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CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 17, 2008

Organic food, JFK conspiracies, dealing with terminal cancer in a new way

Recent scandals concerning food produced in Japan and overseas have increased consumer interest in organic produce, which is seen as being both safer and healthier. On Tuesday, TV Tokyo's business-documentary program, "Gaia no Yuake (The Dawn of Gaia)" (10 p.m.), will look at organizations that are trying...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2008

Wise man from Japan now the black pope

HONG KONG — An American Maryknoll priest in Hong Kong preached that the greatest blessings in life come when you least expect them, a rain shower on a hot day, a friend unexpectedly turning up, remission in a crippling illness, an inspiring idea just when your brain seemed to have turned into blancmange....
JAPAN / Q&A
Jan 30, 2008

Road taxes: Pork-barrel or necessity?

The government submitted a tax reform bill to the Diet Jan. 23 that includes a clause to continue the provisional higher rates imposed on auto-related levies for another 10 years, drawing opposition from the Democratic Party of Japan, which wants the higher rates that have been in place for more than...
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2008

Fukuda brushes off fresh election push

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday rebuffed renewed opposition demands in the Diet that he call a Lower House election and criticism that his administration has not pursued policies that benefit the public.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 16, 2008

Japan toughens up on Internet regulation

In a country with one of the world's most vibrant Internet cultures, rumblings of change in the way that online information is managed, controlled and regulated is causing concern for many.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 8, 2008

An up-close view of Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is the most beloved mountain in Japan — an honor it has held since the dawn of history.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 4, 2008

Waseda grad school to groom true newshounds

There is no doubt that Japan has produced its share of top-notch journalists: noted political writer Takashi Tachibana, war photographer Ryuichi Hirokawa and videographer Kenji Nagai, who was shot dead in September while reporting close up on the unrest in Myanmar, to cite but a few.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2007

Globalization blurs North-South divide

NEW YORK — The notion of a divide between the rich north and the poor and developing south has long been a central concept among economists and policymakers. From 1950 to 1980, the north accounted for almost 80 percent of global GDP but only 22 percent of its population, and the south accounted for...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 27, 2007

Prints rejected, scribe accepted

T he center of the little monitor — I'd guess about 20 cm from the looks of it — flashed the word "Yokoso" (welcome). Its colored border was festooned with a collage of images near and dear to visiting tourists' hearts: "torii" gates, the shinkansen, Zen gardens, Mount Fuji . . .
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 27, 2007

Feeling designs

'Design is not just about making something, it is about designing the feelings of the person who uses it," says Tokujin Yoshioka, sitting in his Daikanyama studio among magazine-laden shelves and prototypes in various stages of development.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIA-JAPAN-U.S. SYMPOSIUM
Nov 24, 2007

Changing world asks more of Japan

Japan is an "underachiever" that needs to play a larger international role commensurate with its resources and capacity, the head of an influential U.S. think tank told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Nov 22, 2007

New expression of xenophobia

Responding to Susan Menadue-Chun's Nov. 15 letter, "SPRs have suffered enough," I wish to emphasize that, in my Nov. 11 letter, I was posing a rhetorical question rather than advocating that "Special Permanent Residents," including those with ties to pro-North Korea groups, be subject to the new...
Reader Mail
Nov 11, 2007

Why exempt Korean residents?

According to Jun Hongo's Nov. 8 article, "Will entry checks cross the line?," The new law requiring non-Japanese to submit to fingerprinting and photographing upon entering the country exempts "special permanent residents of Korean and Taiwanese descent" from this humiliating procedure.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2007

Ban expansion of agrofuels

NEW YORK — With biofuels being touted as our best great hope to undo climate change, it would be easy to ask yourself, "What's not to like?"
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 1, 2007

Not so welcome to Japan any longer

HONG KONG — Japan is still purporting to celebrate "Yokoso Japan" or Welcome to Japan — just as it is preparing to inflict on every foreign visitor measures that are harassing, time-consuming, unnecessary, and would be illegal if done to Japanese citizens in Japan.
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2007

DPJ stays on offensive in refueling mission debate

The Democratic Party of Japan stepped up its criticism Friday of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling operation in the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in the Indian Ocean, as the Pentagon admitted it is difficult to trace the fuel provided by Japanese vessels.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 14, 2007

To embrace political renewal or cling to continuity

Every four years Americans want to believe they can reinvent themselves. Elections for the presidency offer them the opportunity, as they faithfully see it, to renounce the past and "get this country moving again."
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 12, 2007

9/11 through Japan's eyes

In the Japanese theater world, Rinkogun merits a special mention for its concern for socio-political issues and its focus on increasing audiences' awareness rather than merely eliciting laughter or tears as many other companies are content to do.
EDITORIALS
Oct 10, 2007

Refueling bill undercuts Diet

The ruling coalition has presented the opposition bloc with an outline of a new law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. The new law, if enacted, will replace the current special law, which expires Nov. 1. Although similar to the current law, the new law...
EDITORIALS
Oct 7, 2007

A gamble in Pyongyang

It is too early to tell whether South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun can call his trip to North Korea last week a success, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Il must be happy with the visit. The summit choreography appeared to confirm his status as the senior leader on the Korean Peninsula, and the summit...

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.