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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2007

Sarkozy's grand bargain

WASHINGTON — Think of it always. Speak of it never.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2007

DPJ rejects Fukuda's latest antiterror bill plea

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda ran into a brick wall Tuesday after asking the opposition to support a special antiterrorism bill that would let the Maritime Self-Defense Force resume its mission providing fuel and water to multinational naval ships in the Indian Ocean.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2007

Sapporo launches new beerlike drink

Promoting it as a good party drink, Sapporo Breweries Ltd. said Tuesday it is set to launch a new beerlike alcoholic beverage featuring a fruity aroma.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2007

Globalization of ethics can bond regions

PRAGUE — Many Europeans doubt that Asia can catch up with Europe in terms of regional integration. But Asia not only has the type of stable common ethical foundations that were so important to European integration; it also has a well developed set of moral principles, some of which were an established...
COMMENTARY
Dec 5, 2007

U.S.-Iraq: an 'enduring' relationship

LONDON — The word "enduring" crops up a lot in connection with the U.S. adventure in Iraq. As soon as the U.S. Army occupied the country in 2003, it began work on 14 "enduring" (i.e. permanent) military bases to turn it into an American bastion at the head of the Gulf. And now U.S. President George...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2007

High tensions in EU's Low Countries

PRAGUE — Belgium and the Netherlands, two founding members of the European Union, are increasingly divided about what that project now means. The EU's Reform Treaty is now the focus of that dispute, but its roots go deeper. At one point, according to press reports, the row became so serious that French...
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2007

A victory for Mr. Putin

In Sunday's election for the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, President Vladimir Putin's party was set to gain more than two thirds of the chamber's 450 seats, enough to revise the Constitution. With Mr. Putin running as the lead candidate of United Russia, the election result represents...
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2007

Housing slump forecast to continue hurting economy

Despite recent signs of recovery, the housing slump caused by stricter regulations for obtaining building permits will continue to hurt the economy for some time to come, analysts say.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2007

Airbus to order more than 5% of parts for A350 from Japan

Airbus SAS, the world's largest commercial plane maker, plans to order more than 5 percent of parts and material for its new A350 jetliner from suppliers in Japan, seeking a foothold in a market dominated by Boeing Co.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 5, 2007

Oh honored by FSAJ for lifetime achievement

After the most distinguished career in Japanese baseball history, Sadaharu Oh has gotten a lot of practice in accepting awards.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Dec 5, 2007

Wintertime and the livin' ain't easy

I came to live in Kurohime in Nagano Prefecture in the autumn of 1980. An old friend lived here, the poet and critic Gan Tanigawa, and he found a house for me. It was a big old country house, a couple of hundred years old, at least, with massive wooden pillars and beams and a thatched roof. The house...
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2007

Fukuda orders ministers to soften oil price hikes

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has ordered ministers to develop a policy to soften the blow of higher oil prices on consumers and businesses.
EDITORIALS
Dec 5, 2007

Fruitful talks in Beijing

Japan-China high-level trade and economic talks, which were held in Beijing over the weekend, have helped advance economic ties between the countries and improved overall bilateral relations. The talks did not resolve the issue of China's exploitation of natural gas fields in an area of the East China...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 5, 2007

Phones get both weirder and simpler; everything else becomes waterproof

Boning up on new tech: Call me old fashioned, but I like to hear sounds with my ears. Progress, however, is no fan of nostalgia, and so the bone-induction trend continues. NTT DoCoMo ups the ante with its Sound Leaf Plus keitai (cell phone) accessory, due out in February for around ¥13,000. The device,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 5, 2007

Matsui's graceful robots evoke human emotion

It's a truism that the Japanese are experts at dressing up unpleasantness in cute garb. The ubiquitous cartoon workmen characters bowing in apology at construction zones are meant to make months of jackhammering slightly more bearable. Ditto for robots and the future.
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2007

Hold your beef about whale meat

J.H.G.'s Nov. 22 letter, "Plenty of other things to eat," motivated me to respond. It is true that only a few countries such as Japan, Norway and Iceland have hunted whales for food. Japanese fishermen used to make the best use of all parts of the whale, not only its meat but also fats and other stuff....
Reader Mail
Dec 4, 2007

Fingerprinting issue trivialized

The Nov. 27 article by Mark Schreiber, "Prints rejected, scribe accepted," described Schreiber's re-entry to Japan after a trip to Saipan that appears to have been made purely for the opportunity to write the piece. The tone and conclusion made light of what many view as a serious issue, and were touted...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’