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JAPAN
Oct 28, 2005

Vow to 'fully execute' leaves Tokyo in Futenma dilemma

, head of the Naha Defense Facilities Administration Bureau, sits with Okinawan Gov. Keiichi Inamine at the start of their meeting to discuss the new plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station.
EDITORIALS
Oct 24, 2005

Child violence raises concern

Japan's primary-school children appear to have become more violent, according to statistics from a recent report by the Education and Science Ministry. To use a contemporary Japanese expression, they have become "kire-yasui." This expression, which literally means their "nerves tend to snap easily,"...
EDITORIALS
Oct 22, 2005

Leveling the finance playing field

A review of the nation's eight government-affiliated financial institutions is gaining momentum in response to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's drive to abolish, integrate or privatize them. Shortly after Mr. Koizumi took power in 2001, he included the reform of those institutions in his "reform without...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 20, 2005

Proposals threaten South Korean growth

NEW DELHI -- Han Duck Soo, South Korea's deputy prime minister and minister of finance and economy, has unleashed a perfect storm of destructive policy proposals that may ensure that his country's economy remains stuck in under-performance mode. His declarations reveal him to be an inept custodian of...
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2005

Resurgent interest in noodles starts fad

Japanese men who have slaved away for decades at their companies during the postwar era, and who have had quite a few chances to wine and dine after work, are rediscovering their love for "soba," the simple buckwheat noodle mainstay that's been around for more than 400 years.
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

CDs with cardboard jackets find a groove

Jazz and rock compact disks that come in cardboard jackets mimicking those of the long-playing records of yore are creating a boom among nostalgic buyers in their 30s and 40s as record companies rush to revive great recordings of the past.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 28, 2005

Shrines are no salve when it comes to extinctions

Natural selection these days can be more than a little unnatural, especially in Japan, which has a curious relationship with nature.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 26, 2005

Finessing a tougher Taiwanese defense

HONOLULU -- The new commander of American forces in Asia and the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon, has begun making subtle but distinctive changes in his command's endeavor to keep the peace between Taiwan and China, widely considered to be potentially the most explosive conflict in Asia.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 22, 2005

'Manga' publishers see cell phones as the future

Cartoon-strip publishers, whose printed-matter sales have been losing steam, are actively embracing mobile media because cell phones are what young people are spending their time and money on.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 17, 2005

Kingsley-Rowe Potter

MADELEY, England -- As many retired English people like to do, June Kingsley-Rowe Potter lives in the countryside. She takes her dog on long-distance walks around Madeley. She cares for her garden. She volunteers for charity work, and enjoys traveling. For her research into local history, she reads ancient...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 15, 2005

Disaster responses redefine 'Third World'

BANGKOK -- "If America and Thailand were both hit by natural disaster, Thais would handle it better," a Thai lawyer once told me.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 15, 2005

Consumers reaping benefits of farm deregulation

Fresh tomatoes, sweet oranges and bright green lettuce grown organically and tracked by computer may soon arrive on consumers' tables directly from farms, thanks to agricultural deregulation.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 13, 2005

'Theater politics' key to poll shift

The 296 seats won by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Sunday's general election comes second only to the 300 Lower House seats it secured in the 1986 election.
EDITORIALS
Sep 12, 2005

Spare us a DVD war

DVD discs are as popular as VHS videotapes at video shops. A Cabinet Office survey shows that about half the households in Japan now have DVD-capable machines. DVD discs are also used in game and car-navigation consoles. Thus DVDs can truly be called a success story that has taken root in our daily life....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 7, 2005

Salaryman nightmare, otaku dreams

Playwright David Mamet was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for his play "Glengarry Glen Ross." Two years before that, however, an earlier, major work, "Edmond," had fared less well with the critics.
Sep 1, 2005

Defense Agency wants 5 trillion yen

The Defense Agency on Wednesday requested 4.89 trillion yen in the fiscal 2006 budget to increase the capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces to counter threats to national security, including acts of terrorism, missile attacks and natural disasters.
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2005

Koizumi vows to step down if ruling bloc loses election

Prime Minister and Liberal Democratic Party President Junichiro Koizumi stressed Monday he will step down immediately if the ruling coalition fails to win a majority in the 480-seat House of Representatives in the Sept. 11 election.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Aug 28, 2005

Privacy of sperm donors leaves lives in limbo

Emi Nishimura's identity quest began the hard way.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 22, 2005

LDP rebels launch another new party

Koki Kobayashi and three other rebels from the Liberal Democratic Party formed a new party Sunday, with Yasuo Tanaka, the outspoken governor of Nagano Prefecture, taking the top position.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 21, 2005

All together now, as yesterday's no-no becomes the status quo

When I first arrived in Japan in the 1960s, I was friends with a Western sociologist who was genuinely frustrated. When he went around surveying public opinion, he said that he found Japanese people to be stubbornly reserved and conservative. Apparently, those who responded to his questions about social...
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2005

New Komeito backs LDP reformers, rules out DPJ

New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki said Friday his party will stay the course and fully back the Liberal Democratic Party in the Sept. 11 general election because of its stance on reform.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Aug 19, 2005

Shimauta Paradise, Phuket Aroyna Tabeta: Urban oases for summertime dining

Trapped in Tokyo through another steamy summer and, not surprisingly, we are dreaming of south-sea islands. Sun-dappled beaches of pure white sand lapped by the calm, azure ocean; the wind soughing through fields of sugar cane; and a plate of stewed pigs' ears and goat sashimi washed down with high-octane...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 16, 2005

Moving and bank hassle

Moving expenses We need help negotiating with the new owner of our building. It is going to be demolished, and we have been told to leave.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Serving the best slice of modern Japanese literature

THE COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE, Volume I: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel, with poetry selections by Amy Vladeck Heinrich and Leith Morton, introduction by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005, 864 pp.,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Aug 11, 2005

Little grebe

* Japanese name: Kaitsuburi * Scientific name: Tachybaptus ruficollis * Description: Little grebes, also known as dabchicks, are quite small and rather dumpy birds with blunt rear ends. They are dark brown, with a chestnut-brown throat and face. This chestnut color becomes richer and more shiny...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 9, 2005

Koizumi calls election for Sept. 11

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives on Monday and called a general election for Sept. 11 a few hours after the House of Councilors voted down the government-sponsored postal privatization bills.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Aug 9, 2005

Do you believe in extraterrestrial life and what director do you think has depicted it the best?

Hiroshi Hashimoto Office worker, 26 Yeah, I hope so. Maybe they look like us. I think they have already made contact with some people -- some Americans. It might be like "War of the Worlds."
COMMENTARY
Aug 7, 2005

Legacy of tepid leadership

For Japanese, August is a gloomy month. In the Pacific War, which ended in August 60 years ago, more than 3 million Japanese troops died. In the final days of the war, U.S. forces dropped history's first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki following indiscriminate carpet bombings of Japanese cities...
EDITORIALS
Aug 3, 2005

Flawed crime bill threatens rights

The government has reportedly given up a plan to have the Diet enact within the current session a bill to enable Japan to join a multilateral treaty to combat international organized crime, but it intends to introduce it again in the next Diet session. The bill carries a danger of undermining a national...
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2005

Philippine crisis simmers

MANILA -- One and a half months after audio tapes surfaced allegedly showing President Gloria Arroyo cheated her way into office, the Philippines' political crisis is far from settled. There is a general feeling that the country has entered a period of political stalemate. While Arroyo's supporters declare...

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it