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BUSINESS
Aug 28, 2008

India cuts red tape to clear way for Japanese investment

It is not too late for Japanese businesses to enter the fast-growing Indian market in light of deregulation of foreign investment, according to a leading Indian lawyer and investment consultant.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2008

What the West can do to support Georgia

TBILISI — Given the tremendous damage that Russia has inflicted on Georgia, it is easy to conclude that the Kremlin has achieved its objectives. But, so far, Russia has failed in its real goal — getting rid of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's prodemocracy, pro-American president. For three years, Russia...
COMMENTARY
Aug 26, 2008

Missile defense scam scores points for all

LONDON — Cynicism and hypocrisy are always part of international politics, but in the case of Poland and the antiballistic missiles (ABM) everybody is over-fulfilling their norm.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 24, 2008

It's time for perfectly cute 50-year-old Japanese women

Madonna turned 50 on Aug. 16. The milestone was marked by a predictable barrage of commentary about "50 being the new 40" and how women no longer dread the half-century mark. Everybody is trying to eat better and exercise more, and cosmetic surgery isn't the big taboo it once was. But since the subject...
COMMENTARY
Aug 18, 2008

Natural enemy of warming

Severe drought reduced wheat production in Australia by as much as 60 percent in 2006. Other forms of climate change led to lower harvests of other farm products throughout the world. In a market economy, a decline in crop output results in excessive demand and spiraling prices, which in turn causes...
BUSINESS
Aug 14, 2008

Japan's insurers look abroad as profits fall

Slowing premium growth may force Japan's insurance companies to seek more takeovers abroad to counter declining profits in the world's most rapidly aging country.
EDITORIALS
Aug 8, 2008

Let the dream-come-true begin

The Beijing Olympics which are being held from Friday through Aug. 24 under the slogan "One world, one dream" are a dream-come-true for China and its people. Chinese leaders in Beijing hope that the Games will showcase the country's economic development and modernization, and serve as a springboard for...
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 7, 2008

Stop criticizing China, it has come so far

BEIJING — When I was at school, sports lessons included an exercise where we threw hand grenades (made from wood topped with metal to resemble the real thing) against a wall over which a red slogan had been stretched offering the reason for such a militaristic pastime: "Exercise our bodies and protect...
BUSINESS
Jul 31, 2008

IMF supports BOJ's wait-and-see attitude

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The International Monetary Fund is pressing Japan to maintain its "accommodative" monetary policy for a little longer as its economy faces downside risks.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 22, 2008

Whaling: the meat of the matter

Whales are magnificent creatures I have always dreamt of seeing in the flesh. However, tucking into a slab of whale steak at a restaurant in Tokyo was not what I had in mind. Nevertheless, this was a close encounter with one of the world's largest mammals that I felt I could not duck out of: If I was...
JAPAN
Jul 18, 2008

Seoul rejects offer of talks in Singapore

Seoul has rejected a proposal to meet on the sidelines of an international security forum starting Tuesday in Singapore to discuss the diplomatic row that has erupted over Tokyo's claim to South Korea-held islets in the Sea of Japan, Japanese officials said Thursday.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 16, 2008

Lives and a death

CHUKOTKA, Russia — This month, instead of writing this column as usual at my desk in Hokkaido, I am writing from a desk on board the Clipper Odyssey as we cross the Gulf of Anadyr in Russia's far northeastern Chukotka region. Our voyage began at Otaru, Hokkaido, and we have taken in southern Sakhalin,...
COMMUNITY
Jul 15, 2008

Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global: readers' responses

A number of readers wrote to the Community Page in response to John Spiri's June 17 Zeit Gist article on Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yukihisa Fujita. Following is a selection of the responses.
JAPAN / G8 SUMMIT 2008
Jul 9, 2008

More nuclear power OK'd

TOYAKO, Hokkaido — The Group of Eight leaders gave the green light Tuesday to expanded development of nuclear power, saying it is a vital energy source in the fight against global warming.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2008

Cardboard coffins boast eco-merit

As more consumers pursue environmentally friendly lives, businesses are introducing products and services catering to those quests.
Japan Times
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jul 4, 2008

NGOs worried Africa will get short shrift

When the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama drew to a close May 30, Sayaka Funada-Classen, leader of a Tokyo-based nongovernmental organization, felt the years of engagement with the government had partly paid off.
JAPAN / G8 COUNTDOWN
Jul 1, 2008

Foreign reporters covering G8 face harassment: media group

When Chu Hoi Dick arrived at Narita International Airport last Thursday to cover events related to next week's Group of Eight summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, he never imagined it would take nearly 20 hours to clear Immigration and set foot on Japanese soil.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 29, 2008

Foreigners flourish in the realm of Japanese arts

Japan has come a long way since the era of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), arguably the world's most famous and certainly the first Western Japanophile. Before Hearn, a Greek-Irishman who married the daughter of a local samurai in remote and rural Shimane Prefecture, and also took on Japanese citizenship,...
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

Antiforeign attitude unchanged

Regarding the June 21 article "Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants": Most wealthy advanced countries have a long, open history of allowing immigration because they accept it as their international duty. Although the trend has more recently been to try to curtail this, the percentage of immigration...
Reader Mail
Jun 26, 2008

The real risks from mad cows

The June 21 feature "South Korean Netizens mad over mad cow" wastes a great deal of space detailing the more ridiculous fears of South Koreans while ignoring the very real threat that does exist, not only to Koreans but to Japanese alike.
BUSINESS
Jun 26, 2008

Unhappy shareholders start gunning for underperforming managers

A year ago, executives at publicly traded companies defeated all 85 proposals put forward at general shareholders' meetings by investors seeking higher returns. Shareholders are going after the managers themselves this year.
JAPAN
Jun 25, 2008

U.S. notifies Tokyo of plan to delist North

Washington has notified Tokyo of its plan to start the process Thursday of striking North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism if Pyongyang files a declaration of its nuclear activities, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday.
BUSINESS
Jun 21, 2008

Marubeni targets 43% jump in carbon-credit sales by 2012

Marubeni Corp., the only Japanese trading house that's a member of the European Climate Exchange, is targeting a 43 percent increase in carbon-credit sales as the country approaches a 2012 deadline to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 17, 2008

Lawmaker takes 9/11 doubts global

In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed...
BUSINESS
Jun 11, 2008

Machinery orders show 5.5% rebound

Machine orders rose in April after falling for two consecutive months as companies replaced aging equipment, but economic and fiscal policy chief Hiroko Ota said demand is still weak.
EDITORIALS
Jun 2, 2008

Fifth most peaceful nation

Japan may no longer be No. 1 in economic efficiency, but it is now No. 5 in "peacefulness," according to the Global Peace Index (GPI), an annual report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. In the recently released survey on world peace, Japan moved up one place from 2007 to become the fifth most peaceful...

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’