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COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2007

Muslim nation minus 'idiotic autocrats'

LONDON — It was not a tactful way to start out his new job as a Turkish government spokesman, but Suat Kiniklioglu did cut to the heart of the matter.
COMMENTARY
Sep 7, 2007

APEC's purpose is missing

Each year we have to ask the same question as world leaders drag themselves across the globe, taking days from their crowded schedules, simply to hand out platitudes on the importance of free trade, the environment or some other trendy topic of the day.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Sep 7, 2007

Booking uphill in Bunkyo

Walkers in Bunkyo Ward won't get far before their legs let them know the place has hills — lots of them. A Bunkyo Civic Center official concurs: "We've named 113 slopes, but there are even more."
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Sep 7, 2007

Ramen shop boss inherits, sheds recipe for disaster

Monday, May 26, 1997, is a day forever etched in the memory of Naoki Kusano.
COMMENTARY
Sep 6, 2007

Help wanted from the richest

LONDON — "The have-yachts and the have-nots" is a phrase used in London to distinguish between the very rich and not so rich. It reflects the growing disparity between the mega-rich and the rest.
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 6, 2007

The magic of noh by firelight

At this time of year — and also in April and May, when it is neither too hot nor too cold for performers or audiences — takigi (firelight) noh is performed throughout Japan. Preferred venues are outdoor noh stages in the precincts of shrines, but as these are rare, special ones are often built in...
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2007

Realignment for battle

Department store chains have entered a major realignment phase. The department stores realigned through the integration of their operations are expected to wage a fierce battle against their rivals to survive and grow in an industry whose total sales have been declining since the early 1990s. On Monday,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 6, 2007

'Merchant' for modern times

One of the world's foremost directors of Shakespeare, one of Japan's most outstanding translators of the Bard and a star-studded Japanese cast have teamed up to bring "The Merchant of Venice" to Tokyo this month.
COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2007

What's wrong with talking to save lives?

LOS ANGELES — How much might a human life be worth these days?
Japan Times
JAPAN / ATOMIC POWER AT ANY COST
Sep 5, 2007

All cost bets off if Big One hits nuke plant

Last of three parts
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 5, 2007

Robokitties, Hello Dr. Kitty

Space is not so much the final frontier as the last aggravation that drives you to the bottle in a Tokyo apartment. Short of a rich relative passing on their fortune, or robbing a bank, you won't be getting any more of it. So, you just have to get creative with what little you do have. In keeping with...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 4, 2007

IAAF chief heralds emergence of smaller nations at worlds

OSAKA — Speaking at the final daily news briefing of the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships on Sunday at Nagai Stadium, IAAF President Lamine Diack summarized the feelings of thousands of people here.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 4, 2007

Japan's Shinto-Buddhist religious medley

Most in Japan may know Buddhism has something to do with controlling lust and anger, and is associated with funerals and graves, while Shinto involves venerating nature, and weddings. But many people have trouble making theological distinctions between the two or even telling a Buddhist temple from a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / ON THE BOOK TRAIL
Sep 4, 2007

"The Devil's Breath," "Mr. Putter — Tabby Spin the Yarn"

"The Devil's Breath," David Gilman, Puffin Books; 2007; 377 pp. Close on the heels of Charlie Higson's highly successful Young Bond series comes another adrenalin-pumping adventure story that reads like a Robert Ludlum thriller tailor-made for teenagers.
BUSINESS
Sep 4, 2007

Wages fall eighth straight month

Wages fell in July at their fastest pace in three years, hampering an expansion in consumer spending, the labor ministry said Monday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2007

'Executioner' looks positively presidential

MOSCOW — In the latest interview given by Andrei Lugovoi, the man Britain wants Russia to extradite for poisoning the dissident Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium in London last fall, there was a remarkable moment that has not been fully appreciated. Lugovoi, still rather diffident but...
SPORTS / ODDS AND EVENS
Sep 2, 2007

A to Z at the world c'ships

OSAKA — I have a good friend named Les Witt.
Reader Mail
Sep 2, 2007

Internment-era comparison misses

Regarding the Aug. 25 Kyodo article "Internment-era parallels seen in today's mind-set": Japanese American Citizens League director Floyd Mori seems to be missing one very important yet simple point: Although the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II will always be a black mark on the...
Reader Mail
Sep 2, 2007

Nothing like conventional bombs

Regarding Grant Piper's Aug. 26 letter, " 'Greatest evil' is not apparent": Noncombatants should not be targeted in war, under any circumstance. No matter what countries at war have already done to civilians, it is still illegal to target women, children and people outside the military.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 2, 2007

Defar races to 5,000m victory

OSAKA — It's better to have a strong finish than a strong start, a wise man once said. This was true Saturday night in the final of the women's 5,000-meter race at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Championships.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 1, 2007

Manga magic from a girl who uses her melon

Worth a reported ¥500 billion every year, Japan's manga industry is a serious business. But not so for Saki Matsuzawa, a budding 12-year-old mangaka (comic book artist) who has created her own adorable interactive storybook, "Meron Pan no Ichi Nichi" (titled in English as "A Day of the Melon Bread"),...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 31, 2007

'Because I Said So'

As a longtime fan of Diane Keaton, it's always disheartening to see her in roles that seem inadequate for the Oscar-winning, lean and brainy hipster icon of the 1970s ("Annie Hall," "Manhattan" and "Interiors," to name just a few). But her most recent foray into mainstream rom-com is just plain painful....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 31, 2007

A great escape to Biwako

Jasmine, a writer who hails from Hiroshima and is much older than me but has a refined magnetizing beauty that cannot be ignored, pours me a cup of green tea on my first ever junket. It's just before the world turns blue; just before I'm dropped into a Marc Chagall painting by an invisible but all-seeing...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2007

China's happy mask hides huge problems

BEIJING — China's "face" may be its Achilles' Heel. As it basks in its new status as an economic superpower — the dragon that is outpacing Asia's tigers as well as the donkeys of the West — China is mistakenly downplaying its own serious structural weaknesses.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2007

Opium King's ties believed went to the top

An obscure tomb in a small graveyard at a Chiba Prefecture temple marks the final resting place of Japan's wartime "Opium King," although the site betrays nothing of this dark cloud, nor the relationship the deceased had with key historical figures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 30, 2007

Cities in the dust

The Fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco wasn't everyone's cup of tea — but he did manage the unusual feat of transcending time.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2007

Japan profited as opium dealer in wartime China

A Japanese narcotics firm in wartime occupied China sold enough opium to nearly match the annual budget of Tokyo's puppet government in Nanjing, according to an internal company document recently discovered by The Japan Times.
BUSINESS
Aug 30, 2007

Hedge fund numbers, assets mushroom as stocks languish

Hiromichi Tsuyukubo ran the best-performing fund in Japan at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., an arm of the nation's biggest lender. Then, after six years, he decided to join a hedge fund.

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