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COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2008

False choices for Tokyo

HONOLULU — A gloom is settling over Tokyo. A recent visit revealed deep and deepening frustration and anxiety as Japanese contemplate strategic options. Decision-makers in Tokyo have framed their choices in overly simple terms that do not reflect the range of possibilities in foreign and security policy....
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2008

An idea whose time has gone

LONDON — Back in the 1970s a political idea became very fashionable in Western Europe, and especially in Britain. This was the concept of multiculturalism — the belief that different immigrant and ethnic groupings, who were then pouring into the region, should be left to their own devices and allowed,...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2008

Insurrections push Philippines to the brink

MANILA —The current president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, whose election in 2004 was deeply flawed, but probably not fraudulent, is currently beset by a sea of troubles that threaten to overwhelm her regime.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2008

Canadian garden of unity and reconciliation

"Hello," wrote an old Japan buddy back on her native British Columbian soil. "I've met a woman — Rumiko Kanesaka — who's helping build a Japanese garden on Salt Spring Island where I live. Would you like to talk with her?"
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2008

Obituary: Makoto Saito

Makoto Saito, a leading expert on the history of U.S. politics and foreign policy, died Thursday of chronic bronchitis in a Tokyo hospital, his family said. He was 86.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2008

Hypocrisy weakens West's whaling protests

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Thirty years ago, Australian vessels, with the government's blessing, killed sperm whales off the West Australian coast. Last month, Australia led international protests against Japan's plan to kill 50 humpback whales. Japan, under mounting pressure, announced that it would...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2008

Takenaka calls for structural reforms to boost Nikkei

Japan will keep failing to attract investors to its stock market unless Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda carries out extensive structural reforms, said Heizo Takenaka, a former Cabinet minister and the key financial reform architect under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jan 17, 2008

Standing room for sale

A heady atmosphere of spending hung over the opening of this year's Art@Agnes, the "art fair in a hotel" that has in the last four years become a regular fixture of Tokyo's art world. Take 20 to 50 years off visitors' ages, strip them of their designer clothes and their well-polished courtesies, and...
COMMENTARY
Jan 15, 2008

Recurring dream about Asia's prospects

LOS ANGELES — The Grand Asian Master, no more than a few thousand years old, appeared to me the other night (as he does from time to time) and asked what I wish for these days.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 15, 2008

Whatever happened to Yamagishi?

Hideyuki Ikuhara's main responsibility at Yamagishi is feeding the pigs. It's a full-time job, but he expects no salary for his efforts. In fact, he quit his work developing high-tech televisions and gave up all his possessions for this lifestyle — and he couldn't be happier.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 15, 2008

Bento grass

Dear Alice,
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2008

Taiwan votes for change

Legislative elections in Taiwan have given the opposition Nationalist (KMT) party a two-thirds majority and handed President Chen Shui-bian a stunning rejection. Voters turned their back on Mr. Chen's confrontational politics and his focus on national identity over practical measures to improve the lives...
SOCCER
Jan 13, 2008

Yamaguchi honored as top NCAA player

Tokyo native and Florida State University junior Mami Yamaguchi capped one of the great seasons in college soccer history on Saturday by being named the 2007 female recipient of the MAC Hermann Trophy.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 13, 2008

Single parenting drama, variety commonplace talents, childbirth drama

SMAP band member Shingo Katori, whose last TV drama job was playing a monkey, gets to be more than human in the new series "Bara no Nai Hanaya (A Florist Without Roses)" (Fuji, Monday, 9 p.m.). Katori plays Eiji, a young widower with an 8-year-old daughter, Shizuku. He saves his money for years to fulfill...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 13, 2008

Let loose nature's way to tone body and soul

Ha-ha, funny isn't it, but Laughter Yoga has nothing to do with telling jokes. In fact, humor plays no part in this unusual form of the ancient Hindu discipline. Here, laughter has to be unconditional.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2008

Lower House rams through antiterrorism bill

For the first time in half a century, the Lower House on Friday overrode the Upper, ramming a bill through the Diet to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling duty in the Indian Ocean.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Jan 11, 2008

Molecular morsels

Nothing turns a woman on more than a room full of excited men. No, this was not the Super Bowl, but the International Chefs Congress, a "show and tell" held last September in New York City by some of the world's most influential chefs. The display of techniques and trends was impressive, with a roster...

Longform

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.
How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic