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Japan Times
Events / WHERE IT'S AT
Nov 16, 2010

Minato foreigners' language needs met

Minato International Association, which arranges activities and programs mainly for foreign residents in Minato Ward, Tokyo, offers a unique program in which Japanese volunteers give foreigners individual Japanese conversation lessons.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Nov 14, 2010

Mind who you call a 'birdbrain'

Eiichi Izawa of Keio University in Tokyo calls them "feathered primates." In Japanese folklore they are the origin of the forest demons known as karasu tengu. Scientists classify them as Corvus macrorhynchos.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

A tale of one city (but two airports)

For the last three decades, air travelers on the Tokyo-Taipei route have utilized Narita International Airport and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 14, 2010

Foreign media search for signs of future stance on TPP

YOKOHAMA — Foreign journalists who gathered Saturday in Yokohama to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit are closely watching for indications of Japan's future stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, with the government having deferred a decision amid strong opposition...
CULTURE / Books
Nov 14, 2010

Bloody imperial rumble in Burma's jungle

The prologue to this stupendous book opens in Yamagata, where a Japanese general from World War II is struggling to atone for the deaths of soldiers who lost their lives under his command in India. They had been trying to mount an assault from Burma, which Japan had already conquered.
EDITORIALS
Nov 14, 2010

Dilemma for the G20

The promise of the Group of 20 was a new system of global leadership that would be more representative of real economic power and, thus, more effective in decision making. The 2008 economic downturn thrust the G20 into the spotlight. The speed with which its participants found common cause and their...
LIFE
Nov 14, 2010

The Hour of the Ox

At 13 years of age, Angelica Akahoshi was the youngest person ever awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for Literature.
JAPAN / Media
Nov 14, 2010

Documenting the art world's original odd couple

"No! You do it!" yells Dorothy across a small New York apartment to her husband, Herb. Megumi Sasaki, a Japanese film director, has just asked to take a peek at a priceless artwork from the 1960s that is covered in blankets.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2010

Ambassador pitches Ireland

John Neary, who became Ireland's ambassador to Japan in September, says his mission is to promote Irish economic interests.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2010

Imperial Hotel maintains its pride, 120 years on

Charles Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Babe Ruth, and in recent years U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and former Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev are among the many celebrities who have lodged at the Imperial Hotel, Japan's first grand Western-style inn, which opened as a state guesthouse during...
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2010

Leaked video raises secrecy-law questions

It was Wednesday when a coast guard officer dropped a bombshell on his skipper and sparked a national sensation.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 13, 2010

Is America succumbing to the 'British disease'?

BERKELEY, Calif. — In the United States, the scent of decline is in the air. Imperial overreach, political polarization and a costly financial crisis are weighing on the economy. Some pundits now worry that America is about to succumb to the "British disease."
Japan Times
JAPAN / ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
Nov 12, 2010

New heart in N.Y. gave teen new lease on life

Teenagers often take going to school, studying with classmates and hanging out with friends and family for granted.
BASKETBALL
Nov 12, 2010

Rizing rout Hannaryz

Michael Parker scored 32 points, including 13-for-14 from 2-point range, Akitomo Takeno added a season-high 21 and nine assists and Thiago Cordeiro had 21 points and nine rebounds in the Rizing Fukuoka's 98-81 home win over the Kyoto Hannaryz on Thursday night in the bj-league.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 12, 2010

Economic voices to shift

HONG KONG — The Nov. 5 agreement on new shareholdings in the International Monetary Fund, which will see China become the third-biggest power in the institution, has been heralded as a triumph for a new global financial order that will challenge the old Western imperial dominance.
COMMENTARY
Nov 12, 2010

Solar energy boom in the American desert

SINGAPORE — In the remote deserts of the United States, a clean energy boom is under way with potentially far-reaching implications for the way future electricity is generated in the sunbelts of Asia and other regions.
CULTURE / Music
Nov 12, 2010

Indie breakout, 'kimchibilly' rockers bring Seoul to Japan

While K-pop continues to gain greater recognition worldwide, South Korea's prolific, small underground-music scene is still struggling to find audiences outside of Seoul.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Nov 12, 2010

Designer retrospective tracks the zeitgeist

The best thing about graphic design is how closely it traces the mood of the day. If Japan over the last decade has been characterized by wishy-washy men who don't eat meat and a kind of wobbly-legged indecisiveness in response to the rise of China, then the graphic designer who has best catered to —...
BUSINESS
Nov 12, 2010

Address trade barriers involving key markets soon, Keidanren says

Japan should start early talks with the United States, European Union, China and South Korea on abolishing trade barriers so it doesn't put itself at a competitive disadvantage, the head of a panel at the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 11, 2010

Taiwan seizes chance to make regional statement

Taiwan has thrown its support behind a proposed Pacific Rim free-trade zone and considers APEC a key forum to achieve this, according to a senior Taipei official.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2010

Cause of a girl's suicide

On Oct. 23, Ms. Akiko Uemura, a sixth-grade girl in Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture, died after hanging herself. On Nov. 8, Kiryu's board of education made public a report saying she had been psychologically bullied. It denied a cause-and-effect relationship between the bullying and her suicide. But on Oct....
COMMENTARY
Nov 11, 2010

Iraqi Christians: also victims of the invasion

On Sunday, Oct. 31, when a group of militants seized a church in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of Iraqi Christians, it signaled yet another episode of unimaginable horror in the country since the U.S. invasion of March 2003. Every group of Iraqis has faced terrible devastation as a result of this...

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