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EDITORIALS
May 7, 2005

Roots of corporate value

What makes a good corporation? The answer depends partly on whether it takes a long-term and broad-gauged view of its activities. This may help clarify a question raised during the recent takeover battle for Nippon Broadcasting System: To whom does a corporation belong? The question may also serve as...
COMMENTARY / World
May 5, 2005

Homecoming for Taiwanese icebreaker

BEIJING -- The just-ended visit of Lien Chan, the chairman of Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), to China symbolized the end of a long-standing intra-China feud and is undeniably a diplomatic breakthrough for both sides.
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2005

Nonproliferation plus disarmament

An international conference to review the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) opens at the United Nations Monday. The 1970 treaty is riddled with inefficacy, as illustrated by North Korea's nuclear-weapons program, Iran's moves to enrich uranium, and the existence of an international black market for nuclear...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 2, 2005

Sexual, visual politics: from shunga to shojo

GENDER AND POWER IN THE JAPANESE VISUAL FIELD, edited by Joshua S. Mostow, Norman Bryson and Maribeth Graybill. Honolulu: Hawai'i University Press, 2003, 292 pp., 7 color plates, 106 b/w illustrations, $36.00 (cloth). The original impetus for this interesting volume came during the 1994 Kyoto Conference...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2005

Howard scores big in China

SYDNEY -- You can't win 'em all. Fast-jetting Australian Prime Minister John Howard discovered that on his latest barnstorming through East Asia.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 29, 2005

Reliving the good life in the country

Visitors to Japan often go into a form of shock not long after they arrive. It is not the different language, cuisine, or social customs that are the cause, but, rather, the realization that Japanese cities are vast, crowded, hyper-modern jungles of humanity where life seems to be constantly on warp...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2005

Enhancing U.N. legitimacy

Many commentators have noted that the timing and intensity of the recent surge in anti-Japan protests in China may be due in part to Tokyo's push for permanent membership of the U.N. Security Council. At the same time, during a highly successful and very visible visit to India, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao...
EDITORIALS
Apr 27, 2005

Human rights transcend nationality

Japanese media have given prominent coverage to the nationality issue in the past two weeks. The Tokyo District Court ruled April 13 in favor of a lawsuit seeking confirmation of Japanese nationality for a boy born to a Filipino woman and a Japanese man who are not legally married. According to the ruling,...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 24, 2005

Getting Yangon to show a little respect

CHANG MAI, Thailand -- There has been a lot of discussion recently about Myanmar's assumption of the presidency of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year. It is obvious that most members wish to prevent this anomaly from happening. Let's reflect on some of the more realistic,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 24, 2005

Canadian indie scene keeps it together

When the Canadian music collective known as Broken Social Scene arrives in Tokyo next month, they'll be bringing a few members of their family tree along. Found on the group's Web site, the "tree" is actually 40-plus band and artist names scrawled on a paper bag and connected by the squiggly white lines....
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2005

CCP smacks of hypocrisy

LONDON -- At the end of his visit to India last week, China's Premier Wen Jiabao made a strong political attack on Japan. With respect to Japan's bid for a seat on an expanded U.N. Security Council (UNSC) Wen opined that "Only a country that respects history, takes responsibility for history and wins...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 21, 2005

Matters of survival in a 'shattered world'

One of the best things about writing a newspaper column is that I get a chance to meet people whose paths I might otherwise never cross. Last weekend, at the Odaiba waterfront launch of Earth Day Tokyo 2005, I had the rare pleasure of meeting and interviewing two environmentalists I have long admired,...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 21, 2005

Time to honor the planet, every day

'If the environment is a fad, then it's going to be our last fad," warned Denis Hayes at the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, having given up his own graduate studies at Harvard only months before to organize this historic event.
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2005

Security for Afghanistan

Afghanistan's president, Mr. Hamid Karzai, has announced that he wants a formal long-term strategic relationship with the United States. That seems only natural: The U.S. led the invasion of Afghanistan that put Mr. Karzai in power. Others worry that such a relationship could result in a permanent U.S....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 20, 2005

Nakagawa livid over China's lack of remorse

Shoichi Nakagawa, minister of economy, trade and industry, blasted China on Tuesday for offering no apology or compensation for violence and damage caused by participants in recent anti-Japan protests, saying he doubts whether the country is truly governed by rule of law.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2005

Director hits moves to revise Constitution

If Japan revises the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 and officially designates its military as such, other parts of Asia will increase their arms buildups and war will become a possibility, according to American film director John Junkerman.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2005

Japan, China wasting time

Recent mass anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities have plunged Sino-Japanese relations to their lowest since diplomatic ties were normalized in 1972. Stones thrown by demonstrators damaged the Japanese Embassy in Beijing on April 9. Japanese-owned businesses in other cities were likewise attacked,...
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2005

Common-sense solutions floated to ease tensions

Ahead of Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's trip to Beijing on Sunday to meet his counterpart, The Japan Times interviewed Sino-Japanese relations experts Tomoyuki Kojima and Zhu Jianrong to hear their views on how the two nations can defuse mounting anti-Japan activities in China, blamed in part...
EDITORIALS
Apr 11, 2005

Intellectual property disputes

Japan's efforts to bolster the legal system for protecting intellectual property (IP) rights reached a major milestone with the recent establishment of the Intellectual Property High Court. The new court, which is housed in the same building as the Tokyo High Court, will handle a broad range of disputes...
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2005

Nearly half think public safety crumbling: poll

Nearly half of the respondents to a survey on social consciousness think public safety is getting worse, the government said Saturday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2005

Singapore turns to Japan's matchmakers as birthrate sags

Japan might assist in Singapore's efforts to set up matchmaking services, sources said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 7, 2005

Ministry debuts child-abuse checklist

The welfare ministry has created guidelines to help child consultants spot child abuse, officials said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 7, 2005

Envoy fears regional Cold War

East Asian economies must cooperate on energy issues as quickly as possible if they want to keep regional peace and protect the environment, the Philippine ambassador to Japan said Wednesday.
BUSINESS
Apr 6, 2005

Business leader raps environment tax

A senior Japanese business leader urged the government Tuesday to drop an idea to levy a new tax on fossil fuels like oil, warning it could adversely affect people's livelihood.

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