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BASKETBALL
Apr 18, 2008

Neumann's Rizing try to keep roll going against Takamatsu

John Neumann arrived in Fukuoka last September to coach a team without an identity, a team with a tricky spelling and a team that has quietly and courageously produced an impressive opening chapter.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2008

To survive, companies need a conscience

It's time for Japanese companies to review their profit-driven culture and think about the meaning of being truly accepted by consumers and society, according to a public policy expert and former vice governor of Tokyo.
BUSINESS
Apr 18, 2008

Raw-materials cost rise putting economy at risk

Economic growth in Japan is at risk as soaring costs of raw materials squeeze profits, forcing companies to cut spending and wages, economists said.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Apr 18, 2008

How Cheap Trick put the Budokan on the map

The first pop group to ever play Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo was The Beatles in 1966, a concert that caused quite a scandal because of the auditoriums' semisacred status as Japan's premier martial-arts venue. Rightwingers protested the show but in the end the prerogatives of capitalism prevailed.
LIFE / Food & Drink / TOKYO FOOD FILE
Apr 18, 2008

Kurosawa: Hand-rolled soba — the director's cut

The word tsu (connoisseur) is often bandied around when talking about Japanese cuisine. Originally denoting a general savoir-faire in worldly matters — most especially in the pleasure quarters — it is now widely used for those who know their food and drink.
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2008

Noble but unrealistic sentiment

In his April 1 column "Public forums, spinning wheels," Debito Arudou states that "Japanese society must stop the common practice of using grace and physical appearance as a paradigm for pigeonholing people." These are noble sentiments. But so are the sentiments that underpin the failed political philosophy...
Reader Mail
Apr 17, 2008

Bring back old weather forecast

Regarding the April 13 letter "Tough to read new forecast," I agree with Lynda Ichikawa. The new format is terrible, especially for a country where a conversation always starts with the weather. Give us back the old weather forecast with the lovely map of Japan and informative information like sunrise...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 17, 2008

A simulacrum of the city

'With love from . . ." — it's the kind of message an expatriate might pen. Implicit in it is the warmth in the offering, a written embrace.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2008

Radio station to air '55 Osaka hanging

Nippon Cultural Broadcasting Inc. will air an audio recording of an execution carried out at the Osaka Detention House in 1955, a spokesman for the AM radio station said Wednesday.
BASKETBALL
Apr 16, 2008

Peppers earns final week honors

Rookie forward Joshua Peppers was a reliable all-around scoring threat for the first-year Rizing Fukuoka this season, scoring 20 or more points 23 times. His team, meanwhile, earned a playoff berth on the final day of the bj-league's regular season on Sunday, a day in which he scored 23 points and matched...
BASKETBALL
Apr 15, 2008

Osaka's Lottich is special guest

Osaka Evessa point guard Matt Lottich is slated to join sports reporter Ed Odeven from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesday for The Japan Times' sports chat. Lottich, a former Stanford University player, will discuss his team's quest for a third straight bj-league title, help break down the upcoming playoffs and...
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2008

Funding for U.S. military facilities

The Lower House passed a new special-measures agreement for financial burden-sharing to maintain U.S. military facilities in Japan and sent it to the opposition-controlled Upper House on April 3. Even if the Upper House does not pass the agreement, it will become effective 30 days after the Lower House...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Apr 15, 2008

Method in the madness?

In November, Japan became only the second country in the world (after the United States) to introduce mandatory fingerprinting and photo-taking at all international entry points, as part of beefed-up "antiterrorism" measures by the Ministry of Justice.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design
Apr 15, 2008

An outside eye on Japan

In a nation traditionally seen as a monoculture, there's a multinational range of flowers blooming in Japan's current cultural crop. In the last several years there has been an influx of foreign-born creators — whether architects, designers or writers — and they are thriving in the local scene.
BUSINESS
Apr 15, 2008

Japan Inc. is on a stock buyback spree

The good news about Japanese stocks is that corporations are buying back more of their shares than ever before. The bad news is everyone outside of Japan is selling the same equity, spurring concern that the market's world-beating rally may fizzle.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 12, 2008

Bid to link Japan meets with growing reception

When Ken Ohno's Japanese mother-in-law asked him to keep an eye on the family business in Nagano Prefecture in the late 1990s, he had little idea where it might lead.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2008

Doctor shortage gives patients runaround

The shortage of hospital doctors is taking its toll on the people who can least afford it: those in need of immediate medical attention.
JAPAN
Apr 12, 2008

Hospital doctors feeling the strain

Whenever Naoshi Tamura is on a night shift at Ota Hospital in Tokyo, the surgeon works 36 consecutive hours with little sleep, seeing patients during the daytime and treating those transported to the emergency room at night.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 11, 2008

Utsumi could outshine veteran hurlers on Giants this season

YOKOHAMA — Tetsuya Utsumi might have given the struggling Yomiuri Giants the boost they needed.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Russia's boom times stretch to Niigata

NIIGATA — Ripples from Russia's booming economy have crossed the Sea of Japan, lapping at the shores of Niigata Prefecture and leading to strengthened ties.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Hatoyama 'solemnly' reveals four more convicts hanged

Four death-row inmates were hanged Thursday, bringing to 10 the number of executions Justice Minister Kunio Hatoyama has approved since he took office last August.
JAPAN
Apr 11, 2008

Mihashi case throws light on domestic violence

Her nose broken, her face bruised and bleeding internally, Kaori Mihashi sought protection at a shelter in Tokyo in June 2005. She told officials there her injuries were the result of repeated assaults by her husband in their upscale Tokyo condo.
COMMENTARY
Apr 11, 2008

The U.S. election: grounds for optimism

LOS ANGELES — One early sign that a run of optimism may be on the way is the point at which the utility of continued pessimism is seen as utterly dysfunctional by all concerned.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink
Apr 11, 2008

A manga drunk on French wine

Hearing a 2001 Mont-Perat described as "just like a rock concert by Queen" is enough to make any self-respecting Frenchman expel a snort of derision from his finely-tuned nostrils.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 10, 2008

The international community is betraying Afghanistan

HONG KONG — It is a magnificent land, a high plateau, landlocked, bitterly windswept and freezing in winter; sweltering, parched and dry in summer. It has a proud stiff-necked people who reflect the tough climate, rugged, stubborn, fiercely tribal, traditionally loyal but with a tenaciously vicious...

Longform

Japan's growing ranks of centenarians are redefining what it means to live in a super-aging society.
What comes after 100?