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EDITORIALS
Mar 19, 2006

Speaking clearly in the Diet

So, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has gone out on a limb and suggested that Japanese lawmakers engaging in debate in the Diet should speak in Japanese. Last week he reportedly chided an opposition member for asking a question sprinkled with English-language terms. On the one hand, that seems reasonable....
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Mar 19, 2006

Is this really just good fun?

You couldn't miss him if you tried: The guy in the skintight black vest and hotpants is popping up wherever you look in Japan these days, thrusting his pelvis on television, striking his signature "Y" pose on magazine covers and boasting about his beefy workouts in subway ads.
JAPAN
Mar 18, 2006

In court ruling flip-flop, NHK reporter can hide source

The Tokyo High Court on Friday accepted an NHK reporter's refusal to reveal a news source, saying news-gathering activities are a premise for the freedom of press that serves the public's right to know, which is an indispensable component of a democratic society.
EDITORIALS
Mar 17, 2006

Foreign Ministry mind game

Mr. Bunroku Yoshino, 87, director general of the Foreign Ministry's American Bureau from January 1971 to May 1972, was in charge of negotiations with the United States on the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control. In recent media interviews, Mr. Yoshino admitted that Japan secretly shouldered $4 million...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 17, 2006

You can't really go wrong with the army on your side

Talking with Yevgeni Lavrentyev is like walking into a Tolstoy novel: The characters will launch into monologues that can take up an entire page, but ultimately they have their own agenda on what to say, or not.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Court hits reporter's refusal to reveal source

The Tokyo District Court ruled Tuesday that a Yomiuri Shimbun reporter had no justification to refuse to reveal a news source in connection with a U.S. health food company's lawsuit filed in the United States over the fact that its Japanese subsidiary was fined for tax evasion in 1997.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Trio's bid-rigging charges grow

Tokyo prosecutors again indicted three men Tuesday over new allegations of bid-rigging for additional public works projects in their past posts at the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, investigative sources said.
JAPAN
Mar 15, 2006

Skymark maintenance oversight draws scrutiny

The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry announced Tuesday it will tighten its inspections of Skymark Airlines after the carrier reported it had been operating a plane for about nine months past a repair deadline.
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2006

Lightning-hit man, twice denied redress, wins bid for retrial

and other supporters outside the Supreme Court in Tokyo.
LIFE
Mar 12, 2006

Times of change

This story is part of a package on women in Japan. The introduction is here.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2006

Wanted: Pilot to pull DPJ out of dive

The decade-old Democratic Party of Japan is facing what members describe as its biggest crises ever.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 8, 2006

Another architect fakes design strength

Five Sapporo condominium complexes have been confirmed to have been built with faked earthquake-resistance data, the land ministry said Tuesday, and the city is investigating 28 more buildings the architect who compiled the data has said are not sufficiently quake-proof.
COMMENTARY
Mar 8, 2006

Can monarchical systems survive?

LONDON -- Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has recently claimed that his copyright was infringed by a popular newspaper that printed extracts from his diary about the handover of power in Hong Kong in 1998. The diary revealed the prince' distaste for the Chinese leaders whom he described as...
COMMENTARY
Mar 7, 2006

Party to a lack of maturity

In a statement issued last week, the Democratic Party of Japan acknowledged that a fellow lawmaker used a fake e-mail to cook up a scandal implicating a senior official of the governing Liberal Democratic Party with the disgraced former president of Internet startup Livedoor Co.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Mar 7, 2006

'One size fits all' -- if only it were true

Picture and pity this: A woman holds up a sweet pair of the latest jeans in a shop mirror . . . only to see the reflection of her own thighs bulging out from behind.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Mar 5, 2006

Evolution of Japanese cinema and the design of its creators

A HUNDRED YEARS OF JAPANESE FILM, by Donald Richie. Kodansha International, 2005, 320 pp., $22 (paper). Among Japanophiles, Donald Richie doesn't need an introduction, having written over 40 books on Japan, including the definitive works on directors Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, and the first-ever...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 4, 2006

Investor, philanthropist gives new name to jet set

It is 7:30 a.m. and Takaaki Kawashima has less than one hour to spare before leaving for Narita airport. He's due to take a midday flight to London, arriving in time for dinner with Prince Charles, Camilla and a small group of intimates at Clarendon House. He will leave for Japan again Friday morning,...
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2006

DPJ may sue source of bogus e-mail that blew up in its face

the person who offered the information," Hatoyama told DPJ lawmakers during a meeting in Tokyo. Nagata read out the bogus e-mail in the Diet last month, claiming it was internal instructions by Horie to staff to transfer 30 million yen to the son of Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 4, 2006

Reshaping the welfare state

LONDON -- A market economy is efficient, but it is not just. Because wages are determined by the law of scarcity, some people cannot earn enough money to live a decent life.
EDITORIALS
Mar 3, 2006

Trying too hard to get ahead

When Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Hisayasu Nagata spoke during a Feb. 16 Lower House Budget Committee session, it appeared that he possessed a strong political weapon for blowing up the Liberal Democratic Party and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 3, 2006

At the heart of the matter

April 26 will mark the 20th anniversary of the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine.
CULTURE / Music
Mar 3, 2006

Rhett Miller "The Believer"

Once again, Rhett Miller, lead singer-songwriter for The Old 97s, exorcises his pop demons on his new solo effort, "The Believer." A collection of mostly upbeat songs about the redemptive power of love, the album is much like his underrated 2002 debut, "The Instigator."
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2006

Diplomatic reposturing in the Mideast

SINGAPORE -- Certain Middle East nations are repositioning themselves diplomatically, a move that holds great significance in the international arena.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Mar 2, 2006

TIF pushes theater's borders

With guest productions from as far afield as Kuwait, Israel, Germany and the United States, this year's 12th annual Tokyo International Arts Festival (TIF) is delivering a challenging program of theater and dance from some of the world's leading dramatists. In doing so, TIF -- held for the first time...
JAPAN
Feb 28, 2006

Aso criticizes cartoons of prophet

Foreign Minister Taro Aso criticized some European publications Monday for printing contentious cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, calling such action "shallow."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 26, 2006

Will Barry Bonds play his last game at Tokyo Dome?

News came last week that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds announced he would be retiring at the end of the 2006 season. The next day, he said he may play several more years. Typical for a guy who often changes his mind, but there's nothing wrong with that.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 26, 2006

Mourinho should take a media lesson from Wenger

LONDON -- When Arsene Wenger left the press conference in Bernabeu Stadium after Arsenal's 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday night he smiled as the assembled media gave him a round of applause.

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