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JAPAN
Jan 25, 2008

Ambulance fiascoes become Osaka campaign issue

OSAKA — With just a few days to go until Osaka elects a new governor, the candidates are finding themselves facing an issue that is literally a life and death situation for all prefectural residents.
EDITORIALS
Jan 24, 2008

Need for thoughtful proposals

As Diet debates go into full swing, the Democratic Party of Japan has dubbed the current Diet session a "people's-lives-first-gasoline" session. The leading opposition party, which together with other opposition parties controls the Upper House, appears determined to scrap the "temporary" additional...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 24, 2008

Prefectural lawmakers rally in praise of gas taxes

About 450 prefectural assembly members from the ruling and opposition parties staged a rally Wednesday in Tokyo to call on policymakers to maintain the current tax rates on gasoline, roads and motor vehicle tonnage.
LIFE / Language
Jan 22, 2008

Corny corkers add life to lingo, you elephant!

First of two parts
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 22, 2008

Weak yen will trump prints row for tourists

Online letters of protest were filled out. A group of nearly 70 civic organizations from around the world delivered a formal letter of disapproval to Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama. Protesters gathered outside the Justice Ministry and thrust an inflated 3-meter-high yellow hand with an extended forefinger...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jan 21, 2008

Sovereign wealth funds warping market, pose insider-trading hazard

The international profile of sovereign wealth funds is expanding, and the Group of Seven's finance ministers and central bankers are expected to discuss the depth of the funds' risk control, management and accountability when they gather Feb. 9 in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Jan 20, 2008

To eat and to be eaten

I am delighted with Misao Nakayama's question of why we must treat whales as special creatures in his Dec. 27 letter, "Human existence demands sacrifice," although I disagree with the editor's choice of a headline.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Jan 20, 2008

Showa nostalgia documentary, baseball star interviewed, optical illusions

The Showa boom has yet to run its course. Appropriating the street address used in the title of the hit Showa Period movie series "Always: Sanchome no Yuhi," TV Tokyo pumps up the nostalgia on "Sanchome no Post: Natsukashii Rankingu SP (Sanchome Mailbox: Nostalgic Rankings Special)" (Monday, 7 p.m.)....
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 20, 2008

The Utagawa brand name

COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION: Japanese Prints of the Utagawa School, by Laura J. Mueller, with essays by Fujisawa Akane, Kobayashi Tadashi, and Ellis Tinios. Leiden/Boston: Hotei Publishing, 2007, 232 pp., 200 illustrations, $120 (cloth) The Utagawa school, founded in the 18th century and active throughout...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 16, 2008

Time running out for embattled Thomas

NEW YORK — You know that dead guy that was wheeled into a Manhattan check-cashing shop by two friends looking to covert his monthly $355 social security payment into currency?
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2008

Fukuda again rejects calling early election

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda reiterated on Tuesday his reluctance to dissolve the Lower House for a snap general election before the Group of Eight summit this July in Hokkaido.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jan 15, 2008

Bento grass

Dear Alice,
EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2008

Taiwan votes for change

Legislative elections in Taiwan have given the opposition Nationalist (KMT) party a two-thirds majority and handed President Chen Shui-bian a stunning rejection. Voters turned their back on Mr. Chen's confrontational politics and his focus on national identity over practical measures to improve the lives...
EDITORIALS
Jan 13, 2008

The year of sake

The Year of the Rat may also turn out to be the Year of Sake. Last year, exports of sake (Japanese rice wine), rose to the highest level since a passing miniboom 11 years ago. The just-finished Year of the Boar saw a 10 percent increase over 2006 and a 40 percent increase since 2001. All signs point...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Jan 13, 2008

Preferring to show and not to tell

AKIRA KUROSAWA: Interviews, edited by Burt Cardullo. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008, 196 pp., $20 (paper) Once, when I asked Akira Kurosawa about the meaning of one of his films he answered: "If I could have said it in words, I would have — then I wouldn't have needed to make the picture."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 11, 2008

Passing politics from generation to generation

'La Faute a Fidel!" is, in a sense, a project engineered by daughters. Director Julie Gavras' father is the famed prorevoltionary director Costa Gavras, its lead actress Julie Depardieu is the daughter of Gerard, France's most treasured actor. And Nina Kervel, who was age 9 when the film was made, comes...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 10, 2008

The Renaissance Man

Peter Greenaway's first film in eight years is every bit as enigmatic and tantalizing as the painting it takes its name from, Rembrandt van Rijn's "The Night Watch." Completed in 1642, this work in oils is considered by many critics to be the Dutch master's greatest and most mysterious work.
EDITORIALS
Jan 10, 2008

Open season on 1953

Japan's Supreme Court last month handed down a final decision in a dispute on whether copyrights on movies released in 1953 are protected by a 2003 revision to the Copyright Law. Although the revision extended copyright protection from 50 to 70 years, the top court concluded that it does not protect...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Jan 9, 2008

At home with Dr. Nakamatsu: Japan's most eccentric inventor

The declining birthrate is a well-known issue in Japan, but for renowned inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu, it is merely another challenge. Two weeks ago at a press conference in Tokyo, Nakamats, who prefers to drop the "u" from his name, unveiled a new bottle of Love Jet, a product first introduced nearly...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jan 8, 2008

How to avoid an attack of the new year blues

For as long as I can remember, Oshogatsu (New Year's) and me just haven't gelled.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 6, 2008

Why have Japan's bookworms turned?

Let's talk books this first Sunday of the new year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 5, 2008

Rice cookers go upscale to bring male retirees traditional flavor

For the average Japanese, no day starts out right without a bowl of steaming, glistening white rice.

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