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Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Nov 25, 2005

Put on your party hats

Welcome to CoZmo, a cafe and bar on the edge of Shibuya where it abuts Aoyama. And meet Ronna Wagenheim, its creator, proprietor, head chef and host. With the assistance of only one hand on deck, the charming Junella Hidaka, Ronna opens her hip retreat every night to escapees from the madness down the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

LDP, at 50, goes after Constitution

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged Tuesday to put the nation on a reform path to meet the challenge of a rapidly changing world, and to this end presented his party's blueprint to amend the Constitution for the first time to bring the charter in line with global realities.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 23, 2005

LDP at 50 still rules, Koizumi permitting

The Liberal Democratic Party celebrated its 50th anniversary Tuesday and vowed to press ahead with reforms.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 17, 2005

Strategic changes for Japan-U.S. alliance

HONOLULU -- Much of the American and Japanese news coverage of the new security agreement between Washington and Tokyo has focused on its political aspects but overlooked the far-reaching strategic changes it has projected for the revitalized alliance.
JAPAN
Nov 15, 2005

Rokkasho drawing proliferation flak

OSAKA -- As Japan moves forward with plans to conduct further uranium tests in the near future at the Rokkasho nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture in preparation for full operations in 2007, it faces growing pressure from the international community to give up some control of the process....
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2005

Beijing appears more apt to seek flu help

HONG KONG -- China's appeal to the World Health Organization for help to determine whether three cases of "pneumonia caused by unknown factors" in Hunan province could have been the result of the H5N1 virus indicates that Beijing is taking the threat of bird flu seriously.
COMMENTARY
Nov 14, 2005

Enhanced order of security

Japan and the United States on Oct. 29 issued an interim report agreeing to expand military cooperation in connection with the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan. The agreement is intended to adapt the bilateral alliance to better deal with changes in the security environment in the Asia-Pacific region....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 13, 2005

Companies fixing sights on elite as 'lower class' refuse to spend

Boosters of corporate-led globalization like to say that markets are more efficient economic equalizers than governments are. Whether or not you believe this, it only makes sense if you also believe that everyone in the world has the same desire to buy things.
CULTURE / Music / THE SECOND ROOM
Nov 11, 2005

Psychedelic radar 11.11

Saturday, Nov. 12
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Nov 10, 2005

Abe suggests he'll still go to Yasukuni in new post

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, a front runner to be the next prime minister, hinted Wednesday he will keep visiting the contentious Yasukuni Shrine.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2005

'Morality police' on a rampage in India

MADRAS, India -- When the mullahs in Iran curbed personal freedom, Indian political leaders cried out loudly and called them names. Yet, India is now witnessing the same frightening restrictions on individual rights.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Nov 2, 2005

Recalling fond memories of eiders

It's getting to that time of year when I air out my down-filled sleeping bag. No big field trips are planned for this year, but I do like to spend a few nights in the woods, a campfire going, with no phones (no, not even a cell phone), no television and no mosquitoes.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 31, 2005

Is the American dream now a mirage?

NEW YORK -- Is the American dream just a mirage now? Earlier this year the Wall Street Journal ran a series called "Challenges to the American Dream," casting into doubt the "staple of America's self-portrait" that "a child born in poverty isn't trapped there." If that was putting the matter delicately,...
JAPAN
Oct 31, 2005

Koizumi wants legal basis for military

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced hope Sunday that the Constitution will be revised to clearly stipulate the nation's possession of military forces for self-defense.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 30, 2005

Series wins surprisingly easy for Marines, White Sox

Are you surprised at how easily the Chiba Lotte Marines and Chicago White Sox won, respectively, the Japan Series and World Series?
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2005

How clear is Japan's future?

The editors of three leading British journals (The Times, The Financial Times and The Economist) have recently visited Japan and reported positively on Japan's economic prospects. They noted that Japan had largely recovered from "the lost decade." The Economist was bullish, heading its recent supplement...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 23, 2005

Best to dig deep and study language from its roots

W hen I was growing up in Los Angeles during the 1950s, the L.A. County Board of Education decided that the children of the city should learn Spanish. While the language was not made compulsory, it was taught to us regularly with the usual visual aids, such as pictures of elephants, giraffes, mountains...
EDITORIALS
Oct 19, 2005

What is Mr. Koizumi thinking?

His landslide victory in the Sept. 11 snap elections and the Diet passage on Oct. 14 of the postal services privatization bills apparently have emboldened Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. He made his fifth visit to the Yasukuni Shrine since he came to power in 2001 on Monday, which marked the start...
JAPAN
Oct 18, 2005

Packaging costs lawsuit filed

A major supermarket chain filed a 616 million yen damages compensation lawsuit Monday against the government and a state-backed corporation, claiming that a recycling law that obliges retailers to shoulder most of the costs of recycling plastic containers is unconstitutional.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 16, 2005

No point in going if you can't wait in line

The next time you go to Tokyo Disneyland and find yourself waiting an inordinate length of time for five minutes of thrills on Space Mountain, spare a thought for Hung Wah-fung, who is certainly thinking of you -- or, more precisely, your situation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 13, 2005

Pop mystification

Sigmar Polke has a lot in common with the medieval alchemists with whom he identifies. Like them, he is interested in transmutation, sometimes employing pigments and techniques that make his paintings change over time. Like those pseudo-scientists of the past, he uses a combination of mystification and...
COMMENTARY
Oct 12, 2005

New authoritarian ways cross the line

LONDON -- At the recent Labour Party Conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair criticized the British criminal justice system. He said it needed toughening and called for "a radical extension of summary powers to police and local authorities" to deal with antisocial behavior and prevent terrorism.
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2005

Constitution panel mulls referendum bill

A new House of Representatives panel began debate Thursday on establishing legislation on procedures for a national referendum on revising the Constitution.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 6, 2005

You cannot force them to sing it in Japan, or to listen in London

"In this 60th anniversary year of the end of the war . . . I thought it was the right time to ask about Japan's current movement toward constitutional revision -- especially the revision of (war-renouncing) Article 9," said 53-year-old Ai Nagai, founder of Nitosha (Two Rabbits) Theater Company, as she...
JAPAN
Oct 5, 2005

High courts not on same page on Yasukuni visits

Last week's conflicting high court rulings on Prime Minister's contentious visits to Yasukuni Shrine showed that the judicial system of the world's second-largest economy is sharply divided on the politically sensitive issue.
COMMENTARY
Oct 4, 2005

DPJ out to change its ways

The rout of the Democratic Party of Japan in the Sept. 11 Lower House election raises the question: Will it be able to recoup its losses and make itself strong enough to snatch power from the Liberal Democratic Party?
EDITORIALS
Oct 3, 2005

Winning doesn't make him right

The Osaka High Court on Friday found unconstitutional Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's three visits to Yasukuni Shrine from 2001 to 2003. The court said the visits violated Article 20, Section 3, of the Constitution, which prohibits religious education and any other "religious" activity by the state...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 2, 2005

A stinging voice of conscience who told it like it is

He would have turned 80 this month. And in our time of ill-lived religious fanatics and retrograde policy planners, we feel his loss all the more.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2005

Harumi Kurihara: Homing in on success

As a cook and lifestyle guru, Harumi Kurihara has often been dubbed Japan's answer to America's Martha Stewart or Britain's Delia Smith. But in February this year, she scaled new heights when the English-language edition of her book "Harumi no Japanese Cooking" -- titled "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" --...
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2005

Women's suit against Ishihara fails

The Tokyo High Court rejected on Wednesday a lawsuit accusing Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara of disparaging women.

Longform

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