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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 11, 2008

Scott Murphy

"I didn't know anything about Japanese, or Japan at all, and I spoke English on stage and no one understood what I was saying."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2008

'Hot Fuzz'

Hercule Poirot once proclaimed that "the police in England are only adequate, but the English detective is a thing of marvel!" Sherlock Holmes would have agreed, having put up with the uninspired adequacy of Scotland Yard for most of his career. But no more: The English police or rather "the fuzz in...
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2008

Public pension fund ends ban on Nomura

Nomura Holdings Inc. resumed brokering services for Japan's public pension fund, the manager of more than $1 trillion in retirement assets, after a three-month ban following allegations of insider trading at the securities firm.
BUSINESS
Jul 11, 2008

Japan caves to gadget makers on 'iPod tax'

Japan will stop pushing for legislation to charge royalties on the sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, giving in to opposition from electronics makers, officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
Jul 11, 2008

Sake in Osaka, cruising in Yokohama

Seafaring adventure in Yokohama The Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu has prepared a special accommodation plan for families for summer vacation, providing children the rare opportunity to explore the bridge of a cruise boat.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2008

Confucianism makes a comeback in China

BEIJING (Daniel A. Bell is professor of political theory at Tsinghua University (Beijing). His latest book is "China's New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society."
COMMENTARY
Jul 10, 2008

Travails of a nuclear deal

In the twilight of George W. Bush's presidency, there is an unseemly rush in Washington and New Delhi to seal a contentious but far-from-complete civil nuclear deal, even as that issue has landed India in a political crisis.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

G8 sequestered from the action

Why was the Group of Eight summit held in Hokkaido and not Tokyo? Did Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda need to put the meeting somewhere that did not threaten to challenge the image of Japan's commitment to environmental concerns?
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Support for emission reductions

Regarding recent comments by the government about Japan's agreed Kyoto Protocol targets: The fact that Japan is struggling to meet its goals is due to nothing more than bad leadership. I work with companies in Japan that lease offices, and they are keen to make their new offices more environmentally...
OLYMPICS
Jul 10, 2008

Ishimatsu nabs trip to Beijing

Fifteen-year-old Haley Ishimatsu has clinched a spot on her first U.S. Olympic diving team.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Emotional needs of 'generation Z'

Jenny Uechi's article is phrased in terms of a dominating opposition in Japanese society between seken -- the society or people that one deals with -- and what her article looks forward to -- namely, an "individualist revolution."
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Perspective on ex-Komeito chief

The June 26 article "Ex-New Komeito chief lashes out at Soka Gakkai" -- about former Komeito party chairman Junya Yano's criticism of the Buddhist organization -- quoted many of Mr. Yano's allegations without checking their veracity. As legal counsel for several individuals engaged in lawsuits against...
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Formal training is the key

Regarding James Guthrie's July 6 query, "Foreigners who became geisha" -- as to why (American) Liza Dalby was not recognized as the first foreign geisha -- the answer is quite simple: Although Dalby performed as a geisha on request, she was never formally trained as one nor inducted into any of the...
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Mandarin is official in Singapore

Wayne Malcolm's assertion in his July 3 letter "Inefficient language education" that "in Singapore, people learn English and, in many cases, a dialect of Chinese" is factually wrong. In Singapore, people learn English and a so-called mother tongue, which could be Mandarin, Malay or Tamil, depending...
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

Lack of concrete promises disappoints NGOs

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — Various nongovernmental organizations expressed deep disappointment Wednesday over the G8 summit, which ended without any concrete goals or commitments and left much unfinished business for next year's meeting in Italy.
BUSINESS / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

Nuke plant makers cast eye abroad

The voice of Atsutoshi Nishida, president of Toshiba Corp., rose an octave as he talked about the electronic giant's quest to build atomic power plants.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

U.S., Britain to seek U.N. action targeting Mugabe, Brown says

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — Britain and the United States are pushing for further sanctions against the regime of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

G8 handcuffed by economy

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — With global inflation and an economic slowdown looming over their heads, the Group of Eight industrialized nations ended their three-day summit Wednesday by exposing their inability to take effective action against soaring oil and food prices and the weak dollar.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2008

Confectioners spice things up with hot chili, soy sauce sweets

The Japanese sweets scene is heating up and getting salty to boot.
JAPAN
Jul 10, 2008

Janitor soap triggers subway scare

There was a terrorism scare Tuesday in central Tokyo over a small can and a plastic bottle containing suspicious liquid found in a subway station, as security personnel are on high alert for the Group of Eight summit, officials said.
Reader Mail
Jul 10, 2008

Last resort to gain recognition

In the July 1 article, "Society's role in Kato's crime," writer Jenny Uechi sampled a number of Tomohiro Kato's online postings as a source of analysis. I understand that the footprints Kato left on the mobile net site are crucial for tracing the mental trail to his June 8 attack in Tokyo's Akihabara...
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 10, 2008

G8 trying to have it both ways on nukes

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — On July 1, 1968, world leaders signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, in which nonnuclear weapons states agreed to never produce or acquire such arms while countries possessing them agreed to eventually scrap their arsenals.

Longform

A mushroom cloud from the atomic bombing on Hiroshima taken from a U.S. military aircraft on Aug. 6, 1945. Copying the photo without permission is prohibited.
80 years on, a Japanese American hibakusha recalls the day the bomb dropped