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BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Dec 21, 2009

Press club system a domestic dilemma begging for change

In January, the European Business Council in Japan will launch a new magazine called eurobiz japan. This magazine will address topics of special interest to European firms here, including the press club system — an issue that continues to rankle foreign business circles.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 20, 2009

Zimbalist says Matsui's key impact for Angels will be on the field

Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka all helped open up markets and bring new streams of revenue to their respective teams when they made their major league debuts.
Reader Mail
Dec 20, 2009

J. League watches over members

The Dec. 12 editorial "A yellow card for J. League" seems oblivious to underlying facts. The decision by the Yomiuri conglomerate to finally cut its ties to Verdy has been coming for at least a decade, and it was just a question of when the other shoe would drop. The timing may be related to economic...
LIFE / WEEK 3
Dec 20, 2009

Real Escape Game brings its creator's wonderment to life

Code-like messages on the walls grabbed my attention first: "g=circle, square, triangle"; "42, 23, 16 . . . " Then I saw the padlocked safe and the six candy dispensers — the latter for sustenance, I guessed, in case we intrepid 18 gamesters locked in this mysterious room should malinger in accomplishing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

Steve Finbow: Best books of 2009

AUDITION, by Ryu Murakami. W. W. Norton & Company, 208 pp., $13.95 (paper)
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Dec 20, 2009

Stephen Mansfield: Best books of 2009

Not for those looking for a cozy fireside New Year read. The fiendish methods used by the Kempeitai, Japan's military police, are known in outline, but now we have the chilling details. Felton focuses not only on the unit's systematic physical and sexual torture of Allied soldiers and Asian civilians...
COMMUNITY
Dec 19, 2009

Group mentality — dressing to belong?

Japan's group mentality stumbles with frequent kicks from the Western mind.
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2009

Toyota unions may nix '10 wage hike demand

NAGOYA (Kyodo) The umbrella body of Toyota Motor Corp. group labor unions is considering making no uniform demand for a regular wage hike for its members in the 2010 business year, sources said Friday.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 18, 2009

Last call for Wendy's

It was only AFTER Wendy's declared defeat in the face of McDonald's dominance in Japan that the hamburgers started flying on the grill.
Reader Mail
Dec 17, 2009

Consequence of 'group' training

The Dec. 13 editorial, "An education in violence," fails to address the underlying problem with the Japanese education system and how this contributes largely to bullying. In Japanese education, nursery school children already learn to act in unison with the group — as I've seen with my own daughter...
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2009

Do humanoid robots deserve to have rights?

PRINCETON/WARSAW — Last month, Gecko Systems announced that it had been running trials of its "fully autonomous personal companion home care robot," also known as a "carebot," designed to help elderly or disabled people to live independently. A woman with short-term memory loss broke into a big smile,...
BUSINESS
Dec 17, 2009

Investment, open skies make oneworld JAL's home: Arpey

American Airlines Inc. President and CEO Gerard Arpey said Wednesday that Japan Airlines Corp. should remain in their alliance instead of teaming up with Delta Air Lines Inc., adding his group may invest in JAL more than the already proposed $1.1 billion.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital
Dec 16, 2009

Hot on grandma's trail in Hokkaido

If you're looking for your grandmother in the farming suburb of Iwamizawa, an hour northeast of Sapporo, your best bet may be to phone the municipal call center.
BUSINESS
Dec 15, 2009

Tokyo Steel cuts January prices

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. said Monday it will cut prices for most products in January because of declining investment in condominium construction and the government review of public works spending.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 13, 2009

Wresting the press from pampered hacks

HONG KONG — Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, was adamant that a free press is the most precious of all freedoms because it opens up or expands other freedoms. He famously wrote that given the choice of a government without a free press or a free press without a government,...
SOCCER / PREMIER REPORT
Dec 12, 2009

Relations between players, managers can be tense

LONDON — Managers tell players to use their heads, but two bosses, it seems, have literally been practicing what they preach.
EDITORIALS
Dec 12, 2009

A yellow card for J. League

The financial conditions of J. League football clubs are deteriorating because of the nation's economic downturn. Most J. League clubs are spilling red ink. They need to take measures to economize and the J. League should reconsider its expansion plans.
BUSINESS
Dec 12, 2009

Nico Nico expects profit on ad revenue, member fees

Dwango Co., operator of YouTube's biggest rival in Japan, forecast its Nico Nico Video business will soon deliver something that Google Inc.'s online-video service has never achieved: profit.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2009

Let us celebrate the miracle of wondrously difficult movies

The more movies you watch the more you become convinced how they are wondrously difficult things to make. Billy Wilder didn't say that exactly, but he did say something about the job getting harder as he got older, so I figured it out. I'm always awed by the fact that so many incredibly watchable films...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 11, 2009

Don Quixote gets punked

The contemporary Japanese dance scene has recently drifted to a more fragmented situation where groups delve deeper into their own particular take on performance, but one exception to this is Pappa Tarahumara. Founded by Hiroshi Koike (freshly back from a discussion presentation with Laurie Anderson...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Dec 11, 2009

Rody exhibition offers holiday gift hints

When the Rody pony was first trotted out from an Italian toy company in 1990, its intention was to help children between the ages of 2-5 develop balance and coordination skills.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb