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EDITORIALS
Jul 26, 2005

Narita fiasco: never again

A tragedy has clouded the history of the New Tokyo International Airport at Narita. The place names Narita and Sanrizuka have been associated with Japan's longest and fiercest political struggle against the government, a struggle that has seen 13 deaths, five of them policemen, and thousands of arrests....
COMMENTARY
Jul 25, 2005

Condoleezza Rice's unfortunate decision

HONOLULU -- The recent decision by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to skip the annual ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) ministerial-level dialogue this Friday in Vientiane represents a setback for U.S. efforts to persuade Southeast Asians that Washington really cares about their region. Rice plans...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 25, 2005

Depredation of species that get in our way

NEW YORK -- "Protected Birds Are Back, With a Vengeance: Cormorants Take Over, Making Some Enemies." This headline in the New York Times earlier this month, inset in a photo showing a few black birds atop a tree, struck me with the thought: So it has come to pass. Hadn't the same daily some years back...
JAPAN
Jul 24, 2005

Japan-China-U.S. ties said vital

Scholars and experts from Japan, China and the United States agreed in a recent meeting in Beijing that stable and cooperative relations among the three countries "will be in the best interests" of them and the rest of the world, according to organizers of the event.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 24, 2005

It's the black comedy of Japan: 'Don't mention the war . . .'

A point that tends to be overlooked in the debate over textbooks that whitewash Japan's actions during World War II is that Japanese junior high school history classes rarely make it past the Meiji Restoration. Whether or not "comfort women" or the Rape of Nanking is mentioned in textbooks becomes an...
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2005

TSE outsiders panel meets, has yet to ponder regulatory spinoff option

A special advisory panel to the Tokyo Stock Exchange held its first meeting Wednesday with an eye toward submitting recommendations by fall on whether the bourse should spin off its regulatory functions.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 20, 2005

Lenders must reveal what's paid

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that moneylenders must disclose debt records to borrowers and that refusal to do so is an illegal act that constitutes a responsibility to pay compensation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 19, 2005

The most dangerous civilian job in Iraq

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- In the translation world, the Italian phrase "traduttore, traditore" (translator, traitor) is used to suggest the inability to capture all the meaning in the original text and transfer it into another language because something inevitably gets lost in translation. Insurgents in...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Jul 17, 2005

Dining where no solo woman dared

Reiko Yuyama believes that adventures are there to be had in daily life without having to go out into the wilderness. In that sense, she says she might be "more of an adventurer than Christopher Columbus or Naomi Uemura," the late, great Japanese explorer and climber who disappeared on Mount McKinley...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 17, 2005

Indelible mark of the tattoo

THE WORLD OF TATTOO, by Maarten Hesselt van Dinter. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers/Hotei Publishing, 304 pp., 720 color illustrations, $80 (cloth). Charles Darwin averred that there was not one country in which the inhabitants did not tattoo themselves. From the ancient Briton to the plains Indians, through...
COMMENTARY
Jul 17, 2005

The international terror lab

NEW DELHI -- The July 7 London bombings, suspected to be the handiwork of British citizens of Pakistani origin, should serve as a reminder that major acts of international terrorism have first been tried out by Islamists in India before being replicated in the West. Such acts include attacks on symbols...
EDITORIALS
Jul 15, 2005

Preventive care for the elderly

A revision in the nursing-care insurance law, which passed the Diet in late June, will go into effect in April 2006, representing a significant turn in the direction of the government's approach since the insurance system was introduced in fiscal 2000.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2005

Upper House postal foes add LDP 10

Ten House of Councilors members from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party attended a meeting Thursday of the party's opponents to a set of postal privatization bills now before the chamber.
BUSINESS
Jul 15, 2005

Pension program invested into black

The public pension program cleared its books of red ink in fiscal 2004, with a weak yen helping it offload foreign stocks and bonds for a profit, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Thursday.
JAPAN
Jul 15, 2005

NPA finds 51 trafficked women

The National Police Agency said Thursday that 51 women were trafficked into Japan and forced to work in the adult entertainment industry in the first half of 2005, the highest figure on record for the first six months of a year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Jul 15, 2005

Hatsuogawa: The days of eel are upon us

Tradition is comforting, no matter whose culture it is. We eat plum pudding for Christmas, mochi at New Year and moon cakes to mark the Autumn Festival. We throw beans at setsubun and, on Valentines' Day, we will gladly accept as much chocolate as comes our way.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Jul 14, 2005

Japanese littleneck clam

* Japanese name: Asari * Scientific name: Ruditapes philippinarum * Description: Clams are bivalve mollusks, meaning that they are shellfish, like mussels and oysters. The shells are elongated and pinched together in the center where they join. There are both radial and concentric ribs on the...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

Upper House poised to debate postal bills amid election threat

The House of Councilors voted Monday to form a special committee to deliberate the contentious package of government-sponsored postal privatization bills.
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

U.N. calls for antidiscrimination law

The government urgently needs to acknowledge that deep discrimination against minorities, Korean and Chinese residents and other foreigners exists in Japan, an independent investigator said Monday.
BUSINESS
Jul 12, 2005

KDDI to offer handsets for JR East payments

KDDI Corp. said Monday it will start a new service in January in which its handsets can be used as smart tickets for trains operated by East Japan Railway Co.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 12, 2005

A fight to the death

Her bony, 80-year-old body floating around inside a nylon shirt and cigarette permanently clamped between what appear to be her two remaining front teeth, Kan Kyon Nam is an unlikely illegal squatter.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 10, 2005

Author asks Japanese courts, 'Where is your mind?'

Sensational crimes are defined by the media since sensations fuel the media engine. Murder has the greatest potential for sensationalism, but some murders attract more attention than others. Through a certain confluence of motive, money, and methodology some hog headlines for weeks while others never...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

DEPRESSION

'Istarted to get to work late -- sometimes at 11, then at 12 and then at 2; and then I had to quit my job."
Japan Times
Features
Jul 10, 2005

Support groups to aid of all affected

When people become clinically depressed, it's not just they who suffer. Families of the depressed are deeply affected -- riding an emotional roller coaster -- and when a breadwinner is afflicted, as is often the case, financial struggles inevitably ensue. Worst of all, many families must live with the...

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’