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COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 15, 2005

Visa la difference

Although it is certainly not impossible to receive a credit card as a foreigner living in Japan, chances are that unless you're working for a major Japanese company that is prepared to provide you with a family card, you're probably going to be rejected far more often than you might be at home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 12, 2005

International symposium to focus on kids' health

As director of the Department of Interdisciplinary Medicine at the National Center for Child Health and Development in Setagaya,Tokyo, Dr. John Ichiro Takayama is right now an especially busy man.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2005

Deterrence for less in Asia

The Japan-U.S. alliance is evolving into one that "plays a vital role in enhancing regional and global peace and stability," according to a joint statement issued last month by the defense and foreign ministers of the two countries. The statement sets common strategic goals for dealing with the new security...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 8, 2005

Creating laws out of thin air

With terrorists striking fear into governments worldwide, Japan too is currently considering its own version of America's Patriot Act, to be passed in a year or two.
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2005

Let taxes spur carbon cuts

On Feb. 16, the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at curbing the air pollution blamed for global warming, took effect. To become valid, the accord had to be ratified by at least 55 countries, including developed countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions...
BUSINESS
Mar 4, 2005

Livedoor furor opens up M&A can of worms

As it gears up to pass new legislation that will make it easier for companies to merge or acquire other firms, Japan is getting cold feet.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 1, 2005

Past the pain and language barriers

Even for a sumo wrestler, Kaido Hoovelson looks big. The 20-year-old Estonian, who goes by the ring name of "Baruto," stands 197-cm tall, making him one of sumo's tallest wrestlers.
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2005

Mad cow panel prodded to reach decision on tests

Farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura urged a government panel Friday to draw a conclusion quickly on whether to terminate the blanket testing for mad cow disease, in order to lift Japan's 14-month-old import ban on U.S. beef.
Rugby
Feb 24, 2005

IRB chairman points the way forward for Japanese rugby

When Dr. Syd Millar talks rugby, people generally stop and listen.
SOCCER / World cup
Feb 23, 2005

North Korea prepares to accept Japanese fans

Japan Football Association vice president Junji Ogura on Tuesday said North Korea is moving ahead with preparations to accept Japanese supporters for a 2006 World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang this summer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 23, 2005

Whitewash fails to cover the pain

In "Akuma no Uta, (Devil's Song)" the playwright Keiishi Nagatsuka, 29, seems to ask what we Japanese have learned from defeat in World War II. Leaning heavily on comedy, farce, satire and sometimes tragedy, Nagatsuka's answer -- as one of a generation only able to know about that human catastrophe from...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Feb 20, 2005

Sit down and be counted!

One chilly Friday morning last month, high-school teacher Noriyuki Ishida had probably the most stressful experience of his 35-year career.
COMMENTARY
Feb 18, 2005

Blinders on a vital interest

In relation to Iran, Japan needs to get its priorities straight. Currently, Japan is spending only 1 percent of its gross domestic product on defense while living in a dangerous region. It is critical for Japan's economic and strategic security that the United States remain willing to protect Japan's...
COMMENTARY
Feb 17, 2005

Racist banner looks frayed

Understanding Japan and the Japanese was never meant to be easy. This is especially true for the Japanese attitude to foreigners -- at times exclusivist and at other times extremely open. There is an answer to the seeming contradiction, but it requires outsiders to accept that the Japanese might have...
BUSINESS
Feb 17, 2005

Kyoto pact draws mixed views from business chiefs

Japanese business leaders urged the government Wednesday to work hard to make the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect Wednesday, an effective international treaty.
BUSINESS
Feb 15, 2005

Current account surplus hits record high

Japan's current account surplus rose 17.9 percent in 2004 from a year earlier to a record 18.59 trillion yen.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 15, 2005

Insurance, selling your home and pet care

Insurance query Isn't health insurance in Japan different from "kaigo hoken?" And, is it true that if a permanent resident with a legitimate visa stops paying the health insurance premiums that basically nothing can be done? In other words, the "kuyakusho" will eventually remove the person's name from...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 13, 2005

Pushing the boundaries of the Tokyo tribunal

BEYOND THE "JUDGEMENT OF CIVILIZATION": The Intellectual Legacy of the Japanese War Crimes Trials, 1946-1949, by Kei Ushimura, translated by Steven J. Ericson. Tokyo: LTCB International Library (No. 14), 2003, 336 pp., unpriced (cloth). This is a provocative examination of the Tokyo war crimes tribunal...
BUSINESS
Feb 11, 2005

FamilyMart to introduce 'konbini' to Americans

When FamilyMart Co. opens a store in Hollywood, Calif., in July, the first Japanese convenience store in the U.S. might not be perceived as such by locals.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2005

Good sportsmanship in Saitama

Japan's national soccer team plays the North Korean team today in a qualifying match for the Asian World Cup in Saitama City, just north of Tokyo. Given the continued tense relations between the two countries, the Japanese government is calling on Japanese supporters to avoid quarreling with supporters...
EDITORIALS
Feb 8, 2005

Concern over the first vCJD case

Japan last week confirmed its first case of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), the human version of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The disease is said to spread through the consumption of beef products from cows infected with BSE. In Britain, which reported a high...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Feb 5, 2005

Kerel Zebrakovsky

Karel Zebrakovsky, ambassador of the Czech Republic to Japan, came late to the role of diplomat. A man of enthusiasm and wide, cultivated tastes, he finds delight in everything he does, and in the different appointments he has held. He has the right attitude to be representative of his country. "I am...
EDITORIALS
Feb 2, 2005

Winning the world's confidence

International talks on how to reform the United Nations are entering crucial stages as nations stake out their positions. Last month, the nations involved, including Japan, attended a special session to discuss a report published in December by a high-level advisory body to U.N. Secretary General Kofi...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2005

Key to a common currency

The Economist magazine forecast in a recent issue that a future multiple reserve currency system could include the Chinese yuan: "The world might drift toward a multiple reserve currency system shared by the dollar, the euro and the yen, or indeed the yuan at some time in the future."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 30, 2005

Japanese hero pointedly ignored

It's said that the virtue most valued in Japan is loyalty, which is why the famous heroes of Japanese literature and history are people who made sacrifices for their lords rather than their beliefs. And often, as in the case of the 47 ronin celebrated in Chushingura or the tokkotai (kamikaze) pilots...
JAPAN
Jan 29, 2005

Population up 0.05% in 2004

Japan's population rose to about 127,687,000 in 2004, up by 0.05 percent from a year earlier, according to a preliminary government report on estimated demographic shifts obtained by Kyodo News.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 28, 2005

Top student players need to get a 'real' rugby education

The university final earlier this month between Waseda and Kanto Gakuin highlighted all that is good and bad about college rugby in Japan.
JAPAN
Jan 27, 2005

Latest sanction threat against North Korea likely an empty promise

Japan on Wednesday again threatened to impose economic sanctions on North Korea after the reclusive state formally dismissed Tokyo's protest against its probe into the fate of 10 missing Japanese.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan