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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2008

Hillary has earned a place on the world stage

NEW YORK — So, why did he do it? What led U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to tap his former adversary, Sen. Hillary Clinton, to serve as his secretary of state, the face and voice of his foreign policy, his emissary to the world?
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 30, 2008

Every Japanese is party to their state's 'barbaric' legal murders

The death penalty brutalizes everyone connected with it: Judges and juries who pass it down, politicians who turn an evil or a blind eye to it, jailers, executioners, and more than anyone, the person whose life is extinguished by it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Nov 30, 2008

Kabuki rescued by national defeat

KABUKI'S FORGOTTEN WAR: 1931-1945, by James R. Brandon. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008, 466 pp., with photographs, $52 (cloth) The role that Japan's "classic" drama, kabuki, played during the 15-year "Sacred War" is largely undiscussed, and even in Japan itself it is usually ignored. Indeed,...
JAPAN
Nov 29, 2008

SDF mission comes to 'successful' end

Government officials expressed satisfaction Friday over the successful conclusion of the Self-Defense Forces missions in and near Iraq, but some experts complained that the pullout was long overdue.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 28, 2008

Defense of an artist who had lived as a slave

NEW YORK — Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Europe. Liberated from the complexity of knowing too much about the cruel past, the young people of Eastern Europe's postcommunist generation seem uninterested in what their parents and grandparents endured.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2008

Letting the Big Three fail risks a meltdown

WASHINGTON — The financial crisis that began in 2007 has been persistently marked by muddled thinking and haphazard policymaking. Now, the U.S. Treasury is headed for a mistake of historic and catastrophic proportions by refusing to bail out America's Big Three automakers.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 26, 2008

Too much for the Earth to bear

HONG KONG — The global financial crisis that has sent economies teetering from recession toward slump is preoccupying politicians and families worldwide, who see their livelihoods being snatched away by the consequences of the inventive greed of financial whiz kids.
COMMENTARY
Nov 25, 2008

West Coast appreciates destiny with Asia

LOS ANGELES — Serious intellectual narrowing can happen to even the brightest folk once nested down on the U.S. East Coast. They become preoccupied (almost neurotically, almost provincially) with the problems of the past — especially with the Middle East and Europe — and lose sight of the new problems...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2008

Obama offers new Asia tack: Vogel

Japan will continue to be a friend of the United States, but incoming President Barack Obama may try to approach China more to solve international issues because Beijing can more quickly effect policy, according to a noted American expert on Japan and China.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 25, 2008

Harajuku in peril?

As a dedicated follower of Japanese pop culture and the coauthor of a book on Japanese teen fashion, I confess that I'm getting a bit concerned about the direction in which the Harajuku district is headed these days.
Reader Mail
Nov 23, 2008

Anachronistic arms 'freedom'

Regarding Joseph Marriott's Nov. 16 letter, "Right to bear arms still relevant": While I respect Marriott's "right to bear arms," he does not have the right to bear arms anywhere near me. The "right to bear arms" is vaunted, it seems, proudly by many Americans as a sign of independence and freedom. That...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2008

Looking for ways to lure more visitors to these shores

What are people who work in the domestic tourism industry — from tour operators to inn owners to regional tourism promotion offices — doing to attract foreign visitors? Here are the voices of marketers from across Japan:
JAPAN
Nov 21, 2008

Aso to be LDP 'funeral director' for delaying poll?

Taro Aso was so confident that he would call a quick election after becoming prime minister in September that he postponed moving into the official residence.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2008

The green pseudo-revolution

COPENHAGEN — With a worldwide recession advancing, strong action on global warming has been thrown into jeopardy. This matters, because in little more than a year, the world will sit down in Copenhagen to negotiate the followup treaty to the failed Kyoto Protocol. Yet, with people losing jobs and income,...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Nov 19, 2008

Sweet dreams in the forest

A gray wall of cloud is sweeping away my view, and the color is being leached from the mountains beyond Sapporo as the drabness of an early winter evening descends. A week of falling mercury, winds from the north and rainfall have whisked away most of this autumn's browning leaves. We seem to have been...
JAPAN
Nov 19, 2008

Tezuka — keeper of 'manga' flame

"Manga" comics are ubiquitous in Japan and have become one of the country's most powerful cultural exports worldwide.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Nov 18, 2008

Keeping a close eye on the neighborhood news

You can live for years in a major city without knowing such a thing exists, but in more tranquil, less distracted settings, an unexpected ring of the doorbell as likely as not signals a neighbor bringing the kairanban (回覧板), an irregularly circulated newsletter put out by the local neighborhood...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Nov 18, 2008

Missed emissions goals add up to ¥4.4 trillion penalty

Twenty nations including Japan, Italy and Australia may be releasing more greenhouse gas pollution than they agreed to under the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan Times
Events / Events In Tokyo / WEEK 3
Nov 16, 2008

Scrolling past

In early November, Kazuo Yoshihara, an antiques expert with a 30-year career in the field, carefully opened a scroll painting in a room at the 14th Yokohama Kotto World fair.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Nov 16, 2008

Albirex trio enjoyed success together with Vermont Frost Heaves

Professional sports teams rarely sign three free agents from the same team at the same time. So, hey, maybe a classic case of serendipity can play a part in making it happen.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2008

Hu touches base with Obama on economy

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Guess who telephoned Barack Obama for one of the first, if not the first, substance-packed reachout to the next U.S. head of state. It was Chinese President Hu Jintao. The conversation focused on the global economic freeze, but Hu knew how to warm up the president-elect as well...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2008

'Blindess'

When chaos hits, no one is morally or philosophically unscathed. Such is the moral of "Blindness," based on Portuguese author Jose Saramago's 1995 best seller and adapted to the screen by Brazil's Fernando Meirelles ("City of God").
EDITORIALS
Nov 9, 2008

Need for reality checks

The line between real and virtual worlds has become more confused than ever. Two weeks ago, a woman was arrested after "killing" her virtual husband who had divorced her in an online game called "Maple Story." She was arrested not on charges of murder, but on charges of illegally accessing a computer...
COMMENTARY
Nov 9, 2008

McCain's heart wasn't really in it

LOS ANGELES — History's losers can emerge later as history's winners, especially in U.S. politics. John F. Kennedy lost his bid to become the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1956, but his televised concession speech helped to propel him into the White House four years later.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 9, 2008

Despite uncertain status, Powell, Guiel want to return to Japan

The most overrated story of this year in Japanese baseball might have been that tug of war back in the spring between the Orix Buffaloes and Fukuoka Softbank Hawks over the rights to American pitcher Jeremy Powell.
COMMENTARY
Nov 3, 2008

Different playbooks aimed at balancing Asia's powers

NEW DELHI — The Japan-India security agreement signed recently marks a significant milestone in building Asian power equilibrium. A constellation of Asian states linked by strategic cooperation and with shared common interests is becoming critical to instituting stability at a time when major shifts...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 2, 2008

Nothing funnier than a comedian in a kimono

RAKUGO: Performing Comedy and Cultural Heritage in Contemporary Tokyo, by Lorie Brau. Lexington Books, 2008, 274 pp., $75.00 (cloth) Of all the Japanese arts, rakugo traditional comedy is one of the most impenetrable for foreigners. The premise is simple: kimono-clad practitioners tell old funny stories...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Nov 1, 2008

Inside the Japanese pub

Mark Robinson, author of "Izakaya: The Japanese Pub Cookbook" (Kodansha International, May 2008) is recently back in Tokyo from New York, where he spent three weeks "signing books at stores like Barnes & Noble, meeting people and seeking inspiration."
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2008

Naturalist Nicol gives Prince Charles forest tour

SHINANO, Nagano Pref. — Emperor and Empress? Check. Prime Minister Taro Aso? Check. So who else did Britain's Prince Charles catch up with during his five-day visit to Japan? None other than longtime Japan Times columnist, naturalist and author C.W. Nicol.

Longform

A man offers prayers at Hebikubo Shrine in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward. The shrine is one of several across the country dedicated to the snake.
Shed your skin and reinvent yourself in the Year of the Snake