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BUSINESS
Apr 24, 2008

Exports grow 2.3%, worst pace since '05

Japan's exports rose in March at their slowest pace in almost three years as shipments to Asia lost momentum and the U.S. slowdown deepened.
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Apr 24, 2008

Hiding in Japan are the world's best attended exhibitions

If you didn't know the best-attended exhibition in the world last year was held in Nara Prefecture, you're not alone.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2008

Rough road for tax discussions

The ruling and opposition blocs have launched a consultative body to discuss issues related to tax revenue for road-related projects. But, strangely, the body will not discuss revisions to bills that will maintain the surcharges for the gasoline and other road-related taxes, and keep using the revenue...
EDITORIALS
Apr 20, 2008

Major ruling on SDF's Iraq mission

The Nagoya High Court Thursday ruled that the Air Self-Defense Force's mission in Iraq includes activities that violate the war-renouncing Constitution. It rejects the government's explanations concerning the dispatch of an ASDF unit to Iraq. Although the government says that the ruling does not bind...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Dining out with a box of fine fare

Tasty, healthy and wasting nothing; traditional Japanese cuisine served on a hakozen table distills many of the country's dying cultures.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Belly-laughs boffin puts mirth to the test

When people laugh, it is often their cheery sounds or the wrinkles around their eyes that mark out their mirth. Yoji Kimura believes, however, that the key to determining the nature of laughter lies in the diaphragm.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 19, 2008

Putting faces on the subculture crowd

Sitting in a watering hole in Shinjuku's Golden Gai, meeting new people, exchanging name cards, one is likely to come across a tiny square name card with color caricatures on its front and back.
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2008

North to soon be off U.S. blacklist: China envoy

The United States will probably soon remove North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Friday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 18, 2008

Agricultural neglect leaves millions trapped in poverty

BANGKOK — In the last decade, developing economies in Asia and the Pacific doubled in size, growing over seven percent on average. This growth has garnered much attention and plaudits. Yet, 641 million of the world's poorest — nearly two-thirds of the global total — live in the Asia-Pacific region....
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Clear criteria urged for cases when foreign investors snubbed

All nations should have clear-cut criteria and transparent procedures if they feel the need to shut out foreign investment in certain sectors for the sake of their national interests, Charles Heeter, board director of the U.S. Council for International Business, said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 18, 2008

'Factory Girl'

"In the future, everyone can be famous for 15 minutes" is one of Andy Warhol's choice aphorisms. When he said that in the late 1960s, the point had already been proven with a vengeance by Edie Sedgwick: Warhol's one-time muse, collaborator and platonic lover (with Warhol, such a thing was possible)....
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2008

'Smuggler' showed poor judgment

In regard to the April 10 article titled "Swiss woman's drug smuggling acquittal upheld," I am sorry to say I feel very little sympathy for her. If she did in fact bring drugs into this country knowingly or not, then she should be in jail. In addition to asking the question of what type of person,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 17, 2008

Enduring anime reveals Japan's ghoulish spirit

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the debut of "GeGeGe no Kitaro," an animated children's TV series about the supernatural that's become a Japanese institution.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 15, 2008

Hope for Taiwan's future

Even in democracies, if one party holds power for long enough, scandals can occur and popular support can fade. Nevertheless, the result of the Taiwanese presidential election was a landslide victory for the Nationalist Party (KMT) that far exceeded expectations. I felt, though conscious of the heartbreaking...
LIFE
Apr 13, 2008

Art and life in a grain of rice

Artist Mitsuaki Tanabe is stubborn.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Apr 13, 2008

Why Japan finally got its foot off the brake

No other phrase more eloquently captures the essence of Japan's car industry than jishu-kisei, or "mutual self-restraint."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 13, 2008

Landmark case spotlights 'Japanese-style nationalism'

"The most critical thing for us Japanese in the 21st century is to free ourselves from Japanese-style nationalism, both politically and culturally." So said author Kenzaburo Oe to me in the autumn of 1995, a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2008

Conservatives win again in South Korea

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak got a boost this week from parliamentary elections that gave fellow conservatives a majority in the National Assembly. The results provide a modicum of relief for "the bulldozer" but he is still going to have to struggle to implement his policy agenda. Ironically,...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Hatoyama 'solemnly' reveals four more convicts hanged

Four death-row inmates were hanged Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of executions Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has approved since he took office last August.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

'Yasukuni' director suspects political meddling

Li Ying, the Chinese director of an award-winning documentary on Yasukuni Shrine, said Thursday he was perplexed to hear that a key figure in the film, sword smith Naoji Kariya, has reportedly asked that his appearance be entirely deleted.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2008

The U.S. election: grounds for optimism

LOS ANGELES — One early sign that a run of optimism may be on the way is the point at which the utility of continued pessimism is seen as utterly dysfunctional by all concerned.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2008

Swiss woman's drug smuggling acquittal upheld

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a 28-year-old Swiss woman's acquittal of attempting to smuggle 2.2 kg of amphetamines from Malaysia in 2006.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji