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EDITORIALS
Nov 7, 2006

Rough patch for Sony

Sony Corp., which has built its fame through a global brand presence and innovative products, appears to be facing a difficult time. The Sony group's operating profit in the six-month period through September nosedived by 90.9 percent from a year before to 6.22 billion yen, although sales were up 9.7...
COMMENTARY
Nov 6, 2006

Outrage over simple truths

LONDON -- A "gaffe" is a true statement that outrages the hypocrites, who then mobilize to shut the truth-teller up. The most common gaffes are about politics and religion, because those are the areas where the level of hypocrisy is highest. Which explains former U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry's...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 5, 2006

Welcome to MLB players; hot hibachi league getting warm

A sincere yokoso (welcome) to manager Bruce Bochy and all the coaches, players and staff members on the current major league tour of Japan.
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Nov 5, 2006

Another week, another new low for Chelsea's Mourinho

LONDON -- Jose Mourinho would probably moan if he won the lottery and it wasn't a double rollover.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Nov 5, 2006

Conspiracy of complacency costs countless lives on the roads

Ihad a great aunt who drove a car right up until she was in her late 80s. On one occasion her daughter, my cousin, was a passenger in the car, and I heard the following from her. "Mom drove right through a red light," she told me, "but I decided not to mention it to her. Then she ran another red light....
BASKETBALL
Nov 4, 2006

bj-league notebook

Here's a quick rundown on news and notes from around the bj-league:
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Nov 3, 2006

Benoit happy to impart wisdom from NBA days to Broncos

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- He played in arenas with 20,000 people rooting against him and his teammates.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Nov 2, 2006

Love, Peace & Money?

Tokyo Design Week brings together international and local designers, manufacturers, retailers and entrepreneurs for a raft of exhibitions, gatherings and design-related events, and, of course, parties -- wherever designers get together, a party is not too far away. But apart from the civilized pleasure...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Temples grope for gimmicks to stay relevant, flush

The Kamiyacho Open Terrace cafe in central Tokyo has all the trappings of a trendy establishment -- good coffee, homemade desserts, an airy terrace.
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Abe says he will tackle Constitution, including Article 9

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to revise the Constitution, including the war-renouncing Article 9, because he believes it has become outdated over the 60 years since the end of the war, a government official quoted him as saying Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2006

Hunt for war dead a race against time

and Shoko Okuno talk about the September memorial service they held on New Guinea for their father, who died there amid fighting in 1944, during an Oct. 18 meeting in Yokohama of the nonprofit organization Pacific War History Museum. AKEMI NAKAMURA PHOTO
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Oct 31, 2006

Slow food, an attitude as much as a meal

In the 1960s, Japan's first instant ramen changed people's eating habits significantly by making it possible to get dinner in as little as three minutes. Even putting fast food and microwave dinners aside, eating has become easier and more functional since those days, due either to higher living standards...
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Oct 30, 2006

Will private equity boom in Japan? It did in Europe

After booming in the United States and Europe, private equity finally seems to have set its sights on Japan. Two of the world's top three private equity firms -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Texas Pacific Group -- have each opened offices in Japan or expanded their existing Japan operations over...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 28, 2006

Morimoto caught up in moment

SAPPORO -- Hichori Morimoto is no Doug Mientkiewicz.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 28, 2006

Living the slow life -- at warp speed

Autumn on Shiraishi island -- the tourists are gone and weekends are for cycling, sailing and holding impromptu beer parties.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Oct 27, 2006

Fighters clinch Japan Series championship

SAPPORO -- Hokkaido didn't have to wait long for its first Japan Series championship.
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BEST BAR NONE
Oct 27, 2006

In the cool shade of the Maple Leaf

A pub is a pub, and a sports bar is a sports bar -- or so you might think. In fact, these watering holes come in subtle shades of cultural preference. All conveniently bear the bold colors of a national flag somewhere on the premises for ease of reference. No prizes for guessing which one you will find...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2006

On-U Sound from way out

At most live gigs, all eyes are on the band while the mixing desk is tucked out of sight with some guy in a T-shirt standing behind it simply making sure each instrument comes out at the right level.
CULTURE / Music
Oct 27, 2006

Medeski, Scofield, Martin, and Wood "Out Louder"

Ten years ago when guitarist John Scofield joined Medeski, Martin and Wood on "A Go Go," the jam-band scene was just ripening. Nowadays it's hard to tell where swing ends and groove begins. Few bands, though, push the sonic limits with as much skill and gusto as MSMW on their second collaboration, "Out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Oct 26, 2006

A change in gender for new political series

For more than two decades, Yasumasa Morimura, one of Japan's most internationally celebrated artists, has inserted his own face into iconic paintings by van Gogh, Manet and Rembrandt, as well as portraits of stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Vivian Leigh. With his elaborate, hilarious and often gender-bending...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art / NEW ART SEEN
Oct 26, 2006

Slow-motion revelations

A group of people who do not know one another, but are united in a common purpose -- possibly waiting for a bus -- stand together in a tightly cropped long shot. One is reading a book, another is listening to music through headphones. There are the young and old; whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians;...
EDITORIALS
Oct 26, 2006

Checking violence at school

The number of violent incidents at public elementary schools nationwide rose by 128 to 2,018 in fiscal 2005 -- a new record for the third consecutive year, according to the education ministry's report entitled "Research on Problematic Behavior."
COMMENTARY
Oct 26, 2006

N. Korea: Who's to blame?

SEOUL -- "It's all Bush's fault!" "No, it's all Clinton's fault!" Has anyone engaged in this increasingly counterproductive debate over who should be blamed for North Korea's nuclear test ever stopped to consider that it might actually be Kim Jong Il's fault? . . . and that North Korean's "Dear Leader"...
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Oct 25, 2006

Where's the will to break energy status quo?

Berating the Kyoto Protocol for failing to cut greenhouse-gas emissions is a bit like kicking the dog at a party when someone passes wind. Sure, it's nice to skirt the blame, but don't fault the Kyoto accord for society's flatulence.

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