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BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jun 21, 2007

Yano, Rawl pursue new path to sporting success

The first real innovator in human history invented the wheel, ushering in an era of lighter workloads and easier trips. Others have made notable contributions: Thomas Edison perfected the light bulb; Johannes Gutenberg gave us the printing press; and Wilbur and Orville Wright demonstrated that airplanes...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / U.K. JOURNALIST SYMPOSIUM
Jun 9, 2007

Sustained growth needs more access, ambition

Despite its demographic problems, Japan has room to aim at higher growth by pushing harder on reforms, opening up more to foreign capital and making better use of unused female labor, visiting journalists from Britain told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jun 8, 2007

Animated dolls, singing birds in cages in Yamanashi

The Kawaguchi-Ko Music Forest Museum in Yamanashi Prefecture is currently holding an exhibit through November 18 from its own collection of animated dolls (automata) and singing mechanical bird boxes.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
May 29, 2007

Aso Mining's POW labor: the evidence

One year after media reports that Aso Mining used 300 Allied prisoners of war for forced labor in 1945, Foreign Minister Taro Aso is refusing to confirm that POWs dug coal for his family's firm — and even challenging reporters to produce evidence.
COMMENTARY / World
May 23, 2007

Leave 'patriotism' out of Constitution

In October 2005, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) approved draft proposals whose main thrust is to revise the Preamble and Article 9 of Japan's Constitution. The new preamble includes "the obligation to support ourselves . . . with love for the country and society to which we belong," a veiled...
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
May 22, 2007

All twisted up in Thai massage

"It's like doing yoga without the hard work," enthused my trendy friend, whose paradoxical nature — she's both lazy and obsessed with health — had led her to the latest popular massage to take Tokyo by storm: the traditional Thai massage.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 3, 2007

Water with an extra kick is making splash with consumers

In a country where tap water is safe and the soft drink market is saturated by an incredible variety of products, Japan's mineral water consumption has stayed relatively small.
BASKETBALL
Apr 19, 2007

Sparks provides comic relief, big plays for team

Rasheed Sparks delivers passes and takes them away with equal precision. He also delivers some of the best punch lines in Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 19, 2007

'Babel' role simply 'had to be me'

Rinko Kikuchi reveals how she clung to movies like a lifeline during her tumultuous teenage years, and now she views acting as her way of returning the favor -- while director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu says she was robbed of an Oscar
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 10, 2007

At 6.6 trillion yen, gay, lesbian market no small niche

Japan has an estimated 2.74 million people who are either lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and in terms of targeting a niche market, they have a combined purchasing power of 6.64 trillion yen -- the equivalent of the nation's liquor consumption.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Mar 20, 2007

Demise of crime magazine historic

Making headlines worldwide last month was the publication of a magazine entitled "Kyogaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu ("Shocking Foreigner crime: the Underground File"). On sale at major Japanese bookstores and convenience stores nationwide, Gaijin Hanzai (GH) attributed criminality to nationality, and...
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 16, 2007

No ordinary clown show

If you've seen the Grand Cha^piteau (Big Top) rising from Tokyo's Yoyogi Stadium, you would be right in guessing a circus had ridden into town.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Mar 15, 2007

Baba Zula: from the belly of the beats

Underground music maniacs, the real hardcore otaku (obsessed fans), have long raved about the Turkish psychedelic music of the 1960s and '70s -- crazy reverb-drenched, twangy-guitar tracks that sounded like The Ventures if they'd been a belly-dancer backing band with a taste for hashish and quarter-tone...
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Mar 6, 2007

The prime minister's official hub

Kantei, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, is always a center of attention, particularly in times of national crisis, including when a big earthquake struck Niigata Prefecture in October 2004 and when North Korea tested a nuclear weapon last October.
COMMENTARY
Mar 3, 2007

America's budget black hole

WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war continues to consume lives, both American and Iraqi. The conflict also is burning mountains of cash.
Reader Mail
Feb 28, 2007

Pejorative reference to PR people

The Feb. 15 article headlined "Abe PR flack U.S.-bound for media spin control" is insulting to those of us in the public relations business, because both "flack" and "spin" are pejoratives that do not accurately convey the essence of what PR professionals actually do.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Feb 24, 2007

In Harlem, living on a prayer

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in a narrow, unassuming Harlem church, three sopranos fill the room with the first reluctant notes of a gospel hymn. "Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hill," they sing.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 20, 2007

TV shows spur 'health' food fads

How many people would believe a doctor who says eating two packages of natto fermented soybeans every day helps you lose weight?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 16, 2007

Rappers Jurassic 5 happy with where they're at?

'My favorite cut is 'Where We At,' because it's literally about where we are at as a band at this stage in the world of hip-hop," says Jurassic 5's DJ Nu-Mark on the phone from Los Angeles while playing miniature golf with his son.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 6, 2007

U.S. man on quest to find cause of brother's death

OSAKA -- Charles Lacey's brother died mysteriously 2 1/2 years ago in Fukuoka and he's still trying to learn the cause.
BASKETBALL / BJ-LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
Feb 2, 2007

Ward, James take honors for January

The best defense is a strong offense, someone with a clipboard, a whistle and a captive audience once said.
Reader Mail
Jan 21, 2007

Don't patronize baby boomers

Regarding the Jan. 11 editorial, "Baby boomers can continue to shine": The concept of age seems to be difficult to grasp in Japan, especially in the workforce. A clear example is The Japan Times, which routinely runs ageist classified employment ads where no one in the existing world can be over the...
Japan Times
LIFE
Jan 14, 2007

It's high time for Japan to ride the space-tourism wave

The United States and Europe are finally, albeit slowly, paving the way for space tourism to become a revolutionary source of new business -- some economists even believe it could save the stagnating world economy.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Jan 1, 2007

Blackwell, Marshall should be All-Stars

Twenty players were chosen to appear in the first-ever bj-league All-Star Game on Jan. 27, and for each of them the day will be special.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Dec 28, 2006

A lifetime's observations

He saw Ginza when it was a blackened plain but for the bombed-out Mitsukoshi department store, the Hattori Building and a handful of other structures left standing. He observed the city as it was rebuilt, and its people. He observed, and then he wrote.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Dec 7, 2006

Golden oldies step out into the limelight

Sixty-three-year-old Masatake Takei careened around the stage without his trousers, trying to beat off the angry mob of obasan (old ladies) who had just stripped him to his underpants. The audience obviously loved the spectacle, roaring with delight. But what was the president of a Tokyo architectural...
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2006

America's anti-environmentalist streak

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- As an American, I am appalled, ashamed and embarrassed by my country's lack of leadership in dealing with global warming. Scientific evidence on the risks mounts by the day, as most recently documented in England's magisterial Stern Report. Yet, despite the fact that the United...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 28, 2006

International role of NPOs

All over the world, culture is being pushed to the sidelines. I am not referring here to commercialized, globalized culture produced purely for entertainment. By "culture," I mean the provision of culture as a public good, such as through foreign-language education, intellectual exchange or groundbreaking...

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight