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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2007

Japan's Antiterrorism Special Measures Law and confusion over U.N. authority

Once again there is political debate over military-related legislation under the shadow of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and once again it has revealed confusion over the international law and constitutional issues involved. The debate is over the extension of the Antiterrorism Special Measures...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2007

Pivotal seasons for Alex Ramirez & Marc Kroon

Neither of their teams made the Central League Climax Series, but the 2007 season has been a pivotal one for Yakult Swallows slugger Alex Ramirez and Yokohama BayStars reliever Marc Kroon. The contracts of both expire at the end of the current dragging out season, and there is doubt whether either club...
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Oct 5, 2007

Veteran navy officer keeps an open mind

As the public still debates the Imperial navy's activities during the war, many veteran sailors say that at the time, at least, they saw their objective as liberating Asia from Western colonial rule.
EDITORIALS
Oct 2, 2007

New experiences for Japan Post

A difficult path lies ahead the Japan Post group companies' 10-year privatization process, which started Oct. 1. They have to make profits to survive but not at the expense of services. This is especially critical for the postal service, which has earned the people's trust over the past 130 years through...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 25, 2007

Is it all over for Nova?

"The dark clouds that have been hanging heavily over us will be cast aside," reads the English translation of Nova Corp. CEO Nozomu Sahashi's memo faxed to staff Friday. "I said previously 'the darkest time is before the dawn,' and finally the first light of dawn can be seen."
COMMENTARY
Sep 21, 2007

China revisits a contradiction

HONG KONG — More than 25 years ago, China's paramount ruler Deng Xiaoping criticized excessive concentration of power within the Communist Party as the cause of grave problems, including the precipitation of the Cultural Revolution.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007

Back to Roma

Gypsies are one of music's great cross-pollinators.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 20, 2007

Butoh flowers of life and decay

There is a muscular eloquence to Junichi Kakizaki's constructions. He describes himself as a floral artist — not an ikebana (flower arrangement) master — and has won awards for his interpretation of the traditional Japanese art form. He considers his works to be contemporary art — either installations...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 19, 2007

Serendipity twice over

On a calm evening, I looked out from my balcony toward the mountains to the west, beyond Sapporo. Those distant peaks stretched in an apparently unbroken chain, from the gently sloping flanks of volcanic Mount Tarumae at the southernmost end, rising and falling northward in a bold, time-weathered horizon...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Sep 18, 2007

'Fierce scowl' stickers

Dear Alice,
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 18, 2007

Plane wrong?

Max Phillips Jr. wrote in after getting a nasty shock from his local travel agency.
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2007

'IClones' steal market share as Apple bides time in Asia

SANCHUNG, Taipei
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Sep 15, 2007

The fading pitter-patter of little feet

The flip-side of Japan's ever-aging population is that there are increasingly fewer kids. Record-low statistics from 2005 put the birthrate at 1.26 children per woman, a count that somehow sounds painful — but the real hurt is the one being put on Japanese society.
COMMENTARY
Sep 11, 2007

Scaremongering about China, as usual

LOS ANGELES — It might almost seem like a game of geopolitical chicken: How far can we go in creating monstrous new fears about China?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 11, 2007

Volunteering: How to start making a difference this fall

First in a two-part series
EDITORIALS
Sep 9, 2007

Surviving in Net cafes

Over 5,000 people in Japan spend their nights at 24-hour Internet cafes every night, according to the first, but certainly not the last, survey on so-called Net cafe refugees by the labor and welfare ministry. On one hand, it seems that school refusers were first, then job refusers, now "home refusers,"...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 9, 2007

Extragalactic androgyny cuts a dash in roster of chic, high-energy shows

While trivial matters such as global warming get blamed for weather going awry, Japan Fashion Week being moved forward this season by more than a month has caused more angst than a whole panorama of melting ice caps.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Sep 4, 2007

Starting climbing, stopping scratching

Social climbing Rod is seeking rock to scale:
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 1, 2007

Adding insult to hot air at the Japanese BBQ

Some people blame global warming on farting cows, others blame it on farting vehicles. I blame it on Japanese BBQs.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 1, 2007

Sekiko Kamata

Thirty years ago, the Kanagawa International Foundation came into being with the laudable aim of promoting Japan's cultural and artistic aspects to its region's audience. KIF set up the Minami Circle, which three decades later is still working in the interests of international friendship.
EDITORIALS
Aug 31, 2007

A troubled cop off the beat

Guns possessed by yakuza gangsters pose a threat to society. But what happened early last week in Tokyo is serious as well. A "koban" (police box) duty officer of the Metropolitan Police Department assigned to the Tachikawa Police Station used a gun issued to him to shoot a woman to death in her apartment...
MORE SPORTS
Aug 28, 2007

Murofushi fails in quest for world title

OSAKA — Koji Murofushi is the reigning Olympic champion in the men's hammer throw. When he picked up a gold medal in Athens on a hot summer day in 2004, suddenly an entire nation gained interest in the obscure sport.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 25, 2007

A sprint to keep up with the slow life

The people who work in our post office are, to use the politically correct term, "a little slow." Long before I moved to this island, the government had a plan that worked. They sent those workers who were "a little slow," to work on a small island where hardly anyone one lived and where they could do...
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2007

GE considers selling Lake credit unit

General Electric Co., the world's largest provider of private-label credit cards, said Tuesday it is considering the sale of its Japanese consumer-credit unit, Lake Co.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 21, 2007

Kids' rights and cancer support

Coping after cancer M recently arrived in Tokyo from Hong Kong and, as a breast cancer survivor, is wondering where she can turn for support.

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