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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 27, 2007

Prints rejected, scribe accepted

T he center of the little monitor — I'd guess about 20 cm from the looks of it — flashed the word "Yokoso" (welcome). Its colored border was festooned with a collage of images near and dear to visiting tourists' hearts: "torii" gates, the shinkansen, Zen gardens, Mount Fuji . . .
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 27, 2007

Feeling designs

'Design is not just about making something, it is about designing the feelings of the person who uses it," says Tokujin Yoshioka, sitting in his Daikanyama studio among magazine-laden shelves and prototypes in various stages of development.
LIFE / Language
Nov 27, 2007

New translation vividly depicts postwar Tokyo

Shishi Bunroku (the pen name of Iwata Toyoo) is a writer who deserves to be better known. His novel "Jiyu Gakko (School of Freedom)" was a best seller when it first appeared in 1951, and gives as vivid a picture as we're likely to get today of what daily life was like in postwar Tokyo.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 26, 2007

Sports sound bites beginning to bite back

Boxers earn their money saying things that might get people to buy tickets. So it wasn't exactly surprising when Floyd Mayweather Jr. suggested to Ricky Hatton the other day that they might enjoy being prison cellmates together.
COMMENTARY
Nov 26, 2007

One (very) small step forward for ASEAN

HONOLULU — The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) has, in commemoration of its 40th anniversary, adopted its first formal charter, thus conferring "legal personality" upon this intergovernmental organization, complete with its own flag, emblem, anthem (to be written), and motto: One Vision,...
Reader Mail
Nov 25, 2007

Foreigners overrate themselves

The sense of self-importance contained in the Nov. 20 Zeit Gist article "Watching them watching us" -- in which writer Michael Hassett complains about the capacity of the Japanese government to subject him to "physical abuse" by virtue of its ability to theoretically track him via security cameras from...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Nov 25, 2007

'Best Hit' awards; Kyosen Ohashi tour of Japan; affordable rural real estate

The fifth annual "Best Hit Kayosai (Best Hit Pop Song Festival)" will be broadcast live Monday night at 9 p.m. on the Yomiuri Television network (Nihon TV in Tokyo) from the Osaka Festival Hall.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 25, 2007

Saucy Plate dishes out some choice morsels

Confessions of an American Media Man: What They Don't Tell You at Journalism School by Tom Plate. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2007, $16.50 (paper) One day, media maven cum academic Tom Plate — a frequent contributor to The Japan Times opinion page — arrived for an appointment at the office of...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 25, 2007

Oh mother, I can feel the soil falling over your head

As shown by the media frenzy sparked by lapses in decorum on the part of women like Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, the value of a person's sins increases exponentially in direct proportion to her fame. Women celebrities are subject to closer scrutiny for their mistakes than are men,...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Nov 24, 2007

Ship of roaches: break from the teaching grind

"When my ship comes in," says my friend, "It's gonna be overrun by roaches."
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2007

North-South progress in Seoul

The governments of both North and South Korea are firmly focused on the latter's December presidential elections. With conservative opposition candidates leading in South Korean opinion polls, Mr. Roh Moo Hyun, the incumbent in Seoul, and Mr. Kim Jong Il, his counterpart in Pyongyang, are eager to alter...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIA-JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2007

Changing world asks more of Japan

Japan is an "underachiever" that needs to play a larger international role commensurate with its resources and capacity, the head of an influential U.S. think tank told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2007

'Midnight Eagle'

Why do national cinemas excel in some genres but not in others? Whatever its many sins, Hollywood makes thrillers that for sheer visceral kicks — car chases! explosions! Matt Damon leaping across a chasm through a tiny open window! — are the global standard.
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

New expression of xenophobia

Responding to Susan Menadue-Chun's Nov. 15 letter, "SPRs have suffered enough," I wish to emphasize that, in my Nov. 11 letter, I was posing a rhetorical question rather than advocating that "Special Permanent Residents," including those with ties to pro-North Korea groups, be subject to the new...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2007

ASEAN's broken heart

It was supposed to be a landmark event. To celebrate its 40th anniversary this week, heads of state from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed a charter that was intended to push the region toward more complete integration and more coherence. The final product — ASEAN's new charter...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2007

A taste for blood, arts and culture

One haunting image that lingers in the mind after seeing the exhibition "Legacy of the Tokugawa — The Glories and Treasures of the Last Samurai Dynasty" at the Tokyo National Museum is a carved-wood statue of Ieyasu (1543-1616), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns, now the deity of the Shiba Tosho-gu...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2007

Tea and swords for the Shogun

As with all military leaders of the preceding Momoyama Period (1573-1615), the Tokugawa were celebrated patrons of the arts. The sheer output of the craftsmen they employed reveals an indefatigable support of the arts that extended to the amassing of beautifully crafted swords, armor, art and tea-ceremony...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2007

Foreign arrivals get biometric scan

NARITA, Chiba Pref. — Japan began fingerprinting and photographing foreigners arriving in the country Tuesday under a revised immigration law to keep terrorists out, drawing criticism from rights groups and foreign residents that their data might be abused.
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 21, 2007

Biodiversity to take your breath away

I promised that I would write more about my recent visit to South America, and as the first snows are now regularly dusting the mountains on view from my window here in Hokkaido — and even coating my balcony — it's hard not to reflect on times spent in warmer climes.
EDITORIALS
Nov 20, 2007

A symbolic summit

The trip had to be made. It is traditional for a Japanese prime minister to make his first overseas trip to the United States, to affirm relations with the country's only ally. With reports of tensions growing in the bilateral security relationship, Mr. Yasuo Fukuda's visit to Washington last week took...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 20, 2007

A support service for sufferers

Phones ring off the hook in the office of VOL-NEXT, a Tokyo-based company that offers various goods and services for women battling breast cancer. Chiharu Soga, the demure 42-year-old who runs the three-year-old company, has just fielded a phone call made in desperation by the sister of a recently diagnosed...
BUSINESS
Nov 20, 2007

Michelin's first Tokyo guide names eight 3-star eateries

The Michelin Guide named Tokyo the "world leader" in gourmet dining, awarding three-star status to eight restaurants in its inaugural edition for the capital.

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji