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Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Ex-PM lauds his exit as a 'public service'

The ousted prime minister welcomed me to his spacious compound where I met his son and daughter, both home from studying overseas, and his muddy, wriggling puppies that quickly Pollacked my best chinos.
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Japanese NGOs focus on relief, reconciliation -- and coffee co-operatives

The violent troubles in 2006 drove many staff of Japanese nongovern- mental organizations out of East Timor. The NGOs I visited had modest offices and accommodations, and the staff lived frugally -- unlike the "lords of poverty" I have encountered elsewhere in the international development community....
Japan Times
LIFE
Feb 25, 2007

Back into the vortex?

East Timor is an ill-starred land that has endured more than its share of violence, neglect and deprivation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 23, 2007

'A Prairie Home Companion'/'Bobby'

Director Robert Altman checked out of this world last November at age 81, and he was working right up till the end. His last film, "A Prairie Home Companion," is a cinematic spinoff of the popular show on American public radio, and while it's not up there with Altman's best -- "Short Cuts" or "Nashville"...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Feb 23, 2007

Put on your red shoes and dance

In December 1981, a small bar named Red Shoes opened in the basement of a building next to the bus stop near Nishi-Azabu crossing. Though only a stone's throw from what is now a busy intersection, in those days as soon as the sun went down the area was deserted. In terms of partying, Roppongi was the...
EDITORIALS
Feb 20, 2007

New hearts for dying cities

The current economic recovery in Japan has been marred by imbalances. One imbalance is between the corporate and household sectors. While the corporate sector is prospering, much of the household sector is missing out on the fruit of the nation's longest postwar economic expansion. Stagnant wage growth...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 18, 2007

TIRED OR EMOTIONAL: A space robot knows

Office meetings occasionally flit between two extremes. Either they're so tedious that you want to sleep, or they take an interesting turn when someone gets hot under the collar and starts ranting without listening to anyone else.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007

Strange stories from Canadian suburbs

Nectar Fragments, by Michael Hoffman. AuthorHouse, 2006, 564 pp., $23.49 (paper). In the manner of the anthropologist, Michael Hoffman, in his latest collection of short stories, stakes out a small piece of terrain then proceeds to examine the life within its coordinates. The name of this plot is Nectar,...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 18, 2007

Close your eyes, count to 10 . . . and play to your heart's content

It seems only natural that everyone should have a wild time, at least once in their life, because for the most part our mortal span is occupied with studying, making a living or raising a family. All that, of course, can be fun -- but it tends to be rather serious stuff as well.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Feb 18, 2007

Solo initiative turns used dentures into a goldmine for needy children

Isao Miyoshi runs a dental laborato ry in Sakado, Saitama Prefecture. Every day, he visits the dentistry department at the local Meikai University Hospital, where he collects dozens of plaster impressions of people's gums and their remaining teeth. Back at Miyoshi's lab, his 12 dental technicians then...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 16, 2007

Delivering men from evil

Two hours by train from Tokyo, history has twice blessed the small town of Nikko with good fortune.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 16, 2007

An update on hogaku

Orchestra Asia Japan presents an innovative interpretation of traditional Japanese sounds on March 1 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward. Held in commemoration of the Japan-China Exchange Year of Culture and Sports 2007, the concert features a world premiere of a work by Chinese composer Tang Jian Ping.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 16, 2007

'Exte'

Sion Sono is following what is now a well-traveled career path for Japanese directors: First the indie debut that plays the international festival circuit ("Bicycle Sighs" in 1990), then the cult sensation taken up by the fan boys ("Suicide Club" in 2002), and finally the horror pic that hopefully makes...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Feb 14, 2007

Indian blue peafowl

* Japanese name: Kujaku * Scientific name: Pavo cristatus * Description: Large birds far more often seen on the ground than in the air, peafowl are unmistakable. The male -- the peacock -- has a vibrant royal-blue neck and breast, a white "face" and a gigantic ornamental tail that may be dragged along...
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007

Vitriol vies with science

For journalists used to the smooth diplomatic hum of the global conference circuit, covering the poisonous annual meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is akin to being slapped in the face with a slab of week-old minke bacon.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007

The price of stalemate

One of the most controversial elements of Japan's campaign to overturn the International Whaling Commission's 1986 commercial whaling ban is the alleged use of official Overseas Development Aid to "buy" the votes of poorer IWC member-countries. That is an allegation vehemently denied by fisheries bureaucrats....
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007

From the inside looking out . . .

'There are a number of factors, both biological and economic, which led the industry to destroy one whale species after another, even though the industry was dependent on their survival. Thus, the commercial whaling ban should be kept and not mixed up with the idea of preserving tradition and/or culture....
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 11, 2007

Ft. Myers getting ready for 'Dice-K' and Japanese media

Sportswriter David Dorsey of the Ft. Myers News-Press in Florida is getting ready to work the Boston Red Sox spring training camp in that town. He will be joined by a bevy of reporters and photographers from the various Japanese media there to cover the Daisuke Matsuzaka circus and lefty reliever Hideki...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007

Japan and the whaling ban

It is a question that puzzles much of the world: Why does Japan thumb its nose at one of the environmental movement's few lasting achievements -- the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial whaling?
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Feb 11, 2007

Siege mentality fuels 'sustainability' claims

At the government's Fisheries Agency in Tokyo, which drives the prowhaling campaign in Japan, there is thinly disguised contempt for the antiwhaling finger-wagging of New Zealand, a country with boundless rich farmland and a tiny population to support.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 4, 2007

Princess Tenko: conjuror of pure mystery

The life of illusionist Tenko Hikita -- better
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Jan 30, 2007

Between the crafty and the user-friendly

Receptacle for the respectable It wouldn't seem that much could be done to improve on the functionality of the lowly water dispenser -- all you need is a receptacle and a tap. Enter Kai House with the Adhoc product from their Kitchen Design Movement collection. It features both a paired-down design --...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 28, 2007

The Courtship

Insight, fate and human frailties intermingle in this love story for winter from the pen of MICHAEL HOFFMAN
BASKETBALL
Jan 27, 2007

A big step: bj-league stages 1st All-Star Game

GINOWAN, Okinawa -- Pick a sport, any sport, and the following is a guarantee: All-Star games are fun events for fans and players alike.

Longform

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