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Reader Mail
Oct 7, 2007

Ammunition against Japan

Regarding the Sept. 30 article "110,000 protest history text revision order": It surprises me that in a democratic country like Japan a single ministry (education) is able to affect internal and international politics so negatively. Okinawans are not the only ones who have criticized past and present...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 2, 2007

Japan faces hunger pains as poor slip through net

First in a two-part series
COMMUNITY
Oct 2, 2007

Have your say: Is it over for Nova?

Following are responses to last week's Zeit Gist on the Nova Corp. conversation school chain (see search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20070925zg.html):
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2007

Holding hands within the limits of decency

MADRAS, India — The perception of sex and morality is once again creating problems in India.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language
Sep 23, 2007

Cellphone bards hit bestseller lists

Like many other young Japanese, Rin, 21, punches her mobile phone keys very quickly. Holding her phone with two hands, and moving her thumbs deftly and smoothly, she quickly generates sentences on the small screen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 21, 2007

A slow drink coming

At Takahata Wine Harvest Festival next month the quality of booze will not be a problem — and neither will your conscience as you nurse a hangover the next day.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Sep 20, 2007

Soccer pitchman scores big in small-market Niigata

Sunny but not too hot, the weather on the afternoon of May 6, 2001, was perfect for watching a soccer match. But there were only 4,800 people on hand to see Albirex Niigata take on Yokohama FC in the 18,671-seat Niigata City Stadium.
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2007

U.S. power and Japan's role

There have been no signs of deterioration in U.S. power over the past decade, measured either militarily, economically, or in terms of "soft power"; this is true both in absolute terms and in comparison with other countries.
COMMENTARY
Sep 15, 2007

Taiwan's sad quest for U.N. membership

WATERLOO, Ontario — As the United Nations General Assembly begins its annual session later this month, it will refuse once again to confront an issue where the denial of reality intersects with a negation of the world body's core values.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2007

ASEAN at 40: coming of age?

KUALA LUMPUR — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations turned 40 this summer. Is it facing a mid-life crisis? Or is it on the verge of maturing into a more cohesive, more relevant organization capable of promoting peace and stability not only in Southeast Asia but beyond, given its self-proclaimed...
Japan Times
JAPAN / ATOMIC POWER AT ANY COST
Sep 4, 2007

Nuclear plants rural Japan's economic fix

Part I: Nuclear doubts spread in wake of Niigata Part III: All cost bets off if Big One hits nuke plant
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 3, 2007

Neoconservatism limps on

NEWARK, N.J. — Neoconservatism has served as a badge of unity for those in the Bush administration who have advocated an aggressive foreign policy, massive military spending, disdain for international law and institutions, an assault on the welfare state and a return to "traditional values."
COMMENTARY
Aug 24, 2007

The unending humanitarian nightmare

NEW YORK — In August 2002, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, wrote a prescient article in The Wall Street Journal warning of the dire consequences of invading Iraq. His predictions are confirmed in a new report by Oxfam, the British aid agency...
Japan Times
Reference / Special Presentations / WITNESS TO WAR
Aug 21, 2007

Censors unable to hide defeat: China escapee

In April 1945, Yukika Sohma and her four small children boarded a packed train in Mudanjiang in Manchuria bound for the port of Rajin in what is today North Korea. From there, the family took a crowded ship to Niigata Prefecture, then another train to Fukushima Prefecture to join relatives.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2007

Nintendo scores with brain-training, etiquette games

Since March, Natsumi Takita has spent 10 minutes daily on a Nintendo DS hand-held game machine, undergoing daily quizzes using "Otona-no Joshikiryoku Training DS" ("Common Sense Training for Adults").
EDITORIALS
Aug 12, 2007

Summer recuperation

The famous psychologist William James once said, "We learn to swim in winter and skate in summer." What he meant was that relaxing downtime is essential for unconsciously processing the lessons from busier times. James never experienced the heat and humidity of a Japanese summer, but if he had, he might...
EDITORIALS
Aug 11, 2007

ASEAN turns 40

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) celebrated its 40th anniversary this week. It has grown considerably since its birth: It has doubled in size and taken on new tasks. While there is justifiable pride in its progress, there is also recognition that ASEAN must evolve significantly more...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Aug 5, 2007

Antiwar activist Steven L. Leeper

In a sense, it is the ultimate irony: The man appointed to oversee the memorial to victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945 by an American B-29 aircraft is . . . an American.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Aug 3, 2007

Home to the outsider

Western Taito Ward is a paradise for nonconformists who stray off the beaten track. Throughout the incense-scented alleys of Yanaka, and across the parklands of Ueno, it's hard to miss the area's preponderance of "strays"; tourists, artists and the homeless who, with a surprising number of cats, all...
COMMENTARY
Jul 19, 2007

'Quad Initiative': an inharmonious concert of democracies

NEW DELHI — The newly launched Australia-India-Japan-U.S. "Quadrilateral Initiative" has raised China's hackles, but its direction is still undecided owing to differing perceptions within the group over what its aims and objectives ought to be.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2007

Pro-Taiwan, not anti-China

TAIPEI — In 2003, while still serving as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, I was asked by Taiwanese reporters what the U.S. view would be on the proposal for Taiwan to hold a national referendum with the 2004 election. My convoluted answer could have been summarized more concisely...
Japan Times
LIFE / REFUGEES AND JAPAN
Jul 8, 2007

Kleptocracy to 'freedom'?

Hla Aye Maung's nightmare began in the central Tokyo district of Nishi Nippori when he went shopping. A police car pulled up beside him and the officers found he was one of the more than 250,000 illegal aliens apparently working in Japan. They took him to a police station in nearby Ueno, from where he...
COMMENTARY
Jun 30, 2007

Britain's future tied to Europe

LONDON — The recent European summit in Brussels reached a compromise on a treaty that would replace the proposed European constitution rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 22, 2007

Four Stories rises in Osaka's 'cultural desert'

OSAKA — For the Kansai region's foreign residents, a night out in Osaka has not usually meant a literary experience. Unlike neighboring Kyoto, with its reputation as a mecca for foreign artists, writers and poets, one did not usually walk into an Osaka bar or restaurant expecting to hear quality short...

Longform

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