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Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

Plenty of other things to eat

I have heard the argument that Japan has been "eating whales for 400 years." Well, it's time to stop!
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...
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

Rocking the fingerprint boat

Grant Mahood is entirely right in his Nov. 18 letter, "Magic feeling of being exempt," to want "no more exemptions, no more discrimination, no more unequal application of the law -- just (the) repeal" (of the Justice Ministry's biometric data collection program for foreign arrivals at Japanese ports...
JAPAN
Nov 22, 2007

Taiwan opposition candidate Ma pushes stronger Japan ties

Taiwan should establish a free-trade pact with Japan to boost bilateral economic and cultural ties, a Taiwanese presidential candidate said Wednesday during a trip aimed at bolstering his relations with Tokyo.
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...
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2007

LDP body pushes for sales tax hike next decade

To finance swelling social security costs, the 5 percent consumption tax needs to be raised to around 10 percent in the middle of the next decade as more baby boomers become pensioners, according to an interim proposal by the Liberal Democratic Party's financial reform study group.
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

The sadness in knowing their fate

Regarding the Nov. 18 article "Japan prepares to hunt humpbacks for first time since '63": I live in Hervey Bay, Queensland, which calls itself the "Whale Watching Capital." I am 71 years old and, with my older husband, recently assisted local artist Jorge Pujol and a great many others in arduously...
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
CULTURE / Film
Nov 22, 2007

Festival swaps mobsters for something 'safe'

In days past, a film festival held within rough-and-tumble Kabukicho might be assumed to feature a sampling of the work from gangster-flick director Seijun Suzuki ("Tokyo Drifter," "Branded to Kill"), or perhaps "Yojimbo," the Akira Kurosawa classic where a samurai arrives in a village run by two groups...
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

Half-baked antiterror measure

Regarding Hideo Kaito's Nov. 20 letter, "Common protection and control": While Kaito's comment seems sensible, it is in fact completely mistaken and filled with false truths.
BUSINESS
Nov 22, 2007

Top bank groups' subprime hit limited

Profits at Japan's three major banking groups fell in the six months to September as they suffered losses linked to U.S. subprime mortgage loan woes, according to their business results, the last of which was announced Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 22, 2007

Asian collectors overtake Japanese market

China casts a long shadow over the Japanese art market. However lively, large and long-suffering the art world in Japan may be, it has not garnered the kind of excited interest that the relatively young Chinese scene has in the last five years.

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’