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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Put everything on the table

WASHINGTON -- North Korea's return to six-party negotiations in Beijing has been accompanied by greater civility and seriousness than many expected. Further, the frequent and direct bilateral contacts that have taken place between the U.S. and North Korean delegations -- a softening of the Bush administration's...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 11, 2005

Little grebe

* Japanese name: Kaitsuburi * Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis * Description: Little grebes, also known as dabchicks, are quite small and rather dumpy birds with blunt rear ends. They are dark brown, with a chestnut-brown throat and face. This chestnut color becomes richer and more shiny...
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2005

House dissolution may delay critical diplomacy

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's decision Monday to call a general election may end up stalling Japan's diplomatic agenda, including talks on realigning the U.S. forces in Japan.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 9, 2005

Japan's veterans bemoan lack of U.S.-style respect

OSAKA -- Every Aug. 15, all manner of people gather at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. But often lost among the parade of rightwing loudspeaker trucks, leftwing protesters and formally attired senior political figures swarmed by the press are the veterans themselves.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 7, 2005

No turning back the clock when the walls come tumbling down

Because earthquakes are unpredictable, people who live with them are fatalistic: There's nothing you can do except hope you're in a place that doesn't fall down on top of you. This attitude only covers naked survival, which to most people means everything, but experts predict that in a worst case scenario...
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2005

Taiwan visa waiver now permanent

The Diet unanimously enacted legislation Friday to make permanent a visa waiver program for tourists from Taiwan, the second-largest source of foreign visitors to Japan.
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 6, 2005

Koreans here inclined to assimilate to dodge racism

It was a big leap for Takae Hayama to switch from her Japanese name to her real name when she went to college.
JAPAN
Aug 4, 2005

Officials' response to asbestos slipshod, critics say

Spurred into action following a surge in reports of asbestos-linked deaths across the country, the government last week unveiled a package of steps designed to better deal with the carcinogenic substance.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Kamei denies he is targeting Koizumi

Shizuka Kamei, the longtime archenemy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, kicked off speculation Tuesday by denying he intended to topple the Koizumi Cabinet in the ongoing struggle to scrap the postal privatization bills.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Crown Prince to visit Saudi Arabia

Crown Prince Naruhito and former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will visit Saudi Arabia to offer condolences over the death of Saudi Arabian King Fahd, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tuesday.
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2005

Cops campaign for info on Setagaya slaying

Police began a major campaign Tuesday in front of the Keio Line's Seiseki-Sakuragaoka Station in Tokyo to solicit any information from passersby that could solve the murder of a family of four in Setagaya Ward in late 2000.
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2005

Noguchi relishes his space-shuttle instant noodles

Astronaut Soichi Noguchi on Tuesday described his encounter with instant noodles aboard the space shuttle Discovery with zeal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Aug 3, 2005

New dimensions in dance

Noism is a veritable supernova in the rapidly expanding universe of Japanese contemporary dance. It burst on the scene in 2004 as the residential company of the Niigata Ryutopia Theater, two years after its founder, 30-year-old Jo Kanamori, returned from Europe.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2005

Koizumi, Bush to meet in September

Japan and the United States have basically agreed that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Washington in late September for talks with President George W. Bush, according to sources.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 31, 2005

Only the names change as U.S. policy blunders on

Don't blame it on the neo-cons.
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Speaking up for a 'right-size' city

In their search for the soul of Nagoya -- a city some dub "Japan's best kept secret" -- staff writers Setsuko Kamiya and Yoko Hani met up with five long-term foreign residents. All five happened to be American, and all have been in business there for between five and 10 years. Settling down for a chilled-out...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 30, 2005

The benevolent Uncle Yama

Monday morning I awoke at 7 a.m. to chanting flowing through the window from the mountain in the back of my house. But something was strange -- the voice was not quite right. It wasn't the familiar deep voice of the priest, nor the younger voice of the priest's son. It was scratchy. Perhaps the locusts...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2005

Africa: moving beyond chronic emergency

NEW YORK -- The current crisis in Niger, where 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation, shows how badly prepared the country is to respond to the emergency. The food shortage is affecting 800,000 children under age five in some 3,815 villages. Acute malnutrition rates have risen to 13.4 percent...
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 2005

ASEAN is let off the hook

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has dodged a bullet. Myanmar's decision to give up its turn as chairman of the group in 2006 saves ASEAN from international embarrassment. Myanmar's status as a pariah state threatened to seriously hurt ASEAN as its dialogue partners vowed to avoid the group...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 29, 2005

Weekend trance party picks 07.29

Saturday 07.30
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 29, 2005

Caving in to the gods

If a foreigner happens to know just one Japanese myth, it's usually the one about Amaterasu and the cave. Amaterasu had long been tormented by her brother, Susanoo. But Susanoo, who believed there was no such thing as too elaborate a brotherly prank, went too far when he flung a flayed piebald colt into...
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2005

New Komeito exec signals willingness to jump LDP ship

New Komeito's secretary general said Wednesday his party would entertain forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan if, in a snap election, the DPJ took a majority in the House of Representatives.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 28, 2005

Oriental long-headed locust

* Japanese name: Shouryou-batta * Scientific name: Acrida cinerea antennata * Description: Although it is called the long-headed locust, this member of the grasshopper family of insects has a stranger appearance than the more familiar swarming locust. "Shouryou" refers (bafflingly) to the Buddhist...
EDITORIALS
Jul 27, 2005

Bolder way of thinking small

In June, the Cabinet Office's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy stressed the need for smaller and more efficient government in its 2005 basic guideline for economic and fiscal reform. Earlier this month the fiscal 2005 Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finances also called for smaller...

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’