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CULTURE / Books
Oct 1, 2006

Salarymen: a dying breed of worker?

21ST-CENTURY JAPANESE MANAGEMENT: New Systems, Lasting Values, by James C. Abegglen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 194 pp., $80 (cloth). Japan is back and its companies are leading the charge. The process of reinventing corporate Japan continues apace, but does not mean a repudiation of core values....
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2006

Young and tech-savvy, India's market remains largely untapped

Japanese companies increasingly look to India for business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 30, 2006

Trade chief hopes oil projects work out

Japan hopes to continue talks with Iran on tapping the Azadegan oil field beyond the Saturday deadline set by Tehran for the nation's participation, new Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Akira Amari says.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2006

U.S. relocates X-band radar in Aomori to watch North Korea

The U.S. military has activated a high-powered radar outpost in northern Japan capable of tracking ballistic missiles, a key part of a joint missile defense project, amid concerns about North Korea and its nuclear ambitions.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 29, 2006

The past comes alive in Izu

Japanese and foreign residents of the Kanto region head for Izu to seek that elusive thing, "the real Japan."
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2006

Moving toward an East Asian Community

One of the first tasks the new administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to address is to mend bilateral fences with China and South Korea, which have been strained primarily as a result of his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

New EC envoy catching up on changes

an ambassador. I wanted to be the ambassador to Japan," said Richardson, European Commission envoy, in a recent interview with The Japan Times. "I'm busy trying to understand Japan again, trying to understand what's changed, and what's the same. Very exciting." The 59-year-old Briton first arrived in...
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2006

Thai coup puts FTA, investment in doubt

Tuesday's bloodless coup in Thailand has left a free-trade agreement negotiated between Tokyo and Bangkok up in the air, a senior Japanese official said Thursday as businesses waited for the dust to settle.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

Abe must bring both vision, pragmatism to the job

Revision of the Constitution and establishment of a national voting system for that purpose, and revision of the Fundamental Law of Education. (2) Formulation of fiscal reform guidelines that leave the door open to tax increases, including a rise in the consumption tax.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2006

Toyota chasing German luxury makes

The launch Tuesday of Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus LS model will be an important gauge of success for the Lexus marque in Japan's fiercely competitive luxury car segment.
COMMENTARY
Sep 18, 2006

A sure-win guards his cards

It is a foregone conclusion that Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe will win the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election Wednesday. He is then likely to be named prime minister at an extraordinary Diet session a week later and to launch a new Cabinet.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 16, 2006

Commode confession of Sound Princess

All the talk of royalty these days has got me to thinking -- has anyone else ever wondered why so many royal words are associated with toilets? Think about it. You sit on the throne. If you're a woman in a public bathroom in Japan, you probably use the Oto Hime (Sound Princess) to cover up the sounds...
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2006

Mr. Ozawa on the offensive

Just as the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election campaign is making headlines, Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, formally announces his candidacy in the No. 1 opposition party's leadership race and discloses his platform. By emphasizing the need to rectify what some...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 14, 2006

Allegations of plagiarism raised by kaleidoscope installation in Echigo-Tsumari

Picasso once said, "good artists copy, great artists steal." Of course, it has never been as simple as that. Questions concerning artistic authenticity, honest or dishonest intentions and outright plagiarism have been around ever since societies began to consider artistic expression the unique product...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2006

The last weekend of summer to rave about

For Japan's trance music fans, this weekend is the last big outdoor romp of summer.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2006

Trouble looms as foreign labor floods in

OSAKA -- It's 2030, and Japan is facing an unprecedented social problem. For the past quarter-century, ever since the population began declining, the government has encouraged the hiring of foreign laborers. But measures to control immigration have failed, and in some towns and villages foreigners now...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 9, 2006

Alex Kerr

The name Alex Kerr is well known in many contexts, as he is a person of many parts. He is a scholar, linguist, specialist and prize winner, accomplished in diverse fields.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

Abe will try to set up summits with Seoul, Beijing if elected

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the leading candidate to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said Wednesday he will try to hold bilateral summit meetings with China and South Korea if he becomes prime minister.
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2006

Abe looking to beef up defense posture

Shinzo Abe, the runaway favorite to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, has big ambitions for Japan's traditional pacifist diplomacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 7, 2006

Fans lift J-culture over language barrier

Global interest in Japanese entertainment continues to heat up. Quite literally.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2006

Change needed at Yasukuni

In the Washington Post article that ran on this page Aug. 22, "Much to-do about a shrine," conservative U.S. commentator George Will suggests that Shinzo Abe, the front-runner in the Liberal Democratic Party's presidential race, stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial for Japan's war dead, if he...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 5, 2006

Grim bar system may hurt legal reforms

Sept. 21 is awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread in campuses across Japan. It is the date on which results of the country's first new bar examination are announced. How well a school's students do on this test, which is projected to have a pass rate of about 40 percent, may have a serious...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 27, 2006

An underclass returns -- and with it, what?

All indications are that Japan is reverting to prewar norms. I am not referring solely to the new nationalism, bolstered by Japan's increasingly aggressive military stances, but rather to the notion of social equality -- or inequality -- that is being created for its citizens today.
JAPAN
Aug 26, 2006

Taiwan general views SDF drill

Taiwan's army commander in chief, Gen. Hu Chen-pu, watched one of the Ground Self-Defense Force's major live-fire drills conducted Thursday in Shizuoka Prefecture, sources involved in Japan-Taiwan relations said.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’