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JAPAN
May 3, 2008

DPJ weighs voting rights for all permanent residents

A group of Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers is drafting a bill that would give foreign nationals with permanent residence status the right to vote in local elections. They plan to gear up after the Golden Week holidays and submit the bill during the current session of the Diet.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 2, 2008

Canadian ambassador brings a lifelong love of Japan to his post

Joseph Caron, Canada's ambassador to Japan since 2005, remembers his first day here — a Saturday in late August 1975. He stayed at the Hotel New Otani and visited Ginza, Nihonbashi and Omote-sando.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 1, 2008

LDP gets drivers' ire for gas hikes

Angry motorists swiftly slammed the government's decision Wednesday to reinstate provisional extra tax rates on gasoline, with some calling the imminent price hike a "terrible act" and others criticizing Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda for his strong-arm political tactics.
Reader Mail
May 1, 2008

Civil servants made to murder

I could not agree more with the views on the death penalty of Lower House member Shizuka Kamei. In addition to Kamei's point that a government that looks after the well-being of its society has no role in murdering a person, the death penalty also obligates a civil servant to become a murderer in the...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Apr 30, 2008

Return to Charlotte would bring Brown's coaching career full circle

NEW YORK — Let's connect the polka dots.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 29, 2008

The color of Pakistan's revolution is black

SHANGHAI — Immediately after taking office last month, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the release of the 60 judges who had been detained by President Pervez Musharraf since November. This is a triumph for the rule of law in Pakistan, and above all a triumph for the brave Pakistani...
COMMENTARY
Apr 27, 2008

It doesn't take much imagination to guess the winner of an imaginary 'world primary'

LOS ANGELES — OK, so he did lose the Pennsylvania primary — but might Sen. Barack Obama be otherwise elected king of the world?
COMMENTARY
Apr 25, 2008

North Korea's role in U.S.-China relations

LOS ANGELES — Call it what you will. In the red-baiting McCarthy era, to be sure, it probably would have been labeled as some sort of sinister Fifth Column operating on behalf of Beijing behind America's lines. They themselves call their U.S.-based organization, rather plainly, not mentioning China,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Apr 25, 2008

Set the controls to quirk factor 10

After listening to Tokyo Pinsalocks' brilliant new minialbum "Planet Rita," it's frightening to think that the trio — bassist Hisayo, singer Naoko and drummer Reiko — almost sold their soul to the devil, and not the rock 'n' roll one at that, which would be cool. No, in a bid to get famous they almost...
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2008

Cutting U.S. service-member crime

Your April 9 editorial "Murder in Yokosuka" is very appropriate and timely. Criminal cases involving American soldiers are becoming far too numerous for comfort and there is a need to work out new arrangements so that such criminals are treated as such, and are not given any special privileges by virtue...
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2008

Asia needs $100 billion forex pool: Watanabe

Asian governments should form a $100 billion pool of foreign reserves by 2010 to prevent a repeat of the region's financial crisis a decade ago, says Hiroshi Watanabe, Japan's former top currency official.
OLYMPICS
Apr 22, 2008

Kitajima headlines 31-member Olympic team

Kosuke Kitajima was nearly speechless on the podium. He will give all the answers in Beijing.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2008

Moriya enters guilty plea

Former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya pleaded guilty Monday to charges of bribery and perjury and acknowledged taking part in bribes-for-contracts schemes with executives of defense equipment traders between 2003 and 2007.
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2008

Nonproliferation essential to future of nuclear power: experts

Full-fledged reinforcement of the international nuclear nonproliferation framework is of vital importance for facilitating peaceful use of nuclear power and thereby for addressing the pressing global challenges of energy supply and global warming, according to a private policy study group.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 22, 2008

Summit wicked this way comes

You've probably heard about July's G8 Summit in Toyako, in my home prefecture of Hokkaido. In case you're unfamiliar with the event, here's a primer from the Foreign Affairs Ministry:
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 22, 2008

Volunteer DIY group puts a touch of earth into prefabs

On a rainy day in late March, a group of people were making material to apply to the walls of a two-story concrete house going up in the city of Musashino in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Dining out with a box of fine fare

Tasty, healthy and wasting nothing; traditional Japanese cuisine served on a hakozen table distills many of the country's dying cultures.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Soccer that's played the wheely way

I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting...
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

What's in a name?

The April 9 article "NATO meeting sends dangerous signals" portrays Greece as the aggressor and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as the victim. The provisional name of FYROM was not selected by Greece, as the author states, but was part of an interim agreement suggested by others...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 19, 2008

Wanted: good home for old icebreaker

ABOARD THE SHIRASE — Old soldiers may just fade away, but it is a fate far better, some feel, than what awaits the Maritime Self-Defense Force's icebreaker Shirase, which is headed for the scrap heap after 25 years of hard service.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 18, 2008

'Paranoid Park'/'You, the Living'

Spree killer, rock star, average teenage skater. Director Gus Van Sant sees all three in much the same light: emotionless, affectless, blank. Numb characters for a numb generation? Or is Van Sant's penchant for an aesthetic — an aloof, arty minimalism — blinding him to things like personality, expression,...

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.