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Reader Mail
Apr 27, 2008

One-sided view of military burden

Your April 15 editorial "Funding for U.S. military facilities" is, unfortunately, consistent with a trend that's fairly prevalent in the Japanese media -- the one-sided theme of the "burden" borne by Japan for hosting U.S. military facilities. In this editorial the burden was financial, in others...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 27, 2008

Versatility gives veteran Gonzalez solid opportunity with Giants

Yomiuri Giants utility man Luis Gonzalez is determined to take advantage of his opportunity to play for the club's varsity team after replacing slumping Korean first baseman Lee Seung Yeop, as Kyojin manager Tatsunori Hara plays the up-and-down yo-yo game with respect to Japanese baseball's four-man...
OLYMPICS
Apr 26, 2008

New swimsuits have Japan quite worried

For the Japan National Team's swimmers and coaching staff, this is a question that'll pop up often over the next several months: Will their choice of swimsuits diminish their chance of success at the upcoming Beijing Summer Olympics?
BASKETBALL
Apr 25, 2008

Nakamura to coach new bj-league team

Longtime coach Kazuo Nakamura will lead the Hamamatsu Higashi Mikawa Phoenix in their inaugural season in the bj-league, it was announced on Wednesday.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 25, 2008

'I'm Not There'

A bio-pic is difficult to get right, but a bio-pic of a living musical legend — in this case Bob Dylan — seems too daunting to contemplate.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Apr 25, 2008

It's hands-on in Kyoto

The standard visit to Kyoto is a test of endurance: you stay until you are sick of temples. This comes as a shock to first-time visitors, for while the city is rich in beautiful tourist spots, a true understanding of the nation's cultural heartland remains as elusive as a maiko (apprentice geisha) scurrying...
Japan Times
MORE SPORTS
Apr 24, 2008

Kitajima eager for challenge

Kosuke Kitajima prepares for this summer's Beijing Olympics as the reigning Olympic champion in the men's 100- and 200-meter breaststroke races. But instead of considering himself the king of the hill, he will stand on the starting block with the mind-set of a challenger.
Reader Mail
Apr 24, 2008

CPR article could save lives

According to the April 2 article "Skip mouth-to-mouth: CPR ruled just as good with hands only," the American Heart Association has announced that simple uninterrupted chest presses at the rate of 100 times a minute could save a life in a case of a sudden cardiac arrest in adults. Evidently, in contrast...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Apr 24, 2008

One hell of a time

What wasn't to like about an artist who painted the scroll "Hard Times in Hell," in which the king of Hell and his coterie of demons ascend to paradise in search of more suitable employment?
CULTURE / Art / INSIDE ART
Apr 24, 2008

Hiding in Japan are the world's best attended exhibitions

If you didn't know the best-attended exhibition in the world last year was held in Nara Prefecture, you're not alone.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Apr 23, 2008

Kamei seeks to undermine death penalty

Japanese politicians are generally not very vocal when it comes to their views on capital punishment, mainly because a large majority of the public supports the death penalty.
BUSINESS
Apr 23, 2008

Steel sheet prices set to rise again

Nippon Steel Corp. and JFE Holdings Inc. will raise wholesale prices for steel sheets by 10 percent as early as June, according to three metal traders familiar with price talks.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / ANIMAL TRACKER
Apr 23, 2008

Goose barnacle

Japanese name: Kamenote
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Apr 22, 2008

Yellow dust storms getting worse

Each year, most of Japan's prefectures are affected by what is known as yellow dust, which appears as a yellow fog in the atmosphere for a few days, often in late winter and early spring. A mixture of des ert sand, arid topsoil and man-made pollutants from Central Asia, China and Mongolia, the annual...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Apr 20, 2008

Tuffy blasts pair as Buffs win

Orix Buffaloes manager Terry Collins said that Tuffy Rhodes "is swinging the bat really well right now."
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Apr 20, 2008

Music talk show, lawyer melodrama, mystery thriller

It used to be that music shows were mostly music, but since the early 1990s they've generally been talking about music. "The M" (Nihon TV, Tuesday, 9 p.m.), a new show that premieres this week, attempts to give the music-talk format a few twists.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 20, 2008

The challenges of an aging society

POPULATION DECLINE AND AGEING IN JAPAN: THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES by Florian Coulmas. Routledge: London, 2007, 167 pp., $150 (cloth) Florian Coulmas, a longtime contributor to the Japan Times and director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, packs a lot of information and insights into...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Apr 20, 2008

Soccer that's played the wheely way

I like soccer. I like to watch it. I even tried to play it a few times when I was a kid, though I was not good at sports that didn't require me to use my hands, so I switched to tennis and basketball. But I can imagine how skillful you have to be to play football well, and how much fun and how exciting...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Apr 20, 2008

Sojourner promoting game on and off court

There are professional athletes in all sports who fit this bill: They are outgoing, passionate about their chosen profession and more than willing to speak their mind about what they think the powers that be can do to improve the sport on levels.
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2008

Toshiba's Kita, Orihara retire

The Toshiba Brave Thunders announced the retirements of two of their veteran players, guard Takuya Kita and forward Yuki Orihara, on Friday. Kita, the 35-year-old former Japan national, joined the Kawasaki-based team in 1995. He was chosen for the JBL's first team five times, selected the regular-season...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Apr 19, 2008

Putting faces on the subculture crowd

Sitting in a watering hole in Shinjuku's Golden Gai, meeting new people, exchanging name cards, one is likely to come across a tiny square name card with color caricatures on its front and back.
COMMENTARY
Apr 18, 2008

A passport to peace in the Middle East?

TUCUMAN, Argentina — Daniel Barenboim, the noted Israeli musician, is no stranger to controversy. By recently accepting Palestinian nationality, although in itself only a symbolic act, he will only fuel the controversy about his role in the Middle East process.
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.

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