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COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2008

A passport to peace in the Middle East?

TUCUMAN, Argentina — Daniel Barenboim, the noted Israeli musician, is no stranger to controversy. By recently accepting Palestinian nationality, although in itself only a symbolic act, he will only fuel the controversy about his role in the Middle East process.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2008

Asian Dub Foundation's cracked reflection shifts the agenda

"Most world leaders have been on drugs," says Steve Chandra Savale, aka Chandrasonic, guitarist for ragga-breakbeat-punk collective Asian Dub Foundation.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008

To survive, companies need a conscience

It's time for Japanese companies to review their profit-driven culture and think about the meaning of being truly accepted by consumers and society, according to a public policy expert and former vice governor of Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008

Salvation sought in Sendai

Second of two parts
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2008

Radio station to air '55 Osaka hanging

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc. will air an audio recording of an execution carried out at the Osaka Detention House in 1955, a spokesman for the AM radio station said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2008

Soccer philanthropist Nakata signs on for exhibition match

Former soccer star Hidetoshi Nakata announced Tuesday he will play in an exhibition match in Yokohama on June 7 as part of his Plus One campaign to spur people to think about what they can do to make the world a better place.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 15, 2008

An outside eye on Japan

In a nation traditionally seen as a monoculture, there's a multinational range of flowers blooming in Japan's current cultural crop. In the last several years there has been an influx of foreign-born creators — whether architects, designers or writers — and they are thriving in the local scene.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2008

Doctor shortage gives patients runaround

The shortage of hospital doctors is taking its toll on the people who can least afford it: those in need of immediate medical attention.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 12, 2008

Galaxies beyond on the Hamanasu

Have you ever taken a ferry in Japan? The English word feri (ferry) is used in Japan only for boats carrying vehicles. Passenger ferries are just called fune (boats). There are many long-distance ferries passengers can board, however. Traveling by ferry is for those who prefer to travel around Japan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 11, 2008

Jazz icon Akiko Yano finds her electronic muse

She released her acclaimed debut album 32 years ago at the age of 21, but Akiko Yano still refuses to rest on her laurels. Even with a 27th solo album on the way, the pianist, vocalist, lyricist and composer is still searching for new musical experiences.
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 2008

Contrasting responses to crackdowns in Tibet and Burma

NEW DELHI — There are striking similarities between Tibet and Burma — both are strategically located, endowed with rich natural resources, suffering under long-standing repressive rule, resisting hard power with soft power and facing an influx of Han settlers. Yet the international response to the...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008

The world's hungry billion

COPENHAGEN — Hunger has slipped from the rich world's consciousness. Televised images of Third World children with distended bellies no longer shock viewers. Polls show that developed nations now believe that the world's biggest problems are terrorism and climate change.
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2008

Few cheers for devolution

A 15-member government panel has submitted an interim report recommending the introduction of the "doshu" system of regional governments. The report, submitted to internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, calls for a complete shift to the new system by 2018, and proposes that the government submit a basic...
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2008

See it on catwalk, buy it through cell phone

Screams erupted from 22,000 young women in flowery frills, boots, really short shorts and glittery jewelry whenever a model — dressed similarly — waltzed down the runway in a Tokyo stadium.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 8, 2008

Dancing with the devil over 'Yasukuni'

One of the great mysteries of life in Japan is the presence of the ultra-right. Loud, threatening and occasionally lethal, the shaven-headed patriots seem immune to police powers. "Why doesn't someone do something about those guys," is a fairly common response by the first-time foreign visitor. A strong...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Apr 8, 2008

Tokkotai survivor Hideo Suzuki

Eighty-five-year-old Hideo Suzuki is a reluctant survivor. A former tokkotai (Special Forces Unit) member of the Jinrai Butai (Thunder Gods Corps), Suzuki volunteered to be the pilot of an Ohka, a manned rocket-powered aircraft, during World War II. For sailors on U.S. warships in the Pacific, the Ohka...
Reader Mail
Apr 6, 2008

Be thinking about the big one

Regarding the April 3 front-page article "Earthquake will pack millions in tight areas": With the extent of crowding outlined, people would spill out over the roadways. There would be no vehicular traffic, not even emergency vehicles. Perhaps the solution would be to limit freeway traffic to one lane...
Japan Times
JAPAN / MIXED MATCHES
Apr 5, 2008

Home is where the family is for Japanese-German couple

Annette and Ken Uematsu met in 1981 while attending a party for people in Japan learning German. They started dating, moved in together and decided to marry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Apr 5, 2008

Leaf-selling business helps small town rake in cash, find pride

Tomoji Yokoishi, 49, recalls how astonished he was 21 years ago by three pretty women sitting next to him in a sushi restaurant in Osaka's Namba district.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2008

Back-seat riders to be bound by seat-belt law

Back-seat passengers will have to buckle up just like those up front when a new seat-belt law takes effect on June 1, although penalties will only be handed out for violations on expressways.
EDITORIALS
Apr 4, 2008

NHK is not a propaganda organ

At a recent meeting of the management committee of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.), committee chairman Shigetaka Komori called on the broadcast network to emphasize Japan's national interests in its international programming when reporting issues that concern the national interests of Japan and another...
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2008

U.K.'s ongoing EU headache

LONDON — What is a constitution? The question may seem to be a rarefied and abstruse one for lawyers and academics, but just at the moment it lies at the very heart of British politics and strategy.
COMMENTARY
Apr 1, 2008

A respectful Russian bluff

LONDON — In February, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, and most of the NATO countries recognized it. Russia condemned this as an illegal and dangerous precedent, and hinted that it might recognize other breakaway states like Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2008

Poverty in Japan scrutinized at multinational school event

About 2,000 people gathered Saturday at Tokyo's Kanda Hitotsubashi Junior High School to take in seminars, workshops, food, refreshment, music and films during a unique festival to address poverty in Japan.
COMMENTARY
Mar 29, 2008

Flaws in criminal justice

LONDON — The criminal justice systems in Britain and Japan have flaws, but there are worse systems.

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