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JAPAN
Sep 2, 2005

Groups against revisionist history text call campaign a success

Civic groups opposing a contentious revisionist history textbook on Thursday hailed the result of the publisher's recent survey, as well as their own, that less than 1 percent of the nation's junior high schools are likely to use the book from next April.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2005

New rocket with bigger payload to launch in '08

The science and technology ministry plans to launch sometime in fiscal 2008 a rocket that can carry a payload 50 percent larger than the current H-IIA rocket.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / NAME OF THE GAME
Sep 1, 2005

Three cheers for cheerleaders

Male cheerleaders jump out of closets, burst into ramen shops and join the daily Japanese rat race -- in a bid to save humanity.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 31, 2005

The nature of the mind

Shunmyo Masuno calls his works "expressions of my mind," and they have the power to stir up depths of emotion and even tap into the subconscious. They are not psychedelic paintings, however, nor are they virtual reality installations -- they are gardens. And the man who creates them is a Buddhist priest....
JAPAN
Aug 30, 2005

45% of schools ban smoking on their premises

Hoping to reduce young people's exposure to secondhand smoke, 45 percent of schools across the nation have imposed total bans on smoking on their premises, according to a recent education ministry survey.
CULTURE / Music
Aug 28, 2005

Cuban salsa godfather keeps his stories real

Despite the embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba since 1961, the music of this north Caribbean island has somehow made its way into every corner of the earth, including Japan. It is no coincidence that "The Sons of Cuba," the most recent film from the creators of "Buena Vista Social Club," culminates...
BUSINESS
Aug 26, 2005

10 firms honored for aiding economy

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced Thursday it will honor 10 companies for promoting Japanese technology and culture abroad, or introducing new business models to Japan through investment.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Aug 26, 2005

Visitors become statuesque in Kawagoe

Tokyo may be big, but it's not big on history. The city's most popular historical spot, Asakusa, is centered on Asakusa Kannon temple, and its main hall was built in 1958. Frank Lloyd Wright's sublime Imperial Hotel survived the onslaughts of the 1923 earthquake and 1945 fire bombing, but didn't survive...
Japan Times
JAPAN / POLL SHOWDOWN
Aug 24, 2005

New parties to team up against LDP: Watanuki

Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) will cooperate with another new party in the Sept. 11 general election and oppose Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal privatization drive, leader Tamisuke Watanuki said.
BUSINESS
Aug 24, 2005

National universities generate 110 billion yen profit

All of Japan's 89 national universities except one posted a combined gross profit of about 110 billion yen in fiscal 2004, with Osaka University at the top pf the heap with 7.1 billion yen in earnings, the government said Tuesday.
Japan Times
Features / WEEK 3
Aug 21, 2005

Cartoon duo leads the way in a version of history that's no joke

The phrase "textbook row" has become a regular sighting in Japanese newspapers of late, as newly authorized history books for schools are accused, both at home and abroad, of "glossing over" the bloodier aspects of this country's warmongering, Imperialist past.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Aug 17, 2005

Artists' works join the EU

In the last 30 years, the central eastern European nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary have experienced tumultuous times. Under communism, state control and censorship forced artists to be regional and nationalistic, but since the soft slides into capitalism and democracy epitomized...
JAPAN
Aug 16, 2005

Honoring the war dead is a hot, heated affair

Tens of thousands of people braved a sweltering Monday in Tokyo to pay their respects to the nation's war dead on the 60th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Aug 14, 2005

Serving the best slice of modern Japanese literature

THE COLUMBIA ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE, Volume I: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945, edited by J. Thomas Rimer and Van C. Gessel, with poetry selections by Amy Vladeck Heinrich and Leith Morton, introduction by J. Thomas Rimer. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005, 864 pp.,...
JAPAN
Aug 12, 2005

Contentious texts going to Machida private school

A private junior high school in the Tokyo suburb of Machida has chosen two social studies textbooks that have been denounced for distorting history and glossing over Japan's wartime atrocities.
JAPAN
Aug 11, 2005

Truants dip 0.01-point to 123,000

About 123,000 elementary and junior high school students were absent from school for 30 days or longer in the 2004 school year, down about 3,000 from the previous year, the education ministry said Wednesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 7, 2005

Textbook fight not as simple as it seems

When a public junior high school teacher in Tokyo teaches about Japan's acts of wartime aggression, some of her students ask why they should feel responsible for what people did 60 years ago.
Japan Times
JAPAN / 60 YEARS AND ONWARD
Aug 6, 2005

Chinatown feels Japan's tight embrace

YOKOHAMA -- Yokohama's Chinatown has been spruced up, its eateries ornately dolled up, its towering gates given a face-lift and a huge shrine adorned in gold.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Aug 6, 2005

Puneet Nanda

"The sari," said Puneet Nanda in Tokyo, "is a most elegant and amazing garment."
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Aug 6, 2005

What not to do in Japan: die

As a veteran resident approaching his 28th year in Japan, I would like to offer some simple advice to tourists, newbies and fellow graybeards as well. Which is:
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 1, 2005

Bound by a common cause

LONDON -- When Chinese President Hu Jintao was in Moscow in early July, he sought to strengthen the "strategic partnership" between China and Russia that his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed in Moscow four years ago.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jul 31, 2005

Only the names change as U.S. policy blunders on

Don't blame it on the neo-cons.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jul 31, 2005

What six reasonable men can do

REASONABLE MEN, POWERFUL WORDS: Political Culture and Expertise in 20th Century Japan, by Laura Hein. Berkeley, Calif.; University of California Press, 2004, 328 pp., $45 (cloth). This is the compelling story of how six prominent intellectuals shaped the conventional wisdom that came to characterize...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

Speaking up for a 'right-size' city

In their search for the soul of Nagoya -- a city some dub "Japan's best kept secret" -- staff writers Setsuko Kamiya and Yoko Hani met up with five long-term foreign residents. All five happened to be American, and all have been in business there for between five and 10 years. Settling down for a chilled-out...
Japan Times
Features
Jul 31, 2005

'Secret' city basks in its low-profile limelight

It's at the geographic center of Japan and has in the past been at the hub of its history. It's also the nation's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.2 million. But despite these, and many more, claims to fame and prominence, Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture has always been outstanding for its...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 30, 2005

Messages of peace seek empathetic human canvas

A peace symbol set modestly with diamonds. A tiny image that is open for interpretation as a tree, an atom-bomb cloud or even an angel. The curved line of a whale suggesting the swell of the sea while winking freedom with a precious eye. All are designs on a theme -- the work of jewelry artist-craftsman...
LIFE / Language
Jul 28, 2005

Cram schools cash in on failure of public schools

With Japan's economic bubble long since burst and job security fast becoming no more than a fond memory, there has been a surge in applications to private schools from primary grades up to college.

Longform

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