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EDITORIALS
Jan 11, 2007

Uphold self-defense principles

The Defense Agency was upgraded to the Defense Ministry on Tuesday in accordance with a law revision supported by the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito and the Democratic Party of Japan. The defense minister can now directly ask the Finance Ministry for funding for the Self-Defense Forces as well as...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 11, 2007

Opportunities in Mideast power struggle

PRAGUE -- This week U.S. President George W. Bush is -- reluctantly -- announcing a new policy for the United States in Iraq. A new policy is needed not only in order to halt America's drift into impotence as it tries to prevent Iraq from spiraling into full-scale civil war, but also because the map...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 10, 2007

Mavericks look primed to win it all

NEW YORK -- Don't try to stop me; I've officially decided the Dallas Mavericks have peaked.
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

Benefits of a return to the draft

A return to the draft might be a way of tempering America's militarism, since a draft randomly cuts across a wide swath of the population. The present volunteer system places only clusters of social networks in harm's way, and there's little probability that anyone outside those clusters will see casualties...
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

Early English makes better sense

Regarding Gregory Clark's Dec. 30 article, "English should be an elective": The debate over the proper grade level to learn English as a second language is as controversial in Japan as it is in the U.S. because the research is scanty. As a result, anecdotal evidence tends to prevail in forming school...
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

Power of an independent jury

Regarding Setsuko Kamiya's Dec. 29 article, "Mansfield Center eyes lay judge debut": Although a U.S. jury receives instructions from the presiding trial judge, it is free to render a verdict by its members' own conscience -- even to the point of disregarding evidence. Jury verdicts must be unanimous....
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2007

Caring for the victims of crime

The government's first white paper on crime victims says that 222 of 258 measures designed to help crime victims have been implemented. The basic law for crime victims, which took effect in April 2005, requires the government to report annually on the progress of support for crime victims. It is hoped...
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2007

Candidates who can win

As it has become certain that an Upper House election, which will decide the nation's political direction, will be held July 22 unless the regular Diet session is extended, political parties have started serious preparations. While the opposition Democratic Party of Japan's leader Ichiro Ozawa is busy...
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

Each of us can improve things

The new religious Cold War is deja vu all over again. However, there is something more important than the winds of fear that drive ships to war: the ability of each of us to make friends. One-to-one dialogue is more powerful than the mightiest arsenal. Faith in the future and hope are the forces...
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2007

Shiozaki: No need to change name of Sea of Japan

Japan opposes South Korea's call to rename the Sea of Japan as the "East Sea" or the "Sea of Peace" or "Sea of Friendship," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jan 10, 2007

Defense Agency given ministry status

functions," said Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, who was the agency director general. According to a set of laws on the transition enacted in December, the defense minister will now be allowed to make budget requests or policy suggestions at Cabinet meetings and make overseas operations a primary mission...
Reader Mail
Jan 10, 2007

A setback for safer roads

Regarding the Dec. 13 article "Man gets 4 1/2 years for fatal drunken driving": I am absolutely outraged at the sentence. Not only did the court let the family down, it also added insult to the death of this little girl.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Jan 10, 2007

New light cast on capital-punishment issues

It's not especially pleasing to write about death in the first column of the New Year, but there's a lot of it about.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jan 10, 2007

Peregrine falcon

* Japanese name: Hayabusa * Scientific name: Falco peregrinus * Description: Powerful and majestic birds, peregrine falcons are as large as a crow, some 50-cm long with a 1-meter wingspan. They have tapered, blue-gray wings, a short tail, yellow legs, black bars on their backs and pale underbellies....

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes