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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 22, 2009

Too innocent for prejudice?

Are kindergarteners racist? Do they discriminate between children with different skin colors?
Japan Times
SOCCER / World cup
Dec 18, 2009

Okada unfazed by Nakamura's struggles in Spain

National team manager Takeshi Okada has reassured Shunsuke Nakamura that he will form the cornerstone of Japan's 2010 World Cup challenge despite failing to make an impact at Espanyol.
EDITORIALS
Dec 16, 2009

Politics and the Emperor

The government's decision to let Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping have an exceptional audience with the Emperor Tuesday made many people wonder whether the government, especially Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, has a correct understanding of the constitutional order with regard to the position of the...
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2009

Realistic view on war and peace

In the October announcement of its decision to bestow the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on U.S. President Barack Obama, the Norwegian Nobel Committee attached special importance to his "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." The committee also praised the U.S. president by stating: "Only very...
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2009

Poorest nations seek $200 billion

COPENHAGEN — Developing countries raised the stakes Thursday for any successful outcome of the U.N. climate talks, demanding that the international community provide $200 billion to mitigate global warming in the poorest nations.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 8, 2009

Inside Thailand's hidden separatist war

LEEDS, England — Thailand's former prime minister, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, recently ignited a furor when he proposed that the separatist campaign in his country's Muslim-majority southern provinces might be solved politically, with a form of self-rule. Thailand's ruling Democrat Party immediately called...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Nov 25, 2009

U.S. online strategy holds clues for Tokyo

Imagine befriending Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Facebook. Or getting "tweets" from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Twitter. It could happen if Tokyo follows Washington's lead.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 13, 2009

Hollywood fails to take the Chinese out of Wayne's world

Wayne Wang has a special position in American cinema — though drawing story and characters with the compassionate warmth that has become his trademark he remains an outside observer, perched on the periphery of many screen lives.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 11, 2009

Yet another 'Battle of Okinawa'

CANBERRA — Elections in August gave Japan a new government, headed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. In electing him and his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the Japanese people, like the American people less than a year earlier, were opting for change. Remarkably, however, what followed on the part...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2009

Is Russia really so weak?

MOSCOW — Western leaders and observers persistently repeat, like a mantra, that Russia is "weak." This judgment is based on a flawed comparison between Russia and the Soviet Union — though one that is also popular in Russia itself.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 3, 2009

The fatally flawed math of risking it all in Japan

Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2009

Fighting corruption in Asia

When Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama likened the Democrat Party of Japan's takeover to the Meiji Restoration in last week's policy speech, he failed to mention an issue that fueled discontent with the Tokugawa Shogunate as it ended in 1867 — corruption. Though corruption did not get a specific mention...
BUSINESS
Oct 31, 2009

Rehab team eyes legislation to cut JAL pensions

The government formed a team Friday to discuss measures for financially troubled Japan Airlines Corp., including a bridge loan JAL is expected to need for survival as early as next month and proposed legislation to cut the carrier's pension benefits.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 18, 2009

How Japan can regain its vitality

Last November, two months after the inauguration of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso, I predicted, in an opinion piece for the American magazine Science, that a sweeping change in Japanese government was imminent.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 27, 2009

Let's Bike!

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama could have made a stronger impact at the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York last week had he trumpeted another environmentally laudable proposal in addition to his declared goal of Japan cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 22, 2009

'The last flies of summer'

Three years ago, I was lying on the beach of a package hotel, watching a pair of jet skis churn the sea to muddy silt. J-pop blared from the shore-side Tannoy, and two lifeguards were pinning down a hysterical toddler, while a third doused vinegar over a scarlet welt of jellyfish sting.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2009

Pardon Mr. Chen to help Taiwan

The conviction and sentencing of former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian is a troubling development. The life sentence handed down to Mr. Chen is certain to deepen the fissures in an already deeply divided and volatile society. He has appealed the sentence.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2009

Okada to prioritize ties with Asian neighbors

To envision how Katsuya Okada will approach his new job as foreign minister, one need look no further than his grilling of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi during budget deliberations at the Diet on June 2, 2005.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 17, 2009

Big changes to budget process expected under DPJ

Ending more than half a century of almost unbroken Liberal Democratic Party rule, the administration led by the Democratic Party of Japan that was formed Wednesday is expected to bring major changes to the nation's governance.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 17, 2009

Why don't we eat bent cucumbers?

An aging agricultural workforce, a food self-sufficiency rate below 40 percent and the constant threat of environmental damage: How can tiny vegetable distribution companies in Chiba Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, tackle the issues facing Japan's farming industry?
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2009

Justice in Scotland

Justice should be tempered by mercy. That was the thinking of the government of Scotland when it decided to release Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal cancer, from prison, eight years into a 27-year minimum sentence for blowing up an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, and killing...

Longform

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