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Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 2, 2008

Gas levy vital for maintaining rural roads

Provisional higher tax rates for gasoline and cars are now the main bone of contention in the divided Diet. The Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc has submitted a bill to extend the rates, due to expire March 31, for another 10 years. Revenues from the levies are used to build and repair...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2008

Voice of dissent revives forgotten war memories

Yoji Yamada had just finished greeting the audience at the premiere of "Kaabee (Kabei: Our Mother)" at Tokyo's Marunouchi Piccadilly Theater when he sat down with The Japan Times.
CULTURE / Books
Jan 27, 2008

Modern Japanese women: dealing with sex, lies and the dried-flower syndrome

GOODBYE MADAME BUTTERFLY: Sex, Marriage and the Modern Japanese Woman, by Sumie Kawakami. Chin Music Press, 2007, 219 pp., $20 (cloth) Who wants to be a woman in Japan? Misery can't get much worse than the sexless relationships, dreary marriages, loneliness, patriarchal blues and stressed out women portrayed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2008

'Bee Movie'

"Bee Movie," the latest animated feature from DreamWorks Animation, is about as funny as its title. B-movie, get it? It's a rather weak pun, more so considering there already was an ironically titled "B-Movie" made in 2004.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 25, 2008

'Zenzen Daijobu'

Japanese comedies today come in two broad categories: frantic, surreal ones of the Kankuro Kudo ("Maiko Haaaan!!!") sort and ironic, realistic ones from the Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Linda, Linda, Linda") corner.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Savor the sensation of being a 'princess'

My handsome butler, resplendent in his smart black waistcoat and bow tie, greets me at the door. "Hello princess," he softly intones as he manfully leads me to a rose-strewn alcove.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jan 20, 2008

Hitting hairdressing's highs the flat-top way

Wielding a hair dryer in one hand, a comb in the other, and with another comb held between his teeth, hairdresser Hideki Sato, 34, tackles the jet-black locks of a male model.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 18, 2008

Tchaikovsky medalists tour Japan

Winning instrumentalists in the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition will tour Japan from Jan. 23-30. The gala concert brings together the three gold medalists and two silver medalists from last June's 13th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, including Japanese violinist Mayuko Kamio....
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2008

The year of sake

The Year of the Rat may also turn out to be the Year of Sake. Last year, exports of sake (Japanese rice wine), rose to the highest level since a passing miniboom 11 years ago. The just-finished Year of the Boar saw a 10 percent increase over 2006 and a 40 percent increase since 2001. All signs point...
EDITORIALS
Jan 6, 2008

Political temblors in Iowa

The United States has just concluded the first stage in the quadrennial spectacular — or is it a spectacle? — that is a presidential campaign. The Iowa caucuses were held Thursday evening and the two winners, Sen. Barack Obama and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, confounded their party establishments...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2008

Rice cookers go upscale to bring male retirees traditional flavor

For the average Japanese, no day starts out right without a bowl of steaming, glistening white rice.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jan 4, 2008

Top tango couples dance into a city near you

The world's top tango dancers will put on a spectacular show throughout Japan in Tango Dance Premium from Jan. 20-Mar. 31. With no fewer than 55 performances at 45 venues, the five winning couples of the annual Tango Dance World Championship will indulge audiences across the country with a rare opportunity...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2008

Peace, prosperity come at a price

It is self-evident that international peace is the foremost prerequisite for national security and prosperity. This is the common recognition of all advanced nations, but Japan, with regard to national interests.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 29, 2007

Michelin Tokyo takes Japan by storm

A new book released last month has created a sensation and is selling like hotcakes in Japan, with bookstores being picked clean of the initial stock of 120,000 copies in only three days.
BASKETBALL
Dec 28, 2007

Apache guard Aoki continues climb to stardom

There are times this season when Cohey Aoki is the best offensive player on the basketball court.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 18, 2007

The myopic state we're in

We all notice it eventually: how nice individual Japanese people are, yet how cold — even discriminatory — officialdom is toward non-Japanese (NJ). This dichotomy is often passed off as something "cultural" (a category people tend to assign anything they can't understand), but recent events have...
EDITORIALS
Dec 13, 2007

Spotlight on troubled cities

The internal affairs ministry has introduced four indicators to gauge the financial health of local governments based on a law enacted in June to prevent bankruptcy of local governments. In view of financial problems at local governments, like the bankruptcy of the city of Yubari in Hokkaido, the new...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 11, 2007

Tamegoro Sudo

Tamegoro Sudo, 50, is a movie producer and actor whose many friends in Tokyo's downtown Asakusa area provide him with the hilarious characters and plots in his movies. His five "Dekotora no Shu (Shu, the Dekotora Man)" movies star his favorite decorated trucks and his buddies, actors Sho Aikawa and Shingo...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Dec 8, 2007

Yes — I have a cell phone

"Hate" is a powerful word, and one that I would never toss around lightly, not even to such potentially worthy targets as the Tokyo Giants, Fox News and eggplant (blech!). But having said that, let me further say this:
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 7, 2007

Rizing Fukuoka finds wings

The Rizing Fukuoka have quietly put together a solid stretch of games and now find themselves in the thick of things in the bj-league's Western Conference.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2007

Setting the record straight on Indonesia

BALI, Indonesia — Japan and India stand as beacons for democracy that surely inspire many of their Asian neighbors. For its part, Indonesia has been struggling with its own experiment with democracy that has enormous implications for the region and the rest of the world.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Nov 26, 2007

Plenty wrong with U.S. agricultural policy

NEW YORK — The U.S. farm bill — a blanket term for all measures related to agriculture, some barely so — appears doomed this year. The House version passed at the end of July, but the Senate version has been stalled in such a way that there's even talk that its enactment may not occur until after...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 20, 2007

World's suicide capital — tough image to shake

Japan has attained a reputation as the suicide capital of the world. A 2007 international comparison of suicide rates (per 100,000 people) by the World Health Organization ranked Japan sixth for females, at 12.8, behind Sri Lanka, South Korea and Lithuania, and 11th for males, at 35.6, well below Lithuania,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 16, 2007

N_1155: Naka-Meguro goes organic

Who'd have thought it? Vegetables have become hip. Forget those premium cuts of chu-toro tuna and gourmet meals of beer-pampered wagyu beef: The really happening restaurants these days are those that can offer bespoke produce shipped straight from the farm.
Reader Mail
Nov 15, 2007

Exemptions not based on nationality

In his Nov 11 letter, Donald Seekins wonders "Why exempt Korean residents (from biometric screening at ports of entry)?" The short answer is that "Korean residents" are not< /I> exempt. There is no such category in Japanese law, and Special Permanent Residents (SPRs) are not defined by nationality. ...

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?