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BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2006

Businesses welcome Chinese thaw but remain cautious

The business community greeted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Sunday summit in Beijing with Chinese President Hu Jintao, billed as a fence-mending effort by the two countries, with a sigh of relief.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 9, 2006

Abe must speed up reforms, forge new model of growth

Newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the nation's first leader born after World War II, has launched his Cabinet with veteran lawmakers capable of taking the lead -- rather than relying on the bureaucracy -- in the implementation of fresh policy initiatives. Keidanren fully supports Abe's determination...
COMMENTARY
Oct 7, 2006

Pyongyang's nuclear threat

HONOLULU -- North Korea announced on Tuesday that it "will, in the future, conduct a nuclear-weapons test," promising that it will be done under conditions where "safety is firmly guaranteed." While Pyongyang did not say when this test would occur, it made it clear that it felt compelled to take such...
EDITORIALS
Oct 6, 2006

Crying for attention, again

North Korea has announced it will conduct a nuclear-weapons test, without saying when. In February 2005, the North announced it possessed nuclear weapons, but this is the first time the country has publicized its intent to carry out a test.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 5, 2006

"Kazunori Kumagai: Resolution of My Tap"

BunkamuraSaturday Oct. 9, 6:18 p.m.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2006

A differing view on the war on terror

NEW YORK -- Recent revelations in The New York Times on the fight against terrorism and the war on Iraq present a differing view on the problem worth pondering about. According to classified information in the National Intelligence Estimate leaked to the Times, the American invasion and occupation of...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 3, 2006

Divorce and tenant troubles

Divorce Reader SJ and his wife were married nearly 40 years ago in the United States. At that time, SJ agreed to list her as half-owner of our home. For various reasons, the couple now do not get along and are on the way to separation or divorce.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2006

May the least undesirable candidate win

WARSAW -- The late British Prime Minister Harold Wilson used to quip that "a week is a long time in politics." In the 30 or so weeks between now and the next French presidential election, any prediction made today could be reversed, and reversed again, before the vote.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 1, 2006

Age-old 'naked friendships' lay bare new bathhouse concerns

I do it about three times a week, but I tell you I would double that frequency if I could. It is surely one of life's great pleasures, and it takes on average (for me) 45 to 50 minutes. Some people smoke afterward, but I just like to cool down and think about things -- you know, life, the human body,...
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....
Japan Times
BUSINESS / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 29, 2006

Omi defends shelving sales tax hike talk

The new finance minister's statement Wednesday that discussion to raise the consumption tax will only begin next fall has sparked speculation that he will not carry out the last administration's long-term plans to cut the debt and that it's a ploy for his party to fare well in next summer's Upper House...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 29, 2006

Street spirits plug in and out

In Japan these days, music and politics don't generally sit well together. On the face of it, a group who seem to have bucked the system is Osaka's Soul Flower Union, who released a new best of album on Sept. 20 and are now on a nationwide tour.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 28, 2006

Seeing Paris through Hokusai's eyes

In the often featureless landscape of Tokyo, a fleeting glimpse of Tokyo Tower in the distance can help to give a sense of direction and position. No matter how unfamiliar a particular street may be, seeing a familiar landmark in the distance often makes us feel strangely at home.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 27, 2006

Abe made prime minister

Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe named his Cabinet on Tuesday, giving most of the posts to his close aides and the people who actively supported him during the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election.
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Ethnic minorities hope for better life post-Koizumi

Members of ethnic communities have expressed hope that the new administration, slated to be launched Tuesday by Shinzo Abe, will help improve their living conditions.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 24, 2006

The art of making classical music fans

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- September is traditionally the time when opera companies and orchestras return to their home cities from Aix, Salzburg, Tanglewood and countless other summer festivals. This is also marked (on both sides of the Atlantic) by the return of worries about how classical music is financed....
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
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.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 21, 2006

The world's biggest mystery

LONDON -- In a recent opinion poll in Russia carried out by the Yury Levada Analytical Center, 58 percent of the respondents said they believe that "non-Russian nationalities are to blame for many of Russia's misfortunes"; 52 percent said they thought the government should restrict immigration.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2006

Only good designs

If there's anything that design has taught us in recent years, it's that without it, the world around us would certainly be a much less interesting place.
JAPAN
Sep 20, 2006

Tokyo cuts North's cash supply

Japan on Tuesday dealt another blow to North Korea, imposing financial sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution that urges countries to prevent the transfer of funds for Pyongyang's weapons program.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 19, 2006

End of the Lion

The mythmaker Jim Frederick TIME Magazine The most difficult aspect of reporting on Koizumi was confronting the fixed, immutable and monolithic "Koizumi Myth." What started as a campaign plank -- "Koizumi is a reformer and a rebel who is destroying the LDP and reinvigorating Japan" -- somehow became...
BASKETBALL
Sep 18, 2006

Higashio, Apache eager to build strong fan base

On Sunday afternoon, ex-baseball hurler Osamu Higashio stepped onto an unfamiliar field, a hardwood court, not a soft baseball field.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 17, 2006

Bizarre bouts of self-expression

Nearly 300 spectators cheered wildly as disco music blared. A spotlight picked out two fighters approaching the ring to kick off a puroresu (prowrestling) event held recently in a Tokyo town hall.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 17, 2006

Take a wild ride on the Orient Express

THE OTTOMAN CAGE by Barbara Nadel. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, 312 pp., $23.95 (cloth). DRAGON FIRE by William S. Cohen. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, 383 pp., $24.95 (cloth). "One of the most frequently asked questions that I get as a British author," Barbara Nadel tells the e-zine...
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2006

Asahara's execution finalized

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a special appeal by lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara, finalizing the death sentence for the man who masterminded the cult's horrific nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995.

Longform

Rock group The Yellow Monkey played K-Arena Yokohama in June as part of a nationwide tour. Concerts are increasingly popular in the age of social media as users value in-person experiences.
Inside Japan’s arena boom: Sports, sound and city-building