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Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

Education reforms may backfire

Finland's No. 1 ranking in math and science in the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment is cited in the March 2 editorial "Education reform in reverse." Japan is implementing changes in its system of education that will do little in the long run to improve overall educational quality.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

Proof of peaceful nuclear program

The Feb. 22 report of the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which plainly declares the implementation of the Work Plan (INFCIRC/711) and thus resolves all outstanding issues, serves as the clearest evidence ever coming from the Agency, unambiguously attesting to the exclusively...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 6, 2008

Sulky modern youths return

"It was officially the runaway disaster of 2006. I was really glad that so many people didn't like it at all," laughs 34-year-old Toshiki Okada about his debut at the New National Theater, "Enjoy," which Japan's theater critics voted the year's worst play. The old guards' thumbs down was all the more...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 6, 2008

The mathematics of music

So forward-looking that it's hard to categorize him — Is he an artist? A musician? A conceptualist? — Ryoji Ikeda makes the music that we'll lull the robots to sleep with when they ultimately try to take over. Or that we'll use to convince ourselves that we are the robots.
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2008

39art Day

Taking place internationally on March 9
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

Shades of Orwell over Okinawa

After reading the March 1 article "U.S. anticrime steps little comfort in Okinawa," I fear I am living in an Orwellian nightmare. Charges have been dropped against U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Tyrone Hadnott and he has been remanded to U.S. authorities, but the "fear" is still out there and will be fueled...
BUSINESS / SOUTH KOREAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 6, 2008

New leader's pragmatism to define policies

New South Korean President Lee Myung Bak will pursue a "pragmatic" foreign policy that will seek to rebuild ties with the United States and Japan while taking a "carrot-and-stick" approach to North Korea, journalists from South Korea told a symposium held in Tokyo just before his inauguration.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2008

Hu's visit faces delay until May

Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Tokyo may have to wait until May instead of mid-April because of the increasingly bitter dispute over pesticide-tainted meat-and-vegetable 'gyoza" dumplings from China, government sources said Wednesday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SOUTH KOREAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 6, 2008

Lee promises to look to future in his relationship with Japan

President Lee Myung Bak will seek a "mature" relationship with Japan that prioritizes economic ties and diplomatic cooperation, rather than focus on emotional issues linked to the past Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean journalists told the Feb. 22 symposium.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / SOUTH KOREAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Mar 6, 2008

High-growth targets may widen divisions in S. Korean society

The South Korean economy faces a host of structural challenges that were left unattended as the nation managed an export-led recovery from the Asian financial crisis a decade ago, the journalists told the Feb. 22 symposium.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2008

Toyota mulls investing in MHI regional jetliner

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it may invest in Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s project to build a regional jetliner that would be the first commercial aircraft produced domestically in around four decades.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2008

Bureaucrats resisting devolution

Ministry bureaucrats are resisting the government's effort to push devolution — the move to localize more government decision making and taxing authority. The government's devolution panel sent questionnaires to government ministries last fall to solicit their opinions on abolishing or integrating...
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2008

Skymark mulls first dividend

Skymark Airlines Inc., Japan's largest low-fare carrier, may pay a dividend for the first time next business year to help stem a decline in its shares.
EDITORIALS
Mar 6, 2008

Cloud over key appointment

The steering committees of both Diet chambers have laid down a new rule for Diet approval of the appointment of officials for four important organizations — the governor and two deputy governors of the Bank of Japan, the three top-ranking officials of the Board of Audit and the National Personnel Authority,...
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2008

"Tokyo Performing Arts Market 2008"

Yebisu Garden Place, The Garden Hall and other locations in Tokyo
CULTURE / Art
Mar 6, 2008

"Syoin Kajii: Marginal Villages"

Foil Gallery in Tokyo's Higashi-Kanda
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2008

Scrap iron, steel prices at record levels as demand soars

Japan's scrap iron and steel prices rose to a record for a fifth consecutive week as demand from Japanese, South Korean and Chinese steelmakers rose and a drop in building demolitions reduced the supply of reclaimed girders.
BUSINESS
Mar 6, 2008

Nomura's online trading system fails

Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest securities firm, said Wednesday a technical failure prevented individual customers from trading securities on its online trading system.
BASKETBALL
Mar 5, 2008

Toyama's Kabaya earns honor

Masayuki Kabaya, one of the few bright spots for the Toyama Grouses this season, is the Circle K Sunkus Player of the Week, the bj-league announced on Tuesday. Kabaya, scored 19 points on Saturday and 23 more in Sunday's contest. The Grouses (4-30) lost both games to the Ryukyu Golden Kings. Kabaya...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2008

Putin's unwilling executioner?

NEW YORK — The question that has dominated Russian politics, and world discussion of Russian politics — will he (Vladimir Putin) or won't he stay in power? — has now been settled. He will and he won't.

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan