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BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Jun 27, 2010

Catchers stepping up contributions at plate

What a month it's been for catchers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2010

It is safe to bank on this hard-boiled man

Eiji Okuda doesn't fit into any of the usual boxes for actors in Japan — or anywhere else for that matter. He's had his share of leading roles over a three-decade career, often as a world-weary cop or gangster, but he's not what the local industry considers a star.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 25, 2010

Te' "Aete, Rikai wo Nozomi Motsure Tsuku Onsei ya Moji no Wakugai de no 'Yakusoku' wo"

As one of the country's more popular instrumental rock acts, Tokyo's Te' have sold out large clubs in Japan and toured overseas in the United States and Taiwan. Signed to local indie imprint Zankyo Record since the act's 2004 inception, Te's fourth full-length is their first stab at working with a major....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 25, 2010

'The Girlfriend Experience'/'Sin Nombre'

From the era of President Ronald Reagan onward, life in the United States has been marked by one salient trend: the increasing Brazilification of society, where wealth is concentrated in a super-rich elite, while the underclass swells and the middle class shrinks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 25, 2010

Caribou asserts latest album is 'uniquely mine'

Daniel Snaith is a remarkable individual. Not just because of his astounding, cerebral, diacritic music that, nearly a decade and five albums later, is seeping into the minds of people searching for, as one recent reviewer put it, "electronics for grownups."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 20, 2010

Swallows find themselves in similar situation to 1977

The year was 1977.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 20, 2010

Homey husky learns to live a dog's life

Chaine, a friendly husky living in Tokyo, was 5 years old when her owners, Motoko Shiraishi and Yasushi Ishikawa, took her to see a sled-dog race in Gunma Prefecture in the winter of 2003.
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Jun 20, 2010

Towering ambition

One sunny Saturday last month, Hitachi Ltd., Japan's largest electronics maker, made headlines when it hosted a rare tour of its spanking new elevator-testing tower — the world's tallest — at its sprawling facility in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jun 18, 2010

Missing journalist no stranger to war, danger

Kosuke Tsuneoka, the 40-year-old Japanese freelance journalist reportedly being held captive by a Taliban group in northern Afghanistan, is known for his reporting in war-ravaged countries around the world, including Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territory.
BASKETBALL
Jun 16, 2010

Rabedeaux named Brex's new coach

Veteran American coach Jason Rabedeaux, a former assistant at Oklahoma and Washington State, has been hired as the defending JBL champion Link Tochigi Brex's new head coach, the team announced on Tuesday.
BASKETBALL / NBA / NBA REPORT
Jun 16, 2010

Nets taking real risk by hiring combative Johnson

NEW YORK — Given more time and fewer resources, Rod Thorn probably could have made a worse coaching choice than Avery Johnson . . . but damned if I can imagine who that micro-managing, playoff-pressure-leaking megalomaniac might be.
EDITORIALS
Jun 15, 2010

Japan's new ambassador to China

Prime Minister Naoto Kan plans to appoint Mr. Uichiro Niwa, former chairman of Itochu Corp., a major trading firm, as Japan's new ambassador to China. Mr. Kan apparently wants to demonstrate his political leadership by choosing a businessman who has considerable experience in China, which is now Japan's...
COMMENTARY / World / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Jun 14, 2010

South Koreans show split over what sank their ship

Despite the confident and harsh manner in which President Lee Myung Bak condemned North Korea for attacking and sinking a South Korean naval vessel, his country is deeply split between the conservative anti-Pyongyang forces and the opposition forces favoring promotion of closer ties with the North.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 13, 2010

Hillman enjoying break after departure from Royals

Former Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and Kansas City Royals manager Trey Hillman will be taking a family break and then moving on after being fired as the K.C. skipper on May 13 after a little more than two years guiding the Royals.
EDITORIALS
Jun 13, 2010

Compensating Siberia internees

Some 600,000 Japanese are believed to have been interned in Siberia, Mongolia and Central Asia and used for forced labor after World War II. Some 60,000 of them are estimated to have died. Of the more than 460,000 who came back to Japan, 70,000 to 80,000 of them are believed to be still alive. Their...
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jun 12, 2010

Sikorski says flexibility key to his success in Japan

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. — It's a wonder Brian Sikorski's arm hasn't fallen off by now.
SOCCER / World cup
Jun 10, 2010

World Cup gets ready for kickoff

The World Cup breaks new ground on Friday as the world's top soccer tournament will be held in Africa for the first time. South Africa plays host to the monthlong competition, where 32 teams will compete for a place in the final in Johannesburg on July 11.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 8, 2010

Futenma divides Okinawa's expats

Peter Simpson had just left his students at Okinawa International University and was on his way home when a helicopter slammed into the campus administration building. That no one was killed or seriously injured in the crash was remarkable given that the three-story concrete building had to be demolished...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jun 6, 2010

Pacific League dominating Central in interleague play

There was a rumor going around prior to the beginning of this season's interleague schedule that Pacific League teams were thinking about dropping games against the Central League in the future because of the strength of the CL clubs, especially the Yomiuri Giants.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 5, 2010

Niseko's real estate boom: Bigger picture in sight for local development

For some it was a flash in the pan, at best an experiment destined to fail, at worst a mini-bubble hyper-inflated by greedy "outsiders" with little interest other than the type accumulating in the bank.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 4, 2010

'Koko no Mesu'

Hollywood once used permanent sets for the dozens of Westerns it cranked out annually — the frontier town, ranch house and corral all in one convenient location, built to last. I sometimes imagine something similar for Japan's endless procession of hospital dramas. They all seem to use one generic...
JAPAN
Jun 3, 2010

Hatoyama quits as prime minister

Ending a turbulent eight months in office, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Wednesday he will step down to take the blame for his Cabinet's plunging approval rate, brought on by funds scandals and the row over relocating a U.S. base in Okinawa.
JAPAN / BOOSTING THE BIRTHRATE
Jun 2, 2010

Holdout singles stalling birthrate

Japan's low birthrate has accelerated the graying population.

Longform

After pandemic-era border regulations eased, Indian migrants began returning to Japan. Their population now stands at more than 50,000 across the country.
How remote work is rewriting the migrant experience in Japan