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Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 8, 2010

Seiko Noda's most coveted post: motherhood

At age 50, Seiko Noda's ardent wish to become a mother looks on track to come true.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010

'Le Petit Nicolas'

For the defeated nations of World War II, the 1950s were a time of chaotic struggle, but for the victors, it was a time of stability, growing affluence and general cheerfulness (at least on the surface). Suited dads went to work and returned home for dinner, while moms stayed at home and could be relied...
TENNIS
Oct 6, 2010

Nadal shakes off fatigue, tops No. 63 Giraldo

Rafael Nadal was made to sweat without ever looking in serious danger as the world No. 1 marked his Japan Open debut with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Santiago Giraldo on Tuesday.
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 5, 2010

Census blind to Japan's true diversity

It's that time of the decade again. By now, all households in Japan should have received and submitted Japan's National Census (kokusei chosa), a survey taken every five years expressly to assist in policymaking, drawing up electoral districts and other matters of taxation and representation. This of...
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2010

Back to class for Summers after the free-market lunch

LONDON — Larry Summers was snatching lunch during the African Development Bank annual meeting while I interviewed him. Under no circumstances, his minder said, were we to take pictures while he was eating — a wise precaution as it spared our cameras from the backlash of presenting him chomping greedily...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Oct 2, 2010

You too can become a millionaire!

In the present economic downturn, you might feel you don't have much to look forward to financially. But I'm here to tell you — don't despair! You have a lot more money than you think you do. It's just a matter of finding it.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 1, 2010

Delorean

The Argentinian writer and Nobel laureate Jorge Luis Borges once described the Basques as "a people who throughout history have done little else than milk cows." Although this dismissive comment was from a character narrating a tale rather than the author's own, it could nevertheless be said that Basques...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Oct 1, 2010

All-grrrl DJ collective touts a twee life

Shibuya is not a pretty place. In fact, Tokyo's youth mecca can look downright grimy at times. But as with most eyesores, there are pockets of beauty and Sumire Taya owns one of them.
Japan Times
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 29, 2010

Some space helps a language relationship to grow

Are you familiar with the "forgetting curve"? I was about 16 when I came across it, printed in the back of my physics textbook at secondary school. But I have a vivid memory of that discovery to this day. The graph had a tremendous impact on the way I approach learning, especially when studying Japanese....
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Sep 28, 2010

Scheduling quirks taking some excitement away from pennant races

Excitement and interest in Major League Baseball is at a fevered pitch as the remaining pennant races go down to the wire.
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Sep 24, 2010

New vision of Japan-U.S. ties needed at key turning point

Japan-U.S. relations are at a turning point and the Futenma base dispute — which has strained bilateral ties since the Democratic Party of Japan took power a year ago — is also symbolic of the broader and longer-term changes that affect the alliance, American experts said at a recent seminar in Tokyo....
Japan Times
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Sep 24, 2010

The constructor: Pierce using Shiga experience to help in Akita

Bob Pierce is the first head coach in bj-league history to be handed the reins of two expansion teams in their first seasons.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Sep 23, 2010

Language teacher Kae Minami

Kae Minami, 32, is a bilingual language teacher. For the past seven years, she has had an outstanding record as a top Japanese juku sensei (prep school teacher). Her foreign students start out with virtually no knowledge of Japanese and almost all of them pass their Japanese university entrance exams,...
COMMUNITY / Voices / HOTLINE TO NAGATACHO
Sep 21, 2010

Towns, cities need vision to halt decline

Dear Prime Minister Naoto Kan,
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 20, 2010

Reducing poverty, empowering women in an uncertain world

WASHINGTON — The drive to overcome extreme poverty and hunger has been at the heart of global efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) since their adoption a decade ago. Up until the food, fuel and financial crises in the past two years, developing countries were making progress in...
Japan Times
LIFE / WEEK 3
Sep 19, 2010

Rustic building fest spans two continents

Back in early August, as families across Japan were beginning to plan trips to their hometowns during the upcoming Obon holidays, Hannes Schnelle of Sarenseck, Germany, and 26 fellow Europeans were preparing for a Japanese journey of their own.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / JAPAN LITE
Sep 18, 2010

Hey, you — go home!

This is one of the few modern countries in the world where you can go back in time without ever leaving the current century.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2010

Kan taps Okada for party's No. 2 post

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Thursday tapped Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada as the party's secretary general, in what amounts to a test of whether Kan can achieve party unity after Tuesday's presidential election.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2010

Scarred lay judges battle stress

In late November last year, Iwao Takasu, 55, became one of the first six people in Ibaraki Prefecture to serve as a lay judge in a criminal trial.
Japan Times
LIFE
Sep 12, 2010

Aging through the ages

"If only, when one heard That Old Age was coming One could bolt the door Answer 'not at home' And refuse to meet him!" (Anonymous, "Kokinshu" Imperial poetry anthology, 10th century)
Japan Times
LIFE / Food & Drink / BY THE GLASS
Sep 10, 2010

A cooling splash of New Zealand

A bit like having a water pistol shot straight in the face, a cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand can slap you right out of your late-summer stupor.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2010

Roberts finally makes it to Japan — but was it worth the wait?

Does Julia Roberts hate Japan? The local media were obsessed with this question prior to the Hollywood star's first-ever trip here last month to promote her new film, "Eat Pray Love," based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir about her journeys to Italy, India and Indonesia.
LIFE / Language / BILINGUAL
Sep 8, 2010

Despite the big spender image, Japanese actually love to save

There's this image that the Japanese are drop-dead, go-all-out kaimono-chūdokusho (買い物中毒症, shopaholics), despite whatever the latest dreary news bulletin on the global recession says. While that may be true, it's also a fact of our collective lives that the Japanese hate spending, with every...
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Sep 7, 2010

Don't blame JET for Japan's poor English

The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, touted as the world's largest cultural exchange scheme, has brought thousands of non-Japanese into the country to teach at local boards of education. These days, with many government programs being told to justify their existence, a debate is raging over whether...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Sep 5, 2010

What Japan must do now to survive the coming U.S. conflagration

It is no secret that the tectonic plates of the American empire are slipping dramatically, though the vast majority of Americans are blissfully unaware or in denial of what may soon occur.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 5, 2010

Take it slow — but only if it suits you

Slow Life Japan is a sort of movement, or rather an antimovement, that sprouted here and there in the 1990s, little islands of quietude amid the ultra-fast life that had come to seem as unquestionable as modernity itself. Production, consumption, growth, activity, exhaustion — all very well, but what...
SOCCER / World cup
Sep 1, 2010

Zaccheroni wants players to speak up

New national team manager Alberto Zaccheroni has targeted a top-three finish at next January's Asian Cup, and intends to use a velvet glove rather than an iron fist to get there.
SOCCER / World cup
Aug 30, 2010

Oliveira wants to manage Japan

SAITAMA — Kashima Antlers manager Oswaldo Oliveira wants to take charge of Japan's national team and is prepared to walk out on the J. League champions to do so.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 29, 2010

Ramirez eyes 2,000 hits

Alex Ramirez has his eyes on the future.
Japan Times
LIFE / Style & Design / ON: DESIGN
Aug 26, 2010

Objets d'art with a purpose in life

Working across the grain

Longform

Members of the nonprofit group Japan Youth Memorial Association search for the remains of dead soldiers in a cave in Okinawa Prefecture in February.
The long search for Japan’s lost soldiers