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COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
May 15, 2011

Recalling a generation, and more, sold out by the U.S. masters of war

Next month there will be a celebration in Los Angeles that I very much regret having to miss. It is a reunion of my high school graduating class of 1961.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 14, 2011

Renewable's time is now, expert says

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's request that Chubu Electric Power Co. shut down the Hamaoka nuclear power plant was valuable, though he should have reached this decision much sooner after the Fukushima crisis, according to an expert on nuclear and renewable energy.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHEN EAST MARRIES WEST
May 14, 2011

Questions that keep eating me

Here's a short list of some of the questions I first heard in my early days in Japan, in the mid 1970s.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 14, 2011

F.A. Cup final losing more luster

The downgrading of the F.A. Cup, football's oldest knockout competition, continues. Saturday's final between Manchester City and Stoke City will be one of the lowest profile of all-time.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CHUBU CONNECTION
May 14, 2011

Disasters reached Brazilian 'bento' firm in Tokai

At 8 a.m. one day in April, three workers at FujiNippon Refeicoes, a catering company serving Brazilian workers in Japan, were filling boxed lunches with freshly made Brazilian dishes on a large kitchen counter.
JAPAN
May 13, 2011

Melting of reactor 1 fuel 'no surprise'

Experts were not surprised Thursday to find that most, if not all, of the fuel rods in reactor No. 1 at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant had been fully exposed, melted and fell to the bottom of the pressure vessel.
JAPAN
May 13, 2011

Review Futenma: Senators

Three influential U.S. senators called Thursday for a fundamental re-examination of the 2006 agreement between Tokyo and Washington to relocate 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam after a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma is built in Okinawa.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
May 13, 2011

Relaxing spa break in Yokohama

The InterContinental Yokohama Grand has arranged tie-ups with neighboring spa facility Yokohama Minatomirai Manyo Club to offer special accommodation and spa plans through May 31.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
May 13, 2011

Wine is no game for Capcom boss

Hurricane-kicking its way onto the wine scene in 2009 was a new brand, Kenzo Estate, owned by the CEO of video-game giant Capcom. Clearly playing to win, Kenzo Tsujimoto hired California's brightest wine talents to create a wine for the Japanese market that combines value for money with excellent quality....
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Good time to mull future course

Regarding Chubu Electric Power Co.'s decision to suspend operations of its Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture in response to Prime Minister Naoto Kan's call to do so for safety reasons: What we need now are the right decisions and it is time to review and think.
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Case of misdirected sympathy

Jayna Tokie Tanaka's May 8 letter, "Bin Laden's execution disappoints," reminds me why it's so hard to take leftists and their misdirected piety seriously. Twisting logic into rhetorical pretzels to defend murderers, and not the victims, is the hallmark of leftist thinking. Osama bin Laden instigated...
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Local festivals don't pursue rights

Grant Piper's comment in his May 5 letter, "Abomination by any other name" (in which he criticizes the annual "Baby-cry sumo" event at Tokyo's Sensoji Temple as "culturally sanctioned child abuse") is hilarious.
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Why stop with Hamaoka closure?

How stupid can some people get? If (Prime Minister Naoto Kan is so concerned that the Hamaoka power plant might be compromised by a major quake or tsunami in the region), why not shut down more power plants?
COMMENTARY / World
May 12, 2011

Bin Laden's bizarre death

Osama bin Laden is dead, but the troubling questions continue. It's far too early to declare an end of the war against terror. Bin Laden was only the ugly face of a hydra-headed terror monster that has been spreading tentacles in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Europe and America. But governments...
Reader Mail
May 12, 2011

Foolish proposal for the marines

Regarding Yoshio Shimoji's May 8 letter, "Better use of the U.S. Marines": The short answer to Shimoji's concern that U.S. Marines should be deployed to their own country to cope with the aftermath of natural disasters is that there are enough marines and other military service members, as well as the...
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
May 11, 2011

Road ahead won't be easy for Lakers

Oh, but it's weird and it's wonderful; here we are, forsythia is on sale for 50 percent off, and we're on the threshold of talking about "next season" regarding the Lakers instead of "next series."
COMMENTARY
May 10, 2011

China anticipates 'explosion' over anything

"They feel they are sitting on a volcano," said a prominent Chinese academic when explaining the government's crackdown on its critics.
JAPAN
May 10, 2011

Osaka day laborer duped into reactor cleanup

An Osaka day laborer who responded to an ad for a truck driver in Miyagi Prefecture found himself working beside the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station, it was learned Monday.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Don't bet that the worst is over

Before al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed, there was seemingly little enthusiasm among most Americans for this country's decade-long war against al-Qaida worldwide and against the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Better use of the U.S. Marines

In April 27, 135 killer tornadoes struck America's southern states, devastating towns and villages and killing 337 people. Alabama sustained the greatest damage, and reported 249 deaths. Nearly 1 million customers were forced to go without electricity, a scale comparable to that caused by Hurricane Katrina,...
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Knowing what needs to be done

Regarding the May 3 Kyodo article "Ex-JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Program) teacher dashed from U.K. to help": It was so uplifting to read this article — to see that someone cares that much for others and is willing to help out (following the March 11 disaster in the Tohoku-Pacific region).
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Bin Laden's execution disappoints

In American schools, we were taught about equality before the law. If a person commits a crime, he or she is brought to court where innocence or guilt is decided. The penalty for the crime is decided by a judge.
Reader Mail
May 8, 2011

Insane choice for future energy

Regarding the May 4 editorial, "Triple disaster and the Constitution": The nuclear plant disaster at Fukushima disaster is not over, and there will likely be other reactors in Japan and around the world that will meet the same fate because of the fact that there are 440 nuclear power plants globally...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
May 8, 2011

Hearty bunch enjoyed Japan tour

Earthquake, tsunami, radiation threat; despite it all, five dedicated fans from overseas followed through on a planned trip to Japan to watch Japanese professional baseball games in mid-April, just a few weeks after the devastating events that occurred in the Tohoku region of the country beginning...
Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

A volunteer's journal of hope for Tohoku

When the magnitude 9 megaquake hit northeastern Japan in the early afternoon of Friday, March 11, I was at work in The Japan Times office some 250 km to the south in Tokyo.
Japan Times
LIFE
May 8, 2011

Kashima's ancient rock of faith

Long before the theory of plate tectonics emerged in the 20th century to explain the mechanism behind earthquakes, Japanese folklore had attributed the terrifying phenomenon to the thrashings of the o-namazu — a giant catfish that inhabited the bowels of the Earth.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
May 7, 2011

American's food import firm has grown organically

Jack Bayles, owner of Alishan Organic Center and founder of Tengu Natural Foods, has lived within a 5-km radius his entire time in Japan in the shadow of the verdant, hazy mountains of Chichibu near the Koma River in Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture.

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