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Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / WALKING THE WARDS
Mar 2, 2007

Shinjuku's split personality

In Shinjuku, the first challenge is getting out of the station. Said to be the world's busiest; traversed by approximately 3 million commuters a day, Shinjuku has been a Japan Railways stop since 1885. The Chuo, Keio and Odakyu train lines as well as subway stops joined later, and the depot morphed into...
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...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'Paris, je t'aime'

It's a collage of miniatures, a collection of gemlike vignettes. In "Paris, je t'aime," 21 directors of various nationalities create 18 bite-size shorts (the longest being five minutes) about Paris, each one named after a Parisian neighborhood. Like a plate of hors d'oeuvres from a five-star restaurant...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 2, 2007

'The Last King of Scotland'

If you're thinking that "The Last King Of Scotland" is some kind of fantasy-sequel to "Braveheart," well, guess again. The "king" of the film's title is 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, who was a former barracks boy with the King's Highlanders, and liked to boast that his defiance of Uganda's British...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2007

End the killing of sentient beings

The whaling debate overlooks a most basic principal -- the fact that whales are sentient beings. They, along with dolphins, are the "people" of the oceans, as separate from fish as humans are from alligators. All other arguments for continued killing of whales have no validity from the point in modern...
EDITORIALS
Feb 28, 2007

Media must strive for accuracy

The blow-back continues from an incident involving the broadcast of falsified information on a variety show aired by Kansai Telecasting Corp. (known popularly as Kansai TV). The communications ministry plans to include a measure targeting the broadcast media in a bill to revise the Radio Law. Under the...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2007

Term 'gaijin' has run its course

We often hear the use of the word "gaijin" when referring to foreigners. But where does this word come from? It is a broken-down, easier way of saying "gaikokujin" or "gaikoku kara no kata." In the same sense, "Jap" is an easier way of saying "Japanese," but I wouldn't appreciate it if someone referred...
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2007

Pejorative reference to PR people

The Feb. 15 article headlined "Abe PR flack U.S.-bound for media spin control" is insulting to those of us in the public relations business, because both "flack" and "spin" are pejoratives that do not accurately convey the essence of what PR professionals actually do.
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2007

The obedient and unthinking life

Regarding Eric Larson's Feb. 14 letter, "An institutionalized hazing system" -- about what is happening in public schools in Iwate Prefecture: It is dreadful and it reminds me of the sad and horrible experiences during the flourishing militaristic period in the 1940s. I used to be afraid to go to school...
COMMENTARY
Feb 27, 2007

The legacy of failing to learn

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he will resign later this year. U.S. President George W. Bush's second term ends at the end of next year. These two may not have more vanity than other politicians, but in their final months they seem to be giving more thought than usual to their historical...
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2007

Indonesia decides to share

The fight against infectious diseases can be won only if all countries participate, sharing research and results. That's why Indonesia's recent decision to stop sharing samples of the H5N1 bird flu virus so alarmed public-health officials: It could have prevented researchers from working on one of the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Feb 27, 2007

Yoko Sagae

Yoko Sagae, 57, is the vice principal of the Toyomi Public Kindergarten in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Ms. Sagae has taken care of more than 1,700 children -- and their parents -- during her 31 years in early childhood education, and she is not about to stop. Loved by generations in the neighborhood where she...
JAPAN
Feb 27, 2007

Japan to help Mongolia develop mineral wealth

Visiting Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed a joint action plan Monday pledging expanded bilateral cooperation, including government talks on ways to utilize rich mineral resources in Mongolia.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 27, 2007

Death row: limbo of not knowing when

Japan is among 69 nations, including the United States, that have the death penalty.
BUSINESS
Feb 27, 2007

Move on Sapporo double-edged

The move earlier this month by U.S. hedge fund Steel Partners to acquire Sapporo Holdings Ltd. is again raising the specter in corporate Japan of foreign raiders taking over established Japanese companies to turn a quick profit.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2007

Baby-making brains

The "baby-making machine" comment by a senior politician continues to reverberate through Japanese society. One might forgive a slip of the tongue, yet whenever the age-old misunderstanding between men and women re-emerges, it always exposes more ironies and issues than, simply, whose turn it is to get...
Reader Mail
Feb 25, 2007

Lifting the stigma of depression

Regarding the Feb. 15 article "Masako book author spurns call to apologize": I agree with Australian author Ben Hills that the protest he received from the Japanese government over his depiction of the Imperial family in his biography of Crown Princess Masako is offensive, but perhaps for different reasons....
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2007

Yamaha helped METI craft export rules

SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) Yamaha Motor Co. helped the trade ministry in 2005 formulate stricter export controls on unmanned helicopters, investigative sources said Saturday.

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?