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Reader Mail
Jan 3, 2007

Callous timing of 'justice'

Regarding the Dec. 26 front-page article "Four sent to the gallows": By having four death row inmates hanged on Christmas Day, Jinen Nagase, the current "justice" minister in Shinzo Abe's Cabinet, has shown utter contempt for all those Japanese citizens opposed to capital punishment.
Reader Mail
Jan 3, 2007

Wasteful outlays on 'research'

Regarding the Dec. 14 article "Research outlays soar to record 17.85 trillion yen (for fiscal 2005)": The story doesn't tell how all the expenditures for scientific and technological research by companies, universities and government-backed research institutes are really allocated.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 1, 2007

Defusing the dangers of nuclear proliferation

North Korea test-fired a series of ballistic missiles and carried out a nuclear test in 2006. If the policy goal of the Bush administration was to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, it has failed.
EDITORIALS
Dec 31, 2006

Japan turns a corner

The year 2006 will go down in history as a turning-point year during which Japan experienced a resurgence in nationalist sentiment and felt a weakening in the influence of the lessons from its modern wars (1930s through 1945). As a result, concerns have mounted that the pillars of Japan's postwar democracy...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Dec 31, 2006

Test where you stand on 'shared Japanese values'

Perhaps it is fitting on this, the last day of 2006, to look back at the year and reflect on the state of Japanese culture, society and life.
EDITORIALS
Dec 27, 2006

The U.N. votes, Iran ignores

The United Nations Security Council at long last voted to impose sanctions on Iran for its continuing pursuit of uranium enrichment in defiance of the international community. The Tehran government immediately dismissed the U.N. move and vowed to step up nuclear activities. The stage is thus set for...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 24, 2006

Giving life-affirming gifts without dipping into your pocket

With the gift-giving season upon us, it is as good a time as any to think about the gift that keeps on giving -- your organs. Another reason to think about organ donation is that on Tuesday the Matsuyama District Court will sentence a 59-year-old man who was convicted of buying a kidney from a woman....
Japan Times
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2006

Besieged tax chief Honma steps down

Tax Commission chief Masaaki Honma, under fire over allegations that he used his government apartment to house a lover but yet advocated the selloff of such state-subsidized properties, resigned Thursday, dealing another blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's falling approval ratings.
COMMENTARY
Dec 21, 2006

Kremlin fears for its Far East

LONDON -- I don't suppose you read the piece in the Russian newspapers about customs officials' activities in the Russian Far East, at the Poltvaka customs checkpoint in Oktyabrsky County in southern Primorski krai on the Chinese border? It was a very interesting article about how a truck, which had...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 21, 2006

New show offers breakthrough installation

About a month ago at Tokyo's Shugoarts, photographer Yasumasa Morimura gave a performance in which he coopted the speech author Yukio Mishima gave from the balcony of the Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo in 1970 before committing ritual seppuku inside the building. In his performance, Morimura...
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2006

LDP will not accept contributions from banks, Abe decides

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday the ruling Liberal Democratic Party will not accept political donations from major banks, whose plans to resume contributions have drawn heavy criticism.
EDITORIALS
Dec 17, 2006

'Defense Ministry' will bear watching

The legislation just enacted to upgrade the Defense Agency to ministry status and revise the Self-Defense Forces Law will significantly change the character of the Self-Defense Forces, which has assumed a low-profile posture under the nation's strictly defensive security policy, reflecting the nation's...
CULTURE / Books
Dec 17, 2006

Getting the best view of Japan's history

JAPAN AND THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS: Complete Record of Reported Events 1853-1899, compiled and introduced by Terry Bennett. Global Oriental, 2006, 411 pp., with illustrations, £125 (cloth). The Illustrated London News was among the first journals to carry illustrations of contemporary events. The...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 12, 2006

Students spread their wings

Ever since Japan opened its doors to the West, English has been zealously studied in Japan's high schools, night schools, universities and companies.
JAPAN
Nov 25, 2006

National security debate mushrooming since Oct. 9

security debate has been lacking. (We) have just come to think about how we should cope with various developments in the real world, as people in other countries do," Nukaga said. The long taboo of discussing going nuclear was most recently broached by Shoichi Nakagawa, LDP policy chief. Nakagawa said...
COMMENTARY
Nov 20, 2006

Know the goals of military intervention

In a Washington Post article reprinted in these pages on Oct. 10, "The humanitarian war myth," Eric Posner writes: "If the United Nations were to have its way, the Iraqi debacle would be just the first in a series of such wars -- the effect of a well-meaning but ill-considered effort to make humanitarian...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Nov 18, 2006

Shigeko Tanaka

Shigeko Tanaka says she has two very good reasons for going often to England. Those reasons are her daughters, both of whom live there.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Nov 14, 2006

Beneath the surface

A converted bean storehouse in a Kyoto back-street is the unusual venue for an innovative introduction to traditional Japanese culture. During just one busy day, participants in the Origin Arts Program can try their hand at the ancient martial art of "Waraku," tea ceremony, calligraphy and Noh theater....
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2006

Vatican places state of limbo in limbo

HONG KONG -- Theologians of the Roman Catholic Church are recommending the abolition of a special place that has existed for more than 2,000 years and enriched the world of literature and politics, as well as theology. Pope Benedict XVI himself has given his clear opinion, as an eminent theologian, that...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 12, 2006

Cameron Diaz presses all the right buttons for SoftBank

For some insight into the ruckus that SoftBank kicked up when it relaunched its mobile phone service with a zero-yen-per-call plan, check out its new ads and compare them with the competition's. NTT DoCoMo's ads showcase no less than seven famous personalities (eight if you count female comedy duo Othello...
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2006

Closing a respectful distance

Communications Minister Yoshihide Suga's order on Friday that the international shortwave radio service of NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corp.) devote more of its broadcast coverage to the past abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents could open the door to government interference in news reporting....
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2006

On cue with the ministry's script

The recent revelation that the government has manipulated the process of promoting education reform raises the basic question of whether the government is morally qualified for education-related administration at a time when the Diet is discussing a bill to revise the Fundamental Law of Education.
JAPAN
Nov 9, 2006

NHK closer to getting order on North reports

The Radio Regulatory Council, an advisory committee to the internal affairs and communications minister, Wednesday approved a ministerial directive to NHK to increase its reporting on North Korea's abductions of Japanese on its shortwave radio programs.
JAPAN
Nov 7, 2006

Hawks circling as Constitution turns 60

may be unable to participate in some missions due to the provision, even if all U.N. members are taking part. It is time to make a change." Since the first overseas deployment of the SDF on a minesweeping mission to the Persian Gulf in 1991 after the Gulf War, the scope of international military involvement...
JAPAN
Nov 4, 2006

Law schools grope to create better lawyers

and his Criminal Case Clinic students at Omiya Law School in Saitama Prefecture have a discussion earlier this year. PHOTO COURTESY OF OMIYA LAW SCHOOL

Longform

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