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Japan Times
JAPAN
Jan 26, 2012

Fight with leukemia reveals marrow-match difficulties

Last January, British national Aidan O'Connor, 46, purchased an old townhouse in the heart of historic Sasayama, a town known for its wild boar cuisine and large chestnuts.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 26, 2012

Nation logs its first trade deficit since 1980

Japan suffered its first trade deficit in over three decades in 2011, a year that saw natural disasters and a nuclear crisis, a historic rise in the yen and a sharp drop-off in global demand stemming from the European financial crisis.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jan 26, 2012

Ethnic Minority "Startin' ”

If you've been near Shibuya Station in Tokyo at night in the past 12 months, you may well have encountered three young guys playing up a storm to passers-by, many of whom have stopped to listen, cheer and/or dance. This trio goes by the name of Ethnic Minority, and is led by saxophonist Hiroyuki Yokota....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / STRANGE BOUTIQUE
Jan 26, 2012

Shibuya style with an Akihabara twist?

Shibuya-kei was one of the defining features of the music and fashion scenes of the 1990s, and it helped spawn the idea of "Cool Japan."
Reader Mail
Jan 26, 2012

Pointless Futenma deployment

In the Dec. 7 op-ed article "Toward a peaceful Pacific," Malcolm Fraser, a dour yet programmatic former prime minister of Australia, states that as the United States "will never place a large land army on the Asian mainland again," the proposed stationing of U.S. Marines in northern Australia appears...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jan 25, 2012

Desperate Knicks could use Tinsley

Kobe Bryant recently "pinpointed" Jamaal Tinsley as an ideal conductor of offensive arrangements, exactly what the Lakers (and Knicks) distinctly lack.
JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Genba wants China in loop with U.S., firm on Takeshima

Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba said Tuesday he strongly hopes to establish a Japan-U.S.-China framework to deal with Asia-Pacific issues.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Jan 25, 2012

Sony and Fujitsu take Japan into the battle for global smartphone dominance

Last year was the year that finally saw Android phones achieve booming growth all over the world, including here in Japan. But thus far, Japanese manufacturers have yet to crack the top tier of smartphone makers, as South Korea's Samsung and the Taiwanese HTC have led the charge thus far. But at the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jan 24, 2012

American claims Tokyo cop assaulted son, 8

Elementary school student Jian Macdonald had always thought policemen were cool — especially ones that rode fast motorcycles.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2012

Weak euro's perks said few, unlike dollar's

Having reached a historic high against the dollar last year, the sky seems to be the limit for the yen as it forges on against the euro.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Jan 24, 2012

Japanese must tap their 'inner Israeli': readers' responses

Some readers' thoughts on the Jan. 3 Zeit Gist column by Glenn Newman, headlined "Japanese must tap their 'inner Israeli' ":
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2012

Japan puts reserves to work in global financing role as economy slips

Japan is crafting ways of using the $1.2 trillion it holds in currency reserves, the world's second-largest, to help bolster its role in international finance as economic stagnation diminishes its share of global output.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Jan 24, 2012

Nadeshiko Japan eyes London Olympic gold

Japan's overtime defeat of the United States in the 2011 women's World Cup soccer finals inspired a nation suffering from the March 11 disaster and ensuing nuclear crisis. This year will see the club dubbed Nadeshiko Japan attempt to repeat their success at the Summer Olympics in London. Following are...
COMMENTARY
Jan 23, 2012

More crucial than English

On Nov. 21, 2011, the Government Revitalization Unit (GRU) took up the issue of reform of Japan's university system. Five themes were presented by GRU members:
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Deliver us from nuclear waste

I would like to comment on the Jan. 19 front-page article "" Their warnings are surely in line with what people have been telling us for over 20 years. The nuclear lobby will go on telling us that we need its energy and that, if we shut the reactors down, we will be catapulted back into the stone age....
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Results already open to scrutiny

The Jan. 15 editorial, "Wars over whaling," states "If the current hunting is really being done, as stated, for scientific purposes, the results should be opened to public and professional scrutiny, as is done with all serious scientific research." These results are available at http://www.icrwhale.org/DocumentList.html...
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Tepco rate hike will hit hospitals

Except for the haste in which Tokyo Electric Power Co. wishes to proceed, it does not come as a surprise that Tepco will increase the business rate for corporate users of electricity. Tepco's gain, our pain. Households are not far behind.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jan 22, 2012

Self-effacement is a fine thing, but does Japanese culture take it too far?

What is it that has aided the people of Tohoku in coping with the tragedy inflicted on that region of northeast Honshu by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011? The entire world marveled at their resilience, courage and stoic altruism.
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Kick-start a new whaling agenda

The Jan. 15 editorial, "Wars over whaling," highlights the damage that scientific whaling has done to Japan's image — a self-defeating outcome for a country largely reliant on "soft power" to pursue foreign policy objectives. As one of those objectives is access to food supplies, Tokyo's position has...
CULTURE / Books
Jan 22, 2012

Fresh light on history books

POSTWAR HISTORY EDUCATION IN JAPAN AND THE GERMANYS: Guilty Lessons, by Julian Dierkes. Routledge, 2010, 224 pp., $130 (paper) The ways in which both Japanese and Germans remember and narrate the history of World War II have generated a vast literature in recent years. School education and textbooks...
Reader Mail
Jan 22, 2012

Weak justification for the hunt

Joseph Jaworski, in his Jan. 12 letter, "The moral case against whaling?," asks whether anyone opposed to whaling can explain precisely what principle makes killing whales morally wrong. A simple answer is not easy.
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 22, 2012

What to call baby?

While clearing closets at my parents' house in Nara in December following my mother's death the month before, I came across a large square card in a pile of old documents. A snapshot of a baby looking at a birthday cake was glued in the center of the card, and I recognized that it was me at the time...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Jan 22, 2012

Turning to Okinawa and its rituals in search of a happier new year

Without a shred of a doubt, 2011 stands out to me — in a way that hopefully will never be surpassed — as the most catastrophic I have ever known.

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