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Reader Mail
Feb 26, 2012

Over-the-top comments on Japan

The letters from Patrick Byrne (Feb. 19, "Japanese people deserve better") and Marvin Motsenbocker (Feb. 16, "Japan remains the best choice") both contain elements of truth. Motsenbocker's lyrical fawning over a near idyllic Japan is decidedly over the top — a potentially rosy economy combined with...
CULTURE / Books
Feb 26, 2012

A quintessential Korean epic to rival the very best of Tolstoy

LAND, by Pak Kyung-ni, translated by Agnita Tennant. UK: Global Oriental, 2011, Three Volumes, 1,172 pp., $187 (hardcover) Given its length — the 1,167 pages translated, in three volumes, into English, are only one section of a five-part, 6-million word epic — and given its scope, comparisons between...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / BACKSTREET STORIES
Feb 26, 2012

Venturing into the zone on Showajima

In his "Meditation XVII," the English Metaphysical poet John Donne wrote in 1623 that "no man is an island, entire of itself." Well, yes — but some islands are entirely more manly than others.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 25, 2012

Villas-Boas latest scapegoat for Chelsea

In 40 years of reporting I cannot remember a more hostile media campaign against a manager than the one we are seeing with Chelsea's Andre Villas-Boas.
JAPAN
Feb 25, 2012

Divorcee raising orphaned nephew

When the March 11 quake and tsunami orphaned thousands of children in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, in the majority of cases relatives stepped forward to start raising them.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Feb 25, 2012

Austerity — we've embraced it in the countryside

Austerity. It's a word steeped in meaning. No one is more aware of a stagnant economy than the Japanese people, who are spending less and learning to relish cheap, imported goods.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Japan Pulse
Feb 24, 2012

Tech for keeping pace with the marathon trendsetters

Technology in the form of everything from to e-cash to purpose-built apps is coming to the aid of runners in the annual Tokyo Marathon.
COMMENTARY
Feb 24, 2012

An alternative to Putin's way

A "frosty Saturday" Feb. 4 confirmed the deadlocked nature of the situation that has ripened in Russia for more than a decade of Vladimir Putin's rule (as president and senior partner in the infamous "tandem").
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Don't make light of 'center exam'

In the Feb. 3 opinion article "Exam forces students to cram irrelevant facts," was the writer, professor Julian Dierkes of Canada, looking at the same national university exam that I took?
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Unbearable cost of Iranian oil

With increasing international momentum for an oil boycott on Iran in light of the Tehran regime's relentless pursuit of nuclear energy capability, Japan's leaders must pause and reflect on the unbearable cost of Iranian oil. By cost, I am not referring exclusively to yen and rials, but to the political,...
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Trans-Pacific interest in the Ainu

I would like to thank Michael Hoffman for his Feb. 19 review of the book "AINU SPIRITS SINGING: The Living World of Chiri Yukie's Ainu Shinyoshu" (by Sarah M. Strong). I am an American Indian, and the stories of the Ainu have always been of interest to me. During my visits to Japan I have looked for...
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Prospect for Japan-China ties

Regarding the Feb. 19 Kyodo article "China calls for closer financial ties": This is a good initiative. It warms my heart every time I hear of the prospect of better relations and trade between China and Japan. If Japan had an independent foreign policy free of U.S. influence, I'm sure our relations...
Reader Mail
Feb 23, 2012

Heart of Japan's administration

Jeff Kingston's Feb. 6 review of my recent book, "JAPAN'S NUCLEAR CRISIS: The Routes of Responsibility," is baffling. Kingston thinks that the title misleads and that the work is hastily cobbled together, relying on materials from prior texts. He protests that I do not put the Ministry of Economy, Trade...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 23, 2012

Salyu "Photogenic"

"Photogenic" is the sound of a wrongfully imprisoned inmate who was cleared of all charges being sent back to prison for no good reason. J-pop siren Salyu (born Ayako Mori) has spent the majority of her decade-plus career singing over generic instrumentals, her voice wasted on sounds better suited for...
COMMENTARY
Feb 22, 2012

Amazing GRACE can measure world's ice loss

One of the main climate change concerns for Japan and other Asian countries with valuable and densely-populated low-lying coastal land is how much of their land may be threatened by rising sea levels and storm surges as the century advances.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2012

Why Iran thinks it needs the bomb

Bombastic claims of nuclear achievement, threats to close critical international waterways, alleged terrorist plots and hints of diplomatic outreach — all are emanating from Tehran right now.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Feb 22, 2012

Pick of the pixels from this year's CP+ show

One of the highlights of this month's CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2012 in Yokohama was Nikon's new D800 digital SLR camera, aimed at multimedia photographers and videographers. The 36-megapixel monster is once again spurring the debate over how many megapixels is too many megapixels.
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2012

Shark left in Yoyogi has cops fishing for motive

A dead shark found in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park has sparked an investigation into who brought it there, an officer at Yoyogi Police Station said Monday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Feb 21, 2012

Focus on 'exceptions' waters down abduction pact

For the attention of the Japanese government:
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

January trade deficit hits new high

Japan logged a record ¥1.48 trillion trade deficit in January as an overseas slump, appreciating yen and a growing reliance on foreign energy slashed exporters' profits and boosted imports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2012

DoCoMo plans spending boost for network

NTT DoCoMo Inc., the nation's biggest mobile phone carrier, plans to spend about 1.5 times its annual profit to strengthen its network as it banks on a surge in smartphone use to end a four-year decline in revenue.
COMMENTARY
Feb 20, 2012

Media and law enforcement

The revelation last year that journalists at the News of the World, a Sunday paper, owned by News Corp., had been involved extensively in hacking into the mobile phones and the voice mail of celebrities led to the closure of this populist paper. Since such hacking is illegal in Britain, News Corp. has...
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Feb 20, 2012

Clean poverty, clean living and love on a shoestring

Okane wa doko ni itteshimattanoka (お金はどこに行ってしまったのか, Where has all the money gone?). Until a few years back, the tone among Japanese business pundits used to go like this — a little humorous and slightly hopeful, almost as if we were all playing kakurenbo (かくれんぼ,...
BASKETBALL
Feb 20, 2012

Washington dominates as Evessa beat Broncos

Sometimes, the best players need to demand the ball.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Time to send U.S. forces packing

Regarding the Feb. 14 front-page Kyodo article "Okinawa marines not Iwakuni-bound": Get the U.S. forces out of Japan. World War II ended almost 70 years ago. Japan does not need U.S. forces based there. All the United States is doing is bullying Japan and other countries, using economic sanctions and...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Japanese people deserve better

I laughed while reading Marvin Motsenbocker's Feb. 16 letter, "Japan remains the best choice," which sounds like a European elitist rant against America for gobbling up resources and being a dump, gun-crazy, uncivil, blah, blah, blah.
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

Where the right to smoke stops

As a doctor in Tokyo, I have a strong objection to Joseph Jaworski's Feb. 16 letter. Last week, a 58-year-old male patient came into my clinic. He has never smoked, but many people do in his restaurant. In 2009 he was diagnosed with lung cancer and was operated on. After that, various anti-cancer agents...
Reader Mail
Feb 19, 2012

We can't choose not to breathe

I agree with everything Joseph Jaworski says in his Feb. 16 letter, "Let consumers rule on smoking," but I think he misses one very important point — the right of employees to work in a healthy environment. This was, at least ostensibly, why New York banned smoking in all workplaces in 2003.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear