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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.
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Why exempt Korean residents?

According to Jun Hongo's Nov. 8 article, "Will entry checks cross the line?," The new law requiring non-Japanese to submit to fingerprinting and photographing upon entering the country exempts "special permanent residents of Korean and Taiwanese descent" from this humiliating procedure.
COMMENTARY
Nov 1, 2007

CCP changes but elitism remains intact

HONG KONG — Oh, what a difference a few decades make! Back in the days of Chairman Mao Zedong and his little red book, China was proud to proclaim the Communist Party as the party of workers, peasants and soldiers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Oct 20, 2007

Haruko Komura

Haruko Komura said, "I don't want to be in the forefront of politics. I do want to continue working for peace."
Reader Mail
Sep 23, 2007

A yak herder knows happiness

Regarding the statements about Bhutan made in Santi Ram Poudel's Sept. 12 letter, "Realities belie national boast": Can yak herders in the mountains not have happiness and contentment when they own their livestock and have rights to productive pastures? It is this very notion that happiness is always...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2007

'Quad Initiative': an inharmonious concert of democracies

NEW DELHI — The newly launched Australia-India-Japan-U.S. "Quadrilateral Initiative" has raised China's hackles, but its direction is still undecided owing to differing perceptions within the group over what its aims and objectives ought to be.
EDITORIALS
Jul 5, 2007

European fudge

When is a constitution not a constitution? When it is the European Union's "reform treaty." EU leaders agreed last month on a new document to guide the EU and — hopefully — end the paralysis that has blocked progress toward a genuine community among the 27 member states. While the leaders applauded...
Reader Mail
Jul 4, 2007

How dare China criticize Japan

Regarding the June 22 article "Don't deny Nanjing death toll: Beijing": I find it cynical for China to say that Japanese lawmakers show a lack courage for claiming that the "Rape of Nanking" death toll has been grossly inflated. Beijing demands that Japan face historical facts, but as a complete outsider,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 9, 2007

Koshu Project sets out to redefine Japanese wine

Ernest Singer is young at heart, with six children from three different families, and an office with staff members mostly half his age. "It's the young that have the passion that Millesimes thrives upon," he explains, navigating a sea of desks and concentrated faces.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 7, 2007

A midsummer bonanza

Many of the hottest tickets theatergoers are after this summer come courtesy of one person — English director John Caird.
EDITORIALS
Apr 14, 2007

Rocky road to integration

South Asian leaders last week concluded their summit by adopting a declaration that emphasized trade liberalization, economic integration and the fight against poverty and terrorism. But the way to real achievement does not appear to be smooth, especially because of the rivalry between India and Pakistan...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 27, 2007

JET set Go MAD globally to help children in need

It was late on Christmas night when the meditation finished. The energy from the hourlong dancing and Sanskrit chanting flowed into charged silence and was now dissipating into the darkness.
COMMENTARY
Jan 12, 2007

Crisis in multilateral trade

"Globalization" remains controversial. It has produced increasing economic interdependence through the growing volume and variety of cross-border flows of finance, investment, goods and services, and the rapid and widespread diffusion of technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2007

Defusing the dangers of nuclear proliferation

North Korea test-fired a series of ballistic missiles and carried out a nuclear test in 2006. If the policy goal of the Bush administration was to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, it has failed.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 24, 2006

EU's turn to pull weight in Afghanistan

LOS ANGELES -- Time is running out for success in Afghanistan. The Nov. 28-29 NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, may be the last chance to pull that country back from the brink. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization assumed responsibility for providing security for all of Afghanistan in October. While about...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 13, 2006

If 9/11 hadn't happened, where would the world be?

LONDON -- Five years since 9/11, and we are still being told that the world has changed forever. But the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, was a low-probability event that could just as easily not have happened. The often careless and sometimes incompetent hijackers might have been caught...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2006

Cluster bombs add to terror

NEW YORK -- As if the ruthless air attacks on Lebanese civilians weren't enough, Israel has been using illegal cluster munitions in populated areas of that country. Human Rights Watch researchers working on the ground in Lebanon have confirmed that an attack with cluster bombs was carried out on the...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2006

Facing the past, embracing the future

To communicate the truths of history is an act of hope for the future. We thus owe it to the youthful generations of the 21st century to communicate the hatred of war, the commitment to peace, that was engraved in so many lives on Aug. 15, 1945.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jul 9, 2006

Eriksson lost the plot with World Cup squad

LONDON -- England losing in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. It's just like watching Brazil.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2006

Waseda on cutting edge of cybercrime

Pauline Reich is as smart as she looks in black with a string of pearls. A late starter in some respects -- she did not graduate as a lawyer until she was almost 40 -- she's making up for lost time as a pioneer in the field of cybercrime.
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Feb 10, 2006

Napa vineyards survive deluges

Tremendous flooding in California's wine country over New Year's made for dramatic, televised scenes of almost completely submerged vineyards. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added to the excitement, proclaiming, "Napa was 4 feet under water, creating tremendous damage."
COMMENTARY
Feb 9, 2006

'British' identity in the EU

LONDON -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Gordon Brown has been calling for a national debate on the subject of British identity and what he terms "Britishness."
COMMENTARY
Jan 13, 2006

Chen shares independence dream anew

HONG KONG -- To the consternation of his political foes and the delight of his allies, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian on New Year's Day delivered an address in which he made it clear that he was as determined as ever to press ahead for the de jure independence of Taiwan, a move that Beijing has promised...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 13, 2006

Fed up with chanson

At a performance early in December at Tokyo's L'Institut Francais, two French singers -- Francoiz Breut and Jeanne Cherhal -- demonstrated different approaches to French pop for the new millennium.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 30, 2005

Gun control loses yet again

LONDON -- Last Sunday in Brazil, a country with the second-highest rate of gun deaths on the planet, almost two-thirds of Brazilians voted against a total ban on the sale of firearms. Explain that.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 10, 2005

Disaster relief team heads to Islamabad

Japan sent a disaster relief team to Pakistan on Sunday to provide emergency assistance a day after a huge, killer earthquake hit the country.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 30, 2005

Cosmopolitan city comes to life

Before Aug. 9, 1945, Nagasaki was best known for its churches, Chinatown and a tasty noodle dish called champon, and but for heavy cloud cover that day over the nearby city of Kokura -- which was slated to be the world's second atom-bombed city -- it would still likely be that way. However, moments after...
COMMENTARY
Sep 24, 2005

Global help in Afghanistan remains vital

ISLAMABAD -- Uncertainty over Afghanistan's political future has finally begun to recede with the successful conclusion of the country's first parliamentary elections in years. Although violence continues to plague Afghanistan, its political progress is impressive. In the long run, however, its stability...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
May 22, 2005

Rambo comes marching home

"I broke down on the flight back from Vietnam, went crazy, shouting, screaming. It took several men to restrain me. . . . For years it was all I could think about, going home. Then when it finally happened, I snapped."
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2005

Palestinian struggle: reality vs. rhetoric

DOHA, Qatar -- No other national struggle in the world has assimilated itself, or has been inadvertently assimilated, to symbolize so many things to different people as has the Palestinian struggle. And yet, despite the intricate layers of sense and understanding that have sought to encapsulate the Palestinian...

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