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EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2007

A devastating defeat for Mr. Abe

In Sunday's Upper House election, Japanese voters expressed their dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party, which has been embroiled in a pension-records fiasco, political-funds scandals and gaffes by Cabinet ministers. The votes have made the opposition Democratic...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2007

The blame for nonacceptance

Roger Pulvers makes some valid points in his July 22 article, "Outsiders or not, that is the question," but misses the main one, which is that foreigners are excluded from the core workforce. In 10 years of living in Japan, I never met a gaijin salaryman. All...
Reader Mail
Jul 29, 2007

Striving for a place in the U.N.

(Last Monday the United Nations rejected Taiwan's latest application to become a member of the world body). When Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian received a vice chancellor and a professor of Pepperdine University on May 22, he said Taiwan had no intention of challenging the "one China" principle....
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 28, 2007

Marine Day sets off startling new theory on global terrorism

As you know, the national holiday on July 16, called Marine Day, has come and gone. Or, to be more correct, it came in on the typhoon and left on the typhoon.
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2007

Scripting the exit from Iraq

LONDON — Prospects for Iraq and its people are gloomy. Responsibility for that rests partly with Saddam Hussein and his evil regime, but also with the Americans and their allies for botching the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2007

Turkey arrives at a political crossroads

HERZLIYA, Israel — In what may be Turkey's most important political event since the republic was founded in the 1920s, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won a landslide parliamentary election victory, with around 47 percent of the vote. Only two other parties — the Republican People's Party...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 26, 2007

Demented in NY

It's almost counterintuitive — in the midst of the glorious chaos that is China as it modernizes itself, Chinese painters are technically spotless. In their hands, paint has been tamed, a tool with which they slickly create canvases with flawless surfaces that almost hide their workmanship.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Jul 25, 2007

Our world is being driven by denial

As an environmental columnist, one question that repeatedly comes to mind is, "How much denial is humanly possible?"
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 24, 2007

MLB, NPB should retire legendary Bambino's uniform number

Should Major League Baseball retire Babe Ruth's No. 3?
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2007

Tokyo swing voters facing a wide field

vision and (genuine attitude)," analyst Miyagawa said. Shiratori sees broader implications.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2007

When democracy goes bad

LONDON — "We do not want to go back to an elective democracy where corruption becomes all pervasive," Lt. Gen. Moeen U Ahmed, chief of the Bangladesh army, told a conference in Dhaka in April.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 22, 2007

Ochoa making a splash in return to Japan with Carp

"He looks good in red, doesn't he?" asked Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown about his new center fielder, Alex Ochoa, prior to a game at Tokyo Dome last week.
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2007

Untimely reports of CCP's demise

Regarding Tom Plate's July 13 article, "Breaking Point of China's communists": Plate talked of the prediction by Tor Christian Hildan, the Norwegian ambassador to China, that the Chinese Communist Party will fall, and ridiculed Beijing's defensive response to Hildan's comments.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2007

Video crime peril vs. virtual pedophilia

PRINCETON, New Jersey — In a popular Internet role-playing game called Second Life, people can create a virtual identity for themselves, choosing such things as their age, sex and appearance. These virtual characters then do things that people in the real world do, such as having sex.
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2007

Cool it for a good night's sleep

It was interesting to see the following comment in Tomoko Otake's July 17 article, "How to survive summer fatigue," about natsubate (summer fatigue): "Turning air conditioning on throughout the night is often a cause of natsubate."
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2007

Resolution demonstrates cynicism

Regarding the July 14 article "Conservatives want U.S. reps to kill apology motion": Prostitutes have been used by soldiers in every military since the beginning of time, and still are today. They can be found near every military base in every country. With regard to the past, whether women became prostitutes...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 21, 2007

The all-in-one conspiracy theory

"Life in Japan is like tofu," announces a friend over drinks at a late night eatery. "It's much too bland. What this country needs is a good dose of . . . evil."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2007

Confused by a Turkish veil

ISTANBUL — On Monday millions of Turks will wake up to a new, post-elections Turkey. What will happen is hard to foresee. Turkish politics is full of surprises that only foreigners find surprising.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Jul 20, 2007

Blindsight

Director: Lucy Walker Language: English and Tibetan
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2007

Murakami: investor activist turned greenmailer?

Convicted of insider trading Thursday and more than a year after he stepped down as a high-profile fund manager, it still isn't clear how to define Yoshiaki Murakami.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2007

Dive into the lower depths

PIERCING by Ryu Murakami. Penguin Books, 2007, 185 pp., $13 (paper) While his wife sleeps contentedly, a father hovers over the crib of his baby daughter, a penlight in one hand, ice pick in the other. Pressures are banking up inside the nervous system of a man who gets goose pimples while soaking in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2007

No care in the world for caregivers as profit is all that matters

Scandals are coming so fast and furious now it seems eons ago when nursing care provider Comsn Inc. was busted by the government for inflating the number of employees on its payroll. Actually, it was only last month, and at the time the media could only concentrate on the particulars, namely Comsn's...

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