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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 24, 2007

Young ice crystals on their best behavior

What do you think Hokkaido people do in the wintertime for entertainment? Being such a cold place, you'd think they'd specialize in trips to Tahiti. But no, all over Hokkaido during the coldest months of the year they hold snow and ice festivals.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2007

In Harlem, living on a prayer

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in a narrow, unassuming Harlem church, three sopranos fill the room with the first reluctant notes of a gospel hymn. "Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hill," they sing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Feb 23, 2007

Roofs raised in prayer

Most people are only too aware of the devastating effects of global warming -- the breaking up of polar ice shelves, weather patterns going haywire, glaciers in retreat, that documentary starring Al Gore. But the thermal consequences of all the carbon that humans assiduously upload into the atmosphere...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2007

Damo Suzuki networks with younger generation

'My home is everywhere. I am a nomad of the 21st century; my address is my e-mail address," writes Damo Suzuki in English via, naturally enough, e-mail.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 22, 2007

Drama despite the Establishment

At last December's press conference heralding this year's Tokyo International Arts Festival, Artistic Director Sachio Ichimura was in a less than festive mood.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 21, 2007

Dealing with Iran's rapid rise in regional influence

BEIRUT -- America's decision to target Iranian agents in Iraq who may be involved in supporting violent militias is but another sign of the massive influence Iran is exercising in that troubled country. But the United States in fact facilitated Iran's growing influence by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 21, 2007

The Samurai Dolphin Man

Ric O'Barry is one of the world's best-known environmentalists. A former U.S. Navy diver, he later trained the five dolphins that played Flipper in the hit 1960s TV series of that name, before turning against dolphin captivity in 1970.
CULTURE / Books
Feb 18, 2007

Strange stories from Canadian suburbs

Nectar Fragments, by Michael Hoffman. AuthorHouse, 2006, 564 pp., $23.49 (paper). In the manner of the anthropologist, Michael Hoffman, in his latest collection of short stories, stakes out a small piece of terrain then proceeds to examine the life within its coordinates. The name of this plot is Nectar,...
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2007

Cabinet OKs ban on funds said linked to nuclear Iran

program, and an impact on regional stability in the Middle East," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference. North Korea is also a nuclear-weapons concern. The six-party talks involving Japan, China, the United States, Russia and the two Koreas agreed Tuesday on a deal that will...
JAPAN
Feb 17, 2007

Act locally on climate change, leaders urge

KYOTO -- Sharing a growing sense of crisis over climate change internationally, mayors and municipal officials met Friday in Kyoto to discuss how their local governments can cooperate to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Reader Mail
Feb 14, 2007

Youth-dampers working overtime

Regarding Eddy Nelson's Jan. 28 letter, "Why are young adults so glum": I don't think Nelson's letter is a product of malice, but rather one of a naive understanding of young people similar to that which has become so popular among the Japanese media. What Japanese young people really need now is not...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 11, 2007

Mammon and myopia: Japan's governing '70s legacy

Over the past three weeks I have looked back in this column at the decades leading up to the 21st century, which has to date seen a marked shift in Japanese domestic and international policy back toward a not-so-new form of nationalism. In this last article I discuss the 1970s, when critical decisions...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 11, 2007

Women find voice over sexist gaffe

In harmony-loving Japan, women rarely take to the streets to protest the sexist remarks that routinely spill from the mouths of ruling politicians, and even the most outrageous comments go largely unpunished at the ballot box.
Reader Mail
Feb 7, 2007

Misplaced ridicule of Carter

The ridicule of former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter by members of the Jewish community over his recent book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" should be expected, but is it deserved? In her Jan. 25 article, "Jimmy Carter has a Jewish problem," Deborah Lipstadt criticizes Carter...
EDITORIALS
Feb 4, 2007

Overbearing education proposals

An interim report submitted by the Education Resuscitation Council to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is long on proposals designed to tackle various challenges in Japanese education but short on reasons why some problems have developed. Without in-depth background analysis, it will be difficult to find correct...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 4, 2007

Whatever befell Japan's heady '60s hopes?

Over the past two weeks in this column, I have looked at Japanese society in the 1980s and '90s in order to trace how the nationalistic policies of the current Shinzo Abe administration, particularly in the educational and military spheres, are the outcome of developments in the preceding decades.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Feb 2, 2007

Ward, James take honors for January

The best defense is a strong offense, someone with a clipboard, a whistle and a captive audience once said.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2007

Declining tolerance of dangerous words

NEW YORK -- Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability. The violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused Western response, with governments tripping over their tongues trying to explain what the media should and should...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Feb 2, 2007

A sensuous 'V-Day' shimmy

With men around the country eagerly anticipating their Valentine's Day treats, a Tokyo-based collective of bellydancers is aiming to shift some of that day's focus back to the female populace by presenting "V-Day" on Feb. 11 at Cozmos Cafe in Shibuya, Tokyo.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 2, 2007

Rookie director digs for the truth

"The Road To Guantanamo" may be the first feature-length film for Mat Whitecross as a director, but his collaborations with Michael Winterbottom stretch back over several years. Whitecross worked as assistant director and editor on Winterbottom films like "In This World," "Nine Songs" and "Code 46."...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 30, 2007

What has been your most seismic experience in this earthquake-prone nation?

Reader Mail
Jan 28, 2007

Seeing 'liberation' for what it was

Jeff Kingston's review was simply one of the best essays published recently in The Japan Times. It addresses some of the issues facing Japan over its World War II-era atrocities. For nearly 20 years the public has been told by various Japanese leaders (mainly of the Liberal Democratic Party) that the...
EDITORIALS
Jan 28, 2007

Mr. Abe's pitch to the Diet

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a policy speech in his first regular Diet session as prime minister, pitched his top political goal -- changing Japan's postwar regime and revising the Constitution. But just what kind of nation he wants to build through such endeavors is not necessarily clear. In the short...
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 27, 2007

Europe's distant mirror?

PRAGUE -- It is tempting for Europeans to project their own history onto Asia and to view current developments there as a mere repetition, if not an imitation, of what occurred in Europe. In fact, Asians encourage this temptation, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) openly aiming...
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Jan 26, 2007

Signing of big name like Beckham long overdue by MLS

Here we go again.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Jan 25, 2007

A great space waiting to be filled

Wow. It's huge.

Longform

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