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JAPAN
May 19, 2009

H1N1 flu surges in Kansai

KOBE — The number of domestic swine flu cases reached 140 in Hyogo and Osaka as of Monday evening, prompting fears of an epidemic and leading to calls from the two governors to shut down all schools in the prefectures and for the central government to do more.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 10, 2009

Kawasaki risen from the grit with plenty to offer

Back in December 1972, having just taken a job with a Japan Airlines subsidiary, I moved into the company's bachelors dormitory at Miyauchi 2-chome in Kawasaki's Nakahara Ward.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 9, 2009

In search of picture-perfect Tokyo

Tokyo is infested with camera bugs. I can identify three species, at least.
JAPAN
May 1, 2009

Narita arrival tests positive for influenza

NARITA, Chiba Pref. (Kyodo) A woman aboard a Northwest Airlines flight that arrived Thursday at Narita International Airport from Los Angeles has tested positive for influenza in a preliminary examination, sources with the airport operator said.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 19, 2009

Pedaling for the planet

One recent early morning, Franz-Michael S. Mellbin, the Danish ambassador to Japan, was to be found preparing for an important diplomatic mission at a rather unlikely venue — on the Tama River cycling track just by the Futakobashi Bridge linking Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and Kawasaki.
COMMENTARY
Apr 9, 2009

Australia and Afghanistan

So Australia's Labor Party prime minister, the Chinese-speaking Kevin Rudd, has promised Australia will stay the course with the United States in Afghanistan right to the very end. That's interesting. Canberra once also promised the U.S. it would stay in the Vietnam war till the very end. "All the way...
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2009

G20 stands up to crisis

Only history will judge whether last week's meeting of the Group of 20 nations did in fact provide a floor to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Equally uncertain is whether the conclave marked the emergence of a new economic order, as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared upon...
JAPAN
Mar 14, 2009

Aso slams North launch plan but wary of sanctions

Prime Minister Taro Aso on Friday condemned North Korea's plan to send up a rocket that will cross Japan, but stopped short of calling on the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the country.
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Feb 14, 2009

Japan showed promise in draw

Japan's 0-0 draw with Australia on Wednesday night was far from being the disastrous result that Socceroos manager Pim Verbeek warned it would be during his pre-match mind games.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Jan 27, 2009

'Marathon' ritual must change

Recently, my son ran an 800-meter "marathon" at his local elementary school. He received a congratulatory "certificate of achievement" noting his participation and the fact he placed 79th. He has come to dread this annual ritual. It is damaging his fragile self-esteem and emerging identity by blatantly...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 4, 2009

A collection from Tokyo's nests of creativity

More "like a machine than a city" is how Paul Theroux recently characterized Tokyo, a city many of us see as a breeding tank for creativity. True, the more subtle voices of the megalopolis are often drowned out in the din, but this is where artists can help, by adding warmth, depth and texture. Among...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 26, 2008

A turbulent 12 months

Like pretty much everything these days, the fortunes of the music business in 2008 were mainly tied to the global economy. CD sales have long been dropping steadily, mostly due to the steady increase in illegal downloading, but until this year, top artists could still count on fairly decent sales, and...
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2008

Tax Commission pressures Aso to clarify timing of sales tax hike

The government's Tax Commission on Friday urged Prime Minister Taro Aso to clarify when the 5 percent consumption tax would be hiked to deal with the country's ballooning social security costs.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 23, 2008

We're just playing ball

It's an open secret that TV news shows tend to go easy on big advertisers in their reporting. In the many tributes to journalist Tetsuya Chikushi, who died two weeks ago of lung cancer, no one mentioned that he was a heavy smoker. The dangers of cigarettes were never covered on his nightly TBS show,...
Reader Mail
Nov 9, 2008

American stereotype broken

About a month ago, I exercised my right to vote in the U.S. presidential election as an absentee expat. I voted for Barack Obama because of the vision of the future he has inspired in us after eight long years of political and economic divisiveness.
MORE SPORTS
Nov 8, 2008

Oguri Cap, veteran riders return to Tokyo for Jockey Masters

Sunday promises to be a day of memories, some of them new, but most of them acquired from the past several decades of Japanese racing, and sure to be brought back to life by the sight of old familiar faces, both human and equine.
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 27, 2008

Failure of 'last resort' speaks volumes about need for global control

T he Bank of Japan began an operation in mid-September to supply U.S. dollars to institutions participating in the Tokyo money market, including foreign banks and brokerage houses. This operation, part of a joint effort by central banks around the world to fight the credit crunch that followed the collapse...
Reader Mail
Oct 16, 2008

Motorcycling madness in Vietnam

Regarding the Oct. 8 article "Motorcycle makers battle it out in Vietnam": Indeed, the whole of Vietnam is now a traffic jam of honking cacophony. The makers have totally clogged the streets of Hanoi and Saigon, jam-packed the sidewalks and poisoned the air with millions of their machines. Kids risk...
COMMENTARY
Sep 22, 2008

Brace for Bush's last hurrah

The good news is that U.S. President George W. Bush is not going to invade Iran before he leaves office. The bad news is that he is attacking Pakistan instead.
EDITORIALS
Sep 20, 2008

Pakistan ensnared

In a sign of growing concern over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and a renewed commitment to kill or capture al-Qaida's top leadership, the United States has launched military strikes across the border into Pakistan. These attacks signal U.S. frustration with Pakistan's efforts to battle...
COMMENTARY
Sep 17, 2008

A tale of two women candidates

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — This is a tale of two high-profile political candidates who don't simply happen to be women. They are political women up for very big jobs. This is also a story of two very different political cultures.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2008

Taking Hitler by the horns

As the son of a Jewish mother who escaped the Holocaust by moving to Switzerland ("at the very last moment!"), Dani Levy has had a lifelong fascination with the Third Reich.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Aug 30, 2008

A Welshman's 10,000-km tale of Japan

What on earth would induce anyone to cycle around a country for six months?
COMMENTARY
Aug 19, 2008

Ma goes for Taiwan gold in matters of trust

LOS ANGELES — A true winner came to Los Angeles earlier this month. He is Chinese, but he has had nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics. He is very important, though, because in his hands lie one of the keys to peace in Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2008

Credit Sarkozy for working to revive a club

OXFORD, England — Maybe it is time to be a bit more generous to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and look at the outcome of what he does rather than the way he does it.

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers