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EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2009

Guarding against H1N1 flu

The rapid spread of influenza in Japan calls for vigilance. In the city of Kizugawa, Kyoto Prefecture, a 69-year-old man became the 10th person in Japan to die of H1N1 flu. He had suffered from cardiac and pulmonary diseases before becoming infected.
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2009

Plan for warmer oceans

Last July was the hottest month for oceans in 130 years of record-keeping, according to the National Climatic Data Center, the U.S. government agency that keeps track of world weather records and their impact. Part of the mystery of global warming had long been where the heat was going. Scientists are...
EDITORIALS
Sep 6, 2009

DPJ and Japan-U.S. relations

Some media in the United States expressed concern that the new Japanese government to be headed by Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama may pursue a more independent foreign policy. The DPJ's election platform and a recent article by Mr. Hatoyama that appeared in The New York Times Web site...
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2009

Fluent Japanese does not compute

Debito Arudou's Sept. 1 article, "Mr. James, gaijin clown," was written in a balanced and professional manner, and clearly showed that, even in 2009, Japan and Japanese corporations are still more than willing to stereotype non-Japanese as buffoons.
Reader Mail
Sep 6, 2009

Hatoyama's article recommended

Regarding the Sept. 2 article " 'Distorted' in translation?": I have just finished reading Democratic Party of Japan leader Yukio Hatoyama's entire article ("A New Path for Japan," published on The New York Times Web site Aug. 27) and see nothing in it that is "anti-American."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Sep 6, 2009

Mikuni documentary brings actor full circle

Rentaro Mikuni is one of those people whose every virtue is matched by a vice. For each endearing, admirable act he can recall from his 86 years of life, he seems to have a sin to match.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Sep 6, 2009

Donald Keene: A life lived true to the words

Donald Keene is one of the greatest scholars of Japanese literature and has been highly influential in the establishment of Japanese studies in the West.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 6, 2009

My key connection

It was 1954 and the summer holidays were over. The family had moved a few miles south from Tewkesbury to Cheltenham in the beautiful county of Gloucestershire in the west of England, and I had been transferred from the one town's boys grammar school to the other's.
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.

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