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COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2006

U.S.-India nuclear deal sets bad example

MADRAS, India -- The India-U.S. deal to cooperate in civil nuclear energy signed in New Delhi in March now appears set to be approved by the U.S. Congress. This will end India's nuclear isolation, which began in 1998 when the country first tested nuclear weapons.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 3, 2006

Transience in art and life

One reason the Sistine Chapel in Rome is so venerated is that it represents one of the occasions when art did not lose out to religion when the two came together. Though religious constraints sometimes force artists to rise to the occasion -- as with Islamic art in which rich Arabesque patterns replace...
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 1, 2006

Parting is such sweet sorrow: and sometimes amusement

Job-hopping is on the rise in Japan as more and more companies bid farewell to the lifetime employment system. But some managers are still so unprepared for the departure of a subordinate that they often behave irrationally -- sometimes to the point of being downright silly.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jul 31, 2006

America: a democracy and an empire

NEW YORK -- One thing that has receded from public debate as a consequence of the disaster that is America's war against Iraq is talk of the United States as an empire. During the onrush to the invasion and for some time afterward, one popular comparison was with the Roman Empire. Another, of course,...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 31, 2006

BOJ should have based hike on consumer needs, worldwide inflation trend

The Bank of Japan raised the unsecured overnight call rate from virtually zero to 0.25 percent at the end of its July 13-14 Policy Board meeting and hiked the official discount rate from 0.1 percent to 0.4 percent.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 30, 2006

Tokugawa shogun saved from going to the dogs

Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) was the fifth in a line of 15 Tokugawa-family rulers. His 29-year rule was marked by an unusual number of natural disasters, including a volcanic eruption of Mount Fuji, and by that equally unusual outbreak of commerce — the arts, extravagance and indulgence now known as the...
LIFE
Jul 30, 2006

What's Japan's secret of 'many happy returns'?

Japan may never have become the world's No. 1 economy, and, faced with other rising Asian powers, it probably never will be. Nonetheless, there is one thing at which Japan proudly excels above all nations: its people's longevity.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 29, 2006

The secret to stomping the rainy season

It has been a long rainy season, with destruction from landslides and floods. But we don't worry about those things on the island. Because living on an island, we're used to having lots of water around. Thirty cm of rain here is just another drop of water in the sea.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 28, 2006

Window on the West

It's hard not to feel well disposed toward a place like Nagasaki even before you set foot in it. Nagasaki was, after all, the port in western Kyushu that had to bear the torturous brunt of the anti-Christian persecutions assiduously pursued by the Tokugawa shoguns in the 17th century. And had it not...
BUSINESS / U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Jul 27, 2006

U.S. experts urge Japan to embrace transition to postindustrial economy

See related story: Is Japan about to ride an M&A wave, or flounder in just a ripple?
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jul 25, 2006

Renting and dual nationality

In Japan, "truth" is often a very nebulous concept. A "situational ethics" approach to life here directly affects law and gives birth to the "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, which is pervasive in Japan.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 24, 2006

Fujimoto leads CL to sweep

MIYAZAKI -- There's power in the bottom of the lineup, especially in an All-Star game.
BASKETBALL
Jul 23, 2006

Japan closes out Kirin Cup with win

The Japanese national basketball team gave its fans plenty of reasons to smile Saturday afternoon.
EDITORIALS
Jul 23, 2006

Mr. Zidane and other 'demons'

Zinedine Zidane must be thanking the gods for FIFA, which in a welcome move Thursday did much to restore some of the lost glow to his image -- and some sanity to a debate in which sanctimonious nonsense had been gaining the upper hand.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jul 23, 2006

Faces of terrorism

The Richman's Cafe seemed an unlikely place to meet a terrorist, but at least it was well lit and public.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 23, 2006

Dark chronicler of a dubious Jewish uniqueness

Who are the Jews? What do Jewish writers have in common with each other? What, strictly speaking, is a "Jewish" writer . . . and, for that matter, what is meant by "strictly speaking"?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 23, 2006

The many hazards -- especially for kids -- of living the high life

Some news stories make you laugh and some make you cringe. If you live in an apartment you may have done both while reading the July 13 story in this newspaper about an employee of Schindler Elevator K.K. getting trapped in a Schindler lift in the same Tokyo residential building where a teenager was...
EDITORIALS
Jul 22, 2006

Funding scandal shakes ivory tower

It came as a shock last year when former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo Suk's claims that he had created stem cells by cloning human embryos turned out to be fraudulent. A recent case at Waseda University in Tokyo is no less surprising, although it mainly concerns the irregular use of...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

Ex-additive salesman warns of hidden dangers

A one-time food-additives salesman and chemist is using his insider information to warn people about the dangers lurking in the prepared-food sections at supermarkets and convenience stores.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jul 21, 2006

Waving goodbye to the city

The sound of waves lapping on the shore. The cool sea breeze. Beautiful people wearing very few clothes. Overdressed cocktails. What better way could there be to while away a hot summer's day than a beach-bar crawl along Shonan Bay?
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2006

Cultural diplomacy in the Middle East

Political and economic stability in the Middle East is vital to ensure Japan's energy security and to reduce risks in the global economic system. In the interests of this region's mid- and long-term political stability, it is clearly desirable for "democratization" in the region to take root deeply and...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 18, 2006

Morijio

Dear Alice,
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2006

GSDF goodness elated Samawah: Iraqi journalist

Many Iraqis in the southern city of Samawah feel grateful to withdrawing Japanese troops for rebuilding roads, hospitals and other vital facilities there, but some have felt disappointed because they had higher expectations for what the troops could do, a Samawah-based Iraqi journalist said.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 16, 2006

The difference gaman can make

THE ART OF GAMAN: Arts and Crafts From the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946, by Delphine Hirasuna. Berkeley/Toronto: Ten Speed Press, 125 pp., 2005, $35 (cloth). In Japanese, the word "gaman" means the display of calm forbearance and poise in the face of adverse circumstances beyond one's...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 15, 2006

Alison Pockett

In 1995, Alison Pockett of Britain set up Magellan, her own personal financial advisory company, in Tokyo. She said, "When I came here, this country shocked me deeply, positively. I didn't expect so many opportunities to set up on my own and go as far as I could. There are so many things to do here....
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 13, 2006

Moving toward a creative partnership

Valuing the wisdom and capabilities of women is critical to the development of any organization or society. Organizations where women are full, contributing participants are open and energized by a wide range of opinion and approaches.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2006

Firm pioneers dealing with belongings of departed

With more than 4 million people over 65 living alone and many dying a solitary death, a niche business has emerged in dealing with the belongings of those who pass away.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jul 13, 2006

Soaking up the 'male gaze'

What to make of photographs of blue tarpaulins, mobiles of cigarette butts and bathroom sponges folded to suggest a woman's derriere?

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?