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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2006

Filmmaker retraces footsteps of Palestinian thinker

"Fighting the jihad with the pen is the same as dying for the jihad," says Mahmoud, a young Lebanese man in a new documentary dedicated to Edward Said, the Palestinian-American intellectual and advocate for the Palestinian cause.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jun 10, 2006

Stephen Salyer

The headquarters of the Salzburg Seminar are in Salzburg, Austria. Many of its year-round meetings take place in the 18th century castle Schloss Leopoldskron, known to moviegoers for its impressive presence in "The Sound of Music." "It is a very beautiful place," said Stephen Salyer, the Salzburg Seminar...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jun 8, 2006

'100 years of Korean art'

The Korean National Museum of Contemporary Art sits in a scenic location by the mountains, 30 minutes from downtown Seoul. The sprawling sculpture garden out front is a beautiful place to relax, while the 25,000 sq. meters of space inside make it the largest museum in the country.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 8, 2006

A lifetime in search of Japan's true self

Shohei Imamura, who died on May 30, had one of the great careers of postwar Japanese film, winning the Cannes Palme d'Or twice, as well as many other awards and honors. But he spent much of that career on the fringes of the industry, like a bull elephant who separates himself from the herd and goes his...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Jun 6, 2006

Design doyenne still sets aesthetic agenda

Standing well over 180 cm in her two-tone Chanel pumps, Andree Putman, the Grand Dame of modernist design, is at once icon, icon-maker and iconoclast. Born in Paris in 1925, her illustrious career traverses friendships and collaborations with many of the last century's revered avant-gardist creators,...
JAPAN
Jun 2, 2006

Ethiopia envoy pushes investment

Japanese companies can benefit from investing in Ethiopia because of the country's vast natural resources and agribusiness potential, the ambassador of the sub-Saharan nation said Thursday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 30, 2006

Japan ready to battle 'culinary imperialists'

Earlier this year I was commissioned by a British newspaper to research a Japanese company called Hakudai, which was reputed to be putting whale meat into dog food.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 30, 2006

Fitness for kicks and more

The yearly ritual of storing away our winter duds and unpacking skimpy summer styles often leads to a common conclusion: It's time to get into shape, and fast.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
May 30, 2006

Would you pay more tax to stop whale hunting?

Masuko Hosokawa Office worker, 66 I disagree with whale hunting. Whale meat is delicious, but it's not good to catch so many whales. I would pay more taxes to help subsidize fishermen, but only a little bit. And I wouldn't pay higher taxes for anything else.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2006

English-only laws: a pain with little gain

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- "It gives the idea that any other language is excluded," stated Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in reaction to a recently passed amendment that would make English the "national language of the United States."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
May 29, 2006

Creeping back toward thought control

NEW YORK -- Why are politicians so often regressive? Several years ago the Japanese government legally ritualized the singing of the national anthem and the raising of the flag. Now it is intent on changing a 60-year-old education law to codify patriotism.
COMMENTARY / World
May 29, 2006

Australia's dirty little secret

SYDNEY -- A dirty little secret in Australian society has been exposed, and federal and state governments are maneuvering to clean up the mess or face international condemnation for allegedly allowing the violation of human rights.
EDITORIALS
May 25, 2006

A love that can't be legislated

The Diet has started discussions on a government bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education. First and foremost, the bill represents an attempt to lay down a legal basis for using education as a means of instilling "love of nation" in students. While love of nation is something that should grow...
LIFE / Language
May 23, 2006

Opening up to difference: The dialect dialectic

Many people in Japan lead a double life -- linguistically speaking, that is. In their community, they speak the hogen (dialect) of their city, town or village, while outside it they may be accustomed to use hyojungo (standard Japanese). Their native language, in the true sense of that word, is their...
COMMENTARY
May 19, 2006

Pride in a Yankee apology

LOS ANGELES -- In the sports-happy, internationally oblivious country of the United States, probably more people know who Hideki Matsui is than who Junichiro Koizumi is.
COMMENTARY / World
May 18, 2006

Sub-Saharan Africa's failing leadership

Why are the countries of sub-Saharan Africa the poorest in the world? One reason is the set of ill-designed development strategies that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have implemented in the region for nearly half a century. But the centuries-old culture of leadership that is...
JAPAN
May 17, 2006

Diet begins debate on education law

The Diet began debating a bill Tuesday that would revise the postwar basic education law for the first time ever, emphasizing the importance of public spirit and tradition as well as seeking to instill a sense of patriotism.
JAPAN
May 12, 2006

Diet panel to mull education law change

The Lower House approved creation of a special committee Thursday to discuss a proposed change to the 1947 basic education law that would lay greater emphasis on civic mindedness and Japanese traditions.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
May 11, 2006

Grappling with gravity

At the Dairakudakan performance space in Kichijoji, a group of female performers move with the particular deliberateness of the butoh dance style. Their partners in the dance are snow-white noh masks, fully true to tradition but with one important modification: lurid red tongues extend and curl from...
COMMENTARY
Apr 24, 2006

A textbook contradiction

Japanese school-textbook publishers are puzzled over contradictory moves recently made by separate administrative authorities. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology imposed government views on the publishers when it announced the results of screening of textbooks for high...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 21, 2006

The silly world of SpongeBob

OK, class, quiz time: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? No takers? OK, here's a hint: Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 20, 2006

As it was in Japan then, so it is now

Much can be learned about the factual bones of history by reading books, but the pictures that have survived the years flesh out better what life was actually like before the arrival of the electricity, running water and phones that we now take for granted.
EDITORIALS
Apr 19, 2006

An unhealthy blast from the past

The ruling coalition has agreed to include a clause on patriotism in a bill that will revise the Fundamental Law of Education for the first time, although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has not decided when to send the bill to the Diet. The 1947 law, although drafted under the leadership of the Occupation...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 16, 2006

Critical concerns about cinema

ASIAN CINEMAS: A READER & GUIDE, edited by Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Gary Needham. Edinburgh University Press, 2006, 474 pp., £19.99 (paper). CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CINEMA: Popular Culture in a Global Frame, edited by Anne Tereska Ciecko. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2006, 250 pp., £16.99 (paper). Critical...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 16, 2006

Unlike with the French, a lack of fight spells future gloom for Japan's workers

While traveling through Europe recently I tried to get a handle on the controversy surrounding France's now abandoned First Job Contract (CPE) law, which was meant to make it easier for companies to hire young people. However, those same young people thought the law would make it easier for companies...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Apr 11, 2006

Exploring the world on manga — where to get started?

Hisashi Sakata Public servant, 30 All Japanese know about "doko de mo door," the "everywhere door." In Doraemon, the manga about a robotic cat, you can use the door to travel anywhere you want to go. We can dream of escaping wherever we want to go!
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 9, 2006

Looking at the big picture of Kyoto

CAPITALSCAPES: Folding Screens and Political Imagination in Late Medieval Kyoto, by Matthew Philip McKelway. Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 2006, 282 pp., 24 color plates, numerous b/w illustrations, $56.00 (cloth). One of the major formats in the history of Japanese painting are the byobu-e,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 9, 2006

Young, fresh and traditional Japanese artists

Some people complain that poetry has never been the same since poets were absolved of their obligations to rhyme and rhythm. The same people also think that since the 1968 scrapping of the Hollywood Production Code that regulated sexual content, movies have lost a lot of their sexual sizzle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 4, 2006

Investor, philanthropist gives new name to jet set

It is 7:30 a.m. and Takaaki Kawashima has less than one hour to spare before leaving for Narita airport. He's due to take a midday flight to London, arriving in time for dinner with Prince Charles, Camilla and a small group of intimates at Clarendon House. He will leave for Japan again Friday morning,...

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