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COMMUNITY / Voices / OVERHEARD
Mar 1, 2014

Cheap digs

Australian student #1: This ski holiday would have been a lot cheaper if I had brought my girlfriend.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 1, 2014

Japan's reactionaries waging culture war

The contemporary culture wars that have erupted over Japanese identity and history are undermining the country's national interests and damaging its reputation.
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2014

Skating union should weigh effect on fans

When photos surfaced of a Russian figure skating judge — married to the general director of the Russian Skating Federation — hugging her countrywoman Adelina Sotnikova minutes after the latter won the Olympic gold medal at Sochi, the International Skating Union issued a statement that it "is confident...
Reader Mail
Mar 1, 2014

Unfair grading of social insight

Anthony Fensom's Feb. 23 review ("Japanese social issues await 'new dawn'") of the volume "Critical Issues in Contemporary Japan," which I edited, is disturbing as he unfairly impugns my colleagues' professional integrity and insights. Fensom writes: "International affairs is one section where the work...
SOCCER / J. League
Mar 1, 2014

Antlers wallop Ventforet in season-opening match

Kashima Antlers made a barnstorming start to the new J.League season with a 4-0 demolition of Ventforet Kofu on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

How long can Putin bask in the glow of Sochi?

Reading all the positive foreign reactions to the Olympics prompts one to try to imagine how a flunky of Russian President Vladimir Putin would put together a selection of quotes to please the boss.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

Ukrainian coup is not a revolution

In a real revolution, the core mission and organizational structure of a country's military are radically altered. The leadership changes in Ukraine and Egypt don't signify revolutions.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 28, 2014

Problems with 'Abenomics'

The economic recovery we see in Japan now is almost entirely due to the massive 30 percent depreciation of the yen. We are back to the 'structural reform' vicious circle of the Koizumi years.
BASKETBALL
Feb 28, 2014

Fukuoka heaps more misery on Oita

The free-falling Oita HeatDevils and Rizing Fukuoka have been heading in opposite directions.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 28, 2014

Alienated Crimea defies Ukraine's new order

Waving the Russian flag and chanting "Russia! Russia!" protesters in Crimea have become the last major bastion of resistance to Ukraine's new rulers.
SOCCER / J. League / 2014 J. LEAGUE PREVIEW
Feb 28, 2014

Cerezo looking to end Sanfrecce stranglehold

The following is the second of a two-part preview for the upcoming J. League season. Team-by-team previews of the nine highest-ranking teams competing in the first division are listed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014

Smaug the dragon to get fans fired up for 'Hobbit' sequel

The middle film in a trilogy can be a risky venture. The first film? Audiences are introduced to new characters and exciting possibilities. The final film? Hollywood pulls out all the stops to send those characters off with a bang. The middle? Well, directors often save their best tricks for the finale....
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 27, 2014

Japan's strange narcissism

In today's Japan, the government's affected show of adapting to globalization and the rise of exclusionist nationalism are two sides of the same coin.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014

'Ai no Uzu (Love's Whirlpool)'

Sex and love — can the twain ever meet? In the world of fūzoku, a euphemism for Japan's enormous sex industry, that question is usually answered in the negative.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Feb 27, 2014

Status as benefactor and folk hero made 'El Chapo' elusive prey

Alfonso Lara says the only person who could keep him safe from crime was the most notorious drug lord in the world.
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014

Just say the U.S. wasn't innocent

In his Feb. 23 letter, "Don't wait up for a U.S. apology," Paul Gaysford criticizes Jeff Kingston's Feb. 16 Counterpoint article, "Tokyo firebombings and unfinished U.S. business," for calling on the United States to apologize for its indiscriminate air raids during World War II, including the Tokyo...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014

To err is to trust in nuclear safety

Regarding the Feb. 23 Kyodo article, "Human error, not equipment, may have caused water leak: Tepco": It seems irrelevant to say that human error was [responsible for the roughly 100 tons of highly radioactive water released from a storage tank early last week at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014

'Adviser' digging a hole for Abe

Regarding the Feb. 20 article "Abe aide pillories U.S. on YouTube": Longtime ally to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Seiichi Eto, was wrong to take the U.S. government, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to task for not supporting the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine in December. Given that America...
Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2014

Cause of Chinese, Korean anger

I quite agree with Michael Hoffman's The Living Past article on Feb. 16, "Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan.' " Historically speaking, China believes it is the great master, Korea is a first disciple and Japan is a second disciple. Actually, before the Meiji Era (1868-1911), culture or...
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 26, 2014

Popovic trying to keep lid on Forlan hype as Cerezo eye title

The arrival of star Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan has transformed Cerezo Osaka into runaway favorites for the J. League title in the minds of many, but if manager Ranko Popovic agrees with them, he is keeping quiet.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2014

Wind power on verge of taking off

Japan hasn't seen an appreciable increase in wind power in the past few years despite the start of the feed-in tariff system designed to boost renewable energy, but it still has potential and the market will grow in the next several years.
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2014

Honda to end production of Insight

Honda Motor Co. will end production of its Insight model, the first hybrid vehicle introduced in the U.S., after demand plunged and sales lagged behind Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius.
Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 25, 2014

Sanfrecce emboldened as chase for third straight title looms

Sanfrecce Hiroshima know they could not have won last year's J. League title without a bit of luck, but that will not stop the two-time defending champions from believing they can make it three in a row when the new season starts on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2014

Good reasons to loathe Big Tech

Not only have Americans been reamed by Big Tech — they know they've been reamed. Which has set the stage for big-time resentment.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2014

Future looks dull from Washington

Absent an event that upends the country, Washington seems likely to be a lot less important over the next few years than it was over the past few years.
SOCCER / J. League
Feb 24, 2014

Arnold still getting used to life at Vegalta

New Vegalta Sendai manager Graham Arnold admits to being overwhelmed by the job so far, but the Australian is quietly confident of finding his feet over the coming J. League season.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 23, 2014

Keep calm before carrying on when speaking Japanese

In Haruki Murakami's 1985 novel "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World," one of the two protagonists is a coolheaded data agent working for the monolithic "System" that protects the world from "Semiotec" data thieves. He takes on a job that's a little too dangerous and finds himself confronted...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LEARNING CURVE
Feb 23, 2014

Lado’s victory and demise weren’t without their lessons

With decreasing salaries and eroding job security, it may seem as if little has improved for instructors working in Japan's eikaiwa (English conversation) industry.
LIFE / Language / COMMUNICATION CUES
Feb 23, 2014

Teens win first medals for Japan

Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka earned Japan's first medals at the Sochi Winter O lympics on Feb. 11 by taking silver and bronze, respectively, in the men's snowboard halfpipe.

Longform

Koichi Tagawa’s diary entry from Aug. 9, 1945, describes the day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
The horrors of Nagasaki, in first person