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Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 4, 2008

Camp all about art, nature

Kids Art Camp, which aims to develop children's sense of themselves and the environment through art and nature, will be held at a campsite in Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture, from July 19 to 21.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 22, 2008

Lame conclusions about U.S. occupations

NEW YORK, SPECIAL TO THE J (AP) Lately South Koreans' view of the United States has improved as the Obama-Clinton contest showed the possibility of ending the Bush-Republican Iraq war and halting the destruction of American democracy. Now, South Koreans are rebelling against President Lee Myung Bak,...
Reader Mail
Jun 22, 2008

Deplorable claim about Bhutto

Regarding the June 2 Washington Post article "Bhutto gave key nuclear data to Pyongyang" (which is based on conversations that London-based Indian journalist Shyam Bhatia claims to have had with former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2003): It is illogical to believe that an international...
EDITORIALS
Jun 20, 2008

A North Korean about-face

North Korea has promised to begin a "reinvestigation" of the fate of Japanese nationals abducted by its agents and to hand over the four remaining members of the nine leftists who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet to Pyongyang in 1970 along with two wives of the leftists.
LIFE / Lifestyle / WEEK 3
Jun 15, 2008

Space modules for the space-challenged

According to the latest Japanese government statistics (from 2003), the average Tokyo apartment that is home to a four-person family allows them a measly 36.5 sq. meters to live in. That's just a bit more than a large shipping container.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jun 4, 2008

To cage or not to cage?

I was born in 1940, in Neath, South Wales. My father went off to war and my mother took me to live in the relative safety of rural Suffolk in eastern England, where the Luftwaffe's bombers seldom attacked. There, she worked as a nanny for rich people's offspring. It was pretty tough for my Mum, but she...
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 14, 2008

Astronauts tell kids about life on shuttle

Orbiting the Earth is not all fun and games. But when it is, the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour passed the time during their 16-day mission in March to the International Space Station doing flips in zero gravity and filling balls of water with chocolate candies, its pilot confided Tuesday...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 9, 2008

'Mr. Brooks'

The serial-killer genre that gave us characters as diversely memorable as Dr. Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) and "Serial Mom" (Kathleen Turner), had been on the wane. Murder-as-entertainment was no longer a novelty — in terms of body count, any franchise horror movie could up the numbers in a fraction of...
SOCCER
Apr 23, 2008

Oliveira miffed about schedule

Kashima Antlers manager Oswaldo Oliveira has launched an angry tirade against his club's hectic schedule ahead of Wednesday's Asian Champions League clash with Beijing Guoan.
Reader Mail
Apr 20, 2008

Europe should worry about U.S.

The April article "NATO meeting sends dangerous signals" states "The crux of the matter is Europe's lack of political will to forge a unified stand toward Russia." I beg to differ. Rather, Europeans have to be worried about Europe's lack of political will toward the Bush government. The latter struck...
EDITORIALS
Mar 20, 2008

Getting serious about child care

The government is pushing improvement of child-care services and in doing so it aims to stem the decline in birthrate. It anticipates that the number of children aged 5 or younger who would use such services will increase by about 1 million to about 3 million in 10 years.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Mar 14, 2008

'Vagina Monologues': Did you know it was about ending violence?

Ten years ago, playwright Eve Ensler and a group of women performed "The Vagina Monologues" in a New York theater on Valentine's Day to raise awareness and money to stop violence against women and girls. The success of the play launched the "V-Day" movement, with its goal of putting an end to the violence....
BUSINESS
Mar 5, 2008

Worried about yen, Toyota to boost output abroad

GENEVA (Kyodo) Katsuaki Watanabe, president of Toyota Motor Corp., says the carmaker is feeling the pinch from the yen's spike against the dollar and will move more manufacturing offshore to minimize the adverse effects.
Reader Mail
Feb 24, 2008

Romantic fantasies about training

The Feb. 14 editorial "Violence in sumo training" pointed out "a culture characterized by tolerance of corporal punishment," but this "tradition" goes far beyond the sumo ring.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2008

Loss of father to ALS inspires play about disease

The death of their father a decade ago gave Rumi and Takuya Iryo a new goal in their lives — raising public awareness of the disease he died from, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Reader Mail
Feb 10, 2008

Cut the hype about Indian students

As an Indian national, I am asked almost routinely by Japanese friends and others how it is that Indian children can do two-digit calculations in their head, and whether that makes them superior to Japanese. Let me shed some light on this:
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 7, 2008

Five uncertainties about China's future

A former senior Chinese diplomat praised the journey of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to Beijing last December as a "wonderful visit."
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Feb 6, 2008

Talking sense about deer

We were filming a television documentary in the mountains of Hokkaido. It was winter, and bitterly cold. Through the trees, bare of leaves, we could see floe ice, dotted with eagles, gulls, crows and a few ravens. Then a raucous gathering of crows ahead drew our attention and we trudged through the crisp...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / VIEWS FROM THE STREET
Jan 29, 2008

Are you concerned about the current financial turmoil?

Japan Times
LIFE / Travel / ON THE ROAD
Jan 20, 2008

A home away from home: How we really think about the car

Is there a relationship between cars and houses? And, if there is, what commonalities are there between what we search for in an automobile and a home?
EDITORIALS
Jan 16, 2008

Getting serious about global warming

This year is crucial in the fight against global warming — especially for Japan. During the 2008-2012 five-year period, industrialized countries must reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by an average 5 percent from 1990 levels under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In July, Japan will host the summit of...
Reader Mail
Jan 6, 2008

When writing about things Japanese

Regarding Akita Kimi's Dec. 27 letter, "Another way of writing names": In response to Mikami Takashi's Dec. 20 reasoned plea for limiting Japanese names to surname-first usage in English, Akita's argument -- that it can be "confusing" for those who do not know Japanese -- would be patronizing were...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 16, 2007

Readers chime in about Giants 'jinx'

A couple of readers sent me their opinions about the subject of last week's column: the supposed "Giants jinx." It seemingly afflicts foreign players who play in Japan for one team, then cannot reach agreement on a new contract, so they move to the Yomiuri Giants, only to find bad luck, coincidental...
COMMENTARY
Dec 13, 2007

Something's not quite right about Hillary

LOS ANGELES — Hillary Rodham Clinton may well prove to be a great president of the United States, who knows? But as a presidential candidate she has a lot to be desired, and it's getting worse.
EDITORIALS
Dec 9, 2007

Good news about Iran

In a sharp and striking reversal, the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Iran has stopped work on its suspected nuclear weapons program. This revelation contrasts with the Bush administration's recent rhetoric warning that Iran's determination to develop a nuclear weapon could spark a war,...

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes