search

 
 
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2006

Time for Japan to shut up and drill: energy expert

A month has passed since Japan and China last held talks over the development of gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea, and both sides appear keen on keeping the issue out of the headlines for now.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 11, 2006

Exploring the world on manga — where to get started?

Hisashi Sakata Public servant, 30 All Japanese know about "doko de mo door," the "everywhere door." In Doraemon, the manga about a robotic cat, you can use the door to travel anywhere you want to go. We can dream of escaping wherever we want to go!
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2006

Abe ahead for top job but Fukuda gains ground

A majority of respondents to a recent Kyodo News survey say they want Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe to replace Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when the ruling Liberal Democratic Party elects a new leader in September.
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2006

Core machinery orders rebound after January dip

Core private-sector machinery orders climbed a seasonally adjusted 3.4 percent in February from the previous month to 1.1 trillion yen, following a 6.2 percent fall in January, the government announced Monday.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 11, 2006

Linguistic art of cutting and running gets a tweak

Last week, a girlfriend of mine was at an over-30s-only go-kon (singles drinking party) and came back sorely disappointed. Her gripe was that all the men there -- handsome, well-off and working for high-profile companies -- were nigegoshi (noncommittal, making ready to cut and run) from start to finish....
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Apr 11, 2006

Cheese, yoga and knitting

We're well aware that Tokyo is not the be all and end all of the country, but it's hard to get information useful to the foreign community when we are all so scattered. This is why the following two mails are so welcome. Thanks guys.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 11, 2006

Massage has its good and bad points

In today's deadline-driven, high-stress society, it's no longer uncommon to experiences headaches, stiff shoulders and carpal-tunnel pain every now and then. While many people turn to painkillers for relief from minor complaints, which in some cases can snowball into a chronic condition, massage treatments...
BUSINESS
Apr 11, 2006

Inpex in on 700 billion yen Australia LNG project

Inpex Holdings Inc., Japan's largest oil developer, will produce liquefied natural gas in Australia, with overall investment in the project estimated at 550 billion yen to 700 billion yen, according to company sources.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 9, 2006

New generation has Arsenal dreaming

LONDON -- From The Invincibales of England to The Unbeatables and Impenetrables of Europe, the Gunners continued their march toward the Champions League final with the confidence and style of a team that reflects its manager's football philosophy.
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2006

Mr. Ozawa takes the DPJ's helm

The Democratic Party of Japan -- which has plunged into a crisis following the resignation of its young leader Seiji Maehara over a bogus e-mail fiasco -- chose Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, a heavyweight veteran politician, as its new leader. As leader of the No. 1 opposition party, the tasks facing Mr. Ozawa are...
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2006

Negotiators from six-way talks could meet this week

Chief negotiators to the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs could be meeting in Tokyo early this week, with several delegates already in Japan, some of them to attend a security conference starting Sunday.
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2006

Ozawa poised to bedevil the LDP

The election of political veteran Ichiro Ozawa as the new leader of the Democratic Party of Japan poses a threat to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, regardless of who the next prime minister will be, according to political observers.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 9, 2006

Looking at the big picture of Kyoto

CAPITALSCAPES: Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Medieval Kyoto, by Matthew Philip McKelway. Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 282 pp., 24 color plates, numerous b/w illustrations, $56.00 (cloth). One of the major formats in the history of Japanese painting are the byobu-e,...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 9, 2006

Who out there cares about 'Cool Japan'?

These days the government is jumping on the bandwagon. The Foreign Ministry is singing in tune. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has hopped on, with a conductor's baton in his hand and a spring in his step that you don't even see when he's ascending the stairs to pay his public-private respects at Yasukuni...
JAPAN
Apr 9, 2006

Governor nixes Okinawa base relocation plan

shares our view that the Japan-U.S. security treaty is necessary. I think we can (settle the matter) through discussions," Nukaga said. Inamine said he appreciates the central government's efforts in the ongoing Japan-U.S talks to reduce the presence of U.S. military forces in Okinawa, including the...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 9, 2006

Pa League needs to know 'summer game' no fun in snow

A request this week to the Pacific League to please move back next season's Opening Day closer to where it belongs -- in April. I know the Pa League likes to begin play a week earlier than its Central League cousin, but is it going to start the 2007 season on March 24? This year, it began on Saturday,...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 9, 2006

TV Asahi's 'Shichinin no Onna Bengoshi,' TBS's "Bengoshi no Kuzu" and more

This Thursday at 9 p.m., TV Asahi presents episode 1 of "Shichinin Onna Bengoshi (Seven Women Lawyers)," which sounds like the "Seven Samurai" of the briefcase set.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 9, 2006

Off the road from Damascus

Megumi Yoshitake's experience of living with the Bedouin is quite probably unique. Although her primary medium is photography, here she also offers some written snippets of memory and expression from her numerous sojourns in the Syrian Desert since the 1980s.
SOCCER / World cup
Apr 9, 2006

J. Village may host Japan's pre-World Cup training camp

Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi said Saturday he will propose that Japan's World Cup squad hold a training camp in the J. Village training facilities in Fukushima Prefecture before leaving for tournament hosts Germany.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 9, 2006

Could the U.N. have done more?

A NOT SO DISTANT HORROR: Mass Violence in East Timor, by Joseph Nevins. New York: Cornell University Press, 2005, 273 pp., $18.95 (cloth). This is a gripping and powerful saga rooted in the horrible atrocities and deprivation endured by the East Timorese following Indonesia's invasion in 1975. Indonesian...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 9, 2006

Bringing the lady-makes-tea debate to the boil

In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer...

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