japan

More than 20 years have passed since the Berlin Wall fell, yet Japan remains shut out from the rest of humanity by its own wall. Though it is a shapeless partition that we cannot touch, it nevertheless cuts off the country from the world beyond its shores.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has begun adjusting his schedule with the aim of visiting China on June 12, "Japan Day" of the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

On May 1, the modern-day equivalent, the World Expo, will open in Shanghai, China. Given China's rising international profile, the Shanghai Expo seems to be less about inventions and more about geopolitics.

One of the more colourful off-piste events at New York fashion week last month was Tokyo Fashion Festa. “The objective is to promote an understanding of Japan, a better image, or the correct image,” says Takeshi Akahori, director of the public diplomacy department at Tokyo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Scientific links between the UK and Japan have been boosted by the announcement of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's ( BBSRC ) latest Japan Partnering Awards.

This month, the United States and Japan are celebrating more than 50 years of cooperation in agriculture.

YOKOHAMA, March 11 – The photo that spread across the top of page one of this morning’s Yomiuri Daily newspaper was dramatic: a group of people, obviously in distress, probably in mourning.

In a newspaper in the U.S., it could have been a photo of the aftermath of large-scale death in Haiti, Nigeria or Chile. But these individuals were clearly Japanese. What disaster were they commemorating?

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