Search - question

 
 
Reader Mail
Jul 22, 2007

Resolution demonstrates cynicism

Regarding the July 14 article "Conservatives want U.S. reps to kill apology motion": Prostitutes have been used by soldiers in every military since the beginning of time, and still are today. They can be found near every military base in every country. With regard to the past, whether women became prostitutes...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
Jul 21, 2007

The all-in-one conspiracy theory

"Life in Japan is like tofu," announces a friend over drinks at a late night eatery. "It's much too bland. What this country needs is a good dose of . . . evil."
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 20, 2007

Confused by a Turkish veil

ISTANBUL — On Monday millions of Turks will wake up to a new, post-elections Turkey. What will happen is hard to foresee. Turkish politics is full of surprises that only foreigners find surprising.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film / SHORT TAKES
Jul 20, 2007

Blindsight

Director: Lucy Walker Language: English and Tibetan
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 20, 2007

Murakami: investor activist turned greenmailer?

Convicted of insider trading Thursday and more than a year after he stepped down as a high-profile fund manager, it still isn't clear how to define Yoshiaki Murakami.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 15, 2007

Dive into the lower depths

PIERCING by Ryu Murakami. Penguin Books, 2007, 185 pp., $13 (paper) While his wife sleeps contentedly, a father hovers over the crib of his baby daughter, a penlight in one hand, ice pick in the other. Pressures are banking up inside the nervous system of a man who gets goose pimples while soaking in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2007

No care in the world for caregivers as profit is all that matters

Scandals are coming so fast and furious now it seems eons ago when nursing care provider Comsn Inc. was busted by the government for inflating the number of employees on its payroll. Actually, it was only last month, and at the time the media could only concentrate on the particulars, namely Comsn's...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Jul 14, 2007

Bathhouse dress codes, or tell Yo! mama, no army boots!

The Japanese are exporting one of their greatest commodities — sleep. Or at least the idea of it. The Japanese are masters of the power nap, and at any time of day you can see entire extended families sleeping while sitting upright on the train. A raise of an eyebrow at each stop is enough to make...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Jul 14, 2007

Barbara Abbate

"Our latest trip, a return to Japan after 23 years, to see old friends and old places is especially exciting. We feel at home. The essential politeness, cleanliness, naivete, kindness and curiosity of the people have not changed. It is very comforting, and we are so glad to have come back," said Barbara...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 13, 2007

'The Fountain'

Is it possible to feel a love so great that the chains of death cannot bind it? Of course we don't know, but the feeling of love — that one, true love — can be so powerful that it's tempting to think that two souls, so united, will meet again. Whether that's in this world or the next, nobody knows,...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2007

Breaking point of China's Communists

LOS ANGELES — It's not always easy to do right by China. Should you choose the path of unthinking flattery, you will eventually lose self-respect.
COMMENTARY
Jul 12, 2007

China's 'patriotic' church

HONG KONG — The Vatican, through a pastoral letter from Pope Benedict XVI to the 12 million Catholics in China, has called for reconciliation between the so-called patriotic church, which operates independently from the Holy See, and the underground church, which recognizes the supremacy of the pontiff....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 12, 2007

Neither heroes nor villains

The director and producer of a new film on Japan's WWII suicide pilots tell The Japan Times that the doomed warriors of myth were actually teenagers made to die for a lie.
EDITORIALS
Jul 11, 2007

From blunders to loose ends

The question remains as to why the Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner, Komeito, forced two bills to abolish the Social Insurance Agency through the just-ended Diet session with such haste. Suspicions also have been raised about the contents of the bills.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 10, 2007

Pro-Taiwan, not anti-China

TAIPEI — In 2003, while still serving as U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, I was asked by Taiwanese reporters what the U.S. view would be on the proposal for Taiwan to hold a national referendum with the 2004 election. My convoluted answer could have been summarized more concisely...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Jul 10, 2007

Allure of cakes too much for housewives to resist

Twenty years ago, Japanese girls were told that marriage should be the last item on the list of to-dos after college, that hankering after a wedding ring was idiotic and that the first and foremost concern should be work and a career.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jul 8, 2007

Closing of NFL Europa sad move for Japanese players

What began auspiciously long ago ended in profound disappointment recently when the NFL decided to close its six-team European circuit.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2007

Funding scandal hits farm minister

has given an explanation." In the 16-year period up to 2005, a total of 22.8 million yen was registered as rent, 71.6 million yen as personnel costs, 13.5 million yen as utility costs and 15.6 million yen as other miscellaneous costs, according to the funding reports.
Japan Times
LIFE / REFUGEES AND JAPAN
Jul 8, 2007

Kleptocracy to 'freedom'?

Hla Aye Maung's nightmare began in the central Tokyo district of Nishi Nippori when he went shopping. A police car pulled up beside him and the officers found he was one of the more than 250,000 illegal aliens apparently working in Japan. They took him to a police station in nearby Ueno, from where he...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2007

Japan, just a puppet of America?

Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, by Gavan McCormack. New York: Verso Press, 2007, 246 pp., $29.95 (paper) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi are usually portrayed as assertive nationalists, but come off here as dutiful and submissive gophers carrying out the...
Japan Times
LIFE / REFUGEES AND JAPAN
Jul 8, 2007

Diplomat rues Tokyo's 'lack of humanity' to asylum-seekers

Sadako Ogata was the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991-2001, and has been President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) since 2003. Here, she talks frankly to The Japan Times about Japan's attitudes to those who flee their homelands and seek sanctuary on these shores.
CULTURE / Books
Jul 8, 2007

A question of dignity or cause for embarrassment

THE DIGNITY OF THE NATION by Masahiko Fujiwara, translated by Giles Murray. IBC Publishing 2007, 278 pp., 1,400 yen (paper) The title of this little book deliberately echoes that of a notorious pamphlet issued by the Japanese government in 1937, at the peak of nationalist hysteria, in an attempt to...
EDITORIALS
Jul 7, 2007

A swamp of a property deal

The arrest of Mr. Shigetake Ogata, former head of the Public Safety Intelligence Agency, on suspicion of fraud in connection with an unsuccessful attempt to buy the headquarters of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents of Japan (Chongryun) begs the question "why?" — if prosecutors'...

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