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EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2005

For safer travel over 65

The National Police Agency chose "Striving for the World's Safest Road Traffic" as the main theme of its 2005 white paper made public recently. This is the first time in about a quarter-century that traffic safety has been the main feature of the annual report, thus denoting the agency's enthusiasm for...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

Cartoon duo leads the way in a version of history that's no joke

The phrase "textbook row" has become a regular sighting in Japanese newspapers of late, as newly authorized history books for schools are accused, both at home and abroad, of "glossing over" the bloodier aspects of this country's warmongering, Imperialist past.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 21, 2005

A new kind of film history

A NEW HISTORY OF JAPANESE FILM: A Century of Narrative Film, by Isolde Standish. New York/London: Continuum, 2005, 414 pp., 18 illustrations, $39.95 (cloth). Early in this account of Japanese film, the author says that prior histories have tended to follow one of two trajectories. One, which she calls...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

Museum rises from passion for pachinko

Tetsuya Makino, 40, has devoted most of his life to a game that has fascinated him since he was 7 years old: pachinko.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 20, 2005

Revisiting capital punishment

NEW YORK -- Recent statements on capital punishment by John Paul Stevens, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, to the American Bar Association could reignite the debate on this important issue. His statements followed several exonerations of death-row inmates through scientific evidence. He said these exonerations...
BUSINESS
Aug 19, 2005

Workers eagerly embrace 'Cool Biz'

Nearly half of Japan's businessmen have spent their office and commuting hours without ties and jackets this summer, under the "Cool Biz" dress code, a recent poll shows.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2005

Shimauta Paradise, Phuket Aroyna Tabeta: Urban oases for summertime dining

Trapped in Tokyo through another steamy summer and, not surprisingly, we are dreaming of south-sea islands. Sun-dappled beaches of pure white sand lapped by the calm, azure ocean; the wind soughing through fields of sugar cane; and a plate of stewed pigs' ears and goat sashimi washed down with high-octane...
EDITORIALS
Aug 18, 2005

ATM card theft rescue

A sharp rise in thefts and forgeries of cash cards, or ATM cards, and the resultant loss of cash from deposits has become a serious problem. Last year there were 3,448 ATM card thefts and forgeries, causing losses worth some 2.4 billion, yen according to the National Police Agency.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Aug 18, 2005

Summers in Japan mean blood sweat and tears

Though it hasn't been scientifically proven, there appears to be a definite link between summer heat and summer funerals. In my neighborhood, the onset of o-neppa (heat wave), followed by those negurushii yoru (restless nights) sets off a string of o-soshiki (funerals) at the local temple. Almost always,...
JAPAN
Aug 17, 2005

Time eased for burglar who killed

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday reduced a 75-year-old man's life prison term to 20 years for the murder of a woman last year.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Vital need for pediatricians converted pair

Ten years ago, when Dr. Yukari Kato's second child was born seven weeks premature, all she could do was pray he would survive. Happily, after time in a hospital intensive-care unit, he did, and this month he turns 11.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS,AND ONWARD
Aug 14, 2005

Islanders bemoan 60-year wait to return

FUKUI -- Shohei Yamamoto may not be a professional storyteller.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 14, 2005

Chiune Sugihara: His conscience gleams out of the darkness

Exactly 60 years ago, during the evening of Aug. 14, 1945, Emperor Hirohito recorded the speech of surrender to be broadcast to the Japanese nation the next day at noon.
JAPAN
Aug 13, 2005

MTFG-UFJ merger officially put off till Jan. 1

Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. and UFJ Holdings Inc. formally announced Friday the postponement of the planned integration of their core banking units until Jan. 1, three months after their original schedule.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Aug 13, 2005

Cheap old beaches become modern playgrounds for the rich

I hate to admit it, but our small island in the Seto Inland Sea is becoming a playground for the rich. Not long ago, the only people who came to Shiraishi Island were families looking for a cheap day out at the beach. And I mean cheap. They bring their own everything: food, drinks, beach chairs, parasols,...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 13, 2005

Wanted: 'crazy creepy mixologists' for 42 Below

With the chance to promote New Zealand's prizewinning 42 Below vodka at a beach bar on the Shonan coast last Saturday, Tom Huskinson was there at 5 p.m. to find a long line for beer but no one queuing for the long sensuous mixers he calls cocktails.
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2005

Brink of starvation in Niger

Life in the West African country of Niger is hard in the best of times. Now the country is facing a food crisis that threatens hundreds of thousands of lives. A combination of factors -- nature, misguided policies, and neglect -- has left Niger teetering on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, and...
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 12, 2005

Bank lending key to postwar revival

When Hiroshige Nishizawa got a job at the now-defunct Industrial Bank of Japan more than 40 years ago, the new graduate was full of ambition.
BUSINESS
Aug 11, 2005

Japan Post finalizing delivery tieup

Japan Post is in final talks to form a capital alliance with Asocia Corp., a delivery company affiliated with the Daimaru Inc. department store chain, in a bid to strengthen its services in areas where it competes with private-sector firms, Japan Post officials said Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 11, 2005

Long-term value of new peace memorial

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine have unduly been compounded as a diplomatic issue in Japan's relations with China and South Korea. It seems that Chinese and Korean leaders consider the visits supportive of moves by some Japanese to "legitimize the wrongs of the past."
COMMENTARY
Aug 10, 2005

No rationalization for Nagasaki attack

NEW DELHI -- History is written by victors and thus abounds in well-cultivated rationalizations for the winners' actions, however unjustifiable or gory they might be. Vanquishers are rarely burdened by guilt. Sometimes the rationalization stops with their first major slaughter in a war, as if their willful...
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 9, 2005

Japan's veterans bemoan lack of U.S.-style respect

OSAKA -- Every Aug. 15, all manner of people gather at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. But often lost among the parade of rightwing loudspeaker trucks, leftwing protesters and formally attired senior political figures swarmed by the press are the veterans themselves.
BUSINESS
Aug 9, 2005

Financial world sees postal setback as its own

The House of Councilors' rejection Monday of the contentious postal privatization bills fueled pessimism in the financial sector about future reforms of the world's biggest financial institution, banking industry insiders said.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 7, 2005

The god of love's guide to bedroom etiquette

THE COMPLETE ILLUSTRATED KAMA SUTRA, edited by Lance Dane. Rochester Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2003, 320 pp., with 250 full-color illustrations. $25.00 (cloth). The classic textbook on erotics, the "Kama Sutra," was written or compiled around the 5th century and is attributed to a sage, Vatsyayana,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 6, 2005

Opponent-free panel OKs thorny postal reform bills

A special committee of the House of Councilors passed a package of postal privatization bills Friday, pushing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi toward a final showdown with reform foes in his Liberal Democratic Party in Monday's plenary session.

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