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JAPAN
Mar 8, 2007

Aussie skiers spark land boom in Niseko

"When I started the business, people told me 'Ben, you're crazy, it's too expensive,' " he said. "But our buyers were saying the opposite: 'Ben, you're crazy. Why is it so cheap?' " suggesting properties in the area are still underpriced compared with overseas ski resorts.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2007

Realizing the potential of an aging society

Japanese society stands on the cusp of change. Starting from this year, large numbers of the postwar baby-boom generation will reach retirement age -- the so-called "2007 problem." The country's over-65 population already stands at 25.6 million, more than 20 percent of the total, and this percentage...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 8, 2007

Freedom leaves us consumed by doubt

On a small raised platform, a lone dancer, naked except for his white pants, slowly twists his convoluted body around metal chains suspended from the ceiling. Twelve other dancers, similarly undressed and bald, watch in silence from all angles of the tiny studio, their own bodies stretching and contracting...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 8, 2007

Overcoming Africa's north-south divide

PRAGUE -- The late President Mobutu Sese Seko of former Zaire once declared that the north African countries, which pride themselves on their Arabic descent, should be excluded from the then Organization of African Unity.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2007

Keep helping ex-sex slaves: Murayama

Kono's statement (in 1993). I trust it. I'm not in a position to say" anything about Abe's remarks. The government's 1993 statement, read by Kono, included an apology for forcing foreign women into sexual servitude.
Reader Mail
Mar 7, 2007

Yasukuni's spiritual integrity

Illuminate new facts and reinterpret old facts to develop a more accurate and truthful understanding of what happened in East Asia between, say, the middle of the 19th century and the end of World War II? Fine. With a focus on Japan, China and the United States during the 1930s and 1940s? Fine. This...
Reader Mail
Mar 7, 2007

Use 'expatriate,' not 'foreigner'

It is with the greatest pleasure that I read Hidesato Sakakibara's Feb. 28 letter, "Term 'gaijin' has run its course." For as long as I have lived in Japan I've detested that little word, which really is as offensive as "Jap" and should be gotten rid of.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 6, 2007

The prime minister's official hub

Kantei, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, is always a center of attention, particularly in times of national crisis, including when a big earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture in October 2004 and when North Korea tested a nuclear weapon last October.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Mar 6, 2007

'52 coup plot bid to rearm Japan: CIA

Declassified documents reveal that Japanese ultranationalists with ties to U.S. military intelligence plotted to overthrow the Japanese government and assassinate the prime minister in 1952.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2007

Eastern challenge to West European jobs

MUNICH -- In January, the European Union expanded eastward once again. Following the "Big Bang" enlargement of 2004, which added 75 million new EU citizens, the accession of Romania and Bulgaria has added 30 million more. What does this mean for the labor markets of Western Europe?
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Mar 4, 2007

Complaints about officials ring hollow

LONDON -- Unless the Football Association brings in members of a jury from California, where no star can be found guilty it seems, Arsene Wenger, Dave Jones and Paul Jewell will have the book thrown at them -- albeit a small book.
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2007

Japanese publishers accountable?

Regarding the Feb. 23 article "Mag on foreigner crime not racist: editor": I would like to comment on editor Shigeki Saka's remark that publisher Eichi's special magazine edition "Shocking foreigner crime: the underground file" does contain "a little bit of extreme expressions for commercial purposes."...
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2007

Soldier confirms wartime sex slavery

South Korea lashed out Saturday at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for disavowing Japan's responsibility for using Asian women as sex slaves for its troops in World War II. Abe said Thursday there was no proof that "comfort women" were forced into sexual slavery during the war.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 4, 2007

Shooting arrows to the end of the universe

Zen Bow, Zen Arrow: The Life and Teachings of Awa Kenzo, the Archery Master from "Zen in the Art of Archery", by John Stevens. Boston/London: Shambahala, 2007, 104 pp. with photographs, $12.95 (paper). Archery, or kyudo, "the Way of the bow," has a venerable Asian history. Confucius recommended it as...
Reader Mail
Mar 4, 2007

Working until the last minute

I'm in the ninth month of pregnancy and still working in an office. It was very difficult to find an ob/gyn hospital open till 8 or 9 p.m.; most are open only till 3 to 5 p.m. Even female nurses don't understand working women's feelings in a male-dominated working world. Some nurses at the hospital where...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Mar 3, 2007

Walter Roberts

His father asked him, when he was about 5 years old, what he wanted to be when he grew up. The little boy Walter Roberts replied, "I want to be an actor."
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2007

Risk of interconnectedness

Plummeting stock markets this week marked the first time that a plunge in the Shanghai market has triggered a chain reaction worldwide. It underscores the weight China carries in the world's economy and financial markets as well as the interconnectedness between the Chinese economy and the economies...
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2007

Robots strut their human compatibility

The custom of serving tea is getting futuristic in University of Tokyo research about how robots and other technology can support and blend with human life.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2007

China makes due with cosmetic changes

HONG KONG -- With the approach of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government is making all kinds of preparations to host the games and to welcome foreign visitors and athletes. It knows that the eyes of the world are increasingly turning to China.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Matsugane Ransha Jiken'

Nobuhiro Yamashita is one of the great comic talents working in Japanese films and also one of the most unusual. Unlike the many directors and actors here who equate "funny" with "over the top," Yamashita is low-key, ironic and very sharp. If he were an American he might have written for "Curb your Enthusiasm,"...
CULTURE / Music
Mar 2, 2007

DJ Kentaro "Enter"

DJ Kentaro is best known for his furious cut 'n' scratch performances that won him the coveted DMC World Championship title in 2002 with a perfect score. Kentaro's mixing forte has always been his ability to span genres with seamless dexterity, and its this ambivalence toward sticking to one style that...

Longform

Passengers that were on a morning train attacked by members of the Aum Shinrikyo group wait for medical assistance outside Kasumigaseki Station on March 20,1995.
The day a religious cult brought terror to Tokyo