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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 18, 2009

Let's kensaku — searching the Web in Japanese

Has this ever happened to you? A friend in another country e-mails a plea for help in finding information in Japanese due to their encountering any one of several obstacles. For instance, the operating system or software on the computer they are using might not be able to input Japanese or read it. Or...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Nov 10, 2009

Betting your family on Japan: readers respond

Life is long, should be long Mr. Cory, I truly sympathize with your comments and experiences. Your comment about mixed feelings toward your wife really struck home with me as well. Indeed, I too am a Richard Cory, living a farcical life with all of the appearances of the enviable.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2009

Colombo risks squandering Sri Lanka's hard-won peace

If Sri Lanka is to become a tropical paradise again, it must build enduring peace. This will only occur through genuine interethnic equality, and a transition from being a unitary state to being a federation that grants provincial and local autonomy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jul 5, 2009

Motoko Inagawa: Japan's foreign-talent guru shares her worldly wisdoms

In need of a couple of Portuguese missionaries? How about a boatload of Dutch traders — or a platoon of World War II U.S. grunts?
EDITORIALS
Jun 21, 2009

In Japan we trust

In a poll commissioned by the Foreign Ministry, a record 80 percent of the American public said Japan was a dependable country. The results of this poll, undertaken by the famed Gallup Organization and released in late May, showed a considerable shift in attitudes toward Japan.
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2009

Both Japan, U.S. must improve their 'soft power': experts

The world's two largest economies should reinvigorate their collaborative use of "soft power" to influence other countries as they approach a milestone year in their security alliance, participants said at a recent symposium that included key U.S. commentators on diplomacy.
BUSINESS
Jun 18, 2009

Most 'zombie' bank funds recouped

Japan recouped much of the public money it pumped into banks during the country's financial crisis last decade, when toxic loans totaled as much as ¥100 trillion, Financial Services Agency Commissioner Takafumi Sato said Wednesday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 2, 2009

Creating a catalyst for self-reflection

"One of the hardest missions for people is to face themselves in the mirror, to criticize themselves, to ask themselves really basic questions," says ex-Israeli soldier Avichay Sharon. "No one wants to touch sensitive nerves, no one wants to go underneath, scratch underneath within himself." Sharon is...
Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Mar 31, 2009

Scots, fans pay tribute to national hero, poet at Burns birthday bash

The Scots language used in the poems and songs of Robert Burns may make them inaccessible to some, but their message of friendship and celebration remains universal nonetheless.
EDITORIALS
Mar 22, 2009

Economic crisis deepens

The economic news continues to worsen. A new World Bank report forecasts a crisis that will spare no country and threatens to roll back decades of progress in the war against poverty. In one of the more sickening ironies of the moment, developing nations may be hurt the worst, even though they are bystanders...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Feb 7, 2009

Aso Mining POWs seek redress

Former Allied prisoners of war who were forced to work for a company run by Prime Minister Taro Aso's family during World War II said they were placed in extremely dangerous conditions with very little food or clothing.
EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2009

Europe gets the shivers

Europe has been in the grip of a new cold war. This struggle has not been fought with militaries, but rather with energy exports. Yes, Russia and Ukraine are having their annual tussle over natural gas exports, and Europe has felt the effects. It is tempting to see the fight as a geopolitical faceoff...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 9, 2009

Glasvegas

The name is cute: a mash-up of Glasgow, the band's hometown, and Las Vegas, the American Oz. In the great tradition of British bands appropriating U.S. cultural touchstones, Glasvegas take these twin geographic signifiers and turn them into a whole different country that nevertheless feels familiar to...
COMMENTARY
Dec 30, 2008

No sign of a 'peace agreement'

More than six months have passed since the presidential election in Taiwan. After a hiatus of eight years, the Kuomintang is in power. This actually represents the restoration of the mainland-lineage forces for the first time in 20 years — if you count the Lee Teng-hui era as rule by non-mainland-lineage...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 5, 2008

So you think U.S. democracy's dying? Well, you're probably right

The national conventions of the U.S. Democratic and Republican parties are now but fast-fading memories. The only thing that I really wanted to know once they were over was: Who has the balloon concession for these events, because there's obviously a lot of easy money to be made from hot air.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 27, 2008

Israel looks ready for an atypical leader

HAIFA, Israel — Famously irreverent, Israelis tend to call their leaders by their first name or childhood nickname. But don't be fooled: Tzipora "Tzipi" Livni is nobody's close friend. Her dry style, personal remoteness and forced smiles make her an atypical Israeli. Perhaps the country needs exactly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 12, 2008

She, herself and AI

With her sights set on achieving her long-held ambition of winning a Grammy award, Los Angeles-born and Tokyo-based vocalist AI is adamant that dreams only come true with hard graft.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2008

Quake warms Japan-China ties

The Sichuan earthquake disaster has highlighted many changes in China, such as its willingness to accept outside aid in contrast to the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, when Beijing insisted on self-reliance and refused all offers of assistance.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 1, 2008

Arata Isozaki: Astonishing by design

If the entire Japanese architectural fraternity was one big royal family, then Arata Isozaki would be a king approaching the end of a long and glorious reign.
EDITORIALS
May 29, 2008

Mr. Medvedev goes to Beijing

It is tempting to hyperventilate about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China last week. Some see the Beijing stopover as a reminder of the two countries' determination to counter Western or, more specifically, U.S. "hegemony" and the challenge they pose to the international order. By this...
COMMENTARY / Japan / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 28, 2008

Behind the failure of the Japanese economy

Takafusa Shioya has sent me his book published last year, "Keizai Saisei no Joken" (Conditions for Economic Recovery). Nearly three decades ago, during a period of a few years when Jimmy Carter's presidency morphed into Ronald Reagan's, he was stationed in the New York outpost of a Japanese trade office...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2008

Gambari's battle in Burma

SINGAPORE — The United Nations special envoy to Burma is coming under fire for failing to nudge the country's military rulers in the direction of real political reform. But it is wrong to blame the envoy, Ibrahim Gambari. After all, his mandate is from the United Nations and he reports to the U.N....
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2008

Magazine aims to report on reality of life in North

The magazine Rimjingang, whose Japanese version was published for the first time Thursday, aims to let the world know what is really happening in North Korea through the eyes of its own citizens and to connect them to the outside world, the magazine's editors said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2008

Canada, U.S. nudge Japan to join child abduction resolution framework

Canadian and the U.S. government officials and a law expert Friday urged Japan to join an international legal framework to resolve cross-border cases of child abduction by parents and others.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 8, 2008

'Midori by Moonlight' sure to raise smile

Wendy Tokunaga is a role model for writers struggling to get into print. Her debut novel, "Midori by Moonlight," is the fifth she has written, having survived "hundreds and hundreds" of rejections from agents over a 12-year period.
COMMENTARY
Dec 31, 2007

Killing cycle claimed Bhutto

WATERLOO, Canada — Born amid the mass killings of partition in 1947, Pakistan has never escaped the cycle of violence, volatility and bloodshed. Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) is the latest casualty of that murderous cycle.
COMMENTARY
Dec 6, 2007

So what's bothering China's generals?

LOS ANGELES — What's eating the People's Liberation Army?
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2007

It's Taiwan's referendum

For China, the launch of the Fukuda Cabinet in late September was good news, so it must expect many things from the new administration. What concerns me now in this respect is Taiwan's move to hold a national referendum on whether to seek U.N. membership in the name of "Taiwan."
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 18, 2007

How well do you really know Japan?

Well, dear reader, it's time for our annual How Well Do You Know Japan? quiz.

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