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Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 20, 2009

Cultivating pure tastes from the past

Shinagawa Ward in central Tokyo has seen lots of high-rise condos and office complexes sprout up in recent years, especially since shinkansen bullet trains began to stop there in 2003.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 20, 2009

Foreign players likely to be in Meikyukai, Japanese Hall of Fame

How soon will it be before foreigners in Japanese baseball become members of the Meikyukai (Golden Players Club for batters accumulating 2,000 hits and pitchers racking up 200 career victories)?
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 19, 2009

Five rules of the aisle seat when you fly

Today I thought I would share with you my Frequent Flier Anti-Jet Lag formula. And it doesn't involve swallowing frequent flier miles to regain world time zones internally. My technique is simple: drink a few beers and sleep on the airplane for about six hours.
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2009

Group mentality — dressing to belong?

Japan's group mentality stumbles with frequent kicks from the Western mind.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2009

Japan ups pace in race for U.S. bullet train deal

NAGOYA — On a desolate stretch of track just before midnight, when all passenger lines have been put to bed, a juiced-up bullet train goes online and accelerates to over 320 kph. The 700-ton train, about 400 meters long, whooshes by rice paddies in under 5 seconds.
COMMENTARY
Dec 18, 2009

Illegal wall exacerbates disaster for Gazans

NEW YORK — Collusion between Egypt and the United States in building a wall separating Egypt from Gaza not only threatens Gazans' health and quality of life, already seriously deteriorating because of the de facto Israeli blockade, but also violates international law.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2009

Looking for personal definition

Art is always a collaboration between the artist and the viewer. Whatever the artist paints, sculpts or photographs is just so much dead matter until it comes alive in the mind of the viewer.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 18, 2009

Back to basic instincts

Mamoru Oshii is best known here and abroad as an anime auteur whose works, from the seminal dystopian SF "Kokaku Kidotai" ("Ghost in the Shell," 1995) to the air-action epic "Sky Crawlers" (2008), have often viewed the future of humanity through a glass darkly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 18, 2009

'Public Enemies'

Director Michael Mann's films are often about cops or criminals, and it doesn't really matter which, because in Mann's world, they're just flip sides of the same coin: hardboiled, driven, type-A personalities like James Caan in "Thief" (1981), Tom Cruise in "Collateral" (2004), or both Al Pacino and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Dec 18, 2009

The beauty of subtle deceit

More than in any other country where the lacquer tree grows, the art of working with its hard-drying sap has excelled here in Japan. Two leading exponents were Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747) and Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), who both stand out not only for their inventive sense of design in decorating three-dimensional...
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2009

Students emboldened to violence

Please keep this anonymous since I work at a school in Japan and fear that my opinions might offend parents or coworkers. I feel that the Dec. 13 editorial, " An education in violence," got it right when it stated that "Schools need to provide clear guidance and well-defined boundaries, but this clarity...
Japan Times
SOCCER / SOCCER SCENE
Dec 17, 2009

Time to face up to reality with Nakamura's star on the wane

As national team manager Takeshi Okada runs the rule over the year gone by, he will have to face up to an uncomfortable but unavoidable truth — 2009 has not been kind to Shunsuke Nakamura.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Takenaka, Kan tussle over policy direction

Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan faced off Wednesday with Heizo Takenaka, who was a key economic adviser to former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and differed sharply with him over whether the government should put priority on supporting corporations or households to spark economic growth.
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Made-in-China incentives may dent Kubota machinery sales

Kubota Corp., Asia's largest tractor maker, said China machinery sales may miss their 2009 target because government subsidies for farmers favor domestic makers of agricultural equipment.
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Dec 17, 2009

Scary crow

Dear Alice,
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2009

Jordan seeks nuke knowhow

Jordan desires to conclude a government-to-government agreement with Tokyo on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy so the Middle East country can build a nuclear power plant with the help of Japanese technology, new Jordanian Ambassador Demiye Haddad said Tuesday.
COMMENTARY
Dec 16, 2009

Saving the U.K. economy

Frequent comparisons are made these days between the plight of the British economy and the state of the Japanese economy. But in reality the two situations are very different.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Dec 15, 2009

Hillman takes pride as Greinke, Darvish make good on pitching potential

As the 2009 season unfolded in major league baseball, Kansas City Royals manager Trey Hillman may have caught himself recalling his time in Japan two seasons ago.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

Little headway seen halfway through COP15

COPENHAGEN — No legally binding agreement until sometime next year, emissions targets politically acceptable but not in line with what scientists recommend and only enough money to pay for the climate change needs of developing countries until the end of 2012 appear to be the likely results of the...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Dec 15, 2009

Scandal can't taint Tiger's dominance

NEW YORK — To appreciate how fast and how far Tiger Woods has fallen is to understand what put him on such a pinnacle in sports.
JAPAN
Dec 15, 2009

LDP bedfellows out; no biz as usual

Takeshi Miyamoto is a man on a mission, but things haven't been going his way.
EDITORIALS
Dec 15, 2009

Realistic view on war and peace

In the October announcement of its decision to bestow the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on U.S. President Barack Obama, the Norwegian Nobel Committee attached special importance to his "vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons." The committee also praised the U.S. president by stating: "Only very...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Dec 15, 2009

What do you make of today's Japanese youth?

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