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Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 5, 2009

Elementary school English: Ready or not

Poor English skills and coordination with visiting English speakers are just two of the problems worrying elementary school teachers as the government's two-year transition period to inaugurate weekly classes in the language begins next month.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Sep 30, 2008

Is Hayao Miyazaki Japan's greatest film director?

How great is Hayao Miyazaki? Domestically, three of his movies are among the top five money-earners: His "Spirited Away" from 2001 outstrips even "Titanic" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Globally, his movies are the darlings of international film festivals. "Spirited Away" took the Golden...
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2008

MMC, trio fined over false report on defects

The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling and fined Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and three former executives ¥200,000 each for falsifying documents on its defective truck hubs, which caused a fatal accident in 2002.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 9, 2008

The Breeders: 'What took you so long?'

Despite being the indie buff's band of choice for the best part of two decades, you wouldn't call The Breeders prolific. "Mountain Battles," released this month, will be only the band's fourth album since it formed in Dayton, Ohio, in 1988, and its first since 2002's "Title TK." With a history dogged...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2008

Bolstering U.S.-ASEAN Cooperation

BANGKOK — The strategic presence of the United States in Southeast Asia takes two forms, both of which are interrelated: The relationship is institutionalized through the Pacific Command in Honolulu and then formalized through various hub-and-spoke agreements with member states of the 10-member Association...
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Nov 27, 2007

Feeling designs

'Design is not just about making something, it is about designing the feelings of the person who uses it," says Tokujin Yoshioka, sitting in his Daikanyama studio among magazine-laden shelves and prototypes in various stages of development.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 15, 2007

Not in Beijing for the Chinese

Standing among the glamorously attired revelers celebrating the opening of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing this month, Tokyo art dealer Sueo Mizuma had to yell to make himself heard.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 17, 2007

Japanese seniors keep lock on Everest

Yuichiro Miura has an unusual routine for a man who just turned 75.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Sep 26, 2007

Turning waste into rich resources

Visit Calcutta, even briefly, and you soon learn the rules of the road — or rather that there aren't many, if any. You will also meet some of the planet's most resourceful people, from street children to scientists who are masters of making very little go a long way.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2007

Democracy wins in Turkey

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed a second five-year term last weekend. His government's record since 2002 should have made victory a given, but fears that it would drift toward more Islamic fundamentalist rule had tempered enthusiasm for his Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The...
EDITORIALS
May 17, 2007

Politicians must come clean

The Tokyo High Court has given a suspended 10-month prison term to former Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka for hiding a 100 million yen donation from the Japan Dental Association to the Liberal Democratic Party's then top faction headed by the late Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The crux of...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 26, 2007

Sarkozy vs. Segolene at last

WARSAW -- The surprise in the first round of the French presidential election was that there was no surprise, except for the huge level of voter turnout. The two leaders of the right and of the left, the favorites in all the polls for a long time, came first and second.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2006

Abe's point woman on abductees firm

Tokyo forums last week involving Japanese, South Koreans and Thais whose kin were kidnapped by Pyongyang have given the abduction issue greater global import, reckons Kyoko Nakayama, the government's point woman, who hopes her past efforts as a diplomat to Central Asia to free Japanese hostages can someday...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 28, 2006

The rules of the road

Obtaining a driver's license can be an expensive and frustrating experience, and doing so in Japan is no different in that regard. But for many foreign residents in Japan, transferring their home license into a Japanese one can be a fairly simple and inexpensive procedure, while for others it's an advisable...
EDITORIALS
Nov 24, 2006

Cyber-crime bucks the trend

Excluding criminal violations involving traffic accidents, about 2.27 million crimes came to the attention of police in 2005, according to the 2006 white paper on crime. The figure was 11.4 percent lower than the year before and around 20 percent (580,000 incidents) lower than the peak year 2002. The...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 8, 2006

Royal challenge to the French rightwing

PARIS -- Segolene Royal has surged to the front of the pack of Socialists who aim to succeed Jacques Chirac as president of France. Nobody would have bet a single euro on such a prospect a few months ago.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2006

China losing its battle with corruption

SINGAPORE -- China's rulers rarely wash their dirty linen in public. So the arrest of Politburo member and Shanghai Communist Party boss Chen Liangyu on corruption charges has sent shock waves across the country. Some speculate that the arrest is really part of a power struggle, with President Hu Jingtao...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2006

May the least undesirable candidate win

WARSAW -- The late British Prime Minister Harold Wilson used to quip that "a week is a long time in politics." In the 30 or so weeks between now and the next French presidential election, any prediction made today could be reversed, and reversed again, before the vote.
JAPAN
Sep 18, 2006

Corporate profits up but pay down

Companies' pretax profits have expanded by more than 80 percent during the economic upturn starting in February 2002, but wages per employee have declined slightly, an analysis by Kyodo News shows.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?