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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 27, 2008

Arbitrary rulings equal bad PR

Getting to know Japan is hard work: a complicated language, cultural esoterica, mixed messages about prudent paths to take. People who find their way around and assimilate deserve kudos and respect.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
May 27, 2008

Kobe meet fails to set 2020 goals

KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations ended a three-day meeting in Kobe on Monday united on the need for a long-term goal of at least halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 27, 2008

Law bends over backward to allow 'fuzoku'

Some desires money can't gratify, but for appetites of the flesh, there are ways in Japan to legally sate one's carnal cravings.
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
May 26, 2008

G8 meet sidesteps midterm gas cuts

KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight countries meeting Sunday in Kobe apparently sidestepped the major issue of setting midterm greenhouse-gas reduction targets for 2020 due to a divide between developing and industrialized countries over specific targets.
COMMENTARY / World
May 26, 2008

Can India and China dance?

TRIVANDRUM, India — It is fashionable these days, particularly in the West, to speak of India and China in the same breath. These are the two big countries said to be taking over the world, the new contenders for global eminence after centuries of Western domination, the Oriental answer to generations...
Reader Mail
May 25, 2008

Better answers are out there

As a member of the diplomatic corps in Tokyo, I would like to share my thoughts on Peter Singer's article. Singer obviously capitalizes on the recent catastrophes in Myanmar and China to deliver to the distraught public a classical piece of atheist propaganda. It always strikes me how reliable anti-religious...
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
May 23, 2008

Departure of Collins latest sign Buffaloes are in disarray

Something stinks in Kansai.
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

Whale meat being sold before OK: Greenpeace

Whale meat from Japan's processing ship Nisshin Maru is being illegally sold prior to the official government release of whale stocks, activists from the environmental group Greenpeace charged Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

If push comes to shove, DPJ won't

Yasuo Fukuda and his Cabinet are sinking, and political analysts say the prime minister's condition is critical. So this would seem like the perfect time for the Democratic Party of Japan to pounce.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
May 21, 2008

Twitter launch in Japanese a boon for microblogging

Twitter is the Web site and service on a lot of lips in the technology world right now. It is a service that serves one very simple function by letting its users answer a simple question, "What are you doing now?" Users then subscribe to these answers by "following" the accounts of other users. The result...
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 20, 2008

Ainu: indigenous in every way but not by official fiat

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last Sept. 13, with Japan among the 144 member states voting in favor.
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 2008

'Woman Warrior' to 'Passport Baby'

LONDON, SPECIAL TO THE J (AP) Maxine Hong Kingston's "The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts" opens: " 'You must not tell anyone,' my mother said, 'what I am about to tell you.' " LONDON — Since this fictional memoir was published in 1975, the telling of Chinese women's lives has become...
BUSINESS
May 17, 2008

Lifenet to offer 30% cheaper insurance online

Lifenet Insurance Co., a newly established online life insurer, said Friday it will start selling polices Sunday via the Internet at rates up to 30 percent cheaper than those offered by major life insurers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / FREEWHEELIN' ACROSS JAPAN
May 16, 2008

Into the Land of the Dead

Second of two parts
BUSINESS
May 16, 2008

Mizuho profit drops 50%; worst said over

Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Japan's No. 2 banking group by assets, said Thursday its group net profit dropped 49.8 percent to ¥311.2 billion in business 2007 because of losses from the U.S. subprime loan crisis.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
May 16, 2008

Bills: Bites along the Shonan coast

Regular readers of this column will know it doesn't take much to lure us to the Shonan Coast of Kanagawa Prefecture, especially when there's good eating to be done at the end of the journey. And since the spring, there's been very good reason for making that trip: the stylish new restaurant/cafe known...
Reader Mail
May 15, 2008

Beware future memory meltdown

I'm getting over a huge letdown -- like being told by the doctor that you have Alzheimer's with only a few years of lucidity left. Fortunately, I've nothing so dire. What brought me down was an NHK television news report on CD and DVD digital storage. I (and apparently many others) had taken for granted...
BUSINESS
May 15, 2008

Sony logged record sales, net profit in '07

Sony Corp. said Wednesday its sales and net profit reached record highs in the business year that ended on March 31, suggesting the company is heading for a steady business recovery as its restructuring efforts take hold.

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