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COMMENTARY / World
Oct 24, 2006

The rising wealth of nations

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut -- The new Penn World Table, Version 6.2, comparing standards of living across countries, has just been released. The latest figures are for 2004, and, because of data lags, not all countries are included. Yet these numbers are valuable because they are of exceptional quality and...
SOCCER
Oct 21, 2006

Ono making impact off bench

SAITAMA -- Injury-jinxed midfielder Shinji Ono has given Guido Buchwald a boost by saying he is prepared to help Urawa Reds in their quest for the J. League title by starting games on the bench.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 12, 2006

Fumio Nanjo's vision comes to the fore

The departure of director David Elliott from the Mori Art Museum to take over the Istanbul Modern in Turkey is the first major leadership change at Japan's largest privately endowed cultural institution. Though it was not without controversy, Elliott's tenure saw the 3-year-old museum develop into what...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2006

Telling another side of the story

James Bradley wrote the book "Flags of Our Fathers," on which one of Clint Eastwood's new films is based. "Flags" tells the true story of what is arguably the most famous photo in warfare, taken as his father and five other marines raised the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima in 1945.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 11, 2006

Bizarre rodents confound a venerable theory of aging

We've all heard the claims. Drink enough green tea and you'll live to be 100. Eat tofu every day to protect against cancer. Recently, there's even been research suggesting that eating curry helps to boost brain power.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2006

Iraq's Christians at risk of annihilation

LONDON -- The world is consumed by fears that Iraq is degenerating into a civil war between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But in this looming war of all against all, it is Iraq's small community of Assyrian Christians that is at risk of annihilation.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 5, 2006

A differing view on the war on terror

NEW YORK -- Recent revelations in The New York Times on the fight against terrorism and the war on Iraq present a differing view on the problem worth pondering about. According to classified information in the National Intelligence Estimate leaked to the Times, the American invasion and occupation of...
JAPAN
Sep 30, 2006

Give Yasukuni a miss: New Komeito

must step on the accelerator for structural reforms . . . but when the LDP goes too far, we need to (say) wait a minute" and hit the brakes, he said. Although Abe has not clearly stated if he will visit the shrine again, he did go to in April while serving as chief Cabinet secretary, a trip that was...
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 29, 2006

Finding the finest foods from afar

Tokyo is not just one of the world's great restaurant cities, it's equally good for those who prefer to cook at home. Name the country or cuisine: Chances are you can find whatever ingredients you need, if not at your local supermarket, then certainly without having to leave the metropolis.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 26, 2006

Profiles of new LDP leadership

Hidenao Nakagawa Veteran politician Hidenao Nakagawa ascended to the position of secretar general, or second in command, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party despite scandals still dogging him.
MORE SPORTS
Sep 25, 2006

DQ robs Jamaica's Powell of chance to break record in 100M

YOKOHAMA -- World record-holder Asafa Powell was disqualified before the 100 meters at the Seiko Super Meet on Sunday and Japan's Shingo Suetsugu seized his opportunity to race to victory.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Sep 25, 2006

Many fears, few hopes haunt Japan's transition

"Children should be seen and not heard."
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 24, 2006

Koizumi's Shake, Rattle & Roll

Elvis impersonator? Japan's Thatcher? Faction buster? Nah, as the curtain falls on the Koizumi show, he will be remembered above all for his missed opportunities and self-indulgent gestures at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo -- that, and steamrollering the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 into oblivion....
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2006

New EC envoy catching up on changes

an ambassador. I wanted to be the ambassador to Japan," said Richardson, European Commission envoy, in a recent interview with The Japan Times. "I'm busy trying to understand Japan again, trying to understand what's changed, and what's the same. Very exciting." The 59-year-old Briton first arrived in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Sep 22, 2006

On a pathway to the divine

Since it acquired the status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, more people have naturally felt inclined to see the temples and monasteries of Koyasan in Wakayama Prefecture for themselves. But more than a few visitors to the complex find that its heavy Buddhist religiosity and the funereal gloom...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Sep 20, 2006

Nature's pulse at Asia's heart

It's September, autumn is around the corner, and here in Hokkaido where I live we have already had the first dusting of snow.
COMMENTARY
Sep 19, 2006

Ugly finale to bogus pretexts

The fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on New York's World Trade Center by Islamic militants has come and gone, leaving some glaring contrasts in its wake.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 19, 2006

End of the Lion

The mythmaker Jim Frederick TIME Magazine The most difficult aspect of reporting on Koizumi was confronting the fixed, immutable and monolithic "Koizumi Myth." What started as a campaign plank -- "Koizumi is a reformer and a rebel who is destroying the LDP and reinvigorating Japan" -- somehow became...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Ozawa rallies DPJ with calls for change

The leader of a nation must have ambition above all else, and if he doesn't have it he should quit immediately, said Ichiro Ozawa, who started his new term as president of the Democratic Party of Japan on Tuesday.
SUMO
Sep 5, 2006

Lights, camera, action -- 'Hakuho for Yokozuna' -- Take II!

September's Aki Basho approaches and as was the case prior to Nagoya in July, with it comes the talk of how Mongolian ozeki Hakuho will fare; whether or not he'll be performing the yokozuna dohyo-iri alongside yokozuna Asashoryu at the next tournament.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 3, 2006

Toeing the line may take a name-change for the LDP

It's September, and Japan is in the grips of selection fever. This month Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi steps down, and the ever-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will choose a new president. To all intents and purposes, due to the party's parliamentary dominance, selection of an LDP leader is...
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2006

Slighting the air-raid victims

This summer I saw three Japanese movies -- two documentaries and a feature -- depicting the plight of World War II victims.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Aug 27, 2006

An underclass returns -- and with it, what?

All indications are that Japan is reverting to prewar norms. I am not referring solely to the new nationalism, bolstered by Japan's increasingly aggressive military stances, but rather to the notion of social equality -- or inequality -- that is being created for its citizens today.
BASKETBALL
Aug 26, 2006

Colangelo hoping for basketball boom in Japan

SAPPORO -- Jerry Colangelo, managing director of the 2006-08 USA Basketball senior national team and the chairman of the Phoenix Suns, was the key person in bringing superstars like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony onto Team USA for the FIBA World Championship 2006.
BASKETBALL
Aug 23, 2006

Worlds are latest stop for Simon

HIROSHIMA -- If evaluating basketball talent is your job, the FIBA World Championship is a good place to be.
EDITORIALS
Aug 21, 2006

Internet dangers abound

This year's annual National Police Agency white paper, titled "Toward Building a Safe Internet Society," focuses on the dark side of the Internet, including its negative influences on children and its use in cyber-crime. It correctly points out that as Internet-related information and communication networks...

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat