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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2008

End the violence against women and girls

NEW YORK — The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was commemorated Nov. 25, and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is spearheading a global campaign, "UNiTE to end violence against women."
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 2, 2008

Soka Gakkai keeps religious, political machine humming

What do movie star Orlando Bloom, who plays young pirate Will Turner in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, R&B diva Tina Turner and Shunsuke Nakamura, an ace midfielder for Scottish soccer team Celtic, have in common?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 26, 2008

Asia's first lady of the environment

If Barak Obama is serious about developing proactive environmental policies that are international is scope, he would do well to work closely with Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 25, 2008

¥100 shops — consumers' common denominator

With the economy in recession, it should be no surprise that ¥100 stores are thriving, wowing shoppers both local and from far afield with their variety of goods all set at one price, plus the ¥5 consumption tax.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2008

Looking for ways to lure more visitors to these shores

What are people who work in the domestic tourism industry — from tour operators to inn owners to regional tourism promotion offices — doing to attract foreign visitors? Here are the voices of marketers from across Japan:
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2008

Arroyo flight's emergency stopover ends

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo left Japan for South America on Saturday after her plane made an emergency landing the previous day because her husband fell ill while on board.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 18, 2008

Coaxing a turnabout in our 'animal spirits'

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The world's fundamental economic problem today is a staggering loss of business confidence. Commercial banks, investment banks and hedge funds all owe their ongoing trouble to its decline, which in turn is jeopardizing the plans of companies and entrepreneurs to launch enterprises...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 18, 2008

'Enka' still strikes nostalgic nerve

A windy night, the whistle of the midnight train, and a bad breakup.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 11, 2008

It's fall, when kids in kimono fete 7-5-3 rituals

From October to November, Japanese parents take their young offspring to shrines as part of the traditional "shichigosan" (7-5-3) ceremony of presenting the children to Ujigami, the Shinto guardian god of good health.
BUSINESS
Nov 7, 2008

BOJ may be unable to halt yen's rising tide: traders

The Bank of Japan may be powerless to prevent the yen from rising to a 13-year high, according to the world's biggest foreign-exchange traders.
BASKETBALL
Nov 5, 2008

Humphrey earns weekly accolade

John "Helicopter" Humphrey, the Tokyo Apache's high-scoring guard, is the Circle K Sunkus Player of the Week, the bj-league announced on Tuesday.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Nov 4, 2008

Nikkyoso: A 'cancer' of teachers?

Nariaki Nakayama of the Liberal Democratic Party resigned because of gaffes he made in front of the press only five days after being appointed transport minister in the Cabinet Prime Minister Taro Aso formed in late September.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 28, 2008

A peep at video parlors

In the predawn hours of Oct. 1, a fire broke out at an Osaka video parlor, killing 15 people and injuring nearly a dozen others, including one who died later. Kazuhiro Ogawa, a 46-year-old unemployed man who had been in the parlor, was arrested on suspicion of arson and murder.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / GERMAN JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Oct 27, 2008

Growth depends on companies' ability to adapt

Germany and Japan face some common challenges as they try to maintain growth amid the global financial crisis, veteran journalists from German media organizations told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
BASKETBALL
Oct 22, 2008

Kinjo earns weekly accolade

Ryukyu Golden Kings guard Shigeyuki Kinjo is the first Circle K Sunkus Player of the Week for the 2008-09 season, the bj-league announced on Tuesday. The award is for games from Oct. 11-19.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 21, 2008

Japan's spies: What cloak, dagger?

How ill is Kim Jong Il?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2008

Beat Takeshi helps turn news into farce

For the past week or so commercial networks have been launching their new fall shows, and the ones attracting the most attention are on TBS, which seems to be cornering the market on what it calls "nonfiction" programming. There are at least four new shows that have been promoted using this English term,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2008

'Makiguri no Ana'

Japanese horror once struck a lot of fans in the West as fresh because it was less about fantastical creatures — say, flesh-eating zombies — than everyday dread. Instead of popping up out of nowhere, fear crept up like sinister fog from apparently mundane places and things — a moldy apartment,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 15, 2008

LDP — a party defined by factions

Apart from one brief interval, the Liberal Democratic Party has been in power since it was formed in 1955, and every time it picks a new leader internal factions vie for power.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 15, 2008

Let them eat whales!

Whales once fueled the industrialized world. First there was wood, then coal fired its steam engines alongside seal oil and whale oil that powered and lit the age of "dark satanic mills."
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Oct 8, 2008

Kimutaku — enduring heartthrob

Of Japanese male celebrities, actors Ken Watanabe of "The Last Samurai" and Masi Oka of "Heroes" are among the better-known overseas. But domestically, no one beats Takuya Kimura.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Oct 7, 2008

Survival now arcades' most pressing game

Once viewed as dens of delinquency, game center arcades are diversifying their entertainment fare, and in the process, attracting not only youths but families, high school girls, couples and video game fans.
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2008

Gagloev says he threw sumo bouts

Former sumo wrestler Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev, who was fired by the Japan Sumo Association for possessing marijuana in August, said he was forced to take bribes to throw matches during competition.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 30, 2008

Is Hayao Miyazaki Japan's greatest film director?

How great is Hayao Miyazaki? Domestically, three of his movies are among the top five money-earners: His "Spirited Away" from 2001 outstrips even "Titanic" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Globally, his movies are the darlings of international film festivals. "Spirited Away" took the Golden...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 23, 2008

Anything, any time, anywhere

Unlike most other countries, Japan is dotted with thousands of vending machines that allow consumers to buy a wide range of products at any time of the day or night, eliminating the need for inconvenient trips to the store.
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2008

The road to Yasukuni's survival

On Aug. 15, Japanese newspapers carried the obituary of an American citizen by the name of William Kenneth Bunce, who died in Chestertown, Md., at the age of 100.

Longform

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