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JAPAN
Sep 11, 2009

Six years urged for crimes done as minor

SAITAMA — Prosecutors demanded a six-year prison term Thursday for a 20-year-old Filipino man, the first non-Japanese to be tried before a lay judge court since the new criminal trial system began in May.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 11, 2009

The eyes have it in this light show

When you have a venue that provides such ample exhibition space as the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT), it can be quite a challenge to find a single contemporary artist worthy to fill it. Earlier this year, Hitoshi Nomura, with a long, varied career and many large installations to his name, just about...
JAPAN
Sep 10, 2009

Hatoyama tries to tread line between change, status quo

OSAKA — When Yukio Hatoyama makes his international debut as the new prime minister later this month at the United Nations and in Pittsburgh at the Group of 20 Leaders' Summit, he'll be discussing Japan's new policies on everything from the environment to the global economy with President Barack Obama...
JAPAN
Sep 7, 2009

Do nation's new leaders lack economic vision?

Now that the electorate has overthrown the old guard, worries are growing that the nation's new leaders lack a long-term vision to turn around the hobbled economy.
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2009

Plan for warmer oceans

Last July was the hottest month for oceans in 130 years of record-keeping, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the U.S. government agency that keeps track of world weather records and their impact. Part of the mystery of global warming had long been where the heat was going. Scientists are...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 6, 2009

Murakami says players going to MLB not hurting NPB

Long before Hideo Nomo was making major league hitters look silly with an unorthodox windup and an unhittable forkball, or Ichiro Suzuki began rewriting the record books, pitcher Masanori Murakami was blazing the trail.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2009

Wonder Stuff give fans an encore

Anyone who knows anything about the U.K. pop scene understands how important the music weeklies are to the success of young artists, and while the Internet has undermined that influence they can still make or break a band. Miles Hunt should know. He and his group, The Wonder Stuff, were darlings of the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009

The ins and outs of competitive art shows

Michiyo Yamanaka probably devoted several weeks to creating the three abstract paintings she entered in this year's Nikaten, one of Japan's oldest and largest competitive art exhibitions. Heaven forbid she ever finds out how long it took the judges to condemn her efforts to oblivion: 18 seconds.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2009

'Distorted' in translation?

An opinion piece by Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama published in The New York Times has drawn flak in America over its apparent antiglobalization bent, prompting the presumptive prime minister to argue portions of his essay were "distorted" in translation.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2009

Bureaucrats jockey to face new management

The Liberal Democratic Party's crushing election defeat brings to an end its cozy relationship with the bureaucracy, which the victorious Democratic Party of Japan has promised to weaken.
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2009

Aso's all-time greatest blooper

Regarding the Aug. 25 article "Poor men too lowly to wed: Aso": Prime Minister Taro Aso's comments that people with little money would be better off not getting married and that it is difficult for him to understand how someone without pay can be seen as worthy of a partner's respect are, to say the...
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2009

Significant Japanese contribution

Regarding the Aug. 25 opinion article "Japan ready for 'no nukes' ": In a country like Thailand, which is a party to the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (Bangkok Treaty) of 1995, it is rewarding to learn that Japan is ready for "no nukes." If the antinuclear sentiment in Japan is sufficiently...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / Japan Pulse
Aug 29, 2009

To instant noodles, we slurp-salute you

We hail instant noodles, which appeared on this earth, on Aug. 25, 1958, with a list of some slurpalicioius faves.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 29, 2009

Consumer prices fall record 2.2%

Consumer prices fell at a record pace in July, adding to signs deflation will hamper a rebound from the nation's worst postwar recession, the government said Friday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 28, 2009

LDP heavyweight Koga running for his life

OMUTA, Fukuoka Pref. — For decades, voters in the Fukuoka No. 7 district, which encompasses the southern part of the prefecture, have always said, "Makoto ni arigato gozaimasu" come election time.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ELECTION 2009
Aug 28, 2009

Reduced pork would pit DPJ against builders

The opposition vows to slash public works spending if it wins the election. Keeping that promise may be tough in a nation where construction is the No. 5 employer and a political fundraiser.
Reader Mail
Aug 27, 2009

Bit too close to the mainstream

Regarding Grant Piper's Aug. 23 letter, "Letter from an alternate universe": While it is true we do not hear too much from "the far right" in Readers in Council, Piper's response to Satsuo Matsumoto's Aug. 20 letter ("Left keeps trying to disgrace Japan") has me wondering whether we live in the same...
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 27, 2009

Mindan fights for foreigners' local-level suffrage

Foreigners won't have the right to vote in Sunday's election but the national association of South Koreans, the largest ethnic group of permanent foreign residents, is waging a rare political campaign to win local-level suffrage because it believes there is too much at stake this time.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Aug 27, 2009

Publisher Yumiko Tsukuda

Yumiko Tsukuda, 45, is the founder of Anika Co. Ltd., a publishing house in Tokyo, that prints books about the town and residents of Tsukuda on Tsukishima Island. Originally from Chiba, Yumiko moved to Tsukuda in 1998, partly because the town shares her last name but also because she fell in love with...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 23, 2009

Sling some mud and have some election fun

Nothing I've read exemplifies the misdirection of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's campaign for the Aug. 19 Lower House elections better than a letter that appeared in last Tuesday's Asahi Shimbun from a reader who said he had to look up sekinin-ryoku after seeing it used in various LDP ads.
COMMENTARY
Aug 23, 2009

Japan has plenty of work to do in transforming how it governs

The world is changing dramatically and political governance is at stake.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 22, 2009

The right word and the right to choose it

If you are a foreigner living in Japan, odds are high that language learning has played a key role in your residency.
Japan Times
JAPAN / ELECTION 2009
Aug 21, 2009

Decentralization picking up steam?

OSAKA — Imagine, if you will, Japan in 2018. Following the historic Lower House election in 2009, the country passed legislation that abolished the 47 prefectures and thousands of smaller local governments.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 21, 2009

Roos gets to work, meets vice minister

New U.S. Ambassador John Roos began his official duties Thursday after presenting Emperor Akihito with his credentials.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 20, 2009

DPJ to shed light on secret pacts

Will the Democratic Party of Japan shine a light on the government's darkest security secrets if elected to power, and if so, how will this affect relations with the United States?

Longform

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