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Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Nov 15, 2007

A big noise about what?

'I think the best pop is always subversive in its nature," says James Righton over the phone from London a few days after his band Klaxons beat the bookies' odds to win the Mercury Music Prize, a major award that gives $40,000 to the "best" British or Irish album of the year. "Even things like Abba —...
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2007

Leave 'patriotism' out of Constitution

In October 2005, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved draft proposals whose main thrust is to revise the Preamble and Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. The new preamble includes "the obligation to support ourselves . . . with love for the country and society to which we belong," a veiled...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2007

Tokyo librarians to vanish by attrition

When the first batch of baby boomers born between 1947 and 1949 start retiring at the end of March, the three public libraries run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will also see many qualified librarians go.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Feb 8, 2007

Blood, guts and bathing

Colonialism leaves a peculiar scar. As generations pass and ethnicities merge, the distinction between indigenous and invader becomes increasingly blurred until it is impossible for either side to regard the other without finding something of themselves reflected there. Some 500 years after the arrival...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 1, 2007

Tokyo's dark side

Welshman John Williams first came to Japan in 1988, intending to stay two years, write a script and return to Britain to make a movie. He ended up making eight shorts, a documentary and finally a feature film -- the drama "Firefly Dreams" -- all in Japan and with Japanese casts and crews. Released in...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Dec 13, 2006

Nuthatch

* Japanese name: Gojukara * Scientific name: Sitta europaea * Description: The nuthatch is a charismatic, plucky little bird, about the size of a great tit, though a little plumper. It is a subtle blue-gray color above and white below. The sides of the bird, and its tail, are chestnut, but it is unmistakable...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2006

Phelps' cornucopia of economic tools

PARIS -- The winner of this year's Nobel Prize in economics, Edmund Phelps, is a giant in the field. His contributions have been, and remain, so important that they have altered traditional ways of thinking.
EDITORIALS
Aug 16, 2006

The U.N. acts, at last

One month after fighting began in southern Lebanon, the United Nations Security Council last week passed a resolution calling for an end to the conflict. The resolution, which passed unanimously, was the subject of protracted negotiations and the compromises are evident in the final product. Both Israel...
BUSINESS
Mar 10, 2006

BOJ lifts ultraloose policy

The Bank of Japan on Thursday ended its five-year-old ultraloose monetary policy, brushing aside concerns in the Cabinet and the ruling coalition that the nation has not yet overcome years of deflation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Aussies adjust the moorings

BRISBANE, Australia -- While the historical origins and cultural roots of Australia lie in Europe, its primary strategic alliance is with the United States, its pri- mary security focus is on Southeast Asia, and its major trading partners are in Northeast Asia.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jun 16, 2005

Worlds of nature are just a click away

Although I've only just packed away my skiing gear (the remnant snowfields have crept too close to the peaks to make the physical cost of carrying heavy boots and skis so far uphill worth the downhill benefits), and though mountain cherry blossoms have only recently begun to shed their petals here in...
COMMENTARY
Mar 24, 2005

Northern Territories dispute highlights flawed diplomacy

Japan is now in serious territorial disputes with all of its neighbors -- Taiwan, China, South Korea and Russia. True, this could prove there is something wrong with all of Japan's neighbors. But it could also prove that there is something wrong in the way Japan handles territorial problems with its...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 25, 2005

A reason to be happy: Spike Bar in Shibuya

Shibuya is now headquarters for Tokyo's cool party crowd. In the last six years or so, countless little bars have set up shop and made themselves part of the night circuit around the station. Whether along Miyamasuzaka toward Aoyama, up Dogenzaka toward Daikanyama or south along the Yamanote tracks toward...
COMMENTARY
Feb 16, 2005

Answering Pyongyang's divisive tack

HONOLULU -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's initial response to Pyongyang's surprise announcement that it felt compelled to suspend its participation in the six-party talks and that it had manufactured nukes was exactly right.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 23, 2005

On disaster reduction, a missed opportunity

KOBE -- Thanks to intense international political heat, the Indian Ocean region will get a tsunami early warning within three years. But more fundamental issues related to disaster reduction remain on the back burner, resulting in a lost opportunity.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
May 29, 2004

Shu Hikosaka

Shu Hikosaka was born in Toyohashi in a Zen Buddhist temple where his father was the temple priest. Hikosaka's three brothers were also born in the temple. His eldest brother succeeded their father as priest. This strong background in religion naturally shaped Hikosaka's character and philosophy. He...
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2004

Do all parties agree on CVID?

HONOLULU -- North Korea has agreed to participate in a six-party working group meeting Wednesday in Beijing to help lay the groundwork for the third session of the more senior-level Six-Party Talks (North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States) expected before the end of June. The...
Features
May 9, 2004

When wrong can be right

At the beginning of "Showgirls," suspicious that a kind seamstress might be physically attracted to her, aspiring chorine Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley) asks: "Are you hitting on me?" The Japanese subtitle reads: "Are you making fun of me?"
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Feb 10, 2004

Used books, furniture sales and clothes

More readers have been writing to say that they have lost columns cut out for future reference, so could we please relay the same information again. Happy to do so from time to time. Note, however, that that you can find back columns on The Japan Times Web site at www.japantimes.com
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Koizumi eyes permanent SDF rules, slams short-term approach

Japan should consider implementing a permanent law that stipulates the principles under which the Self-Defense Forces can be dispatched overseas, rather than drawing up sunset legislation every time the need arises, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Koizumi eyes permanent SDF rules, slams short-term approach

Japan should consider implementing a permanent law that stipulates the principles under which the Self-Defense Forces can be dispatched overseas, rather than drawing up sunset legislation every time the need arises, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2003

Koizumi eyes permanent SDF rules, slams short-term approach

Japan should consider implementing a permanent law that stipulates the principles under which the Self-Defense Forces can be dispatched overseas, rather than drawing up sunset legislation every time the need arises, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday.
LIFE / Digital / NETWISE
Apr 10, 2003

Sifting online study aids

Just a few years ago, I was certain I could never get by without Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary and the venerable Nelson close at hand. Today, however, these and other weighty tomes gather dust on a nearby bookshelf, banished to obsolescence by my favorite desktop reference, the Web.
Japan Times
JAPAN / KANSAI BEAT
Sep 6, 2002

Diet library to boost Web access

SEIKA, Kyoto Pref. -- The Internet age is offering libraries a chance to shed the image of musty rooms lined with overflowing shelves and endless reference materials.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 5, 2002

One bat in the hand is worth flocks in the forest

Science sometimes moves forward by exceedingly small increments, yet to be involved in making one of those tiny steps can nonetheless be extremely exciting, as it was for me early this summer.
COMMENTARY
Aug 9, 2002

Surprise ups Taiwan's risks

HONOLULU -- "No surprises." This was one of the pledges Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian made to Washington, both at the time of his inauguration and again after his Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, made a better-than-expected showing in the December 2001 parliamentary elections and formed a virtual...

Longform

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