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Japan Times
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 16, 2011

Stojkovic admits he has room to grow as manager

The European media may be keen to anoint Dragan Stojkovic as Arsene Wenger's successor at Arsenal, but the Nagoya Grampus manager's thoughts currently extend no further than the April 23 return of the J. League.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 15, 2011

Namikibashi Nakamura: Celebrating spring with sake and seasonal fare

Is it too soon — postquake, post-tsunami and still mid-nuclear crisis — to eat, drink and be merry? It's certainly a valid question. The answer, for us at any rate, is no, especially if we know that by doing so we can provide a small measure of support for the devastated areas. And most especially...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Apr 9, 2011

You can have your steak and eat it too

It's almost time for the annual festival we have all been waiting for: the Hanaguri "cow nose ring" festival! Held on the third Sunday in April at the Hanaguri Zuka inside a temple in Okayama Prefecture, this is one of the more unusual religious ceremonies in Japan.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 30, 2011

Japan's crisis leadership

Amid the horrifying news from Japan, the establishment of new standards of political leadership there is easy to miss — in part because the Japanese media follow old habits of automatically criticizing how officials are dealing with the calamity, and many foreign reporters who lack perspective simply...
LIFE / Food & Drink
Mar 24, 2011

Japan's unlikely hero: the humble rice ball

One of the quiet heroes to emerge in this time of grave crisis in Japan is the humble little white ball of rice called onigiri or omusubi.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 27, 2011

Don't give up on Japan's kids

Last March, the president of Harvard University, Drew Gilpin Faust, visited Japan to find out for herself what has become of Japan's once-vibrant contribution to American academia. The numbers of Japanese students enrolling in Harvard have declined steadily over the past decade, and in September 2009...
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2011

Egypt's economic future

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — For Egypt, the question of the day is whether the country will build an open, democratic political system or relapse into some form — new or old — of autocracy. But an equally important question — above all for Egyptians, but also for other developing countries (and for development...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Feb 19, 2011

Arsenal's win impressive, but work remains

LONDON — One of the beauties of football is that at times you simply cannot explain how something happens.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 10, 2011

The inequality wild card

DAVOS, Switzerland — As the dramatic events in North Africa continue to unfold, many observers outside the Arab world smugly tell themselves that it is all about corruption and political repression. But high unemployment, glaring inequality, and soaring prices for basic commodities are also a huge...
MORE SPORTS / ICE TIME
Jan 30, 2011

Kozuka striving to improve despite recent success

It is amazing how fast an athlete can go from being overshadowed to casting a shadow.
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 5, 2011

Will fortune shine on a campaign for new year's udon?

Can udon replace soba as the new year noodle of choice?
COMMENTARY
Dec 29, 2010

Carbon dioxide is threatening our fisheries

SINGAPORE — Since the industrial revolution began over two centuries ago, the oceans have absorbed an estimated 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide. This is about a quarter of the total amount spewed into the atmosphere as the burning of coal, oil and natural gas gathered pace and agriculture replaced...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Dec 11, 2010

Aging naturally and gracefully

The current Visit Japan campaign, where the government hopes to hit 10 million foreign visitors by the end of 2010, should be courting the American baby boomers — 78 million people between the ages of 50 and 70. We could call it the Visit Aging Japan Campaign.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Dec 7, 2010

Abuse rife within trainee system, say NGOs

In October 1999, 19 Chinese trainees came to the Takefu city office pleading for help. In their first year in Japan as interns, the women had been promised ¥50,000 a month, but scraped by on ¥10,000. The next year, as technical trainees, they should have received ¥115,000 a month. After health insurance,...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2010

EU's sweeping defense cuts are shortsighted

COPENHAGEN — All over Europe, budgets are being pared as a new age of austerity takes hold. Defense expenditures are proving to be the easiest of targets. Even Britain under the Tory Prime Minister David Cameron has joined the rush to slash defense spending.
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010

'Ricky'

When Katie (Alexandra Lamy) meets Paco (Sergi Lopez) during a cigarette break at the cosmetics factory where they both work, her life is about a step shy of being in the dumps. The job is hard, she's underpaid, and her husband walked out on her years ago — leaving Katie to pay the bills and look after...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 7, 2010

A Kyushu tale of two cities in one

Fukuoka, the biggest city in Kyushu and a key gateway linking Japan to the rest of Asia, has the air of a modern metropolis. But the city is also rich in traditional culture and its residents' long-standing hospitality toward visitors is well known.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2010

Hearing China's take on Senkakus

The most recent territorial dispute over the Senkaku (Japanese name)/Diaoyutai (Chinese name) Islands, located southwest of Okinawa (or north of Taiwan if you prefer), was triggered on Sept. 7 when a Chinese trawler attempted to ram two Japanese Coast Guard vessels. The blurry details of the collision...
JAPAN
Oct 16, 2010

Oil field exit reveals balancing act

Japan's withdrawal from one of the world's largest untapped sources of oil, in Azadegan, Iran, shows the country must walk a tightrope to secure stable energy resources while prioritizing the alliance with the United States.
BASKETBALL
Oct 15, 2010

Golden Kings should rule West

A pair of new expansion teams, the Miyazaki Shining Suns and the Shimane Susanoo Magic, join the bj-league's Western Conference this season.
JAPAN / Science & Health / NATURAL SELECTIONS
Oct 10, 2010

Reflecting on some recent monkey business

In this month's column:a tale of the mythical Sea King Rin-Jin; a jellyfish that can walk on land; and a monkey that gazes, like the wicked witch in Snow White, at its own reflection in a mirror — though, unlike the wicked witch, the monkey is not so interested in looking at its face.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010

'Redline'

I was into car chase movies for about two minutes in the 1970s — "Bullit," "The French Connection," "Duel" — but they quickly became cliches, then jokes. "Smokey and the Bandit," "Cannonball Run" and — need I say more?
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2010

Grooming a new approach to North Korea

SEOUL — The long-delayed meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party came at a time of severe tension between North Korea and the international community. As widely expected, Kim Jong Il's third son, Kim Jong Un, was appointed to a high position to justify his becoming his father's successor. A...
SOCCER / J. League / J. LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Sep 30, 2010

Gamba making late surge to join championship race

As another round of J. League games passes, another title contender emerges.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010

Hard-knock life leads to magic music

In 2004, Renaud Barret and Florent de la Tullaye ditched their respectable jobs in France and headed to Kinshasa. In the ruined capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country just emerging from one of postcolonial Africa's worst conflicts, they felt strangely at home. "We were like mad dogs in...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 22, 2010

Dim outlook for Japan's muddled leadership

OSAKA — Having seen a new prime minister every year for five consecutive years, Japan has just narrowly avoided having its third in 2010. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been elected president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), surviving a challenge from Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's most potent...
LIFE / Digital
Sep 22, 2010

Fans line up for previews

With record figures of 81,469 attendees last Saturday and 77,185 on Sunday, the public days at Tokyo Game Show were swamped with more people than the game companies could handle.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 3, 2010

Contemporary ceramics update the tea ceremony

The Way of Tea has for centuries been a cornerstone of Japanese culture and aesthetic beauty. An old Japanese proverb states: "If a man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 30, 2010

Kenyans at crossroads with constitution

WATERLOO, Ontario — Earlier this month, Kenyans went to the polls to vote on a new constitution that will replace the current one when signed into law, marking a turning point in the country's history.

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami