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SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Sep 5, 2009

Capello deserves credit for a job well done

LONDON — There is still resentment in some quarters that England has an Italian manager, but if Fabio Capello leads his adopted country to victory over Croatia next Wednesday to secure a place in the 2010 World Cup finals, any remaining xenophobia will be among a hard-core minority who probably wouldn't...
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2009

Hirano not known as high profile

Hirofumi Hirano, a close aide to Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama and the likely chief Cabinet secretary in the incoming DPJ administration, is known as a man of few words who would rather work behind-the-scenes than in the spotlight.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 4, 2009

'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3'

Does anyone actually remember 1994 when "Pulp Fiction," and the return of John Travolta to our movie screens seemed welcome, almost like having an old friend back in town? Now, reviving Travolta's career seems like just one more thing we can blame on Quentin Tarantino, along with wrecking Uma Thurman's,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 4, 2009

Wonder Stuff give fans an encore

Anyone who knows anything about the U.K. pop scene understands how important the music weeklies are to the success of young artists, and while the Internet has undermined that influence they can still make or break a band. Miles Hunt should know. He and his group, The Wonder Stuff, were darlings of the...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2009

Futenma shift puts Hatoyama, U.S. ties to test

The next prime minister faces a possible showdown with Washington over a plan to relocate a U.S. air base in Okinawa and in the process move thousands of U.S. Marines from the prefecture to Guam, as he tries to remake his country's relationship with the U.S. while maintaining their strong alliance.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 4, 2009

The ins and outs of competitive art shows

Michiyo Yamanaka probably devoted several weeks to creating the three abstract paintings she entered in this year's Nikaten, one of Japan's oldest and largest competitive art exhibitions. Heaven forbid she ever finds out how long it took the judges to condemn her efforts to oblivion: 18 seconds.
Reader Mail
Sep 3, 2009

Actual winners of 'engagement'

Shame on professor Brahma Chellaney and shame on The Japan Times for printing his propaganda (Aug. 29)! Since embracing Than Shwe and his gang of war criminals, India has become rich in blood money taken from the people of Burma. Every roti maker and noodle seller in the region knows that the military...
Reader Mail
Sep 3, 2009

'Clown' does OK by comparison

Regarding Debito Arudou's Sept. 1 article, "Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown": I can't believe The Japan Times would print this self-serving rubbish. It seems that Arudou has run out of things to complain about and is resorting to writing about trivial things that are irrelevant to the lives of foreigners...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2009

Citizens find their place on the bench

As far as civic duties go, most Japanese would probably say voting is the most serious. But last month, a contender emerged with the first trial under the lay judge system.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 2, 2009

Kohjinsha monitors get moving; Sony hits Blu-ray potential

Now screening: Netbooks too often are like a range of cars. The varying bodywork makes them look deceptively different from each other, but turn the key and you find that where they count, under the hood, the differences are all but nonexistent. Maybe the engineers at Kohjinsha are into motorcycles....
JAPAN
Sep 2, 2009

Activist against dolphin slaughter visits Taiji to show its nice side

OSAKA — The central figure in "The Cove," a controversial and shocking documentary about the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, is back in Taiji on the first day of the annual dolphin hunt with a film crew.
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2009

When cops drink and drive

Aug. 25 marked the third anniversary of a tragic traffic accident in the city of Fukuoka that caught nationwide attention. On that night in 2006, a car driven by a drunken Fukuoka city government worker rear-ended a sports utility vehicle carrying a family of five — a couple and their three children...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 1, 2009

Meet Mr. James, gaijin clown

If you want to sell stuff, it helps to have a recognizable mascot representing your company. Disney has Mickey Mouse, Sanrio Hello Kitty, Studio Ghibli Totoro. These imaginary characters grace many a product and ad campaign.
JAPAN
Sep 1, 2009

Interest high among foreign media in 'historic' election

The Democratic Party of Japan's landslide victory election has stirred interest among foreign media, who generally view the ousting of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled almost without interruption for 54 years, as a positive sign of change.
Reader Mail
Aug 30, 2009

'Trainees' a burden in these times

In response to the Aug. 25 Views From the Street question ("What would you do if you were prime minister of Japan?"): If I were the prime minister, I would stop trainees from coming to Japan. Because of these trainees, no more jobs are available. Actually they are not "training" but are a source of...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT
Aug 30, 2009

Avian killing fields of lotus

Earlier this year it was reported that one of the 10 Crested ibises reintroduced to the wild on Sado Island last autumn had turned up in Fukushima Prefecture, in central Honshu. The islanders worried that Nipponia nippon, which had come to represent their Japan Sea home, had abandoned them.
LIFE
Aug 30, 2009

Family lore tells a remarkable tale of the charmed life lived by a young survivor of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923

Just before noon on Sept. 1, 1923, after severe shaking in a small wooden house in Kyobashi, an old Tokyo district east of the Imperial Palace, my father-in-law, then a 6-month old baby — along with a steaming pot of rice — was scooped up by my father-in- law's mother as she dashed into the street....
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / BACKSTREET STORIES
Aug 30, 2009

A textiles tour to dye for

A landlocked train stop named Hikifune (Tugboat) begs a question. Two such stations in Tokyo's downtown Sumida Ward — the other is nearby Keisei Hikifune — suggest there should be some answers.
Japan Times
LIFE
Aug 30, 2009

no night to be alone

The typhoon swept into Okinawa, bringing rain and cannon-shot thunder, sheets of lightning almost low enough to sear the TV antennas on the blue-tiled roofs. The winds ripped branches from palm trees and left them flapping in the mud like broken-backed seagulls. Even the American helicopters on the nearby...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 29, 2009

Jumbo SMAP ad pro-LDP?

SMAP, the pop group that has dominated the nation's music scene for more than two decades, urged voters to support incumbent politicians as the ruling party faces likely defeat in Sunday's Lower House election.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan