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COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2010

Know them by their bliss

NEW YORK — What's the best way to really know someone? Is it to uncover their daily worries, hassles or fears? To discern what traits they most hide from others, and perhaps even from themselves?
BUSINESS
Dec 1, 2010

JAL revival plan gets court OK

Japan Airlines Corp. won court approval Tuesday for its rehabilitation plan and entered a new phase toward its rebirth, but it still has a lot of turbulence to fly through.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 27, 2010

Dangerous myth of the hero entrepreneur

NEW YORK — Earlier this month, I sat on a panel in Monte Carlo, a hot spot of the establishment, discussing the question, "Why can't Europe be more like the U.S.?" The formal name of the panel was "Silicon Envy: Will Europe ever build the next new media giant?"
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 25, 2010

Mozart's growing influence on food

Although the claim that listening to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's complicated scores can boost your IQ has been debunked, its effect on bananas has yet to be disputed. So in July, the Hyogo Prefecture-based fruit company Toyoka Chuo Seika shipped out its first batch of "Mozart Bananas" to supermarkets in...
EDITORIALS
Nov 18, 2010

Looking less like a secret

The Metropolitan Police Department and public prosecutors decided Monday not to arrest a Japan Coast Guard member who has allegedly confessed to having leaked video footage onto YouTube of the Sept. 7 collisions between a Chinese trawler and two JCG patrol ships off the Senkaku Islands of Okinawa Prefecture....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 14, 2010

Media sheepish over island disputes

Last Tuesday, when Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of YouTube in order to find the person who leaked those videos of a Chinese fishing boat ramming a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands, the Asahi Shimbun published a letter from a man who said he had worked in media for 30 years. He...
COMMENTARY
Nov 10, 2010

Revenge, Australian style

Australia at times does some contradictory things in its foreign affairs. It says it seeks a global role, yet it recently dismissed a prime minister, Kevin Rudd, partly because he had been too prominent in seeking a global role. It says it is proud of its role in creating the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 5, 2010

Architect's floating future vision

The inexorable rise of Tokyo Sky Tree on the city's skyline has once again raised the question of what a future Tokyo might look like. The exhibition "Sousuke Fujimoto Architects: Future Visions — Forest, Cloud, Mountain" at the Watarium Museum attempts to get people thinking along these lines, while...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 3, 2010

A moveable financial feast

LONDON — There was a time when league tables were to be found only on the sports pages of newspapers. Now they are a global obsession. There are school and university league tables, rankings of companies on profitability or corporate social responsibility, tables of happiness indicators by country,...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 31, 2010

Why does distance ameliorate a war crime?

NEW YORK — One aspect of the modern sense of war, be it delusional, duplicitous or both, was palpable in two articles paired at the top of the front page of The New York Times toward the end of September. The headline of one said "Drug Use Cited In Killings of 3 Civilians"; the headline of the other,...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 25, 2010

Kan feeling Diet squeeze from three major groups

What occupies the mind of Prime Minister Naoto Kan more than anything else appears to be how to keep his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) free from the influence of his archrival, former party Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa. This could very well be the root of inconsistencies and blunders that have emanated...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 24, 2010

Can we fix Japan's moral morass?

As a gauge of where this country is heading and what kind of mood it's in, consider this fact: Last week, almost every mainstream weekly news magazine ran at least one story on old age and/or death.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 3, 2010

Japanese opinion polls now reflect reality far better than of yore

First of two parts
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Oct 2, 2010

Wenger needs to turn Wilshere loose against Chelsea

LONDON — Arsenal has the chance to prove it is ready to mount a serious Premier League title challenge when it takes on champion Chelsea on Sunday.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 30, 2010

'Friendly diplomacy' gaffe

The Sept. 7 collision between a Chinese fishing boat and the Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel Yonakuni in Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands resulted in the arrest and detention of the fishing boat captain on suspicion of obstructing the coast guard's official duty. He was released last...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 19, 2010

Thinking aloud

Few philosophers are compared to rock stars or TV celebrities, but that's the kind of popularity Michael Sandel enjoys in Japan.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Sep 12, 2010

Retro uniforms not a good fit in record summer heat

From the e-mail box this week comes a request from Mike Berger of Tokyo who wrote, "I would love to read about the retro uniforms we've been seeing in Japan pro ball recently. What's the history behind those white Giants uniforms, and how about the ugly black togs of the Tigers? Something from the 1930s?"...
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2010

Futenma's future may ride on DPJ leadership battle

Political analysts in Japan and the U.S. agree that the heated battle between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Ichiro Ozawa for control of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan could have a huge impact on the relocation of the U.S. Futenma air base.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2010

Eat, pray, love, kiss and tell

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Javier Bardem sounds almost as happy as he was the night he won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for "No Country for Old Men" in 2008. No wonder. He is recently married, to fellow Spaniard and Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz — his memorable costar in Woody Allen's "Vicky...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2010

'Zero: An Investigation of 9/11'/'Micmacs'

Nine years on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, doubts persist as to the true nature of what took place on that fateful day in September. While there's no shortage of conspiracy theories on just about anything these days — Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dan...
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2010

Kingpin win would delay charges

Now that Ichiro Ozawa has made it official and will run for president of the Democratic Party of Japan, a key question is whether he can be indicted over his alleged financial illegalities should he win and become prime minister.
EDITORIALS
Aug 22, 2010

End of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Officially, it's over. Thursday's withdrawal of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, the last U.S. combat brigade in Iraq, marked the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The move fulfilled the promise of U.S. President Barack Obama to end his country's combat mission in Iraq by the end of August....
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Aug 15, 2010

Pavlicevic sets sail in Shimane

The Japan Times will be featuring periodic interviews with personalities in the bj-league, which begins its sixth season in October. Coach Zeljko Pavlicevic of the expansion Shimane Susanoo Magic is the subject of this week's profile.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Aug 15, 2010

Can robots be chips off the Bard's block?

Actors traditionally wish each other good luck before they go on stage by saying, "Break a leg!"
COMMENTARY
Aug 11, 2010

Can Japan's politics change people's despair to hope?

The outcome of the July 11 Upper House election symbolized voters' distrust of national politics in Japan. The ruling Democratic Party of Japan led by Prime Minister Naoto Kan took only 44 of the 121 contested seats against its pre-election share of 54 seats due for contention and the DPJ-led coalition...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jul 30, 2010

Making 'BioArt' a cultural practice

At this year's Society for Social Studies Conference at the University of Tokyo, Aug. 25-29, there will be a session on "BioArt," which begs the question: What would that be?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jul 27, 2010

Ex-students don't want JET grounded

Since 1987, the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program has brought young Westerners — often straight out of college — to Japan to teach English at high schools. But now, Japan's massive public debt and the need to cut costs have put JET in the spotlight.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 18, 2010

Japan's media laps up poll parade

One of the funniest images to emerge from last week's Upper House election was the row of Liberal Democratic Party bigwigs pointing their forefingers to the sky in unison and flashing big stupid grins. The big stupid grins were a reaction to the party's supposed comeback, since they had just won more...
COMMENTARY
Jul 13, 2010

How Japan regains vitality

Japan's international rating has been declining lately. Heard overseas are suggestions that Japan is about to enter its third "lost decade," or that Japan has disappeared off the world's radar screen. Its share of global GDP, 14.3 percent in 1990, slipped to 8.9 percent in 2008 and is expected to sink...

Longform

Mount Fuji is considered one of Japan's most iconic symbols and is a major draw for tourists. It's still a mountain, though, and potential hikers need to properly prepare for any climb.
What it takes to save lives on Mount Fuji