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COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 1, 2008

'Half-alien' group foresees disaster, Japan UFO landing

In December, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura caused quite a stir with his bold statement that "UFOs definitely exist." In subsequent clarifications, the government claimed that there have been no confirmed sightings, but if a UFO was to appear, "fighter jets would be scrambled to attempt...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2008

Last stand before Russia's next chance

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday through Friday, NATO will hold its biggest summit ever in Bucharest, the capital of its new member, Romania. Incredibly, NATO has invited its fiercest critic, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to attend. For the first time since 2002, he will. His presence is an embarrassment...
EDITORIALS
Mar 30, 2008

Improper watch at sea

The Defense Ministry has released an interim fact-finding report on the Feb. 19 collision between an Aegis destroyer of the Maritime Self-Defense Force and a fishing boat that left two fishermen missing. The 7,750-ton Aegis destroyer Atago collided with the 7.3-ton tuna trawler Seitoku Maru around 4:07...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2008

Hashimoto's cost-cutting plans under fire

OSAKA — If Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has his way, employees now working on international human rights issues may become school security guards and a popular women's center will be sold off.
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2008

Seeding the nuclear renaissance

The world is on the brink of a second nuclear renaissance. Prodded by rising oil prices and concerns about global warming, nations are reconsidering the nuclear energy option and finding it attractive. A significant increase in the number of nuclear reactors worldwide, however, also increases the risk...
BUSINESS
Mar 26, 2008

DPJ to block gas tax bill; pump price looks to fall

Car owners can expect a break at the pump in the near future if the Democratic Party of Japan makes good on its threat to block a government-backed bill to extend higher rates on road-related taxes that expire March 31.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2008

Turkey's secular fundamentalist threat

NEW YORK — The chief prosecutor of Turkey's High Court of Appeals recently recommended to the country's Constitutional Court that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) be permanently banned.
BUSINESS
Mar 19, 2008

BOJ boss lacking Finance Ministry ties unthinkable

Tuesday's nomination of another former top Finance Ministry bureaucrat, Koji Tanami, for the Bank of Japan governorship shows the government continues to want someone with a background in the ministry at the post.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2008

Malaysia's opposition emerges reborn

SINGAPORE — In Malaysia's recent elections, opposition parties managed their strongest showing since the country gained its independence from Britain in 1957, cutting the ruling coalition's parliamentary majority to below two-thirds.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2008

Back to square one after a lifetime of work

With spring comes the annual wage negotiations, when unions press employers for higher pay. These days, however, an increasing number of the workers at the bargaining table are themselves in the autumn of life — 60 or older.
CULTURE / Books
Mar 9, 2008

Picture-perfect sending off of a wartime Shanghai

FAREWELL, SHANGHAI, by Angel Wagenstein, translated by Elizabeth Frank and Deliana Simeonova. New York: Handsel Books, 384 pp., 2007, $24.95 (cloth) The adjective "cinematic," when applied to a novel, is usually meant to suggest that the book describes bounces from one action-crammed scene to the next...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 9, 2008

The art of Frances Blakemore: a love affair with Japan

AN AMERICAN ARTIST IN TOKYO: Frances Blakemore — 1906-1997, by Michiyo Morioka. Seattle: The Blakemore Foundation/University of Washington Press, 2007, 200 pp., profusely illustrated, $35 (cloth) Living more than 50 years of her life in Japan, artist Frances Blakemore was a close and sympathetic observer...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2008

Cambodia's revenge fiasco

BRUSSELS — Cambodia is currently witnessing the commencement of what is likely to become a grotesque farce. In July, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia will try four Khmer Rouge leaders, as well as the commandant of the infamous S21 Tuol Sleng prison, for crimes committed more than...
EDITORIALS
Mar 4, 2008

Preventing forced confessions

False charges leveled in a 2002 rape and attempted rape in Toyama Prefecture and the acquittal of all defendants of vote-buying allegations in the 2003 Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly election were widely reported in 2007 and caused controversy.
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2008

BOJ's Mizuno downplays rate cut

Atsushi Mizuno, a member of the Bank of Japan Policy Board, downplayed on Thursday the need for the central bank to cut interest rates.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2008

Romantic fantasies about training

The Feb. 14 editorial "Violence in sumo training" pointed out "a culture characterized by tolerance of corporal punishment," but this "tradition" goes far beyond the sumo ring.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2008

Chasing out rich foreigners

LONDON — Of all the unwise policies of recent years that have steadily undermined the Thatcher legacy of British economic dynamism and enterprise, perhaps the worst and most ill-judged is the current attempt to drive out the super-rich foreigners who have hitherto found Britain such an attractive place...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2008

Treating clinical depression a tall order

Depression is no stranger to Japanese society, but only within the last decade has its "clinical" component gained currency along with the realization that the malady can affect almost anyone.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2008

ASEAN's Pakistan problem

MANILA — Pakistan's near political chaos, the result of President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of martial law last year and the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has had a tsunami-like impact across Southeast Asia. Should Musharraf's government backslide even more on its commitments...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 10, 2008

G7 finance chiefs vow to help markets

The Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank chiefs vowed Saturday to help stabilize volatile situations in financial markets but stopped short of proposing concrete measures, including unified interest rate cuts, to fend off a global recession.
COMMENTARY
Feb 7, 2008

Russia disappoints the world

LONDON — What are we to do about Russia?
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 29, 2008

G8: Meaningful or anachronistic forum?

Over the next six months, Japan will host a series of meetings of the Group of Eight countries, culminating in the Leaders' Summit at Lake Toya, Hokkaido, in July. Along with leaders of the G8 — Japan, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — the European Commission...
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Jan 24, 2008

The parallel world of art associations

What are the most famous exhibitions of contemporary art in the world? The Venice Biennale? Art Basel Miami Beach?

Longform

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