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JAPAN
Mar 29, 2008

Under fire, ruling bloc passes the '08 budget

Ignoring a rejection by the opposition-controlled House of Councilors, the Diet Friday evening passed an ¥83 trillion state budget for fiscal 2008, which starts Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Mar 28, 2008

Bridge just got started across the strait

HONG KONG — The triumph of Ma Ying-jeou, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, candidate in the presidential election in Taiwan brings to an end eight years of rule by the pro-independent Democratic Progressive Party, whose candidate, Frank Hsieh, managed to garner only 41 percent of the vote to 58...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2008

Hashimoto's cost-cutting plans under fire

OSAKA — If Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has his way, employees now working on international human rights issues may become school security guards and a popular women's center will be sold off.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2008

Report urges closer watch on foreigners

Foreigners living in Japan should be allowed five-year visas but kept under the eye of a new unified Justice Ministry-run nationwide identification system, a government panel on immigration control said in its report released Wednesday.
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2008

Fertile ground for policy formation

More than 100 Diet members from the Liberal Democratic Party, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan and Kokumin Shinto have formed a supra-partisan lawmakers' association in response to a call by Sentaku (Choice), a policy study group mainly pushing for devolution and elections based on concrete and...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 25, 2008

Pioneering women's center in Osaka slated for closure

Last month, the new governor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, announced his plan to shut down and sell or privatize 25 public facilities in a bid to tackle the prefecture's financial crisis. Except for two libraries, no prefectural facilities merit further public funding, argues Hashimoto. Included among the...
Reader Mail
Mar 23, 2008

No selective approach to terrorism

It is regrettable that The Japan Times chose to reprint The Washington Post article "A rocky terrain for Kurdish guerrillas" for the March 20 Focus page. The article is misguided and misleading in many ways. It only serves to legitimize and even attempts to glorify an organization that has been recognized...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2008

Deterrence fails in a prison with no key

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Every day in the Gaza Strip, strategic deterrence — the inhibition of attack by fear of punishment from superior military power — is being put to the test. The escalating spiral of violence by Israel and Gazan militants indicates not only that deterrence is failing, but...
Reader Mail
Mar 20, 2008

Tale of two independence struggles

Most people would not hesitate to give a helping hand to a hapless kindergarten pupil being bullied by peers. But would they do the same if they came across a man under attack from a group of well-built aggressors with baseball bats? Probably not. The difference between the two situations is analogous...
CULTURE / Books
Mar 16, 2008

Hope for Burmese reconciliation

PERFECT HOSTAGE: Aung San Suu Kyi and the Generals, by Justin Wintle. London: Arrow Books, 2007, 464 pp., £8.95 (paper) In January, Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, voiced her growing frustration with the lack of progress in "national reconciliation" talks with the ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development...
Japan Times
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Mar 16, 2008

Time for Takahashi to read the handwriting on the wall

There is nothing sadder in sports than seeing a once-great athlete who has hung around too long.
COMMENTARY
Mar 14, 2008

Burma sanctions don't work

NEW DELHI — Burma today ranks as one of the world's most isolated and sanctioned nations — a situation unlikely to be changed by its ruling junta scheduling a May referendum on a draft constitution and facilitating U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's third visit in six months.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 13, 2008

Taking the next step on Iran

LOS ANGELES — The approval of fresh sanctions on Iran marks the third time that the United Nations Security Council has been galvanized to stem the Islamic Republic's feared uranium enrichment efforts. Unfortunately, the new sanctions are unlikely to be any more effective than the first two rounds....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 13, 2008

Three works cast a magic spell

The Tokyo International Arts Festival (TIF) this year presents an eclectic and fascinating program of dance and theater from Argentina, Switzerland and Belgium. Having admitting that the festival — in its current form since 2002 — is under financial constraints due to lack of arts funding and a flawed...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 13, 2008

Diminishing ice floes raise climate alarm

ABASHIRI, Hokkaido — Plowing his icebreaker, the Aurora, into drift ice 10 km off Abashiri, Hokkaido, Capt. Keiichi Hori smiles bitterly as tourists onboard cheer the crunching sound of the boat's progress.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2008

The North's smaller missiles

SINGAPORE — The U.S. military intelligence community is worried that North Korea is developing the skills and techniques needed to fit a nuclear warhead to a ballistic missile.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 11, 2008

The lowest form of flattery?

In order to avoid the entry of terrorists into Japan, it has been decided to impose fingerprinting and photography at immigration.' So begins the Foreign Ministry video explaining the November changes to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act.
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2008

Redundant royal honors provoke wonder

HONOLULU — Not every monarch is alike. It's true that many are mean and greedy and full of themselves — selfish squirrels who sock their ill-gotten gains beneath everyone's eyes overseas while they stick their political opponents into dark dank prisons — or graves. But some are comparatively mild,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle / COSPLAY CULTURE
Mar 9, 2008

A global dress-up

"I get e-mails all the time from Brazil and the United States," said Tatsumi Inui, a staffer at Japan's largest kosupure ("cosplay" or "costume play") Web site, Cure.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 9, 2008

Surely it's time for Japanese to stop being so parochial

Second of two parts
Reader Mail
Mar 9, 2008

An activist's means to an end

Regarding Debito Arudou's March 4 article, "Dusting off the A-word": In reading through this latest bit of self-promoting preaching, I tried hard to keep from laughing out loud at some of the lofty claims. Arudou claims to be "doing what other fellow Japanese (however few), working within the law and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Mar 7, 2008

Crossing over to the next world

The ghosts of Oku-no-in, cemetery and spiritual heart of Mount Koya, have a long time to wait: 5,670,000 years, give or take. According to the scriptures of Japan's Shingon sect of Buddhism, that's when the faithful expect the "Buddha of the Future" to arrive in this vibrant mountaintop monastic community....
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 7, 2008

St. Paddy's: parade your Irish ayes

On Paddy's Day, everyone is Irish. That's how the saying goes, and — like millions in New York, Sydney and Moscow — countless Tokyoites take the Great Green Day seriously, too.
Reader Mail
Mar 6, 2008

Proof of peaceful nuclear program

The Feb. 22 report of the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which plainly declares the implementation of the Work Plan (INFCIRC/711) and thus resolves all outstanding issues, serves as the clearest evidence ever coming from the Agency, unambiguously attesting to the exclusively...

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