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COMMENTARY
Dec 22, 2008

Deal with the reparations

This month marks the 67th anniversary of Japan's declaration of war against the United States and Britain. This long span of time is one reason the Japanese people have grown oblivious to the lessons learned from defeat in war.
EDITORIALS
Dec 21, 2008

Walking the body electric

At long last, scientific researchers in Tokyo are looking into the city's greatest surplus — pedestrians. Panels installed at Tokyo station and in Shibuya have started to generate electricity from human steps, enough energy in its research phase to illuminate Christmas lights and display boards. These...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 21, 2008

Japan threatened by social divide

POVERTY AND SOCIAL WELFARE IN JAPAN, edited by Masami Iwata and Akihiko Nishizawa. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2008, 323 pp., A$54.95 (paper) Recent commotions on financial markets have underscored the fact that neoliberal reforms and destatization have not brought us the advantages of competition,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

Tongue-twisting over Beaujolais

On Friday, Nov. 21, the day after the worldwide release of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau in France, I joined a gathering of some 100 wine-lovers in Tokyo's Odaiba waterfront district to welcome the new, jet-lagged plonk to these shores.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan / WEEK 3
Dec 21, 2008

30 Days in the Wilderness

What miracles will the incoming 44th President of the United States perform?
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 21, 2008

Southern All Stars-inspired drama; Takeshi as Tojo; and communal living

Though they officially retired a few months ago, Japan's most beloved rock band, Southern All Stars, just won't go away. On Monday, Nihon TV will present a special two-hour drama, "Za Naminori Resutoran" ("The Wave-riding Restaurant") (8:54 p.m.), which is built around 30 SAS songs.
EDITORIALS
Dec 20, 2008

Zimbabwe's nightmare worsens

In the last few years, Zimbabwe has suffered through an economic crisis that has impoverished the entire nation, the destruction of its agriculture sector, and the theft of elections that its citizens had hoped would end the country's mismanagement. Incredibly, however, the situation continues to deteriorate....
COMMENTARY
Dec 19, 2008

Chinese reporters push bad-news envelope

HONG KONG — Strange things are happening in the Chinese media. Articles that would normally be expected to be censored have appeared in the establishment press, exposing the possibly illegal behavior of Communist Party officials.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2008

Scenic cliffs drawing suicidal idled part-timers

An increasing number of part-time workers thrown out of their jobs because of the recession and with nowhere else to go are heading to Tojinbo, a popular sightseeing destination — and suicide spot — in Fukui Prefecture, according to a local nonprofit organization.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 19, 2008

Mystery Jets ditch the quirky and turn up the pop

They formed their group when they were only 8 years old, but after years of playpen antics it wasn't until 2006 that Mystery Jets made it into the public eye with their debut album "Making Dens."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2008

The subcontinent shows its heart

Over the last decade or so, India has gone through unprecedented change, from largely missing out on the advances of the 20th century to rapidly becoming a leader of those in the 21st. But while the fragmented media coverage of the country hails its successful IT and biotechnology industries, it also...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 16, 2008

Young 'Zainichi' Koreans look beyond Chongryon ideology

Imagine attending school with portraits of the late North Korean dictator, Kim Il Sung, and current leader Kim Jong Il hanging on the classroom walls. This is a reality at schools operated by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 16, 2008

In an ideal world, who would you like to see running Japan?

Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 16, 2008

Rise of the spas

The world economy appears to be in free fall. Temperatures are plummeting toward zero, too. Work is stacking up perilously on the desk. Christmas celebrations and bonenkai (forget-the-year party) hangovers are setting in. Does this sound familiar?
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2008

Human rights require stronger institutions

PARIS — On Dec. 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first international proclamation of the inherent dignity and equal rights of all people. To this day, the UDHR remains the single most important reference point for discussion of ethical values...
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2008

Aso's latest stimulus worth ¥23 trillion

Prime Minister Taro Aso unveiled a ¥23 trillion stimulus package Friday that will allow up to ¥12 trillion in public funds to be injected into financial institutions, far more than the ¥2 trillion initially planned.
EDITORIALS
Dec 11, 2008

Retaining nursing-care workers

The government and the ruling bloc have decided to raise the payment for nursing-care services by 3 percent from April 2009. Since the inauguration of the nursing-care insurance system in fiscal 2000, the payment has been reviewed twice — once every three years — and reduced every time. The increase...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2008

The needy, human face of a warming planet

PRAGUE — A clever new gadget was described in a newspaper a few weeks ago. It pulls water out of the atmosphere and delivers you a glass of clean, chilled H2O. It's wonderful what technology can offer for the wealthy.
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2008

The message from the carnage in Mumbai

CHENNAI, India — Terror and Mumbai have become as inseparable as Siamese twins, at least since 1993, when 250 people died in bomb attacks carried out as a revenge for the demolition of the ancient Babri Mosque by Hindu fanatics.
COMMENTARY
Dec 7, 2008

Four harsh truths about climatic change

LONDON — About two years ago, I realized that the military in various countries were starting to do climate-change scenarios in-house — scenarios that started with the scientific predictions about rising temperatures, falling crop yields and other physical effects, and examined what that would do...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 7, 2008

Past events' bloodstained light casts a long and lasting shadow

On Dec. 7, the day of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 in Hawaii, the thoughts of many turn to wars, how they begin and the course they take.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 6, 2008

Sending out smoke signals to the gods

While November is fire prevention month in Japan, on our island we are out deliberately starting fires. And during this dry time of year with crispy leaves and fallen twigs, the likelihood of setting the entire island on fire is at its highest. But fire is one of the many ways the island people communicate...
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2008

Political theater of the absurd

It is tempting to call Thai politics a comedy, but to be more accurate, it has descended into farce — if not tragedy. The machinations that have paralyzed the country has undermined a once thriving and vibrant democracy. The Bangkok elites' determination to disregard the will of the Thai majority shows...
EDITORIALS
Dec 3, 2008

Proposals for pension reform

The Social Security Council, an advisory body for the health and welfare minister, has issued an interim report on reform of the nation's pension system, on the assumption that pensions, in principle, will be paid out of social insurance funds. The main pillars of the eight-point report are proposals...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 3, 2008

Oh, no: It's not a Christmas pud

The Christmas season may be grinding ever closer, and the creation in the photograph below is almost the right color and shape, but it's most certainly not a Christmas pudding.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2008

Defense of an artist who had lived as a slave

NEW YORK — Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe. Liberated from the complexity of knowing too much about the cruel past, the young people of Eastern Europe's postcommunist generation seem uninterested in what their parents and grandparents endured.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past