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EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2005

Learn from the train tragedy

Monday's railway accident in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, was the worst since Japanese National Railways was privatized in 1987. A packed seven-car commuter train jumped the tracks at a sharp curve and the front car slammed into the parking floor of a nearby apartment building, killing more than 100...
JAPAN
Apr 29, 2005

Teikoku Oil seeks rights to test-drill in disputed seas

A Japanese oil company on Thursday requested test-drilling rights in the East China Sea, in disputed waters just a few kilometers from where China is preparing full-scale drilling.
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...
EDITORIALS
Apr 28, 2005

Mr. Putin's Russia

Hopes that President Vladimir Putin would use this week's state of the union address to clarify where Russia is heading were frustrated. His speech had a little something for everyone, leaving liberals and nationalists alike grasping for their favorite sound bite. It is tempting to look to the case of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 27, 2005

By-election losses dent DPJ's pitch to ditch opposition image

Don't call us an opposition party, says Katsuya Okada, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan.
JAPAN
Apr 26, 2005

Residents heard screech, then roar, then silence

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo Pref. -- A screech, followed by a roar, and then silence.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Apr 26, 2005

Chinese, a visa poser and used book sales

Chinese learning Is there a Chinese-language school in Tokyo that teaches Chinese to English speakers (only in English; my Japanese skills are beginner level)?
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2005

Bamboozled by buzzwords

A re you baffled by words you hear or read every day? Does it sometimes seem as if the language is being suffocated by technological doublespeak? Is your ability to do your job, buy a computer or read a manual being undermined because whole swaths of English are now so incomprehensible they might as...
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
Apr 24, 2005

A provincial pitch for votes

LONDON -- Britain is now in the grip of a general election campaign with voting due May 5. As with political campaigns generally in the modern world, this one is heavily oriented toward domestic issues and disputes. Globalization and the worldwide information revolution seem to have had the opposite...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 24, 2005

Documenting hell on Earth: At a theater near you

Because of the dangerous situation there, none of the commercial Japanese TV networks have staff correspondents in Iraq. On-site reporting that's shown on Japanese TV is from either other countries' news organizations or freelance Japanese reporters, the most prominent of whom is probably Takeharu Watai,...
JAPAN
Apr 24, 2005

Koizumi, Hu hold talks

JAKARTA -- The leaders of Japan and China met Saturday in an effort to end a dispute over Japan's wartime aggression that has badly damaged relations between the two Asian powers and alarmed their neighbors.
EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2005

Reform remains pope's top priority

In one of the swiftest conclusions to a conclave in a century, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German theologian, has been elected pope to succeed the late John Paul II, who pursued pacifism, human rights protection and inter-religious dialogue. The hope for Pope Benedict XVI -- the name is said to suggest...
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2005

Settling isle row at Hague no option: Seoul

South Korea will not agree on taking a territorial dispute with Japan concerning a group of South Korea-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Korean Ambassador to Japan Ra Jong Yil said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 21, 2005

Upper panel can't agree on need for new Article 9

A House of Councilors panel on the Constitution endorsed a final report Wednesday that cites the need to revise the supreme law to ensure new human rights concepts and agrees a female should be allowed to ascend the Imperial throne, but fails to declare a consensus on amending the war-renouncing Article...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 20, 2005

'S wonderful: Wiling away the time with Caetano Veloso

Caetano is here. Caetano Veloso. The man who has been hailed for decades in his native Brazil as a singer, composer, poet and revolutionary, and commonly celebrated abroad as the 'Bob Dylan of Brazil,' despite his dislike for such labels.
COMMUNITY / LIFELINES
Apr 19, 2005

Pensions, easy credit, freecycling and dogs

Lump Sum payments Following on from last week's Zeit Gist article on the insurance probe involving Japan's eikaiwa, Rob has a question on pension refunds.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2005

70% don't want to serve on juries in new system

Seventy percent of respondents to a government questionnaire on the new jury system to be introduced for criminal trials by 2009 said they do not want to become "citizen judges," as participants will be called, the Cabinet Office said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2005

A sermon is a sometimes thing

Sign of the times: Cookie Monster, of the globally beloved U.S. children's television show "Sesame Street," is going to have to start watching what he eats. According to the American show's producers, the shaggy blue carbohydrate-cruncher will no longer be allowed to gobble chocolate chip cookies by...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 17, 2005

Prime Minister Koizumi smiles in the face of the people's apathy

No matter how alarming the day's news is, you can always count on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to put a happy face on it. In the daily press conferences where he sidles up to journalists to field a few softballs he always has a way of making everything sound inconsequential.
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2005

Mr. Wen courts India

Ties between China and India continue to strengthen. While some worry about a "new axis" between Beijing and Delhi, it is only natural that two of the world's largest countries -- neighbors, no less -- have strong and cooperative relations. Asia needs them to have a positive, forward-looking partnership....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 16, 2005

In face of adversity, Benitez steers Liverpool to victory

LONDON -- "Things are only impossible until they're not."
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 15, 2005

We are the robots

EXPO 2005 Aichi, now entering the fourth week of its 180-day run, is providing visitors with thousands of thrilling glimpses of the future. With all manner of advanced technology on show -- from humanoid robots to next-generation transportation systems -- the world of tomorrow has never felt so close....
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2005

A victory for human rights

The decision by the United Nations Security Council to send war-crimes suspects from the Darfur region of Sudan to the new International Criminal Court (ICC) is an important victory for human rights. Even the United States, which has been implacable in its opposition to the ICC, agreed to the final resolution....
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2005

Fukuoka, Miyagi by-election campaigns start

Campaigning kicked off in Miyagi and Fukuoka prefectures Tuesday for two House of Representatives by-elections expected to be pivotal in deciding the fate of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization drive.
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2005

Troubling events in China

The recent wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China raises questions about Beijing's will to stabilize the situation. At the beginning of this month, demonstrators went on a rampage in Sichuan and Shenzhen in southern China, smashing windows of a Japanese supermarket and committing other acts of...

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