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COMMENTARY
Jan 7, 2005

Musharraf's penchant to stay in charge

ISLAMABAD -- The prospect that Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf -- who seized power in a bloodless coup five years ago -- will remain head of the military looms as a major setback in the political outlook for South Asia's second-largest nuclear-armed country.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jan 6, 2005

Buckwheat booze lifts locals' spirits

The first flurries of snow usually fall here where I live in Kurohime in mid-November, just at the start of the hunting season.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2004

Obituary: Roger Allen

Roger Allen, a longtime resident of Tokyo and vice chairman of the Foreign Community Support Committee of YMCA in Japan, died Tuesday of heart attack at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 59.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 11, 2004

Film depicts Japan's gender equality strife

A documentary film about an American woman's struggle to achieve gender equality in postwar Japan, sponsored and made by Japanese women, is set to be released next April.
EDITORIALS
Dec 10, 2004

Challenges for Mr. Karzai

Afghanistan's three-year drive for stability reached a milestone when Mr. Hamid Karzai was sworn in Tuesday as its first popularly elected president. But the road is strewn with obstacles. Ethnic and tribal divisions are clouding prospects for national unity. As yet, there is no end in sight to terrorist...
EDITORIALS
Nov 30, 2004

Ms. Rice's nomination raises concern

Observers both here and abroad are worried that the second administration of U.S. President George W. Bush may assume a more unilateralist stance in foreign policy. Such concern stems mainly from the imminent resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell, a firm believer in international coordination...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 27, 2004

ARI teaches leadership skills via organic farming

What is the connection between Hoichi Endo, a former member of Japan's Credit Union (CU), based in Tsujido, Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Asian Rural Institute's group of students from developing countries learning leadership skills and organic farming in Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture?
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Nov 25, 2004

Now may be the time to finesse U.S. 'bully'

Beneath the buzz of news last week, it was easy to overlook one important story -- as much of the media did. On Thursday, the Russian Federation submitted to the United Nations its ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, beginning a 90-day countdown to the protocol's entry into force. As a result, on Feb....
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2004

Watchdog group raps proposed defense policy

A group that monitors Japan's defense policy warned Monday that a new security policy recommended last month by an advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi could violate agreements under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, as it would allow nuclear retaliation against use of other weapons...
EDITORIALS
Nov 23, 2004

Keep principles of peace at the fore

On Saturday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush renewed their friendship on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit conference in Santiago, Chile. At what was their first meeting since Mr. Bush's re-election, the two leaders reaffirmed the...
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2004

Rebuilding a safe society

This year's white paper on crime opens, on the first page, with the proclaimed aim of restoring Japan as "the safest country in the world" and closes, on the final page, with the expressed determination to achieve this goal. The report seems to convey the Ministry of Justice's concern and sense of tension...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 22, 2004

Education for sustainable development

2005 will mark the start of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. The Decade offers a vital opportunity to make real progress toward putting human society on the path to sustainability. More than one-fourth of humankind lives in conditions of chronic poverty. Famine, military...
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Nov 18, 2004

The right way to teach values in school

How do you teach a child right from wrong? I certainly don't have all the answers. In our home, we're still working on why you can't hit your brother, even when he's being deliberately annoying -- as he has been all this week, answering any direct question with nonsense ("What do you want for dinner?"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 17, 2004

A new world order in a school gym

British sculptor Antony Gormley (born in London in 1950) is one of the foremost sculptors of his generation. A winner of the Turner Prize in 1994, Gormley is a conceptual artist working in a physical medium: He revitalized the sculptural vocabulary of the human form to articulate the universal abstract...
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2004

Leaders voice mixed reaction to Bush win

Political party leaders had mixed reactions to U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election Thursday that ranged from relief to demands for Washington to review its policy on Iraq.
COMMENTARY
Nov 1, 2004

Can Taiwan, China stop baiting the other?

HONG KONG -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, during his two-day visit to Beijing, tried to persuade Chinese leaders that Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's offer of talks provided an opportunity for a cross-strait dialogue, but, as expected, Powell was rebuffed.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 1, 2004

Antimonopoly Law reform amendment falls short of the mark

A proposed amendment to the Antimonopoly Law was submitted to the Diet on Oct. 15 -- as promised by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
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...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / MATTER OF COURSE
Oct 21, 2004

Disabled children at regular schools: inclusion isn't easy

When we moved to Japan and enrolled our sons in local schools, both they and I had a lot to learn. Every day was a challenge, and I was so focused on the basics that I missed a lot of things that should have been obvious. Like the fact that there was a disabled child in my son's kindergarten.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 19, 2004

Foreign branding

Being called a 'gaijin' is not unusual or harmful, says Cai Evans Before I start, let's get one thing straight: I am well aware that the term "gaijin" has pejorative overtones and that its etymology is grounded in a history of discrimination and exclusion.
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...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 15, 2004

Cash for Iraq in short supply at confab

Donor countries on Thursday renewed their vow to support Iraq's reconstruction and the political process for a parliamentary election in January, but few offered fresh contributions to the war-torn country as they wrapped up a conference in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Oct 15, 2004

Here's to the mother of all matsuri

Although Japan has a wealth of interesting festivals celebrated up and down the archipelago, taking in only a few requires considerable planning, effort and money.
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2004

Iraq asks donor states to boost aid

Iraq's deputy prime minister on Wednesday called on the international community to increase the flow of aid and speed up the implementation of projects to help rebuild the war-torn country.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 14, 2004

No apologies for Iraq war -- Baghdad deserved it: Koizumi

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday rejected an opposition demand that he apologize for making a "serious mistake" in supporting the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Oct 11, 2004

Almost all wrong on Iraq

Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction. While he certainly harbored ambitions to get them, the Iraqi programs to build them had decayed to become mere wisps of what they once were. That is the conclusion of the final report, released last week, of the chief U.S. weapons hunter, Mr. Charles...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 10, 2004

Choosing how to intervene

From Iraq to Darfur, the topic of international intervention to protect people from the brutality of their own governments remains a deeply divisive one for the international community. Western countries are likely to be the subjects not objects of intervention, and their worldview is colored by this...

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