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Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 7, 2006

Have-nots put elite twits to shame

Right now, on one side of my house there is a profusion of green growing things and golden daffodils; on the other side there's the remnants of a huge bank made by the snow that fell off our roof. In the sunshine, that will vanish today.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2006

Thaksin best underscores fatal flaws of his kind of rule

HONG KONG -- Thailand's "democracy" is in limbo. Judges of the country's three top courts have decided that April's elections were unconstitutional, and new ones must be held. The Election Commission set October for new elections, but the judges said the commission has no power to set the date and its...
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2006

Japan signs action plan with Central Asian states

Japan signed an agreement Monday to promote cooperation with four Central Asian countries that includes a plan to build roads in Tajikistan to transport natural resources via Afghanistan to the Indian Ocean.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 5, 2006

Dousing flames in East Timor

SYDNEY -- The need for closer links between Tokyo and Canberra has never been clearer than in recent days: Bloody fighting in East Timor, humanitarian rescue near the Java volcano site, economic basket cases in the South Pacific . . . The case for regional cooperation grows more urgent daily.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S.-CHINA SYMPOSIUM
Jun 5, 2006

Japan, China need to go back to school

See the main story: "Regional tensions cast long shadow" See related story: "U.S. sets negotiating table on Iran for Tokyo, Beijing"
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S.-CHINA SYMPOSIUM
Jun 5, 2006

Regional tensions cast long shadow

See related stories: "U.S. sets negotiating table on Iran for Tokyo, Beijing" "Japan, China need to go back to school "
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2006

Murakami, three execs face arrest over alleged insider trades

Investment fund mogul Yoshiaki Murakami and three of his executives are expected to be arrested as early as Monday for alleged insider trading, sources said Sunday.
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S.-CHINA SYMPOSIUM
Jun 5, 2006

U.S. sets negotiating table on Iran for Tokyo, Beijing

See the main story: "Regional tensions cast long shadow" See related story: "Japan, China need to go back to school"
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 4, 2006

Everything you need to know about Japan's All-Star Games

Fan balloting is under way for the 2006 Japan Pro Baseball Sanyo All-Star Series to be played next month.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Jun 4, 2006

Time to kill -- but not mosquitoes

I am only an hour's drive from my destination -- the lodge of Safari Hoek, where, as promised in the last column, I plan to write up an "ethical" hunting safari outfit -- when I inadvertently bag my first trophy.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jun 4, 2006

Everybody gets to be a detective this week in TBS's "Uranaishi Misuzu" and more

Everybody gets to be a detective this week. In "Uranaishi Misuzu: The Incident Beyond Fate" (TBS, Monday, 9 p.m.), it's one of those street fortune tellers you see parked outside of office buildings at night. Misuzu (Kumiko Okae), however, isn't your run-of-the-mill palm reader. She's one of the most...
BUSINESS
Jun 4, 2006

Murakami quizzed on NBS

Prosecutors and financial regulators have questioned well-known fund manager Yoshiaki Murakami on a voluntary basis over possible insider trading in connection with purchases of shares in Nippon Broadcasting System Inc. in 2005, investigative sources said Saturday.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 4, 2006

Involuntary students of death

KAMIKAZE DIARIES: Reflections of Japanese Student Soldiers, by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2006, 206 pp., 13 b/w plates, $25 (cloth). War flourishes through caricature and some of these wartime creations live on long after their political usefulness is over. One...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Jun 3, 2006

Chelsea's spending spree may backfire in the end

LONDON -- Chelsea has new tactics as it prepares to dominate European football next season.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 3, 2006

Be Japanese -- love the whole firework

The first time I was ever asked to go see a fireworks display with someone I said, "Sure, why not?" I obviously did not exude enough enthusiasm. Fireworks are such a big deal in Japan they warrant festivals where young women don summer kimono and eat from food stalls on the street among thousands of...
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2006

Kim Young Nam's kin head home

Relatives of South Korean abductee Kim Young Nam headed home Wednesday after a four-day visit here to meet with Megumi Yokota's parents and boost cooperation between their countries on the abduction issue.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 1, 2006

Addressing social issues with drama

The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) is often dubbed "the father of modern drama" for being one of the first to place ordinary people squarely center stage. Forty-four-year-old Yoji Sakate, founder of the Rinkogun theater company, has now created not just an homage to this Scandinavian icon,...
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Patrollers see green, deliverers red under new law

Patrollers see green, deliverers red under new law
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Parking enforcement now in private hands

Starting Thursday, parcel delivery and other drivers who stop briefly in an unauthorized spot and leave their vehicle may come back to find it sporting a parking ticket.
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Japanese ability eyed as visa requirement

A Justice Ministry panel discussing long-term policies for accepting foreigners in Japan proposed Tuesday that the government in principle require that foreign workers have a certain level of Japanese proficiency.
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Asahara loses round; execution one step closer

The Tokyo High Court has rejected an objection filed by lawyers fighting to appeal Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara's death sentence, sources said Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 30, 2006

'Gokiburi,' new law and residency

Cockroaches One of our readers has been having problems with cockroaches recently. She has been cleaning the apartment regularly, placing cockroach traps and even used a "bomb" to try and get rid of them, all to no avail.
BUSINESS
May 30, 2006

Seafood dealer obtains eco-label

A Tokyo-based seafood wholesaler has become the first business in Japan to be certified by a London-based conservation group as a supplier of seafood produced by sustainable fishing, officials of the group said Monday.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 29, 2006

Creeping back toward thought control

NEW YORK -- Why are politicians so often regressive? Several years ago the Japanese government legally ritualized the singing of the national anthem and the raising of the flag. Now it is intent on changing a 60-year-old education law to codify patriotism.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 28, 2006

'Patriotism' a useful tool for the government to meddle in education

"I Am a Patriot" was a song released by "Little Steven" Van Zandt in 1984. In it, he sang that he loved his country because "my country is all I know." It's worth mentioning as the controversy over the use of "patriotism" in the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education continues to make headlines....
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 28, 2006

Look back on the Vietnam War in NHK's "The Time That Moved History" and more

More than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Americans are still debating whether or not it was right to intervene in a civil conflict that itself was a product of someone else's (i.e., France) colonial adventure.
EDITORIALS
May 27, 2006

Meetings fail to thaw chill

Foreign Minister Taro Aso held separate meetings with his South Korean and Chinese counterparts earlier this week -- the first such get-together in five months and one year, respectively. Although he managed to clinch agreements on some bilateral issues, Japan's relations with its closest neighbors remain...
JAPAN
May 27, 2006

Law enacted to slim bureaucracy avoids 'amakudari,' DPJ charges

The Diet enacted key legislation Friday that lays out a timetable for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's efforts to reform and slim down the government over the next several years.
BUSINESS
May 27, 2006

Corporate culture of deceit wreaks havoc on wealth and markets

Unethical conduct by corporate executives and employees -- ranging from outright fraud to excessive salaries and perks for CEOs -- can inflict much greater financial damage than deadly terrorist acts, visiting American experts warned in a recent symposium in Tokyo.

Longform

Dangami House is a 180-year-old former samurai residence of the Kato clan, who ruled over Ozu, Ehime Prefecture, until the Meiji Restoration.
A house, a legacy and the quiet work of restoration in rural Japan