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Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 18, 2010

'Hearts and Minds'/'Winter Soldier'

There has been a lot of informed opinion lately suggesting that the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan has already become a "new Vietnam."
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 16, 2010

Nets taking real risk by hiring combative Johnson

NEW YORK — Given more time and fewer resources, Rod Thorn probably could have made a worse coaching choice than Avery Johnson . . . but damned if I can imagine who that micro-managing, playoff-pressure-leaking megalomaniac might be.
COMMENTARY
Jun 13, 2010

Japan-U.S. relations cry out for new management, dialogue

Ripples, frictions, uneasiness, concern and even dismay — these are the words by which most of the Japanese mass-media commentaries characterize present Japan-U.S. relations.
Reader Mail
Jun 10, 2010

Japan Tobacco working to cut risks

I would like to point out that Roger Pulvers' May 16 Counterpoint article, "Reality check, 2010: 'Smoking doesn't cause cancer' (Japan Tobacco)," misquotes Japan Tobacco as stating "we don't believe smoking causes cancer." We are disappointed to learn that The Japan Times ran an article with an inaccurate...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Jun 9, 2010

'Freshness' of Cabinet faces voter scrutiny

The Democratic Party of Japan was quick to see in weekend opinion polls a reversal in its sagging fortunes after Naoto Kan was voted in as its president. The new prime minister has formed a Cabinet whose ranks include opponents to scandal-tainted DPJ strongman Ichiro Ozawa, who quit as secretary general...
JAPAN
Jun 8, 2010

Kan's picks for DPJ limit Ozawa's role

Members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan approved on Monday the selection of new Prime Minister Naoto Kan's DPJ executives, with the influence of party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa conspicuously absent.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 5, 2010

No end to JBA's incompetence

Only the names change, but the story remains the same, someone wiser than I once said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Survival of the Dead'

Director George A. Romero kicked off the zombie genre in 1968 with his "Night of the Living Dead," and from the outset he used the undead menace to channel contemporary fears.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

The watcher of humankind: prizewinning director Cantet

Laurent Cantet's films are highly detailed, meticulously observed and they almost always take place in work situations.
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2010

Hatoyama quits as prime minister

Ending a turbulent eight months in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he will step down to take the blame for his Cabinet's plunging approval rate, brought on by funds scandals and the row over relocating a U.S. base in Okinawa.
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2010

Hatoyama finds SDP joining his foes

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration found itself in an increasingly tight spot Monday after the Social Democratic Party bolted from the ruling bloc and then turned around and signaled it would side with a no-confidence motion against the Cabinet.
COMMENTARY / World
May 30, 2010

Healing Thailand's broken spirit

BANGKOK — To pacify a divided nation, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva — blamed for a military crackdown on protesters that left more than 80 dead and 1,500 injured over two months — says Thailand needs to "heal the mind."
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
May 29, 2010

Futenma blame game in full swing

OSAKA — In the end, the only thing Friday's agreement between the United States and Japan on relocating the Futenma air base does is to yet again avoid fundamental questions and problems that both sides have long ignored in favor of a face-saving political agreement for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama....
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 29, 2010

Japan match gives Capello final look at squad

LONDON — In the National Football League he is called the Turk, the individual assigned by the organization to inform players when the team's roster has to be cut down. He will go to a player's room, knock on his door and utter the dreaded words:
EDITORIALS
May 26, 2010

A better way after a year

May 21 marked the first anniversary of the lay judges law's taking effect. The first trial in which lay judges took part started in August 2009. The system, aimed at increasing public participation in the delivery of criminal justice, is based on a June 2001 proposal by the government panel on reform...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
May 23, 2010

Experts fear Taiji mercury tests are fatally flawed

On May 10, in a front-page lead story headlined "Taiji locals test high for mercury," The Japan Times reported the results of tests by the National Institute of Minamata Disease (NIMD) that found "extremely high methyl-mercury (MeHg) concentrations in the hair of some residents of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture,...
COMMENTARY / World
May 20, 2010

Immigrants can buoy Japan

It is not possible to spend more than a few minutes with a Japanese diplomat or scholar without hearing the "C," namely China. Most of them are convinced that the People's Republic is expanding its global influence while Japan's is shrinking. The entire world, and most worryingly Asia, which used to...
COMMENTARY
May 14, 2010

Escape to electoral reform

LONDON — There has not been a coalition government in Britain since World War II, but people may have to get used to them. The May 6 election left both major parties — the Conservatives and Labour — short of a majority, and put history's also-rans, the Liberal Democratic Party, in the position...
EDITORIALS
May 14, 2010

Shape of citizens' justice

Some 20 Diet members, mostly Democratic Party of Japan members, have formed a Diet members' federation to consider the shape of the nation's judicial system. The federation formed on April 28 — one day after the No. 5 Prosecution Inquest Committee in Tokyo, a judicial review panel of 11 citizens, unanimously...
COMMENTARY
May 13, 2010

A blow to Spanish judicial independence

Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish "investigative magistrate" in charge of investigating crimes of national or international significance, is now himself under investigation. Conservative groups accuse Garzon of prevaricato judicial (roughly translated as "abuse of a judge's power") for having intentionally...
EDITORIALS
May 12, 2010

An inconclusive vote in Britain

There was no winner in last week's election in Britain. The Conservative Party took the most seats overall, but no party emerged with a clear majority, leaving the country facing the prospect of its first hung parliament since the 1970s. That underscores the depths of the divisions in Britain and the...

Longform

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