan Cat Network, met with a dozen interested persons March 8 in Tokyo as part of the animal welfare group's expansion to the capital and its plans to open a cat rehoming center in west Tokyo's Hachioji.
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2009

Mr. Bashir is indicted

It is unlikely that last week's decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict Mr. Omar al-Bashir, the president of Sudan, on charges of war crimes has cost Mr. Bashir much sleep. The ICC cannot enforce the writ on its own, and Mr. Bashir has allies and friends around the world.
EDITORIALS
Mar 11, 2009

Step up efforts to slash emissions

Prior to the Toyako Group of Eight summit in July 2008, Japan adopted a long-range goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050 from the current level. But compared with other major developed countries, Japan has been slow in deciding on a midrange reduction goal.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 10, 2009

Big winners in 'jury' system may be judges, bureaucrats

With notices having already gone out to the randomly selected citizens who may have to serve as lay judges (saibanin) in serious criminal trials starting later this year, authorities are concerned that yakuza gangsters may end up being chosen. Oh well, at least they made sure to exclude law professors....
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Mar 10, 2009

Litter sparks Akihabara cleanup

It was unusually warm and windy that particular Friday afternoon last month on which blew haru ichiban, the first strong, warm wind of the spring.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 10, 2009

Please teach us how to fit in

Dear Prime Minister Taro Aso,
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2009

Mexico's fight against organized crime

The international media have recently placed increased attention on the actions carried out by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to combat organized crime and strengthen the rule of law in Mexico.
LIFE
Mar 8, 2009

U.S. shows way to medical apologies

So you think apologizing is the norm in Japan? Well, think again — especially with regard to its venerable medical profession.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2009

China's growth challenge

As the annual session of China's National People's Congress has started, achieving sufficiently high economic growth will be indispensable for helping to stabilize Chinese society. It is also something other countries want to see as the world economy is rapidly cooling down due to the financial crisis...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2009

Afghanistan's drama set for stage

A high-ranking Afghan diplomat and a British dramatist are meeting a lot these days to discuss their common agenda: staging a play about violence-racked Afghanistan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2009

'Plastic City'

You can take the boy out of Tokyo but you can't take Tokyo out of the boy. Jo^ Odagiri, currently described by the Japanese media as "the most Tokyo-like of actors" stars in "Plastic City," an ambitious, multicultural project by Nelson Yu Lik-Wai (best known as director Jia Zhang-Ke's cinematographer)...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2009

'Doubt'

A parish priest stands in front of his flock, sets his features sternly, and then launches into his weekly sermon. He tells of a woman who goes to confession, and asks her priest if gossip was a sin. Of course, replies the priest, and for penance, he instructs the woman to go onto the roof of her house...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Mar 3, 2009

Working holidays and Amerasian roots

Mareen, an 18-year-old German citizen, spent three weeks in Japan, loved it, and now wants to come back.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 3, 2009

Rape victim fights for justice against U.S. military, Japan

Around the nondescript Tokyo suburb where she lives with her three children, Jane is a well-known face. Foreign in an area crowded with Japanese, she has taught English for years here among neighbors who greet her warmly on the street. Few know that her life is consumed by a fight against one of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Mar 3, 2009

Frenchman's flavorful twist on green tea has good of farmers at heart

Stubbornness and prudence seem to have paid off for Stephane Danton, a 44-year-old French entrepreneur who runs Ocharaka, a Japanese tea shop in Tokyo's trendy Kichijoji district.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2009

There's no deleveraging the illusions of politicians

BALI, Indonesia — In response to the current financial and economic turmoil, U.S. politicians wanted to be seen as "doing something" legislatively, even if costly and ineffective, in order to endear themselves to those voters who received benefits. This is evident in that the "stimulus spending" provides...
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2009

Mr. Obama's vision

Technically speaking, U.S. President Barack Obama's address to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday was not a state of the union speech. The president has been in office a little more than a month and he felt that was not enough time to render a judgment on the state of the nation. In fact, the speech...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2009

Nakasone to seek 'gyoza' poisoning update on China trip

Japan will seek an update from Beijing on its probe into last year's food poisonings linked to frozen "gyoza" dumplings made in China, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said Friday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2009

Mr. Aso goes to Washington

Prime Minister Taro Aso met with U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday in Washington, just a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, during her visit to Tokyo, invited him to meet with the president as the first foreign leader to be invited to the White House since Mr. Obama came to...
COMMENTARY
Feb 26, 2009

Barack Obama's Taliban itch

How gun-toting Islamists are expanding their hold on western Pakistan has been laid bare by Islamabad's U.S.-condoned peace agreement effectively ceding the once-pristine Swat Valley to the Taliban to set up a mini-state barely 160 km from the Pakistani capital. The deal came even as Pakistani President...
EDITORIALS
Feb 24, 2009

Good interns where needed

An advisory panel for both the health ministry and the education ministry has proposed abolishing the current training system for medical interns and creating a new one. While the new system, expected to start in fiscal 2010, appears geared more toward securing enough doctors in the countryside, it carries...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 24, 2009

Christianity's long history in the margins

Prime Minister Taro Aso may be a proclaimed Christian, but as far as the spread of the faith among the populace, it finds only a marginal presence.
COMMENTARY
Feb 23, 2009

Crisis hits the weak spots

The worst crisis in a century is eroding the Japanese economy as a growing number of "nonregular" workers lose their jobs. The unemployment rate in December reached 4.4 percent, up 0.5 percentage point from the previous month — the steepest increase ever. The labor ministry estimates that by the end...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?