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JAPAN
Dec 17, 2004

NPA to launch unsolved-crime DNA database

The National Police Agency will launch a DNA database Friday of evidence found at unsolved crime scenes nationwide.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 15, 2004

Godzilla is dead, long live Godzilla

What do most non-Japanese, Western or otherwise, know about Japanese films? About Japanese pop culture, period? More than they did a decade ago certainly, but let's get real: Go to a typical family gathering in America — blue state or red, it doesn't much matter — and ask those assembled for the...
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2004

Bush's term to test Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will be required to fine-tune Japan's diplomatic strategies to deal with the reshuffle of U.S. President George W. Bush's administration. There is growing speculation that hardliners will gain more power in the second Bush administration following the departures of Secretary...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2004

End the tunnel view of Asia

SINGAPORE -- In its second term, the Bush administration needs to pay more attention to Asia in general and Southeast Asia in particular.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Dec 10, 2004

Six sure-fire gift ideas for fellow wine-lovers

There appears to be an entire cottage industry dedicated to making the kind of wine-themed gifts that imbibers everywhere are hoping not to receive this season -- our favorite of which is the doormat which says, "We love good wine. Did you bring any?"
BUSINESS
Dec 8, 2004

Tanigaki sides with Europe over weak dollar worries

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Tuesday that worries raised by European financial chiefs Monday about the dollar's rapid fall against the euro are "understandable."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 1, 2004

The freaks that made good

End of the Century Rating: * * * * (out of 5) Director: Michael Gramaglia Running time: 108 minutes Language: English Currently showing [See Japan Times movie listings] My first introduction to The Ramones came, fittingly enough for a film critic, in a cinema . . . but, hey, they were...
Japan Times
Features
Nov 28, 2004

Revealing 'The Japanese Sensibility': Modernity

Who was this man who wrote, "When I die I forbid the erection of anything resembling a monument, and if erected I am vehemently opposed to any words being engraved into it, and if people must engrave words into it I absolutely despise when they gush on and on, because I'd rather that someone just rolled...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Nov 12, 2004

Great red hope found at Coco

Can quality wine be made in Japan?
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2004

Peru cash crop quest bears fruit

It was more than 20 years ago that Takayuki Suzuki packed his bags and moved to Peru.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 7, 2004

And you thought doing deals in today's Japan was tough

THE DESHIMA DIARIES MARGINALIA 1740-1800, edited by Leonard Blusse, Cynthia Vialle, Willem Remmelink and Isabel van Daalen. Tokyo: The Japan-Netherlands Institute, 898 pp., 2004, 13,000 yen (cloth). It has been 12 years since I had occasion to review on this page the first volume of the Deshima Diaries...
COMMENTARY
Nov 7, 2004

Silence the loose cannons

HONOLULU -- The U.S. presidential election is finally over! Now the hard part begins. I'm not talking about getting North Korea back to the negotiating table; that will come soon enough. Now that Pyongyang knows it has no choice but to deal with the Bush administration, it will find a way to resume the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Nov 5, 2004

Nezu Club: Closer to real soul of Tokyo

Just like stepping back in time. The soul of traditional Tokyo. Ancient Edo preserved in amber.
COMMENTARY
Nov 2, 2004

U.S. strategies pose risks

Japan's security and defense policies are at a major turning point. The policies are still based on the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces and the American forces stationed in Japan, as stipulated in the bilateral security treaty, but roles are changing drastically in accordance with transformations...
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2004

Confusion reigns over Iraq hostage

The government was thrown into confusion Saturday over the fate of a Japanese man who had been taken hostage by militants in Iraq threatening to kill him unless Japan withdraws its ground troops from the country.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 29, 2004

Mystery solved: Ferguson hit by orange juice during brawl

LONDON -- There is nothing this column likes more than an exclusive though it would normally be a player moving to another club or a manager quitting than a culinary scoop.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 28, 2004

Where the candidates stand on your environment

When it comes to politics, I'm a one-issue voter, and the environment is my litmus test. More often than not, if a politician is responsive to environmental concerns, then he or she is likely to support other policies I care about.
COMMENTARY
Oct 25, 2004

A dialogue that can persuade Muslims

LOS ANGELES -- Whoever emerges as the next president of the United States must work hard indeed to set U.S. relations with the global Muslim world aright. Leaving aside America's pressing domestic concerns, that issue might prove Job No. 1 for George W. Bush or John Kerry.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 24, 2004

You put a spell on us

"Earnest, to me, is a bad word." Dean Wareham is reclining on a cream-colored couch in the offices of P-Vine, his Japanese record label, looking over a list of adjectives a popular Web site uses to describe his band, Luna. Curious, amused and slightly wary, he skims the list, eyebrows raised, quickly...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 23, 2004

First step to a national security strategy

WASHINGTON -- Last week in Tokyo, Japan's Council on Security and Defense Capabilities (better known in the United States as the Araki Commission) issued its final report on the future direction of Japanese national-security policy. The report demands special attention, as it will provide the basis on...
BUSINESS
Oct 20, 2004

Income tax cuts may be scaled back: Tanigaki

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Tuesday the government will consider scaling back income tax cuts that have been in place since 1999 because economic recovery has taken root.
COMMENTARY
Oct 18, 2004

Japan will pay if ODA slides

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of Japan's official development assistance. Since October 1954, when Japan joined the Colombo Plan and provided technical assistance, ODA has been an important element of Japan's diplomacy. According to the Foreign Ministry's white paper on ODA, Japan...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 15, 2004

China's ASEAN strategies

SINGAPORE -- The world's attention has been focused on China's smooth political transition at the last Chinese Communist Party plenum, the possible overheating of the Chinese economy and its impressive haul of 32 gold medals at the Athens Olympics. But little has been said of Beijing's strategy for its...
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2004

Politicians block comic over 'fake' Nanjing Massacre tale

Shueisha Inc. said Wednesday it will halt publication of a "manga" comic featuring the Nanjing Massacre of 1937 in response to complaints by Japanese politicians who claim the slaughter never happened.
JAPAN
Oct 11, 2004

Hashimoto urged to come clean

New Komeito policy chief Yoshihisa Inoue said Sunday that former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto should explain whether he was involved in a recent donation scandal.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 7, 2004

Expect loose reins on Japan

LAS VEGAS -- For decades, Tokyo has wanted to be treated like a "normal" nation free from the constraints of the Occupation Era and U.S. foreign-policy dominance. Well, Japan is on the edge of realizing that dream, but the costs will be the end of the special U.S.-Japan relationship and the emergence...

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan