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Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2011

All Japan had to do was wait

Regarding the Dec. 8 editorial, "70 years since Pearl Harbor attack": The Pearl Harbor attack was a spectacular failure of diplomacy, but hardly surprising in view of the dominance of the militarists in the Japanese government over the diplomats, and the insularity of the Japanese people, who were less...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 11, 2011

Japanese 'good-for-nothings' heart Bhutan

Japan is in love — with Bhutan, a supposed Shangri-La of a country nestled in the Himalayas, famous for deemphasizing gross domestic product (GDP, the standard measure of well-being) in favor of a more abstract, possibly more human metric known as gross national happiness (GNH).
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Dec 11, 2011

Chilling out in a warm Kume Island way

The first thing a good beach does is immediately make you want to take your watch off. But what makes a really great beach is when you do that — and then kick off your shoes as well. That's exactly what I did when I arrived at Eef Beach on Kume Island, Okinawa.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / ONE-ON-ONE WITH ...
Dec 11, 2011

Three-point ace Takeno shooting for a championship

The Japan Times features periodic interviews with players in the bj-league. Akitomo Takeno of the Rizing Fukuoka is the subject of this week's profile.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Dec 11, 2011

'Chushingura' in a wide-show style; Watanabe/Minami's TV drama debut; CM of the week: Saikyo Jump

Dec. 14 is a special day in Japan. On that date in 1702, the 47 retainers of the Lord of Ako exacted revenge on Kira Kozuke-no-suke, the Edo official who caused their lord's death a year earlier. This story is known popularly as "Chushingura" and has been adapted hundreds of times in various forms.
Japan Times
LIFE
Dec 11, 2011

The Scot who shaped Japan

This coming Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, marks the centenary of the death in his opulent home in the Shiba Park area of Tokyo's central Azabu district of the Scottish-born trader Thomas Blake Glover, who became the first foreigner ever decorated by the Japanese government when he was awarded the Order of the...
COMMENTARY
Dec 10, 2011

Civil reawakening in Russia?

It came as no surprise to Russian citizens that parliamentary elections held Dec. 4 were neither free nor fair. Elections in Russia have become increasingly managed since Vladimir Putin's first stint as prime minister in 1999.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 10, 2011

How does 'Come all ye Bodhisattvas' grab you?

Many people know that most Japanese believe in Shinto and Buddhism. Fewer are aware that many also participate in "commercialized Christianity" in order to take advantage of those fun Christian holidays.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 9, 2011

Nakase, Westover to lead All-Star teams

Natalie Nakase of the Saitama Broncos grabbed the spotlight by becoming the first female head coach in bj-league history on Nov. 24.
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2011

Sales of Sharp LCD TVs to soar in U.S.

Sharp Corp. said Thursday it expects to sell more than 1 million large LCD TVs in North America in the business year to March, about five times more than last year as demand surges in the U.S. market.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 9, 2011

"Ito Kiyonaga: A Retrospective"

To celebrate the centenary of Kiyonaga Ito's birth, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art is holding a retrospective of the well-known painter's work. Born to a family who ran a Zen temple in Hyogo Prefecture, Ito (1911-2001) was expected to enter the priesthood. Instead, he chose to became a Western-style...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 9, 2011

Fashion grad holds art show inside Muji

Takehiko Sanada has an unusual background for an artist. He studied fashion and, from 1985 till 1992, he worked as a designer with Issey Miyake.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 9, 2011

Gold exports at highest level since '85

Gold shipments from Japan are at the highest level since at least 1985, as individuals who purchased jewelry more than 20 years ago sell it amid record prices.
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Ready for the worst from China

Kevin Rafferty writes with shrewd insight in his Dec. 5 article, "China: soft or crash landing?," as he quotes and dismisses Alessandro Magnoli Bocchi's notion that the Japan of the asset bubble days resembles China today.
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

MacArthur pre-empted disaster

Regarding Masamichi Yabuki's Dec. 4 letter, "A MacArthur view revisited": There have been other unjust omissions and, worse, derogatory statements made about American Gen. Douglas MacArthur, especially regarding his role in bringing about Japan's revised constitution during the early months of the Occupation....
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Japanese disclosure too, please

Regarding the Dec. 4 Kyodo brief "U.S. parks plan irks A-bombed cities": Perhaps the professional complainers from Hiroshima and Nagasaki (who want the three sites that the U.S. National Park Service is considering establishing as historic parks — because of their involvement with the Manhattan Project...
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Defense official deserves respect

Regarding the Dec. 2 editorial "Abominable remark over Futenma": Perhaps the comment of the now former Okinawa Defense Bureau chief, Satoshi Tanaka, should be taken with a translation of "screwed over" rather than "raped". In which case his comment would suggest that the Japanese central government has...
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Criticism of criticism puzzling

I can't for the life of me understand why Donald Feeney — in his Dec. 1 letter, "Unbalanced article on immigrants" — believes that Hiroaki Sato (Nov. 28 article, "Learning to live with the builders of America") should feel obligated to bring up Japan in his article on American immigration policies....
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Going the way of the dinosaur?

Regarding the Dec. 5 Kyodo front-page article "50.7% want election held before tax hike": Surely as God made little green apples, self-interest will kill Japan. The markets are currently distracted with the "1+1 = 5" economics of Europe and the United States, but eventually the Japanese short-sellers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 8, 2011

Quake-stricken orchestra plays on in style

The Tokyo Symphony Orchestra faced a setback this year after Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, effectively leaving the musicians homeless.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 8, 2011

Celebrating New Year's in the traditional way

As people in Japan prepare to celebrate New Year's Day, among the most notable tasks of the season are housecleaning, which echos the timeworn ritual of susuharai ("cleaning soot from the timbers under the roof") and placing shimenawa (sacred straw rope traditionally hung at the entrance to Shinto shrines)...
EDITORIALS
Dec 8, 2011

70 years since Pearl Harbor attack

Seventy years have passed since Dec. 8, 1941 (Japan time), when more than 300 Japanese bombers, torpedo bombers and fighters from an aircraft carrier task force attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack exploded, sank or severely damaged five U.S. battleships, among other seacraft, and killed some...
Reader Mail
Dec 8, 2011

Stop wasteful spending anywhere

Sana Tanaka's Dec. 1 letter, "Tourist tickets go the wrong way," reminded me of the wining and dining days in Seoul (after 1992), when I worked for a financial company underwriting securities. Private and government spending, of course, came to an end when the international monetary crisis engulfed South...
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
Dec 8, 2011

A look into Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

It is hard to think of fin de siecle Paris without recalling the dancing girls and dandies of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's colorful prints. It is equally difficult to imagine work by the artist not centered on the city's hedonistic and decadent nightlife.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2011

Putin afflicted by Brezhnev syndrome

The winner of Sunday's legislative election in Russia was a foregone conclusion: United Russia, organized by Vladimir Putin. Likewise, there is no doubt that Putin himself will win the presidential election due in March 2012. But the public enthusiasm that ratified Putin's rule for a decade has vanished,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 7, 2011

Political earthquake in Osaka

Toru Hashimoto's huge victory in the Osaka mayoral election was undoubtedly a political earthquake. The question now is how sweeping and powerful will be the tsunami that follows. My worry is that Tokyo, and particularly the political and bureaucratic establishment, does not comprehend the tectonic forces...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb