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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 25, 2008

Basking in the northern cold

Sapporo's famed Snow Festival — running this year from Feb. 5 to Feb 11. — began when a bunch of bored school kids in 1950 built a series of snow sculptures in Odori Park in the center of the city. Their enthusiasm during the hardships Japan was suffering after the war struck a chord with the population....
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2008

Kao's profit off 7% as cost of raw materials hits earnings

Kao Corp., the country's largest maker of personal-care products, said Wednesday its nine-month profit fell 7 percent as higher raw materials costs cut earnings from its soaps, shampoos and detergents.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2008

An Iranian lesson for Musharraf's critics

PRAGUE — As the future of both Pakistan and its president, Pervez Musharraf, wallow in uncertainty in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination, parallels are being drawn to the 1979 fall of the shah and the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Once again, a "pro-American" autocrat seems to be rapidly losing...
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2008

False choices for Tokyo

HONOLULU — A gloom is settling over Tokyo. A recent visit revealed deep and deepening frustration and anxiety as Japanese contemplate strategic options. Decision-makers in Tokyo have framed their choices in overly simple terms that do not reflect the range of possibilities in foreign and security policy....
Japan Times
JAPAN / ALSO OUT THERE
Jan 23, 2008

Mobage-town a rising-star site of mobile users, but filters loom

Just when mobile phone users may have thought the worldwide proliferation of video games and social networking services into the popular culture left little room for radical new tacks, the combination of the two has opened up new avenues.
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2008

Tokyo office rental growth set to slow with economy this year

Office rental growth in Tokyo may slip below 10 percent in 2008 for the first time in four years as the economy slows, cutting corporate spending, real estate brokers said.
COMMENTARY
Jan 22, 2008

An idea whose time has gone

LONDON — Back in the 1970s a political idea became very fashionable in Western Europe, and especially in Britain. This was the concept of multiculturalism — the belief that different immigrant and ethnic groupings, who were then pouring into the region, should be left to their own devices and allowed,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Jan 22, 2008

Where corporate care gets it right

In a spacious sunlit room, an infant is dawdled by his smiling nurse. Two toddlers fidgeting quietly in their sleep are patted by their doting teacher. Shelves are lined with infant formula, puzzles and a picture library that includes "The Hungry Caterpillar."
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA / ON: DESIGN
Jan 22, 2008

Naoto Fukusawa, the peg pencil, Gallery Le Bain and more

Naoto Fukusawa: Beech Boy
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2008

Insurrections push Philippines to the brink

MANILA —The current president of the Philippines, Gloria Arroyo, whose election in 2004 was deeply flawed, but probably not fraudulent, is currently beset by a sea of troubles that threaten to overwhelm her regime.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 20, 2008

62 foreign players signed by Japanese teams for 2008 season

This column, identifying the foreign players signed by the 12 Japan pro baseball teams, normally gets written in mid-to-late February. That's about the time the clubs have usually announced most of their non-Japanese acquisitions for the coming season.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

No need to speed our own extinction

I have been following recent incidents regarding whaling protesters. I have also read the information regarding the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources with specific note of the role that whales play in the marine ecosystem.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

Protests have become farcical

Regarding the Jan. 17 article "Sea Shepherd 'hostages' pawns, pirates?": Is there a bigger farce than the annual "whaling protests" by groups like Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd society? Last week we had a couple of men engage in what some called an act of piracy, while Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson...
EDITORIALS
Jan 20, 2008

Some good ideas, but can he do it?

In his second policy speech before the Diet, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda made clear that his administration has abandoned the basic policy line of his predecessor, Mr. Shinzo Abe, who called for a "departure from the postwar regime" and constitutional revisions. Symbolically, Mr. Fukuda did not use the...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jan 19, 2008

Anticipating our future with robots

Money talks and it doesn't mince words.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jan 19, 2008

Canadian garden of unity and reconciliation

"Hello," wrote an old Japan buddy back on her native British Columbian soil. "I've met a woman — Rumiko Kanesaka — who's helping build a Japanese garden on Salt Spring Island where I live. Would you like to talk with her?"
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 18, 2008

Serbia to choose EU orbit or isolation

MAYNOOTH, Ireland — On Saturday, Serbs go to the polls for the first round of a presidential election that may decide the country's future for decades to come.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’