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COMMENTARY
May 26, 2008

Second wind for cigarette sales

At the initiative of the Finance Ministry, the government has introduced a system to verify the age of anyone using a cigarette vending machine. But the system reportedly is not widely used.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2008

Can India and China dance?

TRIVANDRUM, India — It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. These are the two big countries said to be taking over the world, the new contenders for global eminence after centuries of Western domination, the Oriental answer to generations...
COMMENTARY
May 23, 2008

Asia's rise befalls the West

HONG KONG — "When many Western observers look at China," the former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani writes in his latest book, "The New Asian Hemisphere," "they cannot see beyond the lack of a democratic political system. They miss the massive democratization of the human spirit that is taking...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 23, 2008

Shinbashi fetes its geisha culture

Indulge yourself in the art of geisha at the 84th annual Azuma Odori dance gala in Tokyo's Shinbashi district from May 29 to June 1.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2008

Classical connections to the soul

Although Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi was classically trained at Milan's Conservatorio, the 52-year-old Turin native has ventured far from his classical roots to create works that draw on an eclectic blend of influences.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
May 23, 2008

Bottled water: It's naughty, but nice

I know, I know, bottled water is terribly unethical these days. Pinching a natural, life-sustaining resource and flying it to rich people in faraway lands is a bit naughty, all that packaging is trashing our planet, and our taps dispense safe water for less than ¥1 per liter — or a little more than...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2008

A first lady's diplomatic mission

A natural calamity is usually an occasion to set aside political differences and show compassion. But Burma, ruled by ultranationalistic but rapacious military elites distrustful of the sanctions-enforcing West, came under mounting international pressure to open up its cyclone-wracked areas to foreign...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2008

Rwandan troupe investigates societies' failures

I n 1994, Hutu militias began the systematic genocide of the Tutsi people of Rwanda. In just 100 days, an estimated 1 million people had been butchered and whole families, villages and towns destroyed. Once Tutsi rebels regrouped and took control of the unstable country, many of the Hutus responsible...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2008

A life on the streets

'I'm not always a stray dog. Sometimes I'm a cat," says Daido Moriyama. "Or an insect."
JAPAN
May 22, 2008

Tokyo Station face-lift adds old, new looks

JR Tokyo Station is in the midst of its first major reconstruction work since the end of the war as part of efforts to revitalize the heart of the capital.
JAPAN
May 22, 2008

Health costs of aged at a premium

Mitsue Nozaki has enjoyed a comfortable life as a senior living on a pension for the 15 years since she retired from a major company, where she had worked for about 40 years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
May 22, 2008

A screen as canvas

In 1965, pioneering video artist Nam June Paik made the bold statement that "just as the collage technic has replaced oil paint, the cathode ray tube will replace the canvas." Like any provocation, it has not aged well as the passage of time has whittled away at its importance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 21, 2008

Twitter launch in Japanese a boon for microblogging

Twitter is the Web site and service on a lot of lips in the technology world right now. It is a service that serves one very simple function by letting its users answer a simple question, "What are you doing now?" Users then subscribe to these answers by "following" the accounts of other users. The result...
EDITORIALS
May 20, 2008

Trust in malpractice probes

The health ministry has revised its proposal concerning a plan to establish, in 2010, a third-party Medical Accidents Investigation Commission aimed at preventing the recurrence of such accidents. The revised proposal takes into account the fear that doctors and other medical professionals have of police...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 20, 2008

Lifelines to the past

We have been receiving inquiries asking for help in finding old contacts, friends and family. Since we are unaware of any organization that specifically handles this kind of request, the best we can do is to print them here. Just send your name and as many details as you can dredge up from the past,...
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 2008

Manhunt for a Chinese woman

THE FINDER by Colin Harrison. New York: Sarah Chrichton Books, 2008, 325 pp., $25 (cloth) In this tightly woven page-turner by Colin Harrison, Jin Li, a young Chinese woman with an advanced university degree, engages in industrial espionage, setting off a series of violent events.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 18, 2008

African Festa opens eyes in Yokohama

YOKOHAMA — With the Tokyo International Conference on African Development to be held in Yokohama later this month, a two-day cultural event kicked off Saturday to bring a taste of Africa to Japan's famous harbor city.
BASKETBALL
May 17, 2008

Lakestars hire assistant GM

The Shiga Lakestars named Motofumi Iguchi their assistant general manager, the club announced Friday.
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2008

Mr. Siniora gambles and loses

It is increasingly clear that the administration of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is the government of Lebanon in name only. In deciding to confront Hezbollah last week, Mr. Siniora badly miscalculated, and was forced to make a humiliating retreat. Now, the country teeters on the precipice of a civil...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2008

Marriage sprang from struggle to master Japanese

May Uehara, who came to Japan from Hong Kong in 1986, speaks Japanese with such perfect intonation that people may at first mistake her for a native.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
May 16, 2008

Long-running 'Muscle Musical' embarks on enigmatic voyage

Japan's top athletes and a renowned American director have teamed up to renew the nation's most energetic theater show.
BUSINESS
May 15, 2008

Internet businesses try luck in overseas markets

While Japanese products from cars to TVs are known throughout the world, the country's Internet services have so far been conspicuously absent abroad.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2008

Julie madly, deeply

It's always interesting to meet someone you've seen on the screen so many times. You always wonder: Are they like their movie image? I know, I know — actors are just playing a role, that's not really them up on the screen.

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go