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JAPAN / AFRICA LIFELINE
May 28, 2008

Connection: Commodities

Few Japanese may be knowledgeable about far-away Africa, but the continent's exports affect daily life here.
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
May 28, 2008

Burying our heads in the sand

We've all heard the warning, "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is."
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
May 26, 2008

In a world lacking heroes against poverty and inflation, Don Quixote, where are you?

As surely as night follows day, credit crunches are followed by recessions, if not great depressions. Whether we are on the verge of a 21st century version of the 1930s, however, still remains to be seen.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
May 25, 2008

Children following their ambitions, cartoonists discussion, nature-speciality

One of the most popular segments on the Saturday morning variety show "Shittoko!" profiles children who are working hard to fulfill individual dreams. In order to celebrate 100 segments on the show, TBS will air a special two-hour program, "Kodomo no Chikara wa Mugendai (The Power of Children is Unlimited)"...
JAPAN
May 24, 2008

Obituary: John Harold Skillman

John Harold Skillman, who served as a missionary and educator in Japan for two decades, died at the age of 80 due to complications from Alzheimer's disease in Silver Spring, Md., on May 20, his family said.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 24, 2008

Terry's miss took Ronaldo off the hook in Moscow

LONDON — For a few minutes Cristiano Ronaldo's CV had a new, ignominious entry. The player who lost the 2008 Champions League final for Manchester United.
EDITORIALS
May 24, 2008

A 'full-scale' gray society

A government white paper on the graying of the population says Japan has become a "full-scale gray society." As of Oct. 1, people aged 75 or over numbered a record 12.7 million — up 540,000 from a year earlier — and accounted for a record 9.9 percent of the nation's population, a 0.4 point increase...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
May 24, 2008

Invitation to a spawn party

In any well-known Japanese garden in Japan, you are bound to come across a pond full of carp, large decorative fish that look like they had orange paint spilled on them. Koi, as they are called, also come in black and white, in which they look more like Holstein fish.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2008

'The Hottest State'

Let me tell you what's wrong with most chick flicks: They're hard on real chicks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2008

In pursuit of the authentic

Ethan Hawke makes no bones about his literary career: his well-received first novel, "The Hottest State," was written with the movie in mind.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
May 23, 2008

Descending into the somber history of a once-glittering prize

It's a balmy spring day in Shimane Prefecture, but one step into the newly reopened Okubo Shaft of the Iwami silver mine and your body is enveloped by the darkness and the cold. In these eerie surroundings, it's not hard to imagine encountering the ghosts of the miners whose labor helped reshape Japan...
CULTURE / Music
May 23, 2008

Gan-Ban "Hooligans on E"

Gan-Ban started life as a record shop in Shibuya, expanded into event promotion and now will release its first compilation CD on May 28.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / LIQUID CULTURE
May 23, 2008

Bottled water: It's naughty, but nice

I know, I know, bottled water is terribly unethical these days. Pinching a natural, life-sustaining resource and flying it to rich people in faraway lands is a bit naughty, all that packaging is trashing our planet, and our taps dispense safe water for less than ¥1 per liter — or a little more than...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 23, 2008

Ainu press case for official recognition

Hundreds of Ainu from all over Japan and their supporters staged a protest Thursday in Tokyo's Nagata-cho political district, demanding the Diet and the government recognize them as indigenous people.
Reader Mail
May 22, 2008

The bond that all humans share

In response to the article "If there is a god, then why is there suffering?," I would say not only does God exist but also that he is all-good, all-powerful and all-knowing.
JAPAN
May 22, 2008

Health costs of aged at a premium

Mitsue Nozaki has enjoyed a comfortable life as a senior living on a pension for the 15 years since she retired from a major company, where she had worked for about 40 years.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 20, 2008

Anti-crime color balls

Dear Alice, I've spotted pairs of plastic Day-Glo orange baseballs sitting in polystyrene containers behind the counter at banks and convenience stores. My friend reckons they have them in police stations too. Can you please tell us what the heck they are?
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 20, 2008

U.K. home-schoolers come to Tokyo for robot comp

Donning T-shirts of all colors and designs, some of the world's brightest science-minded boys and girls met in Tokyo in late April for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) Open Asian Championship, an international robotics competition for children aged 9 to 15.
Reader Mail
May 18, 2008

Horrific conditions at Odawara Zoo

I recently visited the Odawara Zoo near Tokyo and was horrified by the conditions in which the animals are kept. In particular, there is a beautiful elephant who lives on a concrete pad roughly the size of half a tennis court. My family and I think of this poor creature frequently and don't know who...
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2008

More expensive school lunches

Everyone who has attended school retains memories of school lunches. The simple experience of eating together with other students and teachers is almost as important as learning inside the classroom. Social skills, informal interaction and a sense of shared community are basic to school lunches. However,...
CULTURE / Books
May 18, 2008

Manhunt for a Chinese woman

THE FINDER by Colin Harrison. New York: Sarah Chrichton Books, 2008, 325 pp., $25 (cloth) In this tightly woven page-turner by Colin Harrison, Jin Li, a young Chinese woman with an advanced university degree, engages in industrial espionage, setting off a series of violent events.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
May 17, 2008

Portsmouth-Cardiff City F.A. Cup final fails to inspire

LONDON — No matter how much purists try to argue that it sums up the magic of the F.A. Cup, regardless of the "ideal" David vs. Goliath matchup and, to the relief of some, the fact that none of the Big Four clubs is involved, the final between Portsmouth and Cardiff City is the least interesting most...
BUSINESS
May 17, 2008

Annual GDP pace hits 3.3% in quarter

Despite growing signs of a global economic slowdown, Japan's gross domestic product expanded at a better-than-expected 3.3 percent annualized rate in the January-March quarter as exporters continued to increase shipments to emerging countries, the Cabinet Office said Friday.
COMMENTARY
May 16, 2008

What if Barack Obama were a real Muslim?

LOS ANGELES — A significant number of West Virginians (and some others in America) evidently take the view that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. In a surpassingly depressing report from the coal-miner state on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, The Los...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan