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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 13, 2008

Landmark case spotlights 'Japanese-style nationalism'

"The most critical thing for us Japanese in the 21st century is to free ourselves from Japanese-style nationalism, both politically and culturally." So said author Kenzaburo Oe to me in the autumn of 1995, a year after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
EDITORIALS
Apr 12, 2008

Conservatives win again in South Korea

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak got a boost this week from parliamentary elections that gave fellow conservatives a majority in the National Assembly. The results provide a modicum of relief for "the bulldozer" but he is still going to have to struggle to implement his policy agenda. Ironically,...
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Hatoyama 'solemnly' reveals four more convicts hanged

Four death-row inmates were hanged Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of executions Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has approved since he took office last August.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

'Yasukuni' director suspects political meddling

Li Ying, the Chinese director of an award-winning documentary on Yasukuni Shrine, said Thursday he was perplexed to hear that a key figure in the film, sword smith Naoji Kariya, has reportedly asked that his appearance be entirely deleted.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2008

The U.S. election: grounds for optimism

LOS ANGELES — One early sign that a run of optimism may be on the way is the point at which the utility of continued pessimism is seen as utterly dysfunctional by all concerned.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2008

Swiss woman's drug smuggling acquittal upheld

The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday upheld a 28-year-old Swiss woman's acquittal of attempting to smuggle 2.2 kg of amphetamines from Malaysia in 2006.
JAPAN
Apr 10, 2008

Fukuda, Ozawa lock horns over BOJ makeup

His frustration occasionally flashing through, the normally low-key Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was unusually expressive Wednesday during his second one-on-one Diet debate with Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa.
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2008

G7 action to ease markets' woes a question mark

In this week's Group of Seven meeting of financial ministers and central bank chiefs, Japan is keen to show its commitment to cooperating on preventing the global financial system's problems from deteriorating further and damaging growth.
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...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008

NATO meeting sends dangerous signals

COPENHAGEN —Two dangerous signals were sent from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Bucharest summit. The first was that Russia has re-established a "sphere of interest" in Europe, where countries are no longer allowed to pursue their own goals without Moscow accepting them. The other was that...
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2008

Yet another fine mess in Italian politics

ROME — A game of smoke and mirrors: this is how Italy's current electoral campaign appears — both to Italians and the wider world. Of course, there is nothing new in this:
EDITORIALS
Apr 9, 2008

Murder in Yokosuka

A Nigerian man serving in the U.S. Navy was arrested on April 3 on suspicion of stabbing to death a taxi driver on March 19 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. The crew member of the Aegis cruiser Cowpens reportedly has admitted to the crime.
EDITORIALS
Apr 8, 2008

The man who came to dinner

Russia is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Mr. Vladimir Putin is a lame duck president, but he and his country threw a long shadow over the just-completed NATO summit that convened last week in Bucharest, Romania. Not only did Mr. Putin show up uninvited at the NATO heads dinner...
BUSINESS
Apr 8, 2008

Shirakawa tipped as BOJ chief; No. 2 iffy

The government nominated Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa as BOJ chief Monday and former Finance Ministry bureaucrat Hiroshi Watanabe as deputy governor despite widespread speculation the latter will be rejected by the Democratic Party of Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 8, 2008

Africa wants partners, not just handouts

Poverty, hunger, infectious disease, conflict — words that readily come to mind when Japanese consider Africa.
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 / COUNTERPOINT
Apr 6, 2008

Are Japanese people ready for 'change they can believe in'?

Sometimes journalists ask themselves questions that appear to border on the absurd. Here goes one of them.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 6, 2008

Japan IBL team set for 2009

Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Apr 6, 2008

Getting younger, getting older

I HAVEN'T DREAMED OF FLYING FOR A WHILE by Taichi Yamada, translated by David James Karashima. London: Faber & Faber, 2008, 195 pp., £10.99 (paper). He is in bed with her. "Take my nipple in your mouth," she says. "Just like nobody can console a person who is getting old — a person who is getting...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 5, 2008

Lazy cow sex and the dairy queen

Inside a barn in Hokkaido, I sat down with a 47-year-old woman named Mrs. Takahashi and talked about sex. Cattle sex, that is. Of course, the closest thing I've seen to it is a pregnant cow, so I wanted to get a little more information as my interest in this subject was mounting.
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2008

Army's role in Okinawa mass suicides

The Osaka District Court on March 28 rejected a damages suit against author Kenzaburo Oe and Iwanami Shoten Publishers that was filed by a former garrison commander on Zamami Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and a brother of another commander on Tokashiki Island, who said the Nobel-Prize winning author's...
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Apr 4, 2008

Evessa, 89ers set for clash in Osaka

Ladies and gentlemen, give the schedule-makers a round of applause.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Apr 4, 2008

NPB moving to dissuade 'major' moves

Nippon Professional Baseball earlier this week announced that it will present a proposal to the players' association aimed at shortening the free-agency period to seven years for players drafted out of college and the industrial leagues and eight years for players drafted out of high school beginning...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIAN ECONOMY SYMPOSIUM
Apr 4, 2008

Consumer mind-set key to success of China's green policies

China has set ambitious goals to deal with its energy and environmental problems, but the challenge lies in their implementation, and that will require not just government policy decisions but changes in consumer awareness and behavior, said Zha Daojiong, a professor at Peking University's School of...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / ASIAN ECONOMY SYMPOSIUM
Apr 4, 2008

Surviving the financial turmoil in the U.S.

Asian nations should pursue greater financial cooperation among themselves to minimize the damage from the U.S. economic woes triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis, experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
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
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2008

Dutchman takes Tokyo orchestra to new heights

"A first-class orchestra," Dutch conductor Hubert Soudant says when asked about his first impression of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra (TSO), where he has been music director since Sept. 2004.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 4, 2008

Utada Hikaru "Heart Station"

Here's a question: If more than 8 million people have already bought Utada Hikaru's "Flavor of Life" as a physical or download single, do they really need it on an album too?

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