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JAPAN
Mar 20, 2008

Fukuda's coalition finds itself trapped

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is stuck.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2008

DPJ set to snub latest pick for BOJ chief

The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday evening that it will reject the government's latest nominee to replace Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui, virtually ensuring the post of central bank chief will go unfilled when Fukui's five-year term ends Wednesday.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Mar 19, 2008

Gaming contest adds Dutch style to Japanese knowhow

UTRECHT, Netherlands From March 8 to 9 I was lucky enough to be involved as a jury member in a fresh initiative called the Japan GameJam. This new concept brings Dutch game designers into the exciting world of Japanese mobile gaming with a two day intensive game design session.
COMMENTARY
Mar 16, 2008

Is Obama another JFK, Bush, or both?

LOS ANGELES — Admirers of Barack Obama who glibly and favorably compare the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency to John F. Kennedy always assume that they are doing the former a favor. But there's another way to look at it — and it's less pretty.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 15, 2008

Clinic on the bluff reaches out

Someone who knows Hans Pauli well describes him as the archetypal Dutchman who is forever running around sticking his finger in dikes to prevent catastrophe.
EDITORIALS
Mar 15, 2008

Mr. Abdullah is battered

Malaysia's ruling coalition was stunned in elections last weekend. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his National Front (Barisan Nasional) lost the two-thirds majority in Parliament that they have held for nearly four decades. As the government tries to regroup, Malaysia appears headed toward...
EDITORIALS
Mar 13, 2008

Andes go to the brink and back

Tensions are on the rise in the Andes. Efforts by the Colombian government to battle leftist rebels have brought relations among it, Ecuador and Venezuela to the brink of war. Cooler heads appear to have prevailed, but problems have only been managed, not eliminated. The real problem is the enduring...
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2008

Upper House rejects Muto

The Bank of Japan is a week away from a vacuum at the top as the opposition-controlled Upper House on Wednesday voted down the government's bid to replace BOJ Gov. Toshihiko Fukui with his deputy of five years, Toshiro Muto.
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2008

DPJ officially rejects Muto as BOJ head

The Democratic Party of Japan said Tuesday that it will reject the government's nomination of Toshiro Muto for new Bank of Japan governor, even though Muto pledged to ensure the BOJ's independence during testimony to the Diet.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2008

Witness recalls day of Nagai shooting

Photojournalist Adrees Latif, who took pictures of Japanese video journalist Kenji Nagai after he was gunned down last year in Myanmar by a junta soldier during a crackdown on demonstrators, on Monday recounted events leading up to the killing.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2008

The global economic party has ended

MUNICH — With the United States teetering into recession, the global economic boom has ended. The boom was unusually long and persistent, with four years of roughly 5 percent growth — a period of sustained economic dynamism not seen since around 1970.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Mar 10, 2008

Isolationist tendencies threatening to turn Japan into a 'subprime state'

Although the word "subprime" may have been understood only by a few industry insiders a few months ago, it is certainly entering the global lexicon with some force these days. Governments around the world have been deploring the state of their economies, usually invoking the dreaded problem as a key...
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

First Japanese in North America

With respect to the March 4 article "John Manjiro's U.S. home to become museum" and the claim that Manjiro (Manjiro Nakahama) may have been the first Japanese to visit North America, I would offer that he was perhaps more than 200 years late. The first encounters by Japanese with what would become U.S....
Japan Times
LIFE / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

Fashion fantasies come to life in cosplay

Silver wig, blue contact lenses, a mock sword and a (kind of) knight's costume.
BASKETBALL
Mar 8, 2008

Oga determined to play for WNBA's Mercury

Asked if she has confidence in her command of the English language, Yuko Oga replied in her signature fashion. She laughed, and then she answered the question.
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Mar 8, 2008

Will 'good guy-bad guy' faceoff revive sumo?

The sacred sport of sumo boasts a history of 1,300 years, but recent scandals and undignified exploits of some of its champions are threatening to reduce its status to heresy.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2008

Muto nominated as BOJ chief; DPJ unsure

With Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui's term expiring in 11 days, the government and ruling bloc on Friday finally nominated one of his deputies, Toshiro Muto, to replace him at the central bank.
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2008

Analysts see bid for balance in choice of BOJ nominees

The government's nomination Friday of Masaaki Shirakawa, a former Bank of Japan executive, and Takatoshi Ito, a member of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, as new BOJ deputy governors prompted analysts to wonder whether one of them may become the central bank's chief five years...
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2008

Violence on the high seas

Antiwhaling activists of the Sea Shepherd group hurled more than two dozen bottles containing a liquid and more than 100 envelopes containing a white powder onto the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru off Antarctica on Monday. A crew member of the ship and two Japan Coast Guard officers suffered eye injuries...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2008

New times require a new NATO strategy

BERLIN — We, former defense chiefs of staff for five countries, recently published a booklet containing proposals for a new strategy, as well as a comprehensive agenda for change.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

Proof of peaceful nuclear program

The Feb. 22 report of the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which plainly declares the implementation of the Work Plan (INFCIRC/711) and thus resolves all outstanding issues, serves as the clearest evidence ever coming from the Agency, unambiguously attesting to the exclusively...
COMMENTARY
Mar 5, 2008

Sovereign funds rescue West

LONDON — Ten years ago some commentators, including myself, were forecasting that the age of Westernization was over and that the age of Easternization was about to begin. Capital and technology that had flowed from the West to the East for several centuries past was now about to start flowing the...

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.