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JAPAN
Apr 8, 2010

Japan's eco-credentials assailed

OSAKA — Six months before Japan hosts a major U.N. conference on biodiversity, the government and major corporations involved in the issue are conducting a series of events to raise public awareness about threats to the world's ecosystems and what can be done to save natural habitats.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Apr 7, 2010

Game director Mikami ups speed, action in 'Vanquish'

Fifty-two floors above the ground in Tokyo's Roppongi district, one man is reaping all the applause. As he soaks it up, the look on his face is difficult to read. It has been over four years since he last received such attention, and he has yet to impart the information he came to relay; has yet to experience...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Apr 4, 2010

Mika Tsutsumi: Spotlight on the States

Mika Tsutsumi is a spirited journalist and writer whose work turns a spotlight on the widespread hardships and poverty caused by official policies and the behavior of businesses in the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 3, 2010

Patience a virtue in miso making

If miso is part of your daily routine, "you're having a decent life," says Tony Flenley, Japan's only British miso maker. Flenley, who runs a 105-year-old miso company in Osaka, believes the time taken to prepare and eat the soup shows the right priorities have triumphed over a fast food lifestyle.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Mar 29, 2010

Global crisis, Act IV: Currency turmoil starts to wreak havoc

I don't like to say I told you so, but I told you so. Back in July last year, I wrote in this column that the post-Lehman shock world was participating in a drama in five acts, in which the fourth was likely to be where currency turmoil hits the stage.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 28, 2010

Treason for the most patriotic of reasons

The subtitle informs us that this is a "casebook" — that is, not a monograph on the Sorge spy ring, but rather a miscellany of pieces around that topic. Happily, the assembled parts are not the hodgepodge they might have been, but instead a kaleidoscope of views that resonate well together. In his...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 27, 2010

Henry conflicted as match with Arsenal looms

LONDON — Jack Charlton, the former England World Cup winner and Republic of Ireland manager, always maintained that "in football, money buys your loyalty."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 19, 2010

Japanese bureaucracy can be incredibly frustrating, but it also makes great entertainment

In the early summer of 2008, Japan's theater world was agog as details emerged of a decision by senior board members of the New National Theatre Tokyo (NNTT) to replace Hitoshi Uyama, its acclaimed artistic director, barely a year into the job, with the mainstream director Keiko Miyata from September...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Mar 19, 2010

Curator Shihoko Iida reveals lessons learned from stint at foreign museum

Japan's art world is occasionally compared to the Galapagos Islands — and not just because it is inhabited by some curious creatures; sorry, I mean artists.
COMMENTARY
Mar 17, 2010

China's diplomacy suffering an identity crisis

Chinese diplomacy generally comes in all sizes and shapes, but until relatively recently the size was small and the shape a question mark.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2010

An indirect solution for a Palestinian state?

RAMALLAH — Palestinians and Israelis have different and possibly contradictory expectations from the indirect negotiations that the United States has pushed both sides into beginning.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2010

Tamer-looking defense budget may mask China's real buildup

LONDON — After nearly two decades of double-digit increases in its military budget, China announced a mere 7.5 percent jump in its defense budget this year.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Mar 14, 2010

Pens and pools: prisons for cetaceans

The death in February of a killer-whale trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, made headlines all over the world. As has been widely reported, Dawn Brancheau, an experienced orca trainer, was dragged by her hair into the whale's pool, where she died of traumatic injuries and drowning.
EDITORIALS
Mar 12, 2010

Exposure to tobacco smoke

Five years have passed since the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control went into effect (Feb. 27, 2005). The FCTC, the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization, has 168 parties and covers 86 percent of the world population. Nevertheless, tobacco products remain the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 12, 2010

Painting the spirit that built great empires

As I write, the British pound is in sharp decline against a wide range of currencies, including even the Zimbabwean dollar! No, there hasn't been an editorial mishap and this is not the financial section of The Japan Times. I just mention these facts of economic decline to add some perspective to the...
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2010

Cluster bomb ban moves forward

Cluster munitions rank among the most ghastly weapons of war commonly found in arsenals around the world. Dropped from the air or launched from the ground, they explode in midair and release as many as 2,000 submunitions that carpet-bomb targeted areas.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 7, 2010

Way down south in Hateruma

In 1965, a Dutch anthropologist named Cornelius Ouwehand sailed with his Japanese wife, Shizuko, to the remote island of Hateruma to undertake research. The series of monochrome images they took of daily life, work and ritual there were eventually published under the simple title "Hateruma."
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 7, 2010

Olympic memories are priceless

It was only fitting that hockey's beloved icon lit the Olympic torch and Canada's top current star scored the gold medal-clinching goal — in overtime, the proverbial icing on the cake — on the final day of the Vancouver Winter Games.
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2010

Laying the foundation of an intellectual property bridge

The Internet may arguably be the pre-eminent example of how recent technological developments have made life more convenient.
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2010

Decision time looms for Iran

Despite years of scrutiny, Iran's nuclear program is still surrounded by uncertainty. Tehran says it is merely seeking to diversify its energy supplies and apply nuclear technology to benign purposes such as the use of isotopes in medicine.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Mar 2, 2010

Sumo body deserves mawashi wedgie for racist wrestler ruling

I've noticed how highly Japan regards sports. We love investing taxes in games and facilities, hosting international events and Olympics. Sports are even part of a government ministry, the one in charge of Japan's science, education and culture.
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2010

Cancer-thwarting lifestyles

Cancer has been the No. 1 cause of death for Japanese since 1981, accounting for one-third of Japanese deaths. One's lifestyle is closely related to the contraction of cancer and one can avoid developing cancer to a large extent by changing one's lifestyle. Thus education can play an important role....

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past