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EDITORIALS
Feb 6, 2006

Pinch of censorship vs. pile of trouble

There's a good reason why censorship sparks so many squabbles, as developments in both China and the Muslim world this past week have reminded us. It's a slippery concept. We who favor openness and transparency think we know exactly where we stand on censorship: We think it's bad. Right? Freedom of speech...
COMMENTARY
Feb 6, 2006

Containing a growing divide

The growing economic gap in Japanese society under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform policy is emerging as a major national political issue. Critics in the opposition camp as well as the ruling coalition charge that deregulation and intensified competition have divided society into winners and...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 5, 2006

Hingis surprises Sharapova in semis

Wild card Martina Hingis crushed top seed Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-1 Saturday to advance to the final of the Pan Pacific Open, where she will face Russia's Elena Dementieva.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 5, 2006

Souness doomed to fail with Magpies

DETROIT -- There are some things in football that seem so obviously destined to go wrong you wonder why they happen in the first place.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 5, 2006

How will Valentine, Hillman and Brown fare in 2006?

One-fourth of the 12 Japanese pro baseball teams in 2006 will be led by American managers. Their performances this season may dictate whether the recent trend for the Central and Pacific Leagues to hire foreign kantoku will continue or if the clubs will return to putting native Japanese in charge.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2006

Senior official confirms Iraq pullout within months

A high-ranking government official confirmed for the first time in public Saturday that Japanese ground troops will be pulled out of southern Iraq within the next several months.
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2006

Woman claims attack by lawmaker

A Tokyo restaurant owner has filed a criminal complaint stating that Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kazuyuki Nakane assaulted her in December, police said Saturday.
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2006

A tradition not yet finished

The bad news just keeps on coming for fans of conventional cameras. Nikon Corp. will stop manufacturing most of its film cameras, and Konika Minolta Holdings Inc. will completely withdraw from the camera and film business. The sad thing is that these makers have long contributed to Japan's photographic...
EDITORIALS
Feb 5, 2006

Soldier for human rights

He was there, in court most of the time, when the human rights of Korean residents in Japan were at issue -- denial of pension rights, forced fingerprinting of foreign residents for immigration registration, and blocked promotions of Korean nationals working for local governments. He also served in a...
JAPAN
Feb 5, 2006

Japan, South Korea agree to double size of bilateral currency swap deal

Japan and South Korea agreed Saturday in Tokyo to increase the size of a bilateral currency swap agreement to $15 billion from $7 billion to help address potential financial crises in Asia.
LIFE / Travel / NATURE TRAVEL
Feb 5, 2006

Relax like the Romans and poach with panache until you're 'loose as a goose'

When the Romans arrived 2,000 years ago, they immediately saw the potential. And so they immediately started building hot baths. Nothing appealed to a Roman legionary more than a steaming restorative soak after a hard day spent bashing wild Teutonic tribesmen, and the hot springs in what is now the German...
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Crown Prince recalls his life at Oxford University

THE THAMES AND I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford, by the Crown Prince of Japan, translated by Hugh Cortazzi. Global Oriental, 150 pp., 2006, £30 (cloth). "Thames and I" by the Crown Prince is a detailed account of the two years he spent at the University of Oxford in Britain. It is marked by penetrating...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 5, 2006

When building bridges becomes a fruitless endeavor

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi prides himself on his plain-spoken approach to politics. His popularity guarantees that people listen to everything he says, and because what he says tends to be simple it has the power of a pronouncement, regardless of whether or not it makes any sense.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Feb 5, 2006

Fashionista with attitude

Raised on the mean streets of Brooklyn's Brownsville district, Gene Krell is a self-proclaimed tough guy who cites as one of his heroes a little-known but highly colorful "Dadaist professional boxer" called Arthur Cravan.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 5, 2006

Rule of the people, by our people, for our people

There is a specter haunting the world. The specter is democracy. As U.S. President George W. Bush never fails to remind us: Democracy is on the march and there is no stopping it.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Painting a fascinating picture of the 'noble savage' debate

OMAI: The Prince Who Never Was, by Richard Connaughton, Timewell Press, 2005, 270 pp., £16.99 (cloth). It may not be true that, as the adage has it, every picture tells a story, but if pictures have any tales to tell, then Joshua Reynolds' portrait of Omai has a richer and stranger one than most.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 5, 2006

Solve your neighborhood problem with NHK's "Nanmon Kaiketsu" and more

As everyone knows, Japan is no longer a haven of safety. No statistic supports this sad development better than the fact that more than 440,000 bicycles are stolen every year, so don't get angry when a policeman stops you on the street to check your registration. He's only doing his job.
CULTURE / Books / THE ASIAN BOOKSHELF
Feb 5, 2006

Frightening, yet beautiful: ghosts, ghouls and monsters

YOSHITOSHI'S STRANGE TALES by John Stevenson. Amsterdam: Hotei Publishing, 2005, 160 pp., 71 full-page prints and 25 illustrations, 2005, $95 (cloth). Another beautiful edition de luxe from Hotei Publishing, this volume presents two series by Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), a late print artist often remembered...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2006

The louse that halted an army in Russia

NEW YORK -- The disastrous effects of the Russian invasion on Napoleon Bonaparte's army is well known. Less widel known are the reasons for the defeat of the Grand Army. Although Russian resistance, brutal weather and the lack of food and water decimated the French army, new genetic evidence proves that...
MORE SPORTS
Feb 4, 2006

Hingis, Sharapova roll into semifinals

Maria Sharapova and Martina Hingis showered reporters with roasted beans to ward off evil spirits after their wins at the Pan Pacific Open on Friday, but both showed they still have a little bit of the devil in them prior to their semifinal showdown.

Longform

A store clerk tries to cool things down in front of their shop by spraying a hose.
Is extreme weather changing the way Japan shops?