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Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2010

Matsumoto to focus on global green efforts

With less than a month to go before the convention on biological diversity in Nagoya, newly appointed Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto said he is doing his best to make the international meeting a success.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 28, 2010

Local politics cries out for partisan competition

OSAKA — With its constant factional infighting and Cabinet shuffles, Japanese national politics is a disheartening affair for the concerned voter. Last year's historic elections, however, demonstrated that voters can oust unpopular governments, and that party competition and accountability is emerging...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Sep 28, 2010

Building a world without barriers, borders

One afternoon in the mid-1980s, Hiroko Kimura was taking a rest from sightseeing on a park bench in Adelaide, southern Australia. As she was enjoying the warm sunshine, she spotted the words "Japs go home" carved into the wood. This was the height of the bubble years and Kimura was aware that some people...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2010

Deals with Bangladesh to help India burnish South Asian image

LONDON — India and Bangladesh have reportedly agreed in principle to swap each other's enclaves that are spread along the border areas and re-demarcate 6.1 kilometers of boundary — in effect resolving an issue that has bedeviled Indo-Bangladesh ties since independence.
CULTURE / Books
Sep 26, 2010

Caught in the jaws of Japan's justice system

The Recruit scandal dominated the media in the late 1980s and has become a notorious symbol of money politics in Japan. The image of "government for sale" undermined public faith in politicians while raising questions about values in a society uncomfortable with the unbridled materialism associated with...
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
Sep 25, 2010

Public taking hands-on interest in archaeology

When it comes to promoting archaeological excavations, it isn't just the resulting artifacts that are being featured — institutions are increasingly highlighting the sites and the research process itself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 25, 2010

English teacher brings joy to orphans

Young kids running amok, dancing crazily, jumping on adults' backs demanding piggyback rides.
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Sep 24, 2010

New vision of Japan-U.S. ties needed at key turning point

Japan-U.S. relations are at a turning point and the Futenma base dispute — which has strained bilateral ties since the Democratic Party of Japan took power a year ago — is also symbolic of the broader and longer-term changes that affect the alliance, American experts said at a recent seminar in Tokyo....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

Hard-knock life leads to magic music

In 2004, Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye ditched their respectable jobs in France and headed to Kinshasa. In the ruined capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country just emerging from one of postcolonial Africa's worst conflicts, they felt strangely at home. "We were like mad dogs in...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 24, 2010

The constructor: Pierce using Shiga experience to help in Akita

Bob Pierce is the first head coach in bj-league history to be handed the reins of two expansion teams in their first seasons.
EDITORIALS
Sep 23, 2010

Arrest of a public prosecutor

On Sept. 10 the Osaka District Court acquitted Ms. Atsuko Muraki, a former welfare ministry's bureau chief, of instructing her subordinate, Mr. Tsutomu Kamimura, to fabricate and issue a certificate that recognizes an organization as a group for the disabled, thus enabling it to use a postage discount...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2010

Dim outlook for Japan's muddled leadership

OSAKA — Having seen a new prime minister every year for five consecutive years, Japan has just narrowly avoided having its third in 2010. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been elected president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), surviving a challenge from Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's most potent...
LIFE / Style & Design / Japan Pulse
Sep 21, 2010

First-class train designs

Japan takes pride in its trains and Eiji Mitooka certainly goes the extra mile in his designs for the new N700-7000 series of Sakura shinkansen.
EDITORIALS
Sep 21, 2010

Looking after the elderly

Ten years have passed since the introduction of the nursing care insurance system in April 2000. In fiscal 2009, some 3.92 million people used nursing care insurance services. Discussions have started in preparation for a once-every-three-years reform of the system that will be implemented in fiscal...
COMMENTARY
Sep 20, 2010

Mixing it up on a New York summer evening

NEW YORK — Like many other cities around the world, New York has had a punishing summer. On one of the first nights that the weather gave us a respite, I went to a new place for dinner, a Turkish restaurant in Greenwich Village that a friend had enthusiastically recommended to me. I had intended to...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 19, 2010

Updates on Hillman, BayStars, Niigata's bid for team

We are taking a look this week at topics covered in this column at various times throughout the 2010 season, and updating them to see what, if any, progress has been made.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 19, 2010

Rustic building fest spans two continents

Back in early August, as families across Japan were beginning to plan trips to their hometowns during the upcoming Obon holidays, Hannes Schnelle of Sarenseck, Germany, and 26 fellow Europeans were preparing for a Japanese journey of their own.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2010

Kan not up to economic challenge: experts

Prime Minister Naoto Kan has survived an internal power struggle and reshuffled his Cabinet, but some economists wonder if he will be able to successfully lead Japan through the economic challenges ahead of it.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 17, 2010

Cultural gems host theater's treasures

There are currently 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Japan, ranging from the pristine Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido's north to Okinawa's Ryukyu castles.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Sep 15, 2010

Wedding planners make killing despite recession, population drop

The recession doesn't appear to be deterring couples who want to spend yen on the Big Day.
EDITORIALS
Sep 15, 2010

Anti-base assembly in Nago

Candidates who support Mayor Susumu Inamine of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, an opponent of the Japan-U.S. plan to relocate U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan in the central part of Okinawa Island to the less populated Henoko area of Nago, won a majority in the city's assembly in Sunday'...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2010

Nago election puts Futenma move in doubt

OSAKA — The outcome of Sunday's key election for the municipal assembly in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, may create further doubts that the agreement between Japan and the United States to move the Futenma base to the city's Henoko district will be carried out.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 12, 2010

Aging through the ages

"If only, when one heard That Old Age was coming One could bolt the door Answer 'not at home' And refuse to meet him!" (Anonymous, "Kokinshu" Imperial poetry anthology, 10th century)

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years