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COMMENTARY
Feb 8, 2006

China swaps historical facts for fiction

HONG KONG -- At a time when Beijing is upbraiding Tokyo for its depiction in history textbooks of the invasion and occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s -- and used it as a reason for excluding Japan from the United Nations Security Council -- it has exposed its own politicization of history by...
BUSINESS
Feb 3, 2006

Matsushita profits up 39% despite heater fiasco

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday robust sales of plasma display panel TVs and digital cameras boosted its earnings for the third quarter of fiscal 2005, raising its net profit by 39 percent to 49.3 billion yen.
JAPAN
Jan 31, 2006

Homeless forced out of parks after standoff with Osaka cops

OSAKA -- Osaka forcibly ejected homeless men from two city parks early Monday, six days after they were given final notice to vacate to pave the way for upcoming events.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jan 19, 2006

"Stuff Happens" : So what do you think about it?

The night I got back home from the premiere of "Stuff Happens," the BBC World television news led off with a report on a further mess in Iraq -- the chief judge in the trial of deposed president Saddam Hussein had resigned following criticism of his "soft attitude" toward the defendant. I felt strongly...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jan 7, 2006

Kagura theater: talking with gods

Every four years on our island, we have a New Year's kagura performance. You don't just sit back and watch kagura; you become a part of it whether you intend to or not. All the other events on the island over the past four years seemed like mere practice sessions compared to kagura.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 5, 2006

U.S.-China ideological rivalry heats up

WASHINGTON -- Two recent events in Asia have again directly underscored the "ideological" tussle between Washington and Beijing, which is increasingly seen as a benevolent power and even as offering a model for socioeconomic development. As Asian leaders gathered last month in Kuala Lumpur for the East...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 3, 2006

Divisions, rivalries threaten new Cold War in East Asia

What we have feared is threatening to become a reality. The open rivalry and discord between Japan and China is becoming the most destabilizing factor to the peace and prosperity of East Asia. The United States is so concerned by the mounting tensions between the two leading nations in the region that...
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2005

Japan-South Korea history panel may meet in January

The government is considering convening a second meeting of a joint Japanese-South Korean history study group in January, government sources said Friday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 9, 2005

Put a lid on the provocations

LONDON -- U.S. President George W. Bush is reported to have stressed recently to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the importance of healthy diplomatic relations between Japan and Asian countries and to have suggested that improved relationships in the region could help to strengthen the U.S.-Japan relationship....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 4, 2005

Japan's show-biz hacks fail to raise ante 24 / 7

Last Monday was a pretty busy day for Tokyo's entertainment reporters. At 11 a.m. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, fresh from spending Thanksgiving in Pakistan, held a press conference in Shinjuku to promote their movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"; and then at 2 p.m. across town at the Imperial Hotel in Hibiya,...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2005

Charity swim event to aid Thai tsunami orphans

Two foreign athletes who survived the South Asian tsunamis last year will hold a charity swimming event in Thailand on Dec. 24 to raise funds for Thai children who lost parents in the disaster.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 15, 2005

Aussies preparing for worst

SYDNEY -- Tough new antiterrorist laws will soon give troops shoot-to-kill authority when patrolling Australian streets in anticipation of a terrorist attack. But the change will come only after the Australian public has agonized over a claimed loss of civil liberties.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2005

Arduous birth of democracy

The democratization of a further third of the world's countries during the second half of the 20th century was a remarkable and inspiring achievement. At the start of the 21st century, however, the difficulties inherent in exporting democracy have become starkly apparent.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 20, 2005

PIFF: Asia's magnet for movies

The Pusan International Film Festival, which took place Oct. 6-14, marked its 10th year with its biggest program ever -- 307 films from 73 countries. These numbers alone make PIFF the largest annual film-related event in Asia, and with the Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) taking place in the Korean port city...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Oct 19, 2005

Autumn sees predators in action

The hunters are abroad! Every day, now, the sparrow hawks, goshawks, honey buzzards, ospreys and falcons that summer in Northeast Asia are migrating out of the region. As cooler weather approaches and prey numbers decline, these predators head south for the winter. Soon, almost on their heels, the larger...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 4, 2005

Hidden wisdom of 'the guv,' Shintaro Ishihara

Adored by large sections of the Japanese public, reviled in equal measure by the foreign community and courted tirelessly by the domestic media: There are few more divisive figures in Japan today than Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Oct 2, 2005

The looking glass of Chinese history

MIRRORING THE PAST: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China, by On-cho Ng and Q. Edward Wang. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005, 307 pp., $50 (cloth). It was the 19th-century English historian E.A. Freeman who observed that "history is past politics, and politics is present history."...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 30, 2005

Get digital at film fest

The onedotzero digital moving image festival started in London in 1997, and has since grown to tour the four corners of the globe introducing new video talent in 60 cities.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 27, 2005

Time well spent

Living in the world's second largest economy, it's often tempting to forget that there are people and organizations in Japan in dire need of help.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2005

Fukuoka joins Tokyo in Games quest

FUKUOKA — Fukuoka will bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2016 or 2020, Mayor Hirotaro Yamasaki said Thursday at a municipal assembly meeting.
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2005

National Stadium to get asbestos cleanup next summer

Plans are being made to remove asbestos insulation from the ceilings in the National Stadium complex in Tokyo starting next summer, it was learned Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 27, 2005

Hiroji Koide

When he was barely turned 30, Hiroji Koide became vice chairman of the International Exchange Committee of the Japan Chamber of Commerce. That marked the beginning of his active participation in public affairs, which still continues more than 46 years later. He is a jovial, outward-looking Nagano man,...
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2005

No U.S. realignment this year

Tokyo has given up on concluding talks with the United States over military realignment by the end of this year, citing expected delays stemming from the upcoming general election, according to government sources.
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
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.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 25, 2005

When will China's miracle hit the wall?

PHILADELPHIA -- U.S. "Fed" Governor Ben Bernanke has blamed net inflows of capital from the rest of the world, especially China, for a global savings glut that is driving up the U.S. current account deficit. Unfortunately, some commentators have echoed this seemingly plausible but outrageously silly...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Jul 22, 2005

Do you want it soft or natural?

Aoyama is a breeding ground for night culture. It's as if someone dropped an extremely virulent strain of lounge-bar.alt in the area and it went berserk. Almost every time you round a corner, there's yet another stylish light-box sign marking the entrance of another chic new hideaway (some don't even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Jul 9, 2005

Five signs of the coming Golden Age of trance

In the fast and chaotic protoculture growing around psychedelic trance in Japan, it is often difficult at best and futile at worst to try to get a genuine fix on the direction in which we are headed.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.