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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2011

All eyes on Darvish in Climax opener

Yu Darvish has a few things to take care of before deciding which side of the Pacific he wants to pitch on next season.
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

Experts have expertise

Dennis Riches is rather hasty in dismissing professor Gerry Thomas' expertise in his letter of Oct. 23, "Real radiation threat is to young." He makes the point that most patients undergoing treatment for tumors die after a few years of treatment — but neglects to focus on the flip side of that statement:...
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

Film title mystery easy as 1-2-3

Many thanks to Mark Schilling for his overview of Japanese titles for foreign films (Oct. 24). It's a topic I grapple with every time I go to the neighborhood video store.
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

Why TPP doesn't add up

I was impressed by Donald Wood's compelling argument regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership ("Reserve judgement on TPP," Oct. 23), but I'd like to point out another factor to be considered: uncertainty, in particular over water. Abuse, depletion, flood and conflict over water disrupts lives and threatens...
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

More barriers to disabled in Japan

Regarding your Oct. 23 editorial, "Toward a barrier-free Japan," transportation is a critical element in promoting the independence of individuals with disabilities. But this is one component.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 27, 2011

Understanding the language of global protest

The protest movements that have flared up across the West, from Chile to Germany, have remained curiously undefined and under-analyzed. Some speak of them as the greatest global mobilization since 1968 — when enragés in very different countries coalesced around similar concerns. But others insist...
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

Detritus horribilis

In regard to the Oct. 22 article, "Briton aims to restore poets' peak to former glory", Stephen Gills, along with all the NGO volunteers, is to be commended for his efforts to clean-up Mount Ogura. The Kyoto-based environmentalist Okiharu Maeda deserves national recognition for his efforts as well. ...
Reader Mail
Oct 27, 2011

The source of Israel's insecurity

A.B. Yehoshua's Oct. 25 article, "A thousand prisoners for one," fails to mention that Israel's great need for security (hence its many wars) is largely due to its conquest of Palestine, which was primarily settled by Arabs, and replacing them with Jewish immigrants who largely came from Europe. Neither...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2011

Martyn

Dutch-born DJ and producer Martyn is perhaps best known for his dub-heavy bass tunes, and the back catalog of his own 3024 label would appear to confirm that. However, four-to-the-floor house and techno beats actually make him feel more at home. "It's very much a physical thing," he explains in an interview...
EDITORIALS
Oct 27, 2011

A prisoner swap in Israel

The exchange of some 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped Israeli soldier is a victory for humanitarianism in a region too often characterized by brutality. The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the deal goes against every one of his impulses, which were over-ridden...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2011

Burning Spirits

DAISUKE KIKUCHI Special to The Japan Times Who says Halloween isn't popular in Japan? The Burning Spirits Halloween 2011 event will rock Shinjuku Antiknock on the scariest night of the year, with acts hand-picked to create a creepy but fun atmosphere. Expect bands and DJs made up like corpses, all offering...
BUSINESS
Oct 27, 2011

ANA logs debut commercial flight of Dreamliner

Boeing Co.'s 787 Dreamliner completed its first commercial flight Wednesday after more than three years of delays, with operator All Nippon Airways Co. touting the increased comfort for passengers from the wider cabin and bigger windows.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / LIGHT GIST
Oct 25, 2011

The ridiculously frightening world of Japanese spooks

Halloween is that time of the year when the occult, macabre and humorous come together to create a festival of fear and fun for all the family. A celebration of death and demons with its roots in pre-Christian Europe, the summer's-end spook-fest has morphed over the centuries into a highly commercialized...
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Oct 25, 2011

To carry or not to carry your 'gaijin card' upon re-entry?

In our August 23 column (www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20110823at.html), we looked at whether foreign residents should carry their alien registration card on them when re-entering Japan. The official answer from the Immigration Bureau is that their officials will ask to see your ARC, or "gaijin card,"...
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 25, 2011

Top Tokyo haunts: five scary spots

1) Sunshine 60 Build a massive shopping and entertainment complex in Ikebukuro (at one time the tallest building in Asia) on the very site where seven Japanese war criminals were executed and you are bound to piss off some ghosts. In fact, its construction was plagued by many incidents (injured workers,...
COMMUNITY / THE ZEIT GIST
Oct 25, 2011

Death, mystery and well-endowed tanuki: a tour of terrifying Tokyo

If supernatural beings are a form of energy strongly connected to violent death and tragic events of the past, then Japan is the perfect breeding place for such phenomena, says Lilly Fields, a "certified paranormal investigator" who has lived in Japan for more than 25 years.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Oct 25, 2011

Hiroshima-area family roots inspire Canadian film director

When Linda Ohama, a third-generation Japanese-Canadian, heard the news about the earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region on March 11, she says she was "very shocked" and felt a strong urge to do something for the people there — especially the children.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Oct 25, 2011

The natural tide of the times

Back to basics Ki no Kami paper — the result of a collaboration between the Shiodome Innovation Studio (a creative unit that teams Japan's leading advertising agency, Dentsu, and Keio University's Shonan Fujisawa Campus with various creators) and the PaPaCo Yoshino wooden-toy maker — is designed...
COMMENTARY
Oct 24, 2011

Olympus case a black mark for Japan

The recent dismissal of the British chief executive of Olympus has once again drawn the attention of European media to peculiarities in corporate governance in Japan. Accounting practices and lack of transparency have aroused particular concern.
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Oct 24, 2011

Ill omens for Asian economies

Even though Asia is still perceived to be the global economic growth center, there are signs of potential dangers of the regional economy heading toward a collapse because of a vicious circle of inflation and wage increases brought about by huge sums of speculative money being poured into Asian countries....
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Oct 24, 2011

Going back to the past won't help Japan Inc. protect supply chain

The joint declaration adopted Oct. 15 by the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers expressed a willingness to take resolute action to deal with the serious downside risks being faced by the global economy. But Japan, beset by the damage caused by the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / INDIA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM
Oct 24, 2011

India bids for closer East Asia ties for regional integration

India wants to play a role in the economic integration of Asia through closer ties with East Asian powers including China — despite a long history of political hostility — and Japan, journalists and experts from India said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Real radiation threat is to young

While Gerry Thomas admits that radiation can be very dangerous, the Oct. 9 article "Like Astro Boy, humans may be able to live with radiation" fails to elaborate on what these dangers might be in the context of the Fukushima accident.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Public paying for Tepco's gamble

Tell me it isn't true! In the Oct. 20 article "Tepco ignored higher probability of tsunami," it was reported that a nuclear energy safety expert warned Tepco in 2006 that there was a 10 percent chance that its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant would be hit by a massively destructive tsunami sometime...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Useful expressions for U.S. visits

On a recent business trip to the United States I chatted with some Japanese passengers next to me on the plane about what would be the most useful expressions for travelers with only a little English.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Opportunity for Tohoku

I couldn't agree more with Roger Pulver's Oct. 16 article "Don't look back, Tohoku." I visited Miyagi Prefecture from Oct. 11-15 for the first time in nearly 20 years. I, too, was shocked by the extent of the impact of the tsunami. But I was equally impressed by the resilience and positive attitude of...
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

What Chinese law can learn

Regarding the Oct. 20 article "Chinese law reform may be a double-edged sword," China should not include the Western convention of allowing lawyers to coach their clients to lie, in any list of reforms.
Reader Mail
Oct 23, 2011

Clearing up cost of plant closure

Your correspondent is in error on the matter of who will bear the cost of the early closure of the Sellafield MOX plant ("U.K. MOX plant closure to cost utilities billions," Oct. 19).

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