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Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Dec 16, 2011

Losing streak by Five Arrows nearing epic proportions

Considering their recent history, it's no surprise the Takamatsu Five Arrows are piecing together a season that resembles a comedy of errors. But the fact that the team has made zero roster upgrades or additions in recent weeks may come as a shock to even the biggest of cynics.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 16, 2011

Snowman fest gives families a cool time

Snow in Osaka is rare this time of year, but the organizers of the Umeda Snowman Festival aren't going to let that stop them from trying to create a winter wonderland.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 16, 2011

Business confidence battered by strong yen, Europe's crisis

Business sentiment among large manufacturers deteriorated in December, according to the Bank of Japan's quarterly "tankan" index released Thursday, underscoring the growing concern over Europe's sovereign credit risk and the persistent rise of the yen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Dec 16, 2011

Sweet memories: Tokyo's dreamiest desserts of 2011

As the Yule season approaches, thoughts turn inevitably to cakes and sweetmeats. Homemade is always best, but sometimes expensive cravings arise for the kind of elegant confections that can only be furnished by bespoke chocolatiers and dessert chefs. Here are five of the desserts that hit the sweet spot...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Whale hunt sure to put off donors

Regarding the Dec. 10 front-page AP article "¥2.3 billion for Tohoku diverted to whale hunt": I truly regret ever donating money for restoring individuals' lives in the quake/tsunami devastated areas of the Tohoku region. It is shocking to learn that the fisheries agency is so detached from reality...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Arguments that invite criticism

In his Dec. 8 letter, "Criticism of criticism puzzling," Brett Gross wishes someone would explain the logic behind criticism of unbalanced arguments that one sometimes reads in print, with regard to my Dec. 1 letter "Unbalanced article on immigrants" (which had criticized Hiroaki Sato's Nov. 28 article...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

A place where Santa falls short

Thank you for Amy Chavez's Dec. 10 column about the splashy holidays in Japan ("How does 'Come all ye Bodhisattvas' grab you?"). In 2005 I visited Japan in November and was surprised to see all the holiday lights going up. Having lived there as a child in the 1960s, it was a dramatic change. (Gen. Douglas...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Public will foot bill as always

Regarding the Dec. 10 front-page Kyodo article "Tepco mulls 10% rate hike tied to '13 Niigata reactor restart": Is this 10 percent figure based on the government's intended consumption tax hike to 10 percent? The figure makes it even harder to distinguish between those government officials who have been...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Waiting really wasn't an option

Regarding the Dec.11 letter, "All Japan had to do was wait": I would like to refute a couple of points. First, Japan didn't really have an option to wait (for the United States to be dragged into war with Germany). The oil and raw materials embargo, in addition to the assets-freeze slapped on her by...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Dec 15, 2011

Make it a countdown to remember

In Japan, New Year's Eve is traditionally celebrated at home with the family. For many it is a somber — if not sober — experience. Yet over the years Japan has firmly placed itself on the world map as a major stop-off point for some of the biggest names in the electronic music scene, and looking...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Not all Christians are co-opted

It was disappointing to read "How does 'Come all ye Bodhisattvas' grab you?" (Dec. 10). Even though Christmas is virtually drowned out by commercialism, some Christians do try to observe Advent and Christmas as serious spiritual events in our lives. I just wanted you to know this, for whatever it may...
Reader Mail
Dec 15, 2011

Credibility of government limits

Regarding the Dec. 11 front-page Kyodo article "Meiji ignored tipoffs on cesium in formula": I wonder what the purpose is of establishing cesium levels in baby formula if a detected amount that is one-sixth of the "acceptable" level causes Meiji Co. to do a massive recall. Is the level expected to be...
COMMENTARY
Dec 14, 2011

China should heed Deng's warning

Last week, President Hu Jintao urged the Chinese Navy to accelerate its transformation and "make extended preparations for warfare." While perhaps unexceptional, the words caught the attention of the foreign media and that of China's neighbors, which generally do not have much of a navy to speak of....
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Dec 14, 2011

Perfect toys for retro gamers and karaoke fans

People who were kids during the early days of console gaming often look for ways to recapture the the excitement of that time. Those who spent hours playing the Famicom here in Japan, for example, still have a weakness for retro gaming. And while there are many ways to relive gaming glorydays (Famicom...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 14, 2011

Five myths about presidential contender Ron Paul

Ron Paul is the Rodney Dangerfield of Republican presidential candidates. The 12-term Texas congressman ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988 and was widely seen as a sideshow in 2008, despite finishing third in the GOP field behind John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Why, despite a small...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 14, 2011

Sony's buying binge said wrong ploy to beat Apple

Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer has announced acquisitions worth $8.4 billion this year to bolster phones and content. That may not be enough to turn around a company heading for a fourth consecutive loss.
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 13, 2011

Readers back father's fight to reunite with children

The following are readers' responses to the Nov. 8 Zeit Gist column headlined "My children are my everything — the reason I'm alive" by Simon Scott. The story followed Canadian Bruce Gherbetti on a surprise visit to his estranged wife's home in Fukushima in the hope of visiting his children, whom he...
COMMENTARY
Dec 13, 2011

The golden curse of the Peruvian Amazon

Madre de Dios, the name of a region in southeastern Peru bordering Brazil and Bolivia, is a common designation for the Virgin Mary, meaning Mother of God in Spanish.
COMMUNITY
Dec 13, 2011

Cory settles: the end of the story?

Writing under the pseudonym Richard Cory over the past two years, I have provided The Japan Times with an exclusive, inside account of my marital breakdown, my wife's subsequent disappearance with my three children, my rescue of my daughter, and my continuing efforts to gain access to my two sons (Zeit...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / HAVE YOUR SAY
Dec 13, 2011

Readers back father's fight to reunite with children

The following are readers' responses to the Nov. 8 Zeit Gist column headlined "My children are my everything — the reason I'm alive" by Simon Scott. The story followed Canadian Bruce Gherbetti on a surprise visit to his estranged wife's home in Fukushima in the hope of visiting his children, whom he...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Dec 13, 2011

Eyewear designer Alain Mikli

Alain Mikli, 56, is not just the most famous eyewear designer in the world — he invented the job description. Mikli was the first person to achieve worldwide success as a designer of nothing else but eyeglasses. He established his own brand in Paris in 1978 and pioneered the idea of wearing frames...
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2011

Clues to China's implosion

Kevin Rafferty's Dec. 5 opinion article, "China: soft or crash landing?," does not say much about how China's economy will implode and the critical elements to watch for.
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2011

Job fairs at students' convenience

I'm a third-year university student and a job-seeker. This year the time for job-seekers to register with enterprises has been changed from October to December, to reduce students' burden of studying and looking for work at the same time.
Reader Mail
Dec 11, 2011

Crass attack on the wrong people

Ed Bardoe's Dec. 8 letter, "Japanese disclosure too, please", was not only crass; it also showed a surprisingly limited understanding of people who had the misfortune to be subject to an atomic bomb attack, or to be descended from those who were.
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.

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