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EDITORIALS
Apr 22, 2005

Reform remains pope's top priority

In one of the swiftest conclusions to a conclave in a century, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German theologian, has been elected pope to succeed the late John Paul II, who pursued pacifism, human rights protection and inter-religious dialogue. The hope for Pope Benedict XVI -- the name is said to suggest...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 22, 2005

Sipping on Heian history in Uji

In Uji, it's a tough job to go anywhere without consuming its famous product as green tea is liberally doled out on the streets.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 21, 2005

For a life less ordinary, try marrying an otaku

Wedding bells rang for my friend Yoshika six months ago and last night a bunch of us got together over drinks to hear all about it -- her new life as a wife to a genuine, full-fledged ota-yome (wife of an otaku or "nerd").
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Apr 21, 2005

Time to honor the planet, every day

'If the environment is a fad, then it's going to be our last fad," warned Denis Hayes at the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, having given up his own graduate studies at Harvard only months before to organize this historic event.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 20, 2005

'S wonderful: Wiling away the time with Caetano Veloso

Caetano is here. Caetano Veloso. The man who has been hailed for decades in his native Brazil as a singer, composer, poet and revolutionary, and commonly celebrated abroad as the 'Bob Dylan of Brazil,' despite his dislike for such labels.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 20, 2005

The painter's art is mud

Regarded as Spain's greatest living artist, Catalan painter Antoni Tapies (born 1923) is the subject of a comprehensive retrospective currently showing at the Hara Museum of Art in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward.
BUSINESS
Apr 20, 2005

Market responds to 'clueless' Japanese companies

Tokyo stock prices have tumbled amid fears about the economic fallout from China's intensifying diplomatic and street protests targeting Japan as bilateral relations sour to their worst state in decades.
EDITORIALS
Apr 17, 2005

A sermon is a sometimes thing

Sign of the times: Cookie Monster, of the globally beloved U.S. children's television show "Sesame Street," is going to have to start watching what he eats. According to the American show's producers, the shaggy blue carbohydrate-cruncher will no longer be allowed to gobble chocolate chip cookies by...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 17, 2005

Peace of mind for Japanese inventors

VALUING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN JAPAN, BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES, edited by Ruth Taplin. London: Routledge, 2004, 163 pp., $97 (cloth). On April 1, Japan's first court dedicated to cases concerning patents and other intellectual property rights (IPR) was established as part of a far-ranging renovation...
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Apr 17, 2005

A nation asleep at the wheel

Train carriages filled with white-collar workers dozing off on each other's shoulders are one of the most striking sights in Japan.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Apr 17, 2005

Make no bones about it, this place is like nowhere on Earth

The view is daunting. Colossal. Inland, thunderheads loom over distant mountains signaling heavy rains in the interior. To our left, considerably nearer, a thick bank of billowing sea fog rises several hundred meters high. The sun is just visible behind it, pale and wan; a ghostly eye peering down on...
EDITORIALS
Apr 16, 2005

Mr. Wen courts India

Ties between China and India continue to strengthen. While some worry about a "new axis" between Beijing and Delhi, it is only natural that two of the world's largest countries -- neighbors, no less -- have strong and cooperative relations. Asia needs them to have a positive, forward-looking partnership....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 16, 2005

Common-sense solutions floated to ease tensions

Ahead of Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's trip to Beijing on Sunday to meet his counterpart, The Japan Times interviewed Sino-Japanese relations experts Tomoyuki Kojima and Zhu Jianrong to hear their views on how the two nations can defuse mounting anti-Japan activities in China, blamed in part...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Apr 16, 2005

In face of adversity, Benitez steers Liverpool to victory

LONDON -- "Things are only impossible until they're not."
COMMENTARY
Apr 15, 2005

Shedding imposed war guilt

Tokyo is right to blame the Chinese authorities for failing to prevent damage to Japanese diplomatic and other properties during recent anti-Japanese demonstrations. But the Chinese authorities probably had their reasons. Demonstrations in China can easily turn into ugly antigovernment riots when confronted...
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2005

Human-trafficking at record 79 cases but number more likely in thousands

Police either made arrests in or turned over to prosecutors 79 cases of alleged human-trafficking involving foreign women forced into the sex industry or other forms of exploitation last year.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 15, 2005

Matsuba Chaya: Buddha, soba and the great outdoors

Spring is here, the sap is rising, buds are budding and the Food File's fancy turns to . . . noodles? Out in Chofu, heartland of Tokyo's bed-town suburbia?
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Apr 14, 2005

Could change be the only constant in the cosmos?

In David Mitchell's compelling novel "Cloud Atlas," two of the characters climb the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, and find giant domes -- observatories -- at the peak of the great mountain. The novel -- published last year -- is comprised of six interweaved strands, starting in the 1800s and moving...
JAPAN
Apr 14, 2005

For rent: Mount Fuji weather station; nice view

The Meteorological Agency is looking for tenants to rent a vacant weather monitoring station at the summit of Mount Fuji, according to an agency official.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 13, 2005

Kent Nagano conducts former collaborator Takemitsu

Kent Nagano is nothing if not a very busy man. The musical director of the Los Angeles Opera, the artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin, and the guest director of many world-famous orchestras, the California native is in demand as one of the most popular opera...
EDITORIALS
Apr 13, 2005

Troubling events in China

The recent wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations in China raises questions about Beijing's will to stabilize the situation. At the beginning of this month, demonstrators went on a rampage in Sichuan and Shenzhen in southern China, smashing windows of a Japanese supermarket and committing other acts of...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Apr 11, 2005

You can lead a market to bonds, but you can't make it drink

The government budget for fiscal 2005 has been enacted, but the amount dependent on government bonds, although slightly lower than in fiscal 2004, is still above 40 percent.
Japan Times
Features
Apr 10, 2005

Drop-dead gorgeous

Eiko Koike is a leggy, lushly upholstered Japanese celebrity, famous for her doe eyes and D-cup breasts.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2005

Schiavo case deepens America's divide

ONTARIO, Calif. -- Seldom can I recall any issue in America producing as much emotion and division as the case of Terri Schiavo. The Iraq war has not come close to reaching this level of emotional expression. After being denied food and water for 13 days, her death on March 31, at 41 years of age, brings...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 10, 2005

Corporate deregulation: Fear, loathing, firms losing the plot

Ever since the Japanese government started deregulating the economy in the '90s, there has been talk of an emerging income gap (kakusa). To a country that likes to think of itself as being uniformly middle class, social stratification means trouble, since it is often related to increasing crime, alienation,...
MORE SPORTS
Apr 9, 2005

Ramos to captain beach soccer team

Former Japan international midfielder Ruy Ramos will steer the national squad at next month's beach soccer World Cup, Japan Football Association President Saburo Kawabuchi said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2005

Watanuki draws 95 foes to postal reform

The political tug-of-war over the government's postal privatization plan continued Thursday as a senior Liberal Democratic Party official gathered 95 LDP Diet members for a protest meeting.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat