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COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 2008

Contrasting responses to crackdowns in Tibet and Burma

NEW DELHI — There are striking similarities between Tibet and Burma — both are strategically located, endowed with rich natural resources, suffering under long-standing repressive rule, resisting hard power with soft power and facing an influx of Han settlers. Yet the international response to the...
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2008

Few cheers for devolution

A 15-member government panel has submitted an interim report recommending the introduction of the "doshu" system of regional governments. The report, submitted to internal affairs minister Hiroya Masuda, calls for a complete shift to the new system by 2018, and proposes that the government submit a basic...
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2008

Official defends 'Yasukuni' screening for lawmakers

Defending the government's involvement in giving lawmakers an advance screening of a documentary on Yasukuni Shrine, a senior Cultural Affairs Agency official argued Monday it was appropriate to show Diet members a film partially funded by taxpayers' money.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Apr 8, 2008

Fasting is Hefty's secret way of escaping metabo

I t's not often I get to watch my brother seethe and fume and look thoroughly uncomfortable — and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 6, 2008

U.S. debt isn't the bargain it used to be

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — As the world's financial leaders meet in Washington this month at the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meeting, perhaps they should be glad there is no clear alternative to the dollar as the global currency standard.
EDITORIALS
Apr 6, 2008

Freedom-of-expression gantlet

Four movie theaters in Tokyo and one in Osaka have decided not to screen "Yasukuni," a documentary on Japan's war shrine. Rightist groups protested against the planned screenings with vehicle-mounted loudspeakers and harassing telephone calls. Most movie theaters cited possible inconveniences to the...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / TAKING A CHANCE
Apr 5, 2008

Leaf-selling business helps small town rake in cash, find pride

Tomoji Yokoishi, 49, recalls how astonished he was 21 years ago by three pretty women sitting next to him in a sushi restaurant in Osaka's Namba district.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIAN ECONOMY SYMPOSIUM
Apr 4, 2008

Spending on human capital an investment in Asia's future economic growth

If Asia wants to remain the world's growth center, it needs to invest more in education and skill training for its human capital, said Mahani Zainal Abidin, director general of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Apr 3, 2008

Kato makes rare coaching jump from high school to pros

Initially, he picked up a microphone to speak to some 50 assembled reporters. But he quickly put it on the table and resumed his speech in his loud, distinct voice.
EDITORIALS
Apr 1, 2008

The post-Kyoto high ground

The next Group of Eight summit, which Japan will host in Toyako, Hokkaido, is less than four months away. The fight against global warming will be at the top of the agenda. As the host nation responsible for getting participating nations to take concerted action, Japan needs as soon as possible to work...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 30, 2008

Hatching out some teaching blues

TONOHARU: Part One, by Lars Martinson. Minneapolis: Pliant Press, 2008, 128 pp., $19.95 (cloth) This account, in comic-book form, of an assistant English teacher's experiences working at a junior high school in the Japanese outback is not bad. Neither, however, is it as good as it might have been, or,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 28, 2008

'Kung Fu Kun'

A "kids movie" in the current Japanese film business almost always means anime. It wasn't always thus — kids were the biggest fans of the Godzilla series and dozens of other nonanimated homegrown monster movies now vanished from the screens. They've also flocked to the "Spy Kids" films and similar...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 27, 2008

Detached or mundane?

The fame that Yosa Buson (1716-1783) enjoyed as a painter and haiku poet in his own lifetime quickly eroded in the years following his death. And while his poetic reputation was restored as early as the 19th century, it was only in the years following World War II that his paintings once again became...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 26, 2008

Scary signs in BOJ debacle

HONG KONG — Even Google couldn't believe it. Asked to supply its best information about Koji Tanami, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's second "best available" candidate to be governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the search engine instantly responded, "Do you mean Bank of Japan tsunami?"
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2008

New soy protein may give dieters a chance

Why do millions of people repeatedly fail to stick to their diets despite longing for slim, good-looking bodies?
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 24, 2008

Asia's questions for the next president

NEW YORK — In one of the longest American presidential campaigns in history, neither party has addressed one of the most critical issues of the day: How can the United States successfully integrate its domestic concerns with an increasingly competitive global marketplace?
EDITORIALS
Mar 24, 2008

Japan's salary gap

White Day was celebrated March 14, but along with giving cookies and chocolates, men might have done better to give women the one-third of their salaries they are missing. According to new data, Japanese women are paid 33 percent less than men. A recent report on average salary gaps from the International...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 23, 2008

Utamaro, the women's brand name

UTAMARO AND THE SPECTACLE OF BEAUTY by Julie Nelson Davis. London: Reaktion Books, 2008, 269 pp., 114 illustrations, 66 color plates. £35 (cloth) Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806) is widely known as one of the most creative and influential artists of the ukiyo-e, those "pictures of the floating world" that...
COMMENTARY
Mar 22, 2008

Iraq after five years of war

LONDON — March 20 marked five years since U.S. President George W. Bush launched the invasion of Iraq. Can Iraq emerge from this ordeal as a place where people lead reasonably safe and happy lives?
BUSINESS
Mar 20, 2008

Private equity deals still flow amid credit crisis

Japan's private equity market will see a "steady flow" of transactions even as rising funding costs cripple deals elsewhere, said the cofounder of the nation's largest buyout fund.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 18, 2008

Scales of justice: Legal system looks for right balance of lawyers

Judicial reform is having a quick and dramatic impact on the legal profession, not least on the number of lawyers. In March 2002, the government decided to increase the number of those who pass the bar exam to 3,000 a year by 2010. Only 1,000 were passed in 1999.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2008

G20 energy chiefs push for more egalitarian climate pact

CHIBA — Energy and environment ministers from 20 top emitters of carbon dioxide kicked off a discussion Saturday to explore the creation of an international framework for fighting global warming to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2008

Diminishing ice floes raise climate alarm

ABASHIRI, Hokkaido — Plowing his icebreaker, the Aurora, into drift ice 10 km off Abashiri, Hokkaido, Capt. Keiichi Hori smiles bitterly as tourists onboard cheer the crunching sound of the boat's progress.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2008

'Lower-intensity' discrimination persists

NEW YORK — International Women's Day was celebrated March 8. Although progress has been made in achieving women's rights everywhere, we should not lose sight of the fact that widespread discrimination against women persists in law and practice, directly or indirectly, all over the world.

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