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COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2006

Ideological laundry unfurled

Japan's neo-nationalistic rightwing is its own worst enemy. It sees itself as the defender of Japan's global reputation. But by its own actions it besmirches that reputation.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2006

Test of Komeito's ideals

As Mr. Shinzo Abe took the helm of the Liberal Democratic Party last month, Komeito, the junior partner with the LDP in the ruling coalition, saw a change in party leadership. Mr. Akihiro Ota and Mr. Kazuo Kitagawa replaced Mr. Takenori Kanzaki and Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, respectively, as president and secretary...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 1, 2006

Hisashi Inoue: Crusader with a pen

So wide-ranging are 71-year-old Hisashi Inoue's talents and activities that it is difficult to know which to focus on at the expense of others.
EDITORIALS
Sep 24, 2006

Right to a minority opinion

The Tokyo District Court last week ruled illegal the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education's policy of forcing school teachers to sing the national anthem "Kimigayo (Your Reign)" during school ceremonies. The court ruled that the policy violates Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom...
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 17, 2006

Self-censorship conjures ominous echoes of the past

These days a simple but potent Japanese word is appearing in the media with inordinate frequency. It is hannichi, which means "anti-Japanese." An incident last month brought to mind an earlier era, when the word hannichi was also in common currency. Some words skip decades, returning to haunt the national...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2006

Japan loath to discuss incestuous abuse

Although incestuous abuse of a female child by her own father takes place frequently in Japan, the Japanese media refuse to critically discuss it, regarding it mostly as a plain taboo. Meanwhile, the Japanese legislature and the judiciary collusively dismiss this crime against humanity, thereby encouraging...
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006

A man in the soul of Japan

This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 3, 2006

An 'outsider' speaks out

Later this month, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi concludes what may have been Japan's most flamboyant premiership ever, pundits aplenty are sure to lavish his five-year term with glowing praise.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 3, 2006

Controversial tales of cats, Pluto and Britney's belly

Controversy No. 1: Cats are people, too
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2006

Mobster, 'son' sent up for stabbing

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former gangster to six years in prison Thursday and his adopted son to four years for stabbing the son of writer Atsushi Mizoguchi in January, following the publication of an article about the major underworld syndicate Yamaguchi-gumi.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2006

Abe vows amendment

YOKOHAMA -- Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the front-runner in the race to become the next prime minister, said Tuesday he would push ahead with contentious efforts to amend the Constitution if he is chosen to succeed Junichiro Koizumi.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 21, 2006

Ex-additive salesman warns of hidden dangers

A one-time food-additives salesman and chemist is using his insider information to warn people about the dangers lurking in the prepared-food sections at supermarkets and convenience stores.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2006

Happiness, money and giving it away

PRINCETON, New Jersey -- Would you be happier if you were richer? Many people believe that they would be. But research conducted over many years suggests that greater wealth implies greater happiness only at quite low levels of income. People in the United States, for example, are, on average, richer...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2006

Collective punishment is hardly a policy

NEW YORK -- Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip and of Lebanon's southern border is exacting a heavy price on the civilian population in those regions. Isra- el's actions are worsening a humanitarian situation that was already critical, particularly as far as children's health and the quality of their...
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2006

Yakuza held over intimidation attack

An underworld figure has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing the son of nonfiction writer Atsushi Mizoguchi in Tokyo in January because of an article he wrote on a crime syndicate, police said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 3, 2006

Will India-China border talks ever end?

NEW DELHI -- For 25 years, India has been seeking to settle by negotiation with China the disputed Indo-Tibetan frontier. Yet, not only have the negotiations yielded no concrete progress on a settlement, but they also have failed so far to remove even the ambiguities plaguing the long line of control....
JAPAN
Jun 26, 2006

Abe to push constitutional revision

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe will make an appeal for a "complete revision of the current Constitution" in his expected campaign for leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party in September, sources close to him said Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2006

Business at Beijing's pleasure

In a May 30 Wall Street Journal article, former U.S. Assistant Defense Secretary Charles W. Freeman III expressed doubts about the prospects of a free-trade agreement between the United States and Taiwan: "Given its almost obsessive antipathy for President Chen (Shui-bian), Beijing will do almost anything...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 11, 2006

Stick-thin, gay, or preferably both -- a television career awaits

Truth in advertising has never been strictly enforced in Japan, especially with regard to health-related claims. Breweries can get away with promoting "low-calorie" beers as weight-loss aids, while pharmaceutical makers sell vitamin supplements that claim to do everything from clear up your skin to help...
JAPAN
May 31, 2006

Environment white paper places focus on Minamata

The 2006 white paper on the environment features Minamata disease in its opening article as the year marked the 50th anniversary of the official recognition of the mercury-poisoning malady, and it blames the government for its failure to act.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 28, 2006

Japan sleepwalks by design toward peace-renouncing poll

The Japanese people may soon be asked to make a momentous decision in a nationwide referendum. As I write this, the major political parties are at loggerheads over conditions under which that referendum will be conducted. Behind the closed doors of the Diet, but barely touched on in the media, this debate...
JAPAN
May 26, 2006

Court rejects suit to remove Koreans from Yasukuni rolls

The Tokyo District Court on Thursday rejected demands by former Korean soldiers who served in the Japanese military and relatives of deceased soldiers that the state remove their names from the rolls of war dead at Yasukuni Shrine and pay damages.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2006

A love that can't be legislated

The Diet has started discussions on a government bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education. First and foremost, the bill represents an attempt to lay down a legal basis for using education as a means of instilling "love of nation" in students. While love of nation is something that should grow...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 30, 2006

Harking back to the past in order to secure the immediate future

Thanks to continuing malfeasance on the part of some of its employees, NHK remains in the dog house, so it's tempting to view recent programming decisions with an eye for how they might boost the public broadcaster's standing among subscribers. For example, why has NHK revived not one, not two, but four...

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