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COMMENTARY
Nov 29, 2005

The pebble in Russia's shoe

At their meeting in Tokyo on Nov. 21, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a joint statement on stalled peace treaty talks. The reason, of course, is that the two nations remain at odds over possession of the Northern Territories. It is unusual that...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2005

Simplistic view in a complex world

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush met at a summit in the ancient capital of Kyoto last Wednesday, the first such meeting in almost a year. The two leaders shared their belief that close relations between their countries are important not only for this region but also...
EDITORIALS
Nov 17, 2005

Disappointment in Beijing

Negotiators have begun the fifth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program. There were high hopes for progress after the fourth round produced a joint statement agreed on by all parties. Whatever momentum existed was quickly lost, however, when the discussions stalemated and broke off...
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2005

Japan boosts U.S. ties at own risk

The United States has been Japan's most important ally since World War II and the U.S. nuclear umbrella of the Cold War came to define their security alliance.
JAPAN
Nov 3, 2005

Aso, Ban agree to mend relations, meet this month

New Foreign Minister Taro Aso and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon agreed Wednesday to work on improving strained bilateral ties and to meet later this month in South Korea, Foreign Ministry officials said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 3, 2005

A chance to dance Cranko's 'Onegin'

The etoile Manuel Legris, one of the top dancers of the Paris Opera Ballet, will fulfill one of the dreams of his career as a guest dancer in the Stuttgart Ballet when it tours Japan: performing the role of "Onegin" in a production of the ballet by the same name.
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2005

Koizumi wants legal basis for military

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced hope Sunday that the Constitution will be revised to clearly stipulate the nation's possession of military forces for self-defense.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 21, 2005

Faith Evans

The bold title of Faith Evans' latest album, "The First Lady," may or may not reference the confidence the soul diva enjoys after having shed 13 kg, an accomplishment that places her in the telegenic league of Ashanti and Beyonce. Musically, however, her only rival is former mentor Mary J. Blige, who...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 13, 2005

Pop mystification

Sigmar Polke has a lot in common with the medieval alchemists with whom he identifies. Like them, he is interested in transmutation, sometimes employing pigments and techniques that make his paintings change over time. Like those pseudo-scientists of the past, he uses a combination of mystification and...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2005

LDP rookies debut in postal deliberations

Three new faces in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who were elected in the Sept. 11 general election as proponents of postal privatization made their debut in the Diet Friday during deliberations on the issue.
BUSINESS
Oct 8, 2005

Ships spotted taking pipes toward disputed gas fields

Japan has confirmed that vessels carrying pipes are sailing in the East China Sea toward two gas fields at the center of an energy and border dispute between Japan and China, the trade minister said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2005

Six held in bogus mushroom ads

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested six people Wednesday including an executive of a Tokyo-based publisher on suspicion of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law by advertising in books a type of mushroom as a treatment for cancer.
COMMENTARY
Sep 26, 2005

China should face its own unsavory past

NEW DELHI -- The new foreign-policy subtleness that China has displayed in recent years is a far cry from the coarse image its earlier Communist rulers presented, especially when they set out, in then-Premier Zhou Enlai's words, to "teach India a lesson" in 1962, or when, to quote strongman Deng Xiaoping,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 23, 2005

Still best buzz in shitamachi

Any address that begins 1-1-1 is, by my reckoning, pretty impressive. It means that the building located there was the first one on the first block developed in the first district of that area. Kamiya Bar, a legendary bar and restaurant, secured the 1-1-1 address in Asakusa when it opened 125 years ago....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 15, 2005

Maehara steps forward to run for leadership of DPJ

Seiji Maehara of the Democratic Party of Japan said Wednesday he will run in the main opposition party's presidential election in a bid to succeed Katsuya Okada, who is bowing out over the trouncing in Sunday's Lower House election.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2005

Consumers reaping benefits of farm deregulation

Fresh tomatoes, sweet oranges and bright green lettuce grown organically and tracked by computer may soon arrive on consumers' tables directly from farms, thanks to agricultural deregulation.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2005

APEC ministers plan oil coordination

Asia-Pacific finance ministers at their meeting next week will call for increased policy coordination between oil-producing and -consuming states, including the launch of annual dialogue in the International Energy Forum, to curb surging oil prices, according to a draft joint statement.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 21, 2005

Hoshino, the next manager of the Giants? Not so fast!

The Nikkan Sports paper claimed in back-to-back front pages on Aug. 11-12 that former Chunichi Dragons and Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino has been offered the job to head the Yomiuri Giants in 2006.
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.
JAPAN
Aug 19, 2005

Visa violators up alien arrest stats as crimes fall

The number of crimes involving foreign nationals dropped 4.6 percent to 23,363 in the first half of the year, while the number of foreigners actually arrested or handed to prosecutors rose 3.4 percent to a record 10,860, the National Police Agency said Thursday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 10, 2005

Luck only payoff for Siberia returnees

Japanese soldiers who survived the slave labor, starvation and bitter cold of Siberian prison camps after the war could count themselves lucky, but not count any significant cold cash for their ordeal.
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,...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2005

Historic step for Northern Ireland

The Irish Republican Army has finally done what its critics have long demanded. Last week it formally announced that it was ending its armed campaign to free Northern Ireland from British rule. If carried out, this would, says British Prime Minister Tony Blair, constitute "a step of unparalleled magnitude"...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

Breach the defenses of marriage with a smile

FORTRESS BESIEGED, by Qian Zhongshu. Penguin Classics, 2005, 426 pp., £18.99 (cloth). 1937 was a rotten year for China. Japanese forces moved their operations from the Peking to the Shanghai region, the Nationalist lines in Nanjing collapsed, and the remnants of the resistance moved their troops deeper...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 24, 2005

Race across the Pacific

IN THE WAKE OF THE JOMON: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific, by Jon Turk. New York: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, 2005, 287 pages, with b/w illustrations, $24.95 (cloth). Midway through "In the Wake of the Jomon" comes a paragraph that poses all the questions Jon Turk ponders in...

Longform

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