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COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2005

Has risk of nuclear proliferation risen?

HONOLULU -- The nuclear cooperation agreement announced between U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18 marked a major shift in U.S. policies aimed at stopping and reversing proliferation. If implemented, it would result in new rules of global nuclear commerce...
COMMENTARY
Sep 10, 2005

From Kyoto to New Orleans

LOS ANGELES -- Beneath the endlessly horrific details surrounding the hurricane that swamped parts of New Orleans and the southeast United States lurks a monster question. Just how angry -- really -- is Mother Nature over the irreverent, careless way we humans and our energy-hungry machines have been...
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2005

Bush's response to disaster all too typical

WASHINGTON -- Is George W. Bush a serious person? It's not a question to ask lightly of a decent man who holds the U.S. presidency, an office worthy of respect. But it must be asked.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2005

Koizumi's bare-knuckle power play may soon haunt him

Sunday's election for the Lower House stands out as abnormal, but not because of its abruptness. Many surprise elections have been held before. On March 14, 1953, for instance, then Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who was president of the Liberal Party, dissolved the Lower House following the passage...
Japan Times
Features
Sep 4, 2005

Nagano's champion of change

He is perhaps the most well-known governor in Japan, largely because he has been breaking with tradition ever since he took office in Nagano Prefecture in October 2000.
COMMENTARY
Aug 25, 2005

Know when not to apologize

LONDON -- Here is a telling statistic about Japan's foreign policy that is little known in the West, and may not be widely known even in Japan itself.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 20, 2005

Lessons learned over the rainbow

Late August marks the anniversary of my arrival in Japan, this time totaling 28 years. So the question would seem to be, "What have you learned, Dorothy, in your long stay over the rainbow?"
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 14, 2005

He hops onto a shuttle, jumps off to a media shuffle

Last Tuesday's landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the deserts of California capped a tense two weeks in which the safety of the vehicle and the seven astronauts it contained was never 100 percent assured. The loss of foam insulation during liftoff was eerily reminiscent of the last shuttle mission...
BUSINESS
Aug 13, 2005

FSA orders Nagoya bourse to safeguard confidential info

The Financial Services Agency issued a business improvement order Friday to the Nagoya Stock Exchange due to its failure to protect confidential information in violation of the Securities and Exchange Law.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 6, 2005

What not to do in Japan: die

As a veteran resident approaching his 28th year in Japan, I would like to offer some simple advice to tourists, newbies and fellow graybeards as well. Which is:
COMMENTARY
Aug 1, 2005

Olive branch to Iran overdue

A new Iranian government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be inaugurated Aug. 4. While outgoing President Mohammad Khatami is a moderate, Ahmadinejad is a hardline conservative whose relations with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush are likely to be tense. As this is undesirable...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2005

Philippine crisis simmers

MANILA -- One and a half months after audio tapes surfaced allegedly showing President Gloria Arroyo cheated her way into office, the Philippines' political crisis is far from settled. There is a general feeling that the country has entered a period of political stalemate. While Arroyo's supporters declare...
EDITORIALS
Jul 24, 2005

The economy of plastic bags

A s this summer marks the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the law for recycling containers and wrapping materials, the government is moving to strengthen the law to force a change in the behavior of consumers. The target is plastic shopping bags provided for free by supermarkets, convenience...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / FUZZY LOGIC
Jul 24, 2005

We call it 'metal,' they call it 'rock'

Detroit7's new release is the sound of Led Zeppelin, Nirvana and Kiyoshiro Imawano being shackled in a shower room together and sprayed with sulfuric acid until they dissolve into a messy pile of punk-rock metal gunk -- and the detritus we get on their new five-track "EP Vol. 1" is "bad" in a very good...
JAPAN
Jul 12, 2005

Japan says it will keep pushing abduction issue

Japan will ask North Korea to hold bilateral talks later this month on the sidelines of the six-party discussions seeking to end Pyongyang's nuclear threat, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Monday.
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2005

Prosecutors to grill former Japan Highway exec

Prosecutors plan to question a 70-year-old former board member of the Japan Highway Public Corp. as early as this week over a bid-rigging scandal for bridge construction projects, according to sources.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2005

What about the billions given?

LONDON — The popular pressure being mobilized and brought to bear on the Group of Eight countries, including both Britain and Japan, to increase aid substantially to Africa and cancel poorer countries' debt, is certainly having an impact. But it is not quite the one at which the campaigners were aiming....
COMMENTARY
Jun 28, 2005

Pitching a Japan that can

A clash of interests among major U.N. member states is clouding the prospects for reform of the Security Council. While Japan, Brazil, Germany and India, known as the Group of Four (G4), seek permanent membership on the council, the Uniting for Consensus coalition, including Italy, South Korea and Pakistan,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 27, 2005

Shining a light on Turkish-Japanese ties

NEW YORK -- Selcuk Esenbel was in town. For many years now a professor of history at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Selcuk was, when I met her more than 30 years ago, studying Japanese history at Columbia University. The fruit of that study is her 1998 tome, which she gave me during her previous visit...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jun 19, 2005

The community in mind as a matter of practice

RITUAL PRACTICE IN MODERN JAPAN: Ordering Place, People, and Action, by Satsuki Kawano. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 152 pp., with b/w photos, $17.00 (paper). "Ritual" has meanings other than the primary dictionary definition, which insists upon the prescribed order of a religious ceremony...
EDITORIALS
Jun 17, 2005

Sewing up a textile deal

China and the European Union last weekend worked out a deal that limits Chinese exports of textiles and heads off a dangerous trade confrontation between them. Both sides, as well as Beijing's other trade partners, are hailing the arrangement as a "win-win" solution to trade disputes. Ultimately, however,...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.S. BUSINESS SCHOOL SYMPOSIUM
Jun 16, 2005

The unfinished business of recovery

Japan needs to keep up the momentum of economic reforms and accelerate them in the face of long-term challenges such as an aging population and increased global competition, scholars from U.S. business schools said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 14, 2005

What's the deal with leaving Japan?

Leaving Japan DAVE WRITES: I am considering whether or not to return to my country after having worked in Japan for almost 10 years. I would like some information on what official procedures are necessary to end my stay here, particularly with respect to my visa, income taxes, pensions, and health insurance....
EDITORIALS
Jun 12, 2005

Deciding on the best defense

Thanks to the recent high-profile battle between Fuji Television Network Inc. and Internet service provider Livedoor Co. over control of Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., the phrase "poison pill" has become a household word even in Japan.
EDITORIALS
Jun 10, 2005

The real state of the economy

Japanese corporations, by and large, chalked up their biggest profit gains ever in the financial year ended March 31, breaking previous records for the third straight year. But numbers can be misleading. Earnings statistics indicate economic movements and trends but do not necessarily tell what these...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 7, 2005

Have you heard the one about . . ?

'And then, when he saw the other side of the car, where his date had been sitting not 15 minutes earlier, on the door handle, hung . . . a bloody . . . HOOK!"
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Jun 5, 2005

Seiji Hirao: Mr. Rugby

At the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong in March, a group of eminent rugby journalists were talking about Japan's bid to host Rugby World Cup 2011.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 1, 2005

A voyeur for today

The photographer Richard Kern grew up in a small town in North Carolina, the son of a newspaperman. As a teenager, Kern had a part-time job changing the marquee at the local cinema, and one of the perks was free films. It was during a screening of Roger Vadim's camped up 1968 sci-fi flick "Barbarella"...
COMMENTARY
May 31, 2005

Pyongyang eyes nuclear test

The issue of North Korea's nuclear-weapons development could reach a critical stage in June, one year after the suspension of six-party talks. U.S. intelligence says Pyongyang might conduct a nuclear test that month.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat