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JAPAN
May 26, 2009

More sanctions seen as ineffective

Japan joined the international community in condemning North Korea's nuclear test Monday, but some experts questioned whether imposing further sanctions will help get the reclusive state to drop its nuclear program.
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2009

California crisis imperils Obama's agenda

BERKELEY, Calif. — While the new Obama administration is commanding global attention, America's future may be written — as so many times before — in and by its largest state. Once the lodestar for American optimism and achievement, California now illustrates the difficulties confronting the United...
COMMENTARY / World
May 22, 2009

Life of coalition extended

DELHI, OPINION ASIA — The outcome of the just-concluded 2009 national poll in India reflect continuity because the verdict was clearly in favor of an incumbent coalition government that presages political stability. Equally, the results are indicative of change because voters rejected regional parties,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2009

'The Soloist'

"The Soloist" is a film that easily could have sucked, so it's almost shocking how good it actually turned out to be. I mean, just take the premise: calloused, professional journalist, used to filing his "human interest" stories and moving on, meets a funky, fuzzy-brained homeless dude who's also a musical...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 19, 2009

IC you: bugging the alien

When the Japanese government first issued alien registration cards (aka gaijin cards) in 1952, it had one basic aim in mind: to track "foreigners" (at that time, mostly Korean and Taiwanese stripped of Japanese colonial citizenship) who decided to stay in postwar Japan.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 19, 2009

Tackle gender gap in mathematics, reading

Dear ministry of education,
JAPAN
May 18, 2009

Domestic H1N1 flu cases increase to 42

The number of domestic swine flu cases hit 42 on Sunday after 34 high school and college students as well as their family members and teachers in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were confirmed to have been infected.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 17, 2009

1989: A year of hopes turned sour that we all must live with today

Anniversaries do sometimes matter, but it's not often that the anniversary of an entire year deserves noting and celebrating. However, the year 1989, now 20 years past, marks a crucial turning point in history.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
May 15, 2009

Deerhunter

Bradford Cox, frontman for Atlanta, Georgia's, self-styled "ambient punks" Deerhunter, tends to attract attention.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
May 15, 2009

Japan embraces the big cheese

Ask the experts what makes a good cheese, and at some point the conversation is going to get down to grass. After all, cheese comes from milk, and the best milk comes from animals raised on grass.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
May 12, 2009

Kusanagi romp makes waves as real crimes go unpunished

Dear Tokyo Metropolitan Police,
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2009

The audacity of optimism in the Middle East

SINGAPORE — The world will be enveloped in a heavy cloud of gloom and doom this year. Economies will sputter, governments will fall and companies will fail. But the biggest danger of all is a sense of hopelessness. Preventing this requires resolving some large and apparently intractable problem. Closing...
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2009

Let China launch its flattop

China's possession of aircraft carriers is not a matter of if but when. Last November, an official in China's Ministry of National Defense touched for the first time in a public venue on the possibility of his nation acquiring aircraft carriers.
COMMENTARY / World
May 9, 2009

No place left to go after exiting Guantanamo

GUANTANAMO BAY — I write this from the U.S. Detention Center at Guantanamo Bay, where I have been held without charge for almost seven years.
COMMENTARY / World
May 6, 2009

Nuclear spin in Indian polls

DELHI OPINION ASIA — As elections progress, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress party are in more trouble over the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal than they will readily acknowledge, with the distinct possibility of losing power.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 5, 2009

Mean streets feared under Tokyo's new safety law

Last month a group of activists called Dystopia Tokyo called a protest against what they described as a "Draconian" new city ordinance by conservative Gov. Shintaro Ishihara.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
May 5, 2009

On nikkei 'golden parachutes'

Re: Debito Arudou's April 7 Just Be Cause column " 'Golden parachutes' mark failure of race-based policy":
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2009

Taiwan gets a U.N. invite

The World Health Organization has invited Taiwan to take part in the May 18-27 meeting of the World Health Assembly, the WHO's governing body, as an observer. The invitation came just after Beijing and Taipei signed agreements April 26 to deepen ties, signaling that relations across the Taiwan Strait...
EDITORIALS
May 3, 2009

Toward nuclear disarmament

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone has disclosed Japan's 11-point initiative for comprehensive nuclear disarmament, giving strong support to U.S. President Barack Obama's vision of a nuclear-free world. In his April 5 speech in Prague, Mr. Obama said that "as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power...
Reader Mail
May 3, 2009

Technology event has paid off

Regarding Alex Martin's April 28 article, "Tokyo 2.0 a buzzing hub for online communities, entrepreneurs": As an early participant of Tokyo 2.0, I have been pleased to see that cofounder Andrew Shuttleworth's idea and hard work have finally come to fruition. I try to make a special trip to Tokyo from...
COMMENTARY
May 2, 2009

Jackie Chan wears a political jester's hat, too

LOS ANGELES — You might have already known that kung fu comic and actor Jackie Chan was crazy, but is he certifiably insane? Just the other day this legendary does-his- own-stunts man asserted that the Chinese people do not need Western-style freedom and democracy.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 2, 2009

Creating a catalyst for self-reflection

"One of the hardest missions for people is to face themselves in the mirror, to criticize themselves, to ask themselves really basic questions," says ex-Israeli soldier Avichay Sharon. "No one wants to touch sensitive nerves, no one wants to go underneath, scratch underneath within himself." Sharon is...
EDITORIALS
Apr 30, 2009

At last, a ray of hope?

After meeting in Washington last week, G7 finance ministers and central bankers released a statement saying that while the G7 nations are experiencing a deep economic downturn and financial stress, recent data suggest that the pace of decline in the G7 economies has slowed and some signs of stabilization...
EDITORIALS
Apr 29, 2009

New flu fears

Global health officials are worried about the spread of a new flu that has killed some 150 people in recent weeks and has the potential to create a pandemic. This alarm confirms warnings that have been issued since the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak of 2003 — with two important differences:...

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