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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 19, 2006

Stirring time spent among rebellious free spirits

I have just returned from a remarkable trip to Dresden, Berlin, Warsaw and Krakow, a trip made all the more remarkable for three commemorative events that took place in Poland while I was there.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Mar 19, 2006

Toys that transformed the world's way of play

What is it with Japan and robots? For whatever reason, they have been an integral part of the national psyche for decades. While Toyota's automated production lines might be the first thing that springs to mind, robotic creatures, from Astroboy to Aibo, have also become an integral part of the nation's...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 18, 2006

A test for Thai democracy

SINGAPORE -- One year after he was re-elected in a landslide, Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been forced to dissolve the National Assembly and call a snap election. Although his Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party commands a 75 percent majority in the assembly, Thaksin is embattled.
JAPAN
Mar 17, 2006

418 schools have asbestos woes

Classrooms and corridors in 418 public schools, ranging from kindergartens to high schools, had exposed asbestos-sprayed walls and ceilings as of last month despite the government's order to take safety measures, according to an education ministry survey released Thursday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 17, 2006

Heating up dance floors

The Latin boom continues unabated in Tokyo. There are Latin dance lessons aplenty, spicy eateries and specialty cigar and rum bars; the latest bands from Cuba tour to full houses; and a Japanese-language free magazine, Salsa 120%, lists all things Latin. No longer just a fad, Latin culture has become...
JAPAN
Mar 16, 2006

Reforms reflect universities' newly found independence

Unique reforms have been undertaken at seven public universities since they were turned into independent administrative entities, with a non-Japanese national appointed as president of Yokohama City University and student evaluation systems introduced at six schools, a recent education ministry survey...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Mar 16, 2006

Swept along in the winds of war

The year World War I began, the sculptor Ernst Barlach cast "The Avenger" (1914), a powerful and ambiguous work showing an onrushing figure with a sword raised high. The sculpture's enlivened dynamism conjures the ominous patriotic tensions that seethed in Germany in the months leading to the war. The...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2006

Net boards venue for faceless rightists

OSAKA -- They are called "Net uyoku," or Internet rightwingers.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Mar 14, 2006

Ensnared in the office, dads increasingly remote

There is this enduring stereotype of the Nippon no otosan (Japanese Dad). It emerged sometime during the 1970s and remains, to this day, the most common and recognizable model for fatherhood in Japan.
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 14, 2006

Country kids need language support

Ji Young was 13 when she moved from Seoul to a small village in Yamagata in 1999. Her mother had arrived from Korea a few months earlier to marry a Japanese man.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Mar 14, 2006

Where do you go to check for news on Japan?

Gabrielle Kennedy Journalist, 35 I check all the newspapers using the nexuslexus search engine. For regular papers, I read the Sydney Morning Herald and the Guardian. The only Japanese magazine I read is Casa Brutus. They often have a translated feature.
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Pointers to progress and inertia

This story is part of a package on women in Japan. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / COUNTER CULTURE
Mar 10, 2006

Parisian maverick targets Tokyo

"Fashion is everything," says Armand Hadida, owner of Parisian boutique chain L'Eclaireur. "It's how you wake up, how you walk, how you eat and, of course, how you dress."
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2006

Clone panel to ban eggs donated by researchers

A science ministry panel preparing guidelines for research on the cloning of human embryos has agreed to ban egg donations by female researchers and their female relatives.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2006

John Howard is still the man

SYDNEY -- Instead of the usual rancorous Canberra power-play politics, Prime Minister John Howard has lately been all smiles as guest of honor at a series of dinners across Australia.
JAPAN
Mar 9, 2006

Soccer lottery ticket seller betting it can reverse fortunes

The National Agency for the Advancement of Sports and Health, an independent administrative corporation that sells soccer lottery tickets, has its back against the wall due to sluggish sales and hopes to sow the seeds of recovery in the next fiscal year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2006

Ailing radio broadcasters see promise in podcasts

Podcasting, a new type of Web broadcasting via digital music players like the Apple iPod, might prove a boon for businesses that are increasingly catching on to its novel commercial potential.
LIFE / Language
Mar 7, 2006

Shades of green in search for homecoming gift

"There is a green hill far away, without a city wall," goes the Easter hymn, originally composed for children. The Easter holiday, which one is hardly aware of in Japan, figured in one of my trips back to the green hills of Ireland's north where, a long time ago, this hymn was written.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 5, 2006

Japan's social norms shaped by law

LAW IN EVERYDAY JAPAN: Sex, Sumo, Suicide, and Statutes, by Mark D. West. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005, 279 pp., $19.95 (paper). This is a superb book that explores the interaction of law, society and culture over a range of intriguing topics. In seven captivating case studies, Mark West...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 5, 2006

Doomed voice of truth screams out still against evil

Among the writers who most astutely characterized the morality of the 20th century, none may have been more accurate than the Norwegian novelist, essayist and playwright Jens Bjorneboe. His was a powerful voice of truth, and we need now, more than ever, to listen to it.
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 4, 2006

Autuori set for Kashima title tilt

Paulo Autuori needed a lot of convincing to leave Sao Paulo for the J. League.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2006

The black hole for U.S. aid

NEW DELHI -- Despite making the spread of freedom the rallying cry of his second term, U.S. President George W. Bush has found it difficult to visit the world's largest democracy, India, without also stopping to meet the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 3, 2006

DJ gatecrashes VIP party

One of the biggest names in Japanese dance music, Mondo Grosso, returns to Club Yellow in Roppongi, Tokyo, on March 3 as a guest DJ for "Cyberjapan presents VIP Club."
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 2, 2006

Strife-ridden JAL removes Shinmachi from its helm

Japan Airlines Corp. announced Wednesday that JAL President Toshiyuki Shinmachi will be relieved of his post and be replaced by Senior Vice President Haruka Nishimatsu.
COMMENTARY
Feb 28, 2006

Thoughts better left buried

LOS ANGELES -- Japan offers the world a culture of surpassing elegance, intellect, literature and political achievement, but it still remains something of an enigma. The great novelist Haruki Murakami understands, perhaps as well as anyone, this aspect of his country. His recent "Kafka on the Shore,"...
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 28, 2006

Invisible minority

Misrepresented, misunderstood and mysterious, a group of women fight a dual struggle, compelled to speak up for their rights, yet fearing the consequences of a life made visible in an oppressive world.
LIFE / Language
Feb 28, 2006

To learn the Japanese language, get pod-agogical

With Internet blogs beginning to challenge traditional print media, it was only a matter of time before a new medium broke radio's traditional choke hold on free audio programming. Enter podcasts, the downloadable MP3 audio files that feature mixes of music and chatter created by amateurs worldwide....

Longform

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