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Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Sep 26, 2006

Latin America struts into the fashion spotlight

Ever since Gisele Bundchen attained supermodel status, Brazil has been going catwalk crazy. Now the country is hoping that the fashion world will recognize it as not only an exporter of top models but also as a center for the creation of designer clothing.
JAPAN
Sep 24, 2006

Last M-V rocket delivers satellite to observe the sun

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Saturday launched the SOLAR-B observation satellite into orbit, where it will study the sun's magnetic field.
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
Sep 23, 2006

506 teachers in '05 tagged incompetent

More than 500 teachers at public schools across Japan were branded as incompetent in the 2005 academic year, down about 10 percent from a year earlier but still the second-highest number since the teacher assessment system began in 2000, the education ministry said Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 23, 2006

Anthony Millington

The British School in Tokyo, independent and coeducational, is the only British school in Japan, and the only school in Japan offering the English National Curriculum. It is a nonprofit organization, administered by a board of trustees representing the British and international community in Tokyo. The...
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
LIFE / Food & Drink
Sep 22, 2006

Vying to be crowned as Kyushu's ramen king

Kyushu is famous for its rich, varied food culture, and particularly for the rivalry between Hakata ramen and Kumamoto ramen. The former uses pork-based soup, thin noodles, ginger and fresh garlic, and is distinguished by a serving of only a small amount of noodles, to which the customer requests seconds....
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Sep 22, 2006

Sounds and surrounds of high rank

Cyril Roy is a natural-born barman. Like any professional, he makes it look easy. When he arrived in Japan six years ago, Tokyo's pub culture was bloated with English- and Irish-styled establishments serving classic and micro-brewed quaffs on tap. But Roy landed squarely on his feet, within a month,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 21, 2006

"Art Scope 2005/2006 Exhibition"

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art Closes in 30 days
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2006

Abe must bring both vision, pragmatism to the job

Revision of the Constitution and establishment of a national voting system for that purpose, and revision of the Fundamental Law of Education. (2) Formulation of fiscal reform guidelines that leave the door open to tax increases, including a rise in the consumption tax.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Sep 17, 2006

Monsters out of the closet

MILLENNIAL MONSTERS: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination, by Anne Allison, foreword by Gary Cross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, 332 pp., 48 b/w photos, $24.95 (paper). When I was a child, toys from Japan were kept in the cheapest bins of Woolworth's and Newberry's. Sparkler-wheels...
COMMUNITY
Sep 16, 2006

Sun and Moon Yoga: 'Within my body, a city'

Trying to find the way in and out of the Sun and Moon Yoga studio in Meguro, Tokyo, is a bit like trying to negotiate an Escher drawing. Do you take the clean way, the dirty way, the back way or the other way? No worry, says owner-director Leza Lowitz, there is no right or wrong way, only the space that...
JAPAN
Sep 14, 2006

Student violence rose in elementary schools in 2005

Reports of student violence at public elementary schools rose by 128 cases to a total of 2,018 in 2005, setting a new record for the third-consecutive school year, a report released Wednesday by the education ministry says.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 14, 2006

The last weekend of summer to rave about

For Japan's trance music fans, this weekend is the last big outdoor romp of summer.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Sep 13, 2006

Own goal clouds progress

Tomorrow sees the start of a three-day meeting in the Eternal City that concerns one of the most promising and controversial scientific research areas of our time: stem cells. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to transform into any cell and tissue type in the body, and thus have the potential to...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 12, 2006

Permanent residency

As more foreigners choose to remain in Japan long-term, increasing numbers have sought a status change to reflect their commitment to the country and make it easier to build a stable life here.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Sep 12, 2006

Style wise

Heart of Harajuku renewed Teeming teen shopping haven LaForet Harajuku opened in 1978 and has been a pivotal part of Japan's youth culture ever since. The complex has had a few subdued periods over the years but is currently experiencing a happier chapter in its history. Earlier this month it underwent...
Japan Times
LIFE / CONFUCIUS
Sep 10, 2006

A man in the soul of Japan

This story is part of a package on Confucius. The introduction is here.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 9, 2006

Sisyphean war against a virtual enemy

PRAGUE -- Five years have passed since the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of September 2001, yet it seems that policymakers have learned little about how terrorist cells operate, and what their weaknesses are. The Bush administration still uses the phrase "war on terror" and behaves as...
JAPAN
Sep 8, 2006

Horie's lawyer says client being framed

The chief lawyer for Takafumi Horie, on trial on charges of inflating the earnings of Internet services company Livedoor Co., is accusing prosecutors of framing his client.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2006

A faux debate to justify aggressive war

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush has faced surprisingly little serious opposition to his disastrous foreign policy. The left was divided over Iraq and many of those who opposed Bush did so for partisan or even personal reasons. Unfortunately, little has changed.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 8, 2006

Worldwide sounds

In Britain, dance culture went into overdrive in the late 1980s, largely because of one thing: Ecstasy. As well as helping shy people dance, Ecstasy also meant that people could stay up for the entire weekend, partying at raves to acid house music. These same clubbers also needed a place to head to after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 7, 2006

Web gives niche interests a chance in the free market

Economists right back to Adam Smith in the 18th century have exalted the concept of the free market, where all commodities can be bought and sold without tariffs or subsidies. In Western neoliberal political thought, market freedom had become viewed by the 1980s as an extension of personal autonomy....
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2006

Witness testifies Livedoor doctored earnings with shady stock trades

A key prosecution witness testified Tuesday that Internet company Livedoor Co. doctored its earnings by selling and buying its own stock, as the trial of its former president, Takafumi Horie, entered its second day.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 5, 2006

Grim bar system may hurt legal reforms

Sept. 21 is awaited with a mixture of anticipation and dread in campuses across Japan. It is the date on which results of the country's first new bar examination are announced. How well a school's students do on this test, which is projected to have a pass rate of about 40 percent, may have a serious...
EDITORIALS
Sep 5, 2006

What is expected of Mr. Abe

With Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe's formal announcement of candidacy in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election, the tripartite race between Mr. Abe, Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki has heated up. Given Mr. Abe's great popularity, it is likely...
COMMENTARY
Sep 4, 2006

Declining sources of pride

The 9/11 terrorist attacks five years ago added a new page to world history, posing a new threat to global security. Following the attacks, the Bush administration in the United States demanded that the international community choose between democracy and dictatorship, between good and evil. Calling...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2006

India may finally embrace capitalism

ATLANTA -- For most of India's postcolonial era, the views guiding economic policy and those expressed by opinion makers reflected a deep-seated contempt for markets. Despite the failings of socialist economic policies at home and the successes of market reform elsewhere, India has been slow to embrace...

Longform

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