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Reader Mail
Sep 8, 2011

Skimming over a barbaric hunt

The Sept. 2 Kyodo article "Typhoon delays Taiji dolphin hunt" misses the main point. It should have said: "While coastal whaling involving catcher boats usually starts May 1, drive hunting — a traditional whaling method born in Taiji in which cetaceans are herded into a shallow bay where they are brutally...
Reader Mail
Sep 8, 2011

What is Tepco talking about?

Regarding the Sept. 1 Kyodo article "Tepco plans to flood reactors, extract fuel": I find it simply amazing that the press continues to report the absurd pronouncements of Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials with a straight face. They have lied repeatedly about what they knew had happened. These lies...
SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Sep 8, 2011

Aki Basho: Normal sumo service resumes in the capital — almost

Sunday Sep. 11 will see the Sumo Association resume the closest thing to normal service they can hope for in the present era of post-scandal reflection. It will be he first tourney back in the Ryogoku Kokugikan after a summer of much discontent and thus "coming home" to the capital will offer the powers...
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2011

BOJ to maintain 'zero' rate, sees second-half recovery

The Bank of Japan's Policy Board unanimously agreed Wednesday to maintain the current virtually zero-interest rate policy while shunning additional monetary easing to cope with impacts from the recent sharp rise in the yen.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 8, 2011

Seifuku Kojo Iinkai ditch the idol prattle for an antinuke message

It's the kind of protest song you'd expect from hardened punks or political rappers — not seven high school girls in synchronized dance.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2011

China turns up the heat

As Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino in Beijing recently at the start of a state visit, the official Xinhua news agency laid out terms for a sustained improvement in relations between the world's second biggest economy and its much smaller and weaker Southeast...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Shockwaves from the West

A nervous calm has returned to the streets of England after last month's widespread riots, arson and looting across London and other cities sent shockwaves around the world. As far away as Japan people were asking if Britain was safe any more, and one German politician suggested moving next year's Olympic...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2011

Taking aim at foreigners' blinkered views on doing business in China

Fraser Howie is scathing about foreigners' blinkered views, particularly those of his financial colleagues who believe they are God's gift to a reforming China. "Some of the management of these top firms genuinely believe that China is reforming and say 'we will be in there and China needs us.'
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Sep 7, 2011

With the rise of smartphones, Nintendo faces a grim future

There was a time when Nintendo could do no wrong, when everything the Kyoto-based game maker touched turned to gold. That time is over — and has been for some time. However, that doesn't mean you should count them out.
COMMENTARY
Sep 6, 2011

Instrument of love in Libya

Somebody (perhaps a Jesuit) once said: "Force is an instrument of love in a world of complexity and chance."
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 6, 2011

Fighters would be wise to hang on to manager Nashida

Baseball is a funny sport sometimes in that no one ever seems content to live in the present.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 6, 2011

Yen intervention failure may spur more BOJ easing

The yen's third monthly gain against the dollar means the Bank of Japan may decide this week to boost injections of funds into the financial system as Policy Board members seek ways to stem the currency's strength and spur growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2011

Jobs could reboot working class

In the week since he announced he was stepping down as Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs has been accorded the kind of demigod status that Americans bestow on the handful of their countrymen who invent, manufacture and market the goods that change their lives for the better.
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Sep 5, 2011

University of Hawaii hopes to form bond with Japan

Hosting a regular-season college football game abroad would certainly have an impact, but the University of Hawaii is seeking more than just that.
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Nice piece on the indies scene

Thanks for Ian Martin's Aug. 25 column, "Avoid the sins of playing live in the grimy clubs of Japan." This is a decent article, although some points don't apply so much to professional indie bands doing gigs at proper venues. Some things that work for bands in other countries don't necessarily work for...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Bareheaded Putin misses chance

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is one cool guy! He does martial arts. He fishes. He hunts. He's bilingual. He scuba dives. He's charismatic. He's smart. He looks good topless. And, in the Aug. 31 AFP-Jiji photo titled "LEADER OF THE PACK," he is shown riding a hog — in leather, no less.
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Alternative to Net domain racket

Regarding Esther Dyson's Aug. 30 Project Syndicate article, "'Protection racket' for Net domain names": It is not difficult to force Internet users to pay the huge and excessive prices demanded by "supposed" or "assumed" monopolies like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

West's motives for helping Libya

Regarding the Sept. 1 opinion article "Libya's next fight: the West": Surely writer Ramzy Baroud has read a few too many conspiracy novels, or believes the worst about the United States and any Western government. After reading further and following the link to the website he writes for, I think his...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

No unconditional right to enter

Regarding professor Reece Jones' Aug. 18 Project Syndicate article, "Fall of Berlin Wall wasn't the end of barriers": I can't imagine that Jones would be happy if a gaggle of ruffians burst into his home, plopped down on his sofa and put their feet up on his coffee table.Yet, that is exactly what he...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Putting Japan in America's place

Regarding Hiroaki Sato's Aug. 29 article, 'Gratuitous' bombing of a defeated enemy," I'd like to make a few comments as a Japanese who is very interested in history. There are said to be several reasons why the United States used the atomic bomb on Japan, including that the U.S. wanted to intimidate...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Sharing inventions of the mind

Haruki Murakami is indeed a "global citizen." Millions have read his intriguing tales, which are page-turners in many languages. While some will read his works on screen, others will on paper.
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Baby boomers serve a purpose

Regarding the Aug. 28 editorial "Global citizen Haruki Murakami": I was born in the generation after Japan's dankai (baby boomers), whose enormous population and aggressive self-assertion always overwhelmed us. They were always arguing that they would someday change not only Japan but also the world....
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 4, 2011

Zaccheroni maintains confidence, trust in players

National team manager Alberto Zaccheroni insists he never lost faith in his team's ability to score after a last-gasp Maya Yoshida goal gave Japan a winning start to its 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign against North Korea on Friday.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 4, 2011

Alfons Deeken: Priest-philosopher makes death his life's work

On Friday, July 22, as the stifling heat and humidity of summer relented for just a fleeting few days, hundreds of people filled a hall at Enkakuji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, to listen to a lecture by philosophy scholar Alfons Deeken.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 4, 2011

Children — and their children — must be saved from Nature Deficit Disorder

When I first settled down to live here in Kurohime in northern Nagano Prefecture, I wrote an essay about what I considered to be an endangered species.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 4, 2011

As 9/11 nears, morality dictates we recall victims of America, too

In the lead-up this week to the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, it is important to keep in mind this: Dates take on a mythical significance that may mask reality.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 3, 2011

Murray aims for change in Saitama

The Saitama Broncos have been a part of the bj-league's history since the beginning.
COMMENTARY
Sep 2, 2011

U.S.-China 'win-win' game

In spite of the polar positions of the United States and China in the global system, during the past dozen years their economies have become intertwined to such a degree that one is tempted to speak of an emerging new giant macroeconomic entity with a common metabolism — at least with regard to some...

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