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COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2011

Al-Qaida watches as Arab dramas unfold

PRINCETON, N.J. — The Arab world has entered the most dramatic period in its modern history. Oppressive regimes are being swept away, as Arab people finally take their fate into their own hands.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2011

Briton excels at helping foreign women adjust

Japan got a little better last year in gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum: It moved up in the rankings to 94th place out of 134 countries, from 101st in 2009.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 10, 2011

Zen psychology: Daisetz Suzuki remembered

Despite the gloomy global economy, the field of positive psychology is booming. Often described simplistically by journalists as "the science of happiness," it's actually a broad focus on our strengths and talents, virtues and peak experiences in daily living. The name for this specialty originated with...
COMMENTARY
Mar 10, 2011

What to do about Gadhafi?

LONDON — There ought to be many more red faces among the world leaders who used to kowtow and suck up to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, an insane megalomaniac bully. But only a minority will ever admit that they were wrong.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: FASHION
Mar 10, 2011

Fashion streaming in and out of Japan

Fairy-tale beginnings
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 10, 2011

Mental fortitude saves day for Grampus, Antlers

If Nagoya Grampus' and Kashima Antlers' failure to win their opening fixtures constituted good news for the rest of the J. League, the manner in which both teams eventually salvaged a point did not.
EDITORIALS
Mar 9, 2011

Rise in food and oil prices

Political turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East triggered by the change of government in Tunisia is pushing up crude oil prices. Crude oil prices, which were rather stable in the range of $70 to $80 per barrel the past year, are now hovering above $100 per barrel.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 9, 2011

The Gadhafis: like father, like son

LONDON — "The enemy of yesterday is the friend of today . . . . [I]t was a real war, but those brothers are free men now." Thus spoke Seif al-Islam Gadhafi in March 2010, referring to the leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an armed organization that had attempted to assassinate his...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Mar 8, 2011

A worrying period for all ALTs

Dear Education Minister Yoshiaki Takaki: "How tall are you?" "How much do you weigh?" "Ooh, your eyes look like sunflowers." I guess if I got ¥100 every time a Japanese junior high school student asked me one of those questions, I wouldn't be writing this letter today.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Mar 8, 2011

Foreign hurlers face pivotal season after recovering from injuries

Seth Greisinger walked off the field at Tokyo Dome on Thursday looking relaxed and at ease. At the same time, Alex Graman had his glove tucked under his arm as he chatted with a reporter and teammate Dee Brown in front of the visitors' dugout.
EDITORIALS
Mar 7, 2011

Dealing with population trends

Preliminary findings in the 2010 census released Feb. 25 by the internal affairs ministry underline the overall trend of a shrinking and graying population as well as a demographic imbalance characterized by a population rise in a few prefectures and a population drop in most prefectures.
BASKETBALL
Mar 7, 2011

Hopson's steady hand leads 89ers past Broncos

KASUKABE, Saitama Pref. — The best location to shoot a basketball is from the free-throw line, as smart coaches will tell you, emphasizing the word "free" and reminding you that defenders can't challenge your shot when the clock is stopped and you're at the line.
BASKETBALL
Mar 6, 2011

Sojourner says JBL superiority just a myth

The ongoing debate about how to improve Japan's basketball, from the elementary school level to the professional ranks, has produced a number of different viewpoints. The one thing that most people agree on is that the current approach isn't working to create a powerful national team and a number of...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Mar 6, 2011

Japanese families' nutritional values pay dearly for 'progress'

Last year, a gut-wrenching book by Nobuko Iwamura was published by Shinchosha titled "Kazoku no Katte Desho!" ("It's My Kitchen and I'll Do What I Like in It!"). Gut-wrenching because it describes, with the help of 274 highly unpalatable photos, the kinds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners ordinary Japanese...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Mar 5, 2011

Harmonia Opera marks milestone

Emiko Iinuma's voice has a distinctive sugared drawl, a sweet residue from her early years as a student at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. It is more than the drawl that attracts — her voice dances, leaps across decades, travels up and down pitch, whispers hardship and rises in forthright determination....
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2011

Takefuji extends deadline for bids by investors

Takefuji Corp., the bankrupt consumer lending giant, has postponed a deadline for the submission of bids from potential investors by about 10 days from Thursday, sources said.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 4, 2011

Bunraku gets film treatment

Canadian filmmaker Marty Gross had been fascinated with Japan's traditional puppet theater, bunraku, since he saw a production during his first visit to Japan in 1970. But it was only later in that decade, when it was suggested that he make a film of a production, that he took the time to study the art...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Mar 4, 2011

Playoff battle intense in competitive West

A gripping drama is about to commence in March and April as the bj-league's top seven Western Conference teams vie for six playoff spots. What's more, the seven teams are within seven games of each other in the standings.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 3, 2011

Activists may shift tactics in Taiji

TAIJI, Wakayama Pref. — In the fervor of the Academy Awards in Hollywood on Sunday, last year's winners were a distant memory. Half a world away in the fishing village of Taiji, few will ever forget the film that won in 2010 for Best Documentary Feature.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / MAKING INROADS
Mar 3, 2011

PC titans' joint venture shakes up global market

On Jan. 27, the biggest personal computer maker in Japan joined hands with the world's fourth-biggest in planning to launch a new company in June.
COMMENTARY
Mar 2, 2011

The Arab world's revolutions, China and oil

LONDON — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's speeches grow ever more delusional: last Thursday he accused al-Qaida of putting hallucinogenic pills into the coffee of unsuspecting Libyan 17-year-olds in order to get them to attack the regime. But he also said something important. Defending his massacres...
EDITORIALS
Mar 2, 2011

New way of cheating

Somebody posted questions in Kyoto University's Feb. 25 and 26 entrance exams on an Internet site and third persons gave answers while the exam was going on. A similar thing also happened during the entrance exams of Doshisha, Rikkyo and Waseda universities. Cheating is suspected. What has happened undermines...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 2, 2011

U.K. pitch: free trade, Eurofighter and Hague

Japan can deepen ties with the United Kingdom in many areas, including via European free trade, efforts to mitigate climate change and purchase of the European mainstay fighter jet, said David Howell, British minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
LIFE / Digital / TECH_JAPAN
Mar 2, 2011

The Nintendo 3DS faces stiff competition, and not just from other game consoles

In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS, a dual-screen gaming handheld that was revised several times over the next few years as the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL (LL in Japan) and went on to become one of the most popular consoles ever. The Kyoto-based gamemaker is obviously hoping to repeat that success...

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