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JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008

Japan and China put on best faces for Hu's visit

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura agreed Thursday in Tokyo to do their utmost to make Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit a success as they officially announced his May 6-10 trip.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 15, 2008

Method in the madness?

In November, Japan became only the second country in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting and photo-taking at all international entry points, as part of beefed-up "antiterrorism" measures by the Ministry of Justice.
Reader Mail
Apr 13, 2008

The true meaning of patriotism

I was appalled by the simplistic and utterly condemnable view of patriotism expressed in the April 6 letter from Wilson Hartz. His glib remarks display a remarkable lack of appreciation for the complexity of the long and agonizing controversy in this country over national symbols. Hartz would have the...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2008

Gambari's battle in Burma

SINGAPORE — The United Nations special envoy to Burma is coming under fire for failing to nudge the country's military rulers in the direction of real political reform. But it is wrong to blame the envoy, Ibrahim Gambari. After all, his mandate is from the United Nations and he reports to the U.N....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2008

Regional role for China's yuan

It is likely that a renminbi (RMB) area emerges in East Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2008

The international community is betraying Afghanistan

HONG KONG — It is a magnificent land, a high plateau, landlocked, bitterly windswept and freezing in winter; sweltering, parched and dry in summer. It has a proud stiff-necked people who reflect the tough climate, rugged, stubborn, fiercely tribal, traditionally loyal but with a tenaciously vicious...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008

The world's hungry billion

COPENHAGEN — Hunger has slipped from the rich world's consciousness. Televised images of Third World children with distended bellies no longer shock viewers. Polls show that developed nations now believe that the world's biggest problems are terrorism and climate change.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 8, 2008

Dancing with the devil over 'Yasukuni'

One of the great mysteries of life in Japan is the presence of the ultra-right. Loud, threatening and occasionally lethal, the shaven-headed patriots seem immune to police powers. "Why doesn't someone do something about those guys," is a fairly common response by the first-time foreign visitor. A strong...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2008

Japan lagging behind EU in setting de facto global business standards

Japanese firms should recognize and respond to the European Union's growing power as a de facto setter of global business standards, because failure to do so would seriously affect the future of their overseas business, experts told a recent seminar in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIAN ECONOMY SYMPOSIUM
Apr 4, 2008

Spending on human capital an investment in Asia's future economic growth

If Asia wants to remain the world's growth center, it needs to invest more in education and skill training for its human capital, said Mahani Zainal Abidin, director general of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2008

ODA fall poses Africa policy dilemma

The international African aid conference to be held in Yokohama in late May comes at a time when Japan's official development assistance is in decline and rival China's "resource diplomacy" is rising, putting Foreign Ministry officials in a quandary.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 3, 2008

Seeking international artists

W hen New York's Armory Show art fair started out back in 1994, it was a simple affair. At a news conference last week in the city, one of the four founders, Paul Morris, described how works shown the first year were hung on the walls or laid out on the beds of the small Gramercy Hotel.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 1, 2008

'Half-alien' group foresees disaster, Japan UFO landing

In December, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura caused quite a stir with his bold statement that "UFOs definitely exist." In subsequent clarifications, the government claimed that there have been no confirmed sightings, but if a UFO was to appear, "fighter jets would be scrambled to attempt...
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2008

A respectful Russian bluff

LONDON — In February, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, and most of the NATO countries recognized it. Russia condemned this as an illegal and dangerous precedent, and hinted that it might recognize other breakaway states like Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2008

Under fire, ruling bloc passes the '08 budget

Ignoring a rejection by the opposition-controlled House of Councilors, the Diet Friday evening passed an ¥83 trillion state budget for fiscal 2008, which starts Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2008

Bridge just got started across the strait

HONG KONG — The triumph of Ma Ying-jeou, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, candidate in the presidential election in Taiwan brings to an end eight years of rule by the pro-independent Democratic Progressive Party, whose candidate, Frank Hsieh, managed to garner only 41 percent of the vote to 58...
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2008

Hashimoto's cost-cutting plans under fire

OSAKA — If Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has his way, employees now working on international human rights issues may become school security guards and a popular women's center will be sold off.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2008

Report urges closer watch on foreigners

Foreigners living in Japan should be allowed five-year visas but kept under the eye of a new unified Justice Ministry-run nationwide identification system, a government panel on immigration control said in its report released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2008

Fertile ground for policy formation

More than 100 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and Kokumin Shinto have formed a supra-partisan lawmakers' association in response to a call by Sentaku (Choice), a policy study group mainly pushing for devolution and elections based on concrete and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 25, 2008

Pioneering women's center in Osaka slated for closure

Last month, the new governor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, announced his plan to shut down and sell or privatize 25 public facilities in a bid to tackle the prefecture's financial crisis. Except for two libraries, no prefectural facilities merit further public funding, argues Hashimoto. Included among the...
Reader Mail
Mar 23, 2008

No selective approach to terrorism

It is regrettable that The Japan Times chose to reprint The Washington Post article "A rocky terrain for Kurdish guerrillas" for the March 20 Focus page. The article is misguided and misleading in many ways. It only serves to legitimize and even attempts to glorify an organization that has been recognized...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2008

Deterrence fails in a prison with no key

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Every day in the Gaza Strip, strategic deterrence — the inhibition of attack by fear of punishment from superior military power — is being put to the test. The escalating spiral of violence by Israel and Gazan militants indicates not only that deterrence is failing, but...

Longform

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