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LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Oct 9, 2007

Smoldering J-love lacks yesteryear's gumption

The question, "What has happened to love these days?" is every bit as serious as the question why diets never work in this country. I'm very distressed to have to report that Japanese love, like Japanese politics and the not-so-quite-lovely outlook of the economy, is unwell. It suffers from low blood...
COMMENTARY
Oct 8, 2007

Getting Japan's politics wrong

Western media have reported Japan's new prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, as drab and unexciting and even as "lukewarm pizza." But anyone who watched him during his more than three-year stint as chief Cabinet secretary would know that he has a sharp mind and a laid-back sense of humor.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 8, 2007

Japan's huge ad market still slowing foreign firms

It's no secret that Japan's advertising market is one of the world's largest. Indeed, the world's biggest advertising firm is a Japanese one.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2007

Pivotal seasons for Alex Ramirez & Marc Kroon

Neither of their teams made the Central League Climax Series, but the 2007 season has been a pivotal one for Yakult Swallows slugger Alex Ramirez and Yokohama BayStars reliever Marc Kroon. The contracts of both expire at the end of the current dragging out season, and there is doubt whether either club...
CULTURE / TV & Streaming / CHANNEL SURF
Oct 7, 2007

Foreign celebrity talk show, teen sitcom, recycling tips

In the 1960s and '70s, no foreign celebrity was more popular in Japan than the French actor Alain Delon. His name was synonymous with the idea of the perfect-looking man, and because he was popular in an era that was not as media-saturated as our own, he seemed even more unreachable. He was also the...
JAPAN
Oct 6, 2007

Ministry snubs meeting with foes of dolphin kill

U.S. activists waging a high-profile campaign against Japan's annual dolphin slaughter and sale of mercury-tainted dolphin meat were snubbed by government officials Friday in Tokyo when they tried to hand over a petition of protest they claim bears 50,000 signatures.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 6, 2007

Jumping mullets, it's the season for fire prevention!

Ahh, autumn on Shiraishi Island when I wake up to quacking ducks paddling around in the port in front of my house waiting for me to open the Duck Cafe.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2007

Myanmar's crimes against public health

NEW YORK — During four decades of rule, the Myanmar military has neglected people's health needs to such an extent that it amounts to an attack against the people, whose health status remains one of the most precarious in the region. This is more proof that the military leadership has been more interested...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 5, 2007

Classical majesty

Violinist Ken Aiso has been based in England since 1992, but he's back in his native Japan this month for what has become an annual series of performances. This year he will play mainly unaccompanied violin sonatas at venues including Tokyo Bunka Kaikan in Ueno.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Oct 5, 2007

Jacob tinkles the next-generation ivories

Christian Jacob is one of the best-selling foreign jazz pianists in Japan. The New York Times labeled him "phenomenal." Some people call this classically trained Frenchman a genius and regard him as a next-generation leader in the jazz world.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 5, 2007

A globalist rapper pauses for breath

Having delivered one of the defining albums of 2007, M.I.A is one of the most talked-about artists in pop today. Stuffed with politically informed dancefloor bangers, "Kala" is an album that simultaneously appeals to the cerebral and primal.
Reader Mail
Oct 4, 2007

More dangerous than Iraq

The "Asashoryu fiasco" touched upon in the Sept. 30 Sports Scope is indeed a molehill compared to stable master Tokitsukaze's cracking a beer bottle over young rikishi Takashi Saito's head and allowing other wrestlers to thrash him.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2007

The road to Myanmar passes through Beijing

NEW YORK — Three hard facts set the boundaries for the talks that United Nations negotiator Ibrahim Gambari is undertaking as he shuttles between Myanmar's ruling generals and the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2007

The camera and the truth

With his fake documentary purporting to show serving President George W. Bush's assassination, director Gabriel Range has made this year's most controversial movie
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 4, 2007

Faces of youthful ambition

Shigeo Anzai, a photographer of artists, says he loses interest when a subject becomes too famous. That's why his retrospective at the National Art Center, Tokyo, is full of pictures of young, fresh faces.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Oct 3, 2007

'Stoopid ninja' keeps on learning

T he first time I ever heard cicadas was in 1963, during my very first summer in Japan. I was wandering through a small mixed woodland where some small boys were flitting from tree to tree, playing ninja. I, as a strange young foreigner passing through, became their target for assassination. Being just...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 2, 2007

China can change Myanmar

HONG KONG — Buddhist monks, the most pacific of dedicated religious people, marched through the streets of Myanmar's main cities Yangon and Mandalay last week in protest against years of hardship, gross mismanagement and corruption inflicted on their long-suffering people.
LIFE / Language
Oct 2, 2007

Giving Japanese names as tricky as picking buns

When you see an obvious mistake, should you point it out or just keep silent? It was coming up to Christmas, and I was in the bakery beside the station getting a sandwich for my lunch, when I noticed something new on the shelves: hot cross buns.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2007

'Doing something' may pose perils during a credit crunch

PRINCETON, New Jersey — Every financial crisis is inherently unknowable — before it occurs, and as it occurs. By contrast, we understand past crises very well. Accountants go over the books, the participants tell their tales to the newspapers (or sometimes before a judge), politicians explain why...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 1, 2007

Price of saving a tree in Latin America

PRAGUE — Latin America is blessed with more than its fair share of wildlife and lush forests. A third of the world's mammal species and more than a quarter of all known reptiles and bird species can be found there.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 30, 2007

Fighters clinch PL by routing Marines

Trey Hillman is sure making his last run memorable.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 30, 2007

Bilingual blanks are nothing to kobosu your guchi about

Last week in this column, I addressed the trials and tribulations of bringing up a child to be bilingual — both for parents and children. As anyone who has been down that road knows, it's what Japanese people would call shinan no waza (an arduous task).
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / PERSONALITY PROFILE
Sep 29, 2007

Hamilton Armstrong

"Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams."

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