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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Feb 3, 2008

Nano's low price comes at a cost

It's hardly surprising that Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata chose the theme from the film "2001: A Space Odyssey" as the soundtrack to his unveiling of the Nano mini-car. Simply put, this car is epoch-making. It is the Ford Model T of India.
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Feb 1, 2008

Referee row lifts handball's appeal

Team handball, the figurative water boy of sports, is suddenly in the game and earning the roaring approval of fans in Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 1, 2008

New magazine takes aim at wrongful convictions

A court ruling last fall changed a man's life. After Hiroshi Yanagihara was found guilty of rape in Toyama Prefecture and served about two years in prison, the Toyama District Court's Takaoka Branch officially found him not guilty.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 31, 2008

Tilting the balance back to darkness

In the minds of casual observers, Japan is simple. Between lovers of tradition and those enraptured by Japan's quirky window into an urban future, it's either the former land of austere, honorable warriors or the current one of air-headed, emotionally overwrought manga characters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2008

Voice of dissent revives forgotten war memories

Yoji Yamada had just finished greeting the audience at the premiere of "Kaabee (Kabei: Our Mother)" at Tokyo's Marunouchi Piccadilly Theater when he sat down with The Japan Times.
EDITORIALS
Jan 30, 2008

Remembering Mr. Suharto

Former Indonesian President Suharto, who died Sunday, will be remembered as a leader who brought stability to a nation comprising numerous ethnic groups and sparked an economic takeoff. But at the same time, Indonesia's 200 million people and the world will not forget his autocratic rule and its record...
EDITORIALS
Jan 29, 2008

'Tear down this wall'

At the height of the Cold War, then U.S. President Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, where standing next to the landmark of that era, he called on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." Today, a similar symbol of repression separates the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jan 29, 2008

Patricia Field

Patricia Field, whose boutique in New York City has been an inspiration for designers since opening in 1966, achieved worldwide fame dressing the characters for the HBO TV series "Sex and the City" and for the 2006 film "The Devil Wears Prada." The 65-year-old Field is an Academy Award-nominated, two-time...
COMMENTARY
Jan 27, 2008

China isn't blazing a path for anybody

LOS ANGELES — All political systems are peculiar, each in its own way. This is true of democracy, however defined, as well as of communist systems, more easily defined.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2008

'American Gangster'

According to gangster-cinema logic, a gang boss wallows in crime and murder largely because he feels obligated (often willingly so) to look after the people on his turf: to keep the streets safe, his family well-fed and his business thriving. The contradiction is, of course, that by doing so a gang boss...
COMMENTARY
Jan 24, 2008

How Ma's 'three nos' policy could impact cross-strait ties

TAIPEI — Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou has proclaimed a "three nos" policy — no unification, no independence, no use of force — in outlining his planned approach to cross-strait relations should he win the March 22 Taiwan presidential election.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2008

Need for thoughtful proposals

As Diet debates go into full swing, the Democratic Party of Japan has dubbed the current Diet session a "people's-lives-first-gasoline" session. The leading opposition party, which together with other opposition parties controls the Upper House, appears determined to scrap the "temporary" additional...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 24, 2008

From ordinary to spectacular

Go Aoki is one of Japan's most in-demand playwrights and directors. The small venues where his Gring theater company typically stages his works attract drama-world insiders — as a result, besides taking Gring on the road in early 2008, Aoki has already been enlisted for three high-profile collaborations....
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jan 23, 2008

Mobage-town a rising-star site of mobile users, but filters loom

Just when mobile phone users may have thought the worldwide proliferation of video games and social networking services into the popular culture left little room for radical new tacks, the combination of the two has opened up new avenues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 23, 2008

Nikon's full-frame camera aims at the 'Canonistas'

For many professional photographers, their camera is a friend, a trusted companion and colleague. When an important story hinges on the functioning of their "partner," they want a product that is, above all, trustworthy.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 22, 2008

Japan's hot springs part of social, geologic, historic fabric

Japan is dotted with mineral-rich natural "onsen" hot springs, both indoors and outside, many offering a warming dip amid a frozen setting.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2008

Take bold steps and listen to public, Fukuda advises LDP

The Liberal Democratic Party is facing its biggest crisis since it was founded in 1955, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2008

Standing room for sale

A heady atmosphere of spending hung over the opening of this year's Art@Agnes, the "art fair in a hotel" that has in the last four years become a regular fixture of Tokyo's art world. Take 20 to 50 years off visitors' ages, strip them of their designer clothes and their well-polished courtesies, and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 15, 2008

In the wake of recent grisly crimes, is Japan still a safe place to live?

EDITORIALS
Jan 14, 2008

Refueling law enacted with regrets

By using a special provision in the Constitution, the ruling parties have voted into law a bill that enables the resumption of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean for antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan. The mission is expected to resume in mid-February....
COMMENTARY
Jan 14, 2008

Public's will to bear the cost

Most Japanese industry executives contend that the proposed environment tax should not be introduced on the grounds that it would slow the growth of gross domestic product. In my opinion, this argument is totally mistaken.

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