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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 11, 2007

Mammon and myopia: Japan's governing '70s legacy

Over the past three weeks I have looked back in this column at the decades leading up to the 21st century, which has to date seen a marked shift in Japanese domestic and international policy back toward a not-so-new form of nationalism. In this last article I discuss the 1970s, when critical decisions...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2007

Women find voice over sexist gaffe

In harmony-loving Japan, women rarely take to the streets to protest the sexist remarks that routinely spill from the mouths of ruling politicians, and even the most outrageous comments go largely unpunished at the ballot box.
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2007

Misplaced ridicule of Carter

The ridicule of former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter by members of the Jewish community over his recent book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" should be expected, but is it deserved? In her Jan. 25 article, "Jimmy Carter has a Jewish problem," Deborah Lipstadt criticizes Carter...
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2007

Overbearing education proposals

An interim report submitted by the Education Resuscitation Council to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is long on proposals designed to tackle various challenges in Japanese education but short on reasons why some problems have developed. Without in-depth background analysis, it will be difficult to find correct...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 4, 2007

Whatever befell Japan's heady '60s hopes?

Over the past two weeks in this column, I have looked at Japanese society in the 1980s and '90s in order to trace how the nationalistic policies of the current Shinzo Abe administration, particularly in the educational and military spheres, are the outcome of developments in the preceding decades.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Feb 2, 2007

Ward, James take honors for January

The best defense is a strong offense, someone with a clipboard, a whistle and a captive audience once said.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2007

Declining tolerance of dangerous words

NEW YORK -- Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability. The violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused Western response, with governments tripping over their tongues trying to explain what the media should and should...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 2, 2007

A sensuous 'V-Day' shimmy

With men around the country eagerly anticipating their Valentine's Day treats, a Tokyo-based collective of bellydancers is aiming to shift some of that day's focus back to the female populace by presenting "V-Day" on Feb. 11 at Cozmos Cafe in Shibuya, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2007

Rookie director digs for the truth

"The Road To Guantanamo" may be the first feature-length film for Mat Whitecross as a director, but his collaborations with Michael Winterbottom stretch back over several years. Whitecross worked as assistant director and editor on Winterbottom films like "In This World," "Nine Songs" and "Code 46."...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 30, 2007

What has been your most seismic experience in this earthquake-prone nation?

Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

Seeing 'liberation' for what it was

Jeff Kingston's review was simply one of the best essays published recently in The Japan Times. It addresses some of the issues facing Japan over its World War II-era atrocities. For nearly 20 years the public has been told by various Japanese leaders (mainly of the Liberal Democratic Party) that the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2007

Mr. Abe's pitch to the Diet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a policy speech in his first regular Diet session as prime minister, pitched his top political goal -- changing Japan's postwar regime and revising the Constitution. But just what kind of nation he wants to build through such endeavors is not necessarily clear. In the short...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2007

Europe's distant mirror?

PRAGUE -- It is tempting for Europeans to project their own history onto Asia and to view current developments there as a mere repetition, if not an imitation, of what occurred in Europe. In fact, Asians encourage this temptation, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) openly aiming...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 26, 2007

Signing of big name like Beckham long overdue by MLS

Here we go again.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 25, 2007

A great space waiting to be filled

Wow. It's huge.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 22, 2007

Right-to-die issue need not be incoherent

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- On Dec. 21, an Italian doctor, Mario Riccio, disconnected a respirator that was keeping Piergiorgio Welby alive. Welby, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and was paralyzed, had battled unsuccessfully in the Italian courts for the right to die.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 21, 2007

A most convenient way to play table tennis

Despite the popularity of the player Ai Fukuhara, and a series of world champions in both men's and women's singles in the 1950s and '60s, table tennis has long been considered a minor sport in Japan. Often, it is simply associated with hot-spring goers playing in the lounge while clad in yukata and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jan 20, 2007

Master of agility celebrates the Renaissance man

How many people have namecards that describe them as "business artists?" American-born William Reed is one. As a 7th-dan black belt aikido practitioner, licensed calligrapher, tap dancer, translator, bilingual trainer and speaker, published author and writer, blogger and entrepreneur, he brands his activities...
COMMENTARY
Jan 18, 2007

Unhappy state of education

LONDON -- Very few parents in Britain or Japan are happy about the state of education available to their children. The response of politicians in both countries to these concerns is inadequate and sometimes dangerous.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 16, 2007

Hiroo Onoda

Hiroo Onoda, 84, is a former member of an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence unit, an elite commando during World War II who was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines in 1944 to conduct guerrilla warfare and gather military intelligence. Trained in clandestine operations, his mission was to sneak...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 16, 2007

Mixed results with foreign influx

At first glance there is little sign that Nishi-Kasai is different to any other Tokyo suburb. It's a neat, if unremarkable, commuter town. Like similar areas, it grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s with an influx of migrant workers from the countryside.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Jan 16, 2007

Bathing Ape, rocking chairs and LeSportsac bags

Little monkeys
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 14, 2007

Get out of this world

Forget Hawaii, Hong Kong, Bali, Britain or Paris -- before too long your family vacation choices will include staying at space hotels or taking a 10-day spin around the moon.
JAPAN
Jan 11, 2007

Tokyo tells India to forsake nukes and join the NPT

Japan refused on Wednesday to acknowledge India as a legitimate nuclear weapons state and demanded that it join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
COMMENTARY
Jan 11, 2007

Britain's nuclear dilemma

LONDON -- The issue of an independent nuclear deterrent has now once again become a prime topic of debate in Britain.
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

Power of an independent jury

Regarding Setsuko Kamiya's Dec. 29 article, "Mansfield Center eyes lay judge debut": Although a U.S. jury receives instructions from the presiding trial judge, it is free to render a verdict by its members' own conscience -- even to the point of disregarding evidence. Jury verdicts must be unanimous....

Longform

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