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BASKETBALL
May 21, 2010

Pierce finished with Lakestars

After two seasons, Shiga Lakestars coach Bob Pierce and the bj-league team will part ways.
BUSINESS
May 21, 2010

New JAMA head cautions of rough road ahead

The new head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said Thursday he has a more cautious outlook for the auto industry now than he did a month ago thanks to the uncertainty over European financial markets.
JAPAN / Q&A
May 20, 2010

Foot-and-mouth a hammer blow for Miyazaki farms

After the first case of foot-and-mouth disease was detected April 20 in Tsuno, Miyazaki Prefecture, the outbreak has spread quickly, making headlines in major papers and TV news programs and battering the prefecture's economy.
JAPAN
May 20, 2010

JCP chief rates his U.S. visit a big success

Japanese Communist Party Chairman Kazuo Shii said Wednesday his recent visit to the United States was a success and he was able to convey the JCP's vision on nuclear weapons and Japan-U.S. relations.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
May 20, 2010

A traditional Christian pattern?

Dear Alice,
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 18, 2010

Yoshimoto Kogyo: Entertaining the nation

One would have to be a hermit, literally shut off from all media, to avoid exposure in Japan to the comedians and other entertainers managed by Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., the nation's oldest and arguably most powerful entertainment agency.
EDITORIALS
May 18, 2010

Good luck at the World Cup

National soccer team manager Takeshi Okada last week announced the list of 23 players to play in the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa June 11-July 11. It will be the Japanese team's fourth consecutive appearance in the World Cup since its debut in the 1998 finals in France.
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
May 18, 2010

Still waiting for that last paycheck

Reader TS writes: "I return to the U.S. next week and I was supposed to receive my final pay check from a really bad ALT company . . . last week, but did not receive payment. I've called them but the secretaries say that the people in charge are not in the office. I called my direct contact and he has...
COMMENTARY / World
May 17, 2010

India-China competition dims hopes for regional cooperation

LONDON — Established in 1985, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had its 16th summit meeting in Thimpu, Bhutan, late last month. Apart from the fact that Bhutan hosted its first SAARC summit, there was hardly anything that inspired confidence in this largely moribund organization...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 16, 2010

Sense of complacency links Japan to Greek crisis

There's nothing like a good financial meltdown to straighten out your priorities. When it happened in Greece more than a month ago, the Japanese press went over to see whether or not the country's situation had anything to teach Japan. After all, Japan's public debt is much worse than Greece's. In fact,...
JAPAN
May 15, 2010

Carrying on the art of silent film narration

Midori Sawato knows how to act, from princess to samurai to thief — but only with her voice.
JAPAN / CUSTODY OR ABDUCTION
May 14, 2010

Hague pact no answer to in-country custody fights

Applicable only in cases where children are wrongfully taken from their country of "habitual residence," the Hague Convention offers no recourse to foreigners in Japan trying to gain access to their children following a death or divorce if they are not granted custody.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
May 13, 2010

Eight teams set for playoff party

The Hamamatsu Higashimikawa Phoenix made a habit of winning this season — 41 times in 52 games to be precise.
JAPAN
May 13, 2010

Pot a long way from legalization

In early April, an Okinawa man in his late 20s visited activist Yusuke Sawada's office in western Tokyo. He had just finished serving his latest prison term, one of many that have kept him behind bars for most of the past decade, depriving him of the formative years of his life.
COMMENTARY
May 13, 2010

China's navy changing the game

For much of the Cold War, China's navy was little more than an elaborate coast guard. It was barely a blip on the maritime horizons of Japan and Southeast Asia. Today the Chinese armed forces are in the midst of an intense and sustained modernization program, and the navy has emerged as a key service...
EDITORIALS
May 13, 2010

Mr. Kim Jong Il goes aid hunting

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited China on May 3-7 and met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on May 5. It was his first visit abroad following a stroke in 2008 and his first visit to China since January 2006. His fifth visit to China since becoming North Korea's top leader in 1998 came...
JAPAN
May 13, 2010

Israel foreign minister sees N. Korea, Iran, Syria in 'axis of evil'

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister and deputy prime minister, on Wednesday slammed the nuclear activities of North Korea and Iran as the biggest threat to the international community, but he avoided answering questions about his own country's nuclear development.
BUSINESS
May 13, 2010

Nissan swings back into black

YOKOHAMA — Nissan Motor Co. said Wednesday its earnings for the business year that ended in March returned to the black, helped by cost-cutting efforts, a fall in raw material and energy costs, and a global sales recovery especially in fast-growing China.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
May 11, 2010

Language sets high hurdle for caregiver candidates

Since the first batch of Indonesian nurses and caregivers arrived in 2008 under a new bilateral economic partnership agreement, 570 have come to Japan, as have 310 Filipinos under another EPA that took effect two years ago.
COMMENTARY
May 11, 2010

Ma jockeys for domestic and Chinese favor

HONG KONG — Taiwan's leader Ma Ying-jeou did something unusual late last month. With the next presidential election almost two years away, he held a televised debate with the leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai Ing-wen, thereby giving her the status and media exposure she badly...
COMMENTARY / World
May 11, 2010

Australia's Rudd mining for taxes

SYDNEY — Voters know an election is in the air as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd does a Robin Hood, taking from the country's rich — in this case the mining industry — and giving to the poor, the recipients of Rudd's costly "reforms."

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years