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EDITORIALS
Aug 17, 2006

A legacy of callousness

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II, points to his failure to understand that such visits have a historical dimension that overshadows Japan's relations with neighboring countries.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2006

A time to learn from the past

Japan marks the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II even as its politicians send signals that lead other peoples in the world to question its true inclinations. One such signal was the prediction that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would visit Yasukuni Shrine on Tuesday, the very day of the...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 15, 2006

Must I pay to renew my lease?

Summer is a wonderful time to enjoy Japan. The mountains, the ocean, the beautiful "inaka" or countryside where time seems to have stopped. It's a good time also to thank God for the simple things that make life in Japan so special -- telephones that work, trains that run on time and people that bring...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 15, 2006

No shortcuts to free access

Last January, a major scandal broke over budget hotel chain Toyoko Inn Co.'s illegal removal of special guest rooms and parking spots set up for the disabled after the construction of those facilities had passed official inspection. Toyoko Inn converted the special rooms into normal rooms and the special...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2006

State appeals A-bomb illness ruling

The government filed an appeal Friday against an Aug. 4 court ruling that said all 41 plaintiffs involved a jointly filed lawsuit should be certified as suffering from illnesses caused by radiation from the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Aug 11, 2006

Psychedelic radar 08.11

Mother: Aug. 13-15
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Aug 11, 2006

Examining one nation's identity

Seven films by directors from Armenia and its diaspora will be screened as part of the "Armenian Film Selection," taking place Aug. 11-12 and Aug. 19 at two Tokyo venues, Athenee Francais Cultural Center in Chiyoda Ward and Uplink Factory in Shibuya. Four films -- Harutyun Khachatryan's "Return to the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Aug 11, 2006

Earth Celebration 2006

When & where: Aug. 18-20 at venues in and around the Ogi district of Niigata Prefecture's Sado Island. Pre-events start Aug. 13.
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 10, 2006

Boys in Blue give Osim first win as new coach

Ivica Osim's reign as coach of Japan got off to a winning start as Alex Santos scored both goals in a 2-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday evening.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 10, 2006

Looking beyond the West

Art historian Dr. Charles Merewether is the artistic director and curator of the 2006 Biennale of Sydney (established 1973). Merewether has worked and taught in Mexico, Spain, Australia and the United States and is the author of a number of books on art, including "Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2006

Will polluters pay for climate change?

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- I am writing this in New York in early August, when the mayor declared a "heat emergency" to prevent widespread electricity outages from the expected high use of air conditioners. City employees could face criminal charges if they set their thermostats below 25.5 C. Nevertheless,...
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 9, 2006

CEOs give Koizumi mixed review

More than 40 percent of chief executive officers who responded to a Kyodo News poll think Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration should have done more to reform the social security system.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Aug 8, 2006

Japan media focus blurred on big issues

All the pain of the tragedy that has befallen their family is etched in the crumpled faces of Shigeru and Sakie Yokota.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2006

Navies that drill together cut the slang

HONOLULU -- The United States, particularly the Bush Administration, has often been accused by politicians, academics and assorted critics in other nations, including several in Asia, of acting unilaterally, a fancy word for going it alone.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2006

Merger option after Castro

LONDON -- "Are revolutions doomed to fail?" asked Fidel Castro last November, addressing an audience of university students in a five-hour speech that was followed by a question-and-answer session that lasted until dawn. "When the veterans start disappearing to make room for new generations of leaders,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 5, 2006

BOJ repeating history, board exec from 2000 warns

When the Bank of Japan ended its "zero-interest-rate" policy at its two-day Policy Board meeting last month, Nobuyuki Nakahara recalled the last time the central bank made the same move, when he was a board member in August 2000.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 5, 2006

'Gimme Wings' raises singer-songwriter's profile

Sixteen years ago, Benjamin Franklin wrote a song entitled "Feel Like a Bird." The lead song and the title of his first album, released June 17, is "Gimme Wings." "I guess that suggests I haven't got very far," he jokes. In fact he's come quite a distance, but with still a way to go.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2006

Toyota vows to improve quality, recall regime

Toyota Motor Corp. submitted a report to the government Thursday outlining measures it will take to improve its quality control, defect monitoring and recall systems in response to a transport ministry mandate stemming from an accident involving a defective Toyota sport utility vehicle.
EDITORIALS
Jul 31, 2006

Sympathy for a racehorse

The world's compassion is notoriously quirky. Just consider where it has been directed over the past couple of months, a period as replete with tragedy and disaster as any in recent memory. Another lethal tsunami struck Indonesia. The sectarian slaughter in Iraq worsened, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006

No mountain too high for oldest man ever to scale Everest

This story is part of a package on "Growing old healthily." The introduction is here
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2006

Harm in delayed action

The recent revelation that 21 people have died of carbon-monoxide poisoning caused by malfunctioning gas water heaters points to a lack of awareness and slow action on the part of the parties involved -- the manufacturer and its parent company, Paloma Industries Ltd. and Paloma Co., the Ministry of Economy,...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 25, 2006

Renting and dual nationality

In Japan, "truth" is often a very nebulous concept. A "situational ethics" approach to life here directly affects law and gives birth to the "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, which is pervasive in Japan.
LIFE / Language
Jul 25, 2006

When muzukashii means more than 'difficult'

I wish I had a share of Google stock for every time I have heard a Japanese person tell me that their language is "aimai na gengo (an ambiguous language)." How did this bizarre notion originate, and why do many Japanese entertain it? And what's more, can a language itself be ambiguous, apart from the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 25, 2006

Mariko Sakaida

Mariko Sakaida, 33, is a supermarket cashier in Tokyo and the 2003 Best Checker Concours champion, a title she competed for with about 2,000 of the Kanto region's other checkout aces. She won hands-down with polished greetings, flawless scanning, speedy and accurate cashing, and artful packing. She also...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2006

Containing chemical weapons

Recent events from the Middle East to Northeast Asia have once again highlighted the unsatisfactory state of affairs with respect to the tool kit available to the international community for responding to the challenge of weapons of mass destruction. This makes it all the more curious as to why more...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 24, 2006

Iran's attempt to score a preemptive strike

WASHINGTON -- Iran's quarreling and competing leaders have decided, by their acts, to reject the offer by Europe and the United States of a nuclear reactor, aircraft spare parts, economic cooperation and more in exchange for giving up uranium enrichment.
JAPAN
Jul 23, 2006

Embezzlement fears beset sports body

An Olympic sports association headed by Foreign Minister Taro Aso is facing charges of fund embezzlement and opaque accounting, according to association sources.

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight