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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 24, 2013

Osaka: Japan's latterday second city forever breaks the national mold

They're funny, finicky and feisty, not to mention being full of wicked mischief, with their own way of talking, too. Outside of Japan, think of Liverpool, not London; or Munich, not Berlin; or Mumbai, not Delhi. I'm talking about the people of Osaka.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 24, 2013

Power-hitting catchers still in short supply in Japan

Recall our column from last summer pointing out how there are very few catchers in Japanese baseball who can hit?
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 24, 2013

Struggling Sendai fires Pierce

After getting swept by the visiting Saitama Broncos on Friday, the Sendai 89ers on Saturday announced head coach Bob Pierce has been relieved of his duties.
JAPAN
Feb 23, 2013

Metro government's Senkaku donations gathering dust

The ¥1.48 billion that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government collected in donations to buy and maintain the Senkakus is just lying idle, waiting to be used, after the central government nipped in to snag the disputed islets in September.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 22, 2013

Suicide prompts wife to sue Tepco

The last words that a Fukushima dairy farmer said to his wife in the Philippines over the phone on the morning of June 10, 2011, was to make sure that she and their children ate well, stayed healthy and didn't return to Japan.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2013

The cybercrime challenge

The arrest this month of a 30-year-old man on suspicion of making anonymous threats by computer poses serious questions for the nation's police.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 22, 2013

Silver Linings Playbook

Sometimes life falls off its dreary grid and takes on the texture and flavor of strawberry chiffon cake. That's kind of what happens when watching "Silver Linings Playbook": The more this romantic comedy-drama about an ex-teacher with mental-health problems and the people around him progresses, the more...
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 21, 2013

Three murderers sent to the gallows

Three death-row inmates are hanged, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka, the first executions carried out under the new Liberal Democratic Party-led government.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Feb 21, 2013

Proposed inheritance tax exemption isn't really about inheritance taxes

Will old folks encouraged to think of their grandkids' education loosen their grip on unproductive savings?
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 21, 2013

For Abe, overcoming perceptions top job at Obama summit

When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to Washington this week for a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama, his first job may be to convince the president he's not a rightwing fanatic seeking confrontation in East Asia, but rather a calm partner who can work with the Americans to maintain peace and...
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 21, 2013

Israel denies 'Prisoner X' contact

Israel has denied that a reputed Australian-Israeli agent of its Mossad spy agency who committed suicide in secret custody in 2010 had contact with Australian intelligence services.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 20, 2013

EU shoots down bid to arm Syrian rebels

Rejecting a push by Britain, European governments on Monday decided against providing weapons to Syrian rebel forces, expressing fears that more arms would only lead to more bloodshed in a conflict that already has taken nearly 70,000 lives.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 20, 2013

Diet does away with contentious nominee rule

The ruling and opposition parities agreed Tuesday to revoke a self-imposed restriction on how nominees for key government positions are endorsed, moving a step closer for the administration to propose a new Bank of Japan governor and vice governors.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2013

The Chinese people have an alternative dream

Last month's controversy at China's Southern Weekly appeared to be about censorship. At a deeper level, it was about alternative national dreams.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 19, 2013

Abe's pick for BOJ chief coming soon

With Masaaki Shirakawa stepping down as governor of the Bank of Japan on March 19, three weeks earlier than scheduled, the process to select his successor is accelerating.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2013

Mori to meet Putin on Thursday

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will visit Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to prepare for a possible visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Russia, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihike Suga said Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Feb 19, 2013

Exec picks to be pitched this month

The administration plans to present its nominees for Bank of Japan governor and vice governors to the Diet by month's end, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.
JAPAN
Feb 19, 2013

Takeshima ceremony to draw 18 lawmakers

Shimane Prefecture's annual ceremony Friday to commemorate Japan's 1905 annexation of Takeshima will draw at least 18 Diet members, but so far no one in the Cabinet has signaled plans to participate in the event, the prefecture said Monday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2013

Stay of execution?

Jerry Givens executed 62 people. His routine and conviction never wavered. He'd shave the person's head, lay his hand on the bald pate and ask for God's forgiveness for the condemned. Then, he would strap the person into Virginia's electric chair.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 18, 2013

Internal GOP clash pits tea party against Rove

The internal conflicts that have roiled the Republican Party since its dismal showing in November appear to be deepening as conservative activists and tea party officials have begun to loudly resist an establishment effort to blame them for the GOP's 2012 troubles.
JAPAN / Media / CHANNEL SURF
Feb 17, 2013

Beat Takeshi and disappearing Japan; Taking apart the Boeing 707; CM of the week: Takada Moving Center

An endangered plant or animal species symbolizes a world that changes irrevocably every moment, but there are also man-made things that vanish. This week, on the variety show "Takeshi no Nippon no Mikata" ("Takeshi's Way of Viewing Japan"; TV Tokyo, Fri., 10 p.m.), comedian-filmmaker Takeshi Kitano looks...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Feb 17, 2013

Vibrant novel offers rich pleasures

UNEXPECTED LESSONS IN LOVE, by Bernardine Bishop. John Murray, 2013, 378 pp., £16.99 (hardcover)
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Feb 17, 2013

Bringing the love of short films to a local audience

If there was a birthday cake for the Brillia Short Shorts Theater, it would probably be an elegant, minimalist affair — no excessive decorations, nothing too calorific and five slim candles giving off a modest orange glow. One of just four movie theaters in and around Tokyo dedicated to short films,...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years