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Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 24, 2007

Somewhere between history and the imagination

David Mitchell is one of Britain's most influential novelists. "Ghostwritten" (1999), his first novel, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Shortlisted for the 2002 Man Booker Prize for fiction, his second novel, "number9dream" (2001),...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jun 23, 2007

'Rub hotels': Vegas in a box

I made a recent discovery: love hotels! Not dirty, sleazy hotels on the other side of the tracks, but hotels that are cleaner than a "minshuku," cheaper than a business hotel and located near the main shopping district. What's love got to do with it? Nothing, necessarily.
BUSINESS
Jun 22, 2007

Sony to enter growth mode: Stringer

Sony Corp. Chairman Howard Stringer promised Thursday to shift the struggling electronics and entertainment giant from recovery mode to growth and to boost game offerings for the PlayStation 3, calling the console a key profit driver despite its bungled rollout.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 22, 2007

A Japanese Grand Prix

The red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival could be graced by more Japanese if the government and the film industry were to cooperate in a more substantiative way, suggests director Naomi Kawase, this year's winner of the Grand Prix for her film "Mogari no Mori (The Mourning Forest)."
COMMENTARY
Jun 21, 2007

The law is clear on Kosovo

LONDON — The ratio of foreign soldiers to local citizens in Kosovo (16,500 NATO troops to 2 million civilians) is slightly higher than the ratio of American soldiers to Iraqi citizens.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2007

Yokogawa Electric receives system order from Chevron

Major electrical machinery maker Yokogawa Electric Corp. said Wednesday it has received an order from U.S. energy company Chevron Corp. for an oil refinery management system, estimated at more than 100 billion yen.
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2007

Assuaging fears of being a judge

Within two years, the lay judge system will be introduced in Japan. Citizens will be able to have their opinions directly reflected in initial, lower-court trials for heinous crimes. But the system will impose new civic duties and burdens on citizens. It is imperative that the courts, the bar and the...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2007

Services before profits

Japan Post Corp. has submitted a business plan to the government for a 10-year privatization process that begins Oct. 1. The company will serve as a holding company for four units: Yucho Bank, Kampo Insurance, a mail delivery firm and an over-the-counter services firm. The group will have some 241,400...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Jun 19, 2007

Roaches; taxing stuff

'Gokiburi': the third way Here are three wildly different approaches to the recurring summer problem of cockroaches in the home.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jun 18, 2007

What the Basel regulations mean for the Japanese banking industry and monetary policy

Anew set of rules governing capital adequacy of banks debuted this year, and Japanese banks, many of whom close their books in March, became the world's first to announce their earnings results under the new standards.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 17, 2007

'American Pastime' is poignant drama

The DVD of the movie "American Pastime" belongs on your shelf next to some of the more contemporary baseball flicks such as "Field of Dreams," "A League of Their Own," "For Love of the Game," "The Rookie," "Bull Durham" and "Mr. Baseball."
Reader Mail
Jun 17, 2007

Multicultural challenges await

Regarding Mark Schreiber's June 10 translation ("Students: Take this job and shove it") of a recent Flash article: I have to admit that, being a senior business student at York University in Toronto, Canada, I somewhat envy Japanese graduates who have the luxury of declining multiple-job offers on such...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2007

Bureaucrats discovered to be pathetically human

Few fixtures of civilization invite more derision than bureaucracy. We understand that government agencies are necessary for the smooth operation of civic life but bristle at the prospect of having to interact with them. Public offices are cold, monolithic things, operating on principles that have little...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 17, 2007

Playing the 'hooligan'

An explosive, shrill cry flies out of nowhere, filling the entire auditorium: "Matte imashita (I've been waiting for that)!"
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2007

Falling short of reform

A bill to revise the Political Funds Control Law pushed by the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito is likely to be enacted during the current Diet session. Ostensibly it is aimed at bringing more transparency into mandatory political funds reports, but the bill is weak and Prime...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 16, 2007

Yukari Pratt

Put together the bright picture of a girl, growing up in Minnesota, with her younger brother, their Japanese mother and American father. She attended Luther College in Iowa, and took her degree there in a compelling interest, music. She said: "Music played a big part in my high school years. I had a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jun 15, 2007

A budget day in Kobe

"I'll meet you at 9.30 p.m. outside the convenience store at Hanshin Uozaki Station," said the pleasant voice on the other end of the phone. It belonged to Aiko, who one year ago founded Kobe Dears, a backpacker hostel a 10-minute train ride from central Kobe proper that she runs with her British husband,...

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