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JAPAN / UPPER HOUSE SHOWDOWN
Jul 14, 2007

Constitution pushed out of campaign

The pension records fiasco and concerns about a consumption tax hike have upstaged what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe most wanted to focus on during campaigning for the July 29 Upper House poll — revising the Constitution.
EDITORIALS
Jul 14, 2007

Zeal to expand 'defense' missions

The 2007 white paper on defense, the first such government report since the Defense Agency was upgraded to the Defense Ministry, stresses that the Self-Defense Forces must become an organization that can better cope with crises and contribute to world peace, saying the days are gone in which the SDF...
Japan Times
JAPAN / UPPER HOUSE SHOWDOWN
Jul 13, 2007

Will election turn the tables on Abe & Co.?

The campaign for the July 29 House of Councilors election officially kicked off Thursday, with the ruling coalition, reeling from a string of scandals involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet and the public pension debacle, facing a fierce battle with the opposition camp.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 13, 2007

First Lady of blues

She recently came close to death; now, about to headline the Japan Blues & Soul Carnival, Koko Taylor talks about her 50-year career — and the future of blues
EDITORIALS
Jul 12, 2007

Overdue help for the orphaned

Japanese who were separated from their families in China at the end of World War II have agreed to accept a new support plan and to drop their lawsuits filed with 10 district courts and six high courts over the government's failure to swiftly bring them back to Japan and provide adequate support. Although...
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jul 11, 2007

Satellite of love

Empress Michiko has a habit of gazing at the moon on New Year's Day. How do I know? Well, here's the poem the Empress wrote for this year's New Year poetry reading:
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2007

Pro-Taiwan, not anti-China

TAIPEI — In 2003, while still serving as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, I was asked by Taiwanese reporters what the U.S. view would be on the proposal for Taiwan to hold a national referendum with the 2004 election. My convoluted answer could have been summarized more concisely...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 10, 2007

Nobuo Hara

Nobuo Hara, 80, is the leader of Nobuo Hara and His Sharps and Flats, a 17-member big band formed in 1951 that helped to make jazz popular in Japan after World War II. Their sweet rhythms, which took the country by storm, have not lost any of their swing, and even today they keep audiences mesmerized...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2007

How the West lost its nerve with Russia

MOSCOW — Nation-states are built on ethnic and territorial unity, and their histories and political development are grounded in a sense of collective identity. Empires emerge when a national group considers its existence inside its territorial borders either risky or ineffective, and embarks on a forced...
COMMENTARY
Jul 6, 2007

Low-cost investments to save children

NEW YORK — In the world today there are over 600 million children under 5 years old. They represent the best hopes for the planet, yet more than 5 million of them die every year as a result of environment-related diseases. Their deaths could be prevented by using low-cost and sustainable tools and...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 5, 2007

Al Gore's misplaced priorities

PRAGUE — The organizers of next Saturday's Live Earth concerts hope that the entire world will hear a crystal clear message: Climate change is the most critical threat facing the planet. Planned by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth will be the biggest, most mass-marketed show of celebrity...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 5, 2007

Exposing our tacky selves

Walking through an exhibition of Martin Parr's photography is an emotional experience. The Englishman's works make you laugh, snicker, cringe; they prompt self- and societal reflection; but most of all they make you marvel at the dry wit and superior eye that Parr has for things simultaneously insipid...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 29, 2007

Office weighs less in the work-life balance

After his son was born last April, Hyogo Prefecture civil servant Akira Hirabayashi decided to cut back on overtime at work. He yearned for more time with little Susumu and also wanted to give his wife, Chie, a chance to return to her teaching job at an elementary school.
COMMENTARY
Jun 28, 2007

Put yourself in China's shoes

LONDON — The United States is off the hook: last year China overtook the U.S. to become the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. "The tall tree attracts the wind," and from now on China will be the main target of the criticism that used to be directed at the U.S. for refusing to accept binding...
EDITORIALS
Jun 26, 2007

Living as if there were no risks

The government's fiscal 2007 white paper on disaster prevention notes recent changes in patterns of natural disasters. It cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's prediction that global warming will lead to more episodes of heavy rain and more intense tropical cyclones. In 1997-2006, Japan...
COMMENTARY
Jun 25, 2007

Ways to steer public opinion

Since last year, moves by the government to sway public opinion in favor of its policies have come to the fore one after another. On June 6, the Japan Communist Party revealed that the Ground Self-Defense Force's intelligence security unit had gathered information on the activities of organizations and...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 25, 2007

Social responsibility: the buzz word nobody gets

Spas are for healing, nursing homes are for caring, language schools are for communicating, amusement parks are for amusing and pensions are for carefree retirement. This is how things ought to be. It is not how things are in modern-day Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2007

Four Stories rises in Osaka's 'cultural desert'

OSAKA — For the Kansai region's foreign residents, a night out in Osaka has not usually meant a literary experience. Unlike neighboring Kyoto, with its reputation as a mecca for foreign artists, writers and poets, one did not usually walk into an Osaka bar or restaurant expecting to hear quality short...
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2007

The law is clear on Kosovo

LONDON — The ratio of foreign soldiers to local citizens in Kosovo (16,500 NATO troops to 2 million civilians) is slightly higher than the ratio of American soldiers to Iraqi citizens.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

Japan's master of an ancient Muslim art

For Kouichi Honda, writing a beautiful line is what life is about. Getting every detail right — the subtle curves, the varying thicknesses and the density of the ink — matters to him as much as life itself.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

No stopping this whistler as she strikes a chord on world stage

The calm of an afternoon music class in a four-story building in Tokyo's central Yutenji district is ever so slightly disturbed by the noise of cars on the street outside. But the five students there appear entirely unconcerned as they keenly strain their ears to the sparkling melodies of "Edelweiss"...
COMMENTARY
Jun 14, 2007

Wanted: A 'new deal' for globalization

LOS ANGELES — There is no such thing as "free" trade. In truth, the phrase "free trade" is an oxymoron.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 13, 2007

Pensioners place little premium on pledges to mend record fiasco

Lawyer Tadahiko Tanizawa has spent his 40-year career upholding the principles of law and order, both of which he found lacking during a visit last year to a social insurance office.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2007

SIA probes computer glitch amid rise in queries

must be enhanced. We will strengthen manpower to respond to people's worries and complaints," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting involving the government and the ruling coalition. The problem hit computers Sunday at the 130 offices in 23 prefectures, including Kanagawa, Hyogo and Fukuoka, at...

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