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BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Nov 5, 2012

Excess supply, not lack of demand, weighing on the global economy

The demand and supply balance is adjusted through price fluctuations under a market economy. However, price changes often go too far, occasionally leading to creation of a bubble boom and its subsequent collapse. When Japan's bubble boom went bust in the early 1990s, Japanese companies were burdened...
Reader Mail
Nov 4, 2012

Giants on both sides of the Pacific

I am from San Francisco and now live in Kanto. Yes, I am aware of the coincidences of the baseball team names and team colors. However, they end there.
SOCCER / J. League
Nov 4, 2012

Shibasaki scores twice as Antlers beat S-Pulse in Nabisco Cup final

Gaku Shibasaki struck twice to help defending champions Kashima Antlers capture the Nabisco Cup for a record fifth time with a 2-1 extra-time victory over Shimizu S-Pulse on Saturday afternoon.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Nov 4, 2012

Giants capture Japan Series title

Shinnosuke Abe led the Yomiuri Giants to the Central League pennant, nearly won the Triple Crown, and will more than likely be named CL MVP in a few weeks.
JAPAN / Media
Nov 4, 2012

Symposium looks at the disturbing rise of online nationalism

While the territorial disputes between Japan and China, and that with South Korea, seem to have quietened down recently, some people remain frustrated by the issue.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 4, 2012

It's a bad time for Sapio to downsize

Japan's first two shūkanshi (weekly magazines) appeared so closely, their arrival could be described as analogous to a "photo start" as opposed to a photo finish. The Asahi Shimbun launched Junkan Asahi on Feb. 25, 1922. Rather than appearing weekly, however, it was issued on the 5th, 15th and 25th...
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 4, 2012

Lake Shikotsu: a Hokkaido wonderland awaits

I have spent the last four hours perspiring under the summer sun, moving slowly and photographing wildflowers. Having hiked the circuitous, twin-peaked route around the caldera of constantly active 1,041-meter Mount Tarumae, I then loped up and down a small peak known only as Kyu-san-ni (its height,...
JAPAN / Media / DARK SIDE OF THE RISING SUN
Nov 4, 2012

Angry mobster looms large over politicians

In Japan these days, the political world seems to be mirroring "Beat" Takeshi Kitano's latest yakuza film, "Outrage Beyond," which depicts Japan's ruling party as being well and truly in bed with the mob.
CULTURE / Books
Nov 4, 2012

Windmills on the poetic mind

FAREWELL TO NUCLEAR, WELCOME TO RENEWABLE ENERGY: A Collection of Poems by 218 Poets. Coal Sack Publishing, 2012, 321 pp., ¥3,150 Japan in many ways is the land of myth, of cozy self-assurances, national delusions and unfounded assertions. Incredulous claims, such as racial homogeneity and the absence...
BUSINESS / JAPAN-U.S. SEMINAR
Nov 3, 2012

World could learn from Israel's fiscal discipline

Fiscal discipline will be an integral part of any country's efforts to resolve debt problems, irrespective of the size of the nation's economy, a senior banker from Israel said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Nov 3, 2012

Agent rips Evessa after they pay off Cox over lawsuit threat

The once-mighty Osaka Evessa's spiraling-out-of-control reputation has taken another major hit. And FIBA, basketball's world governing body, entered the picture for this latest incident.
Events / KANSAI: WHO & WHAT
Nov 3, 2012

Fair in Itami featuring workshops, craft works

A crafts fair is being held through Nov. 11 at the Museum of Arts and Crafts Itami in Hyogo Prefecture, where products including pottery, handwoven and dyed textiles, and engraved metal items are on sale.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2012

Madonna finds kindred spirit in Wallis Simpson

"At dinners and parties," Madonna recalls, "I found that whenever I brought up the topic of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, it was like throwing a Molotov cocktail into the conversation." Of course, the same story could be told about the speaker herself.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2012

'3/11 made Japanese treasure the simple and normal things in life'

The notion of a crowd-funded film — whose production is financed by money solicited from potential fans online — has begun to gain a bit of traction, but when it comes to crowd-sourced films, Ridley Scott and his production company Scott Free seem to be one step ahead of everyone else. Their 2011...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2012

'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" is a brain-dead undead movie that takes America's 16th president, the Great Emancipator, and turns him into the Great Decapitator, using his hitherto unknown kung fu fighting skills and silver-tipped axe to dismember dozens of ghouls. One can only imagine what further...
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2012

Ishihara leaves office with sights on Diet seat

Shintaro Ishihara officially stepped down Wednesday as governor of Tokyo after the metropolitan assembly accepted his letter of resignation and ended his 13½ years in the office.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / NPB NOTEBOOK
Nov 1, 2012

Former boxer Sugiya not interested in watching son, Fighters at ballpark

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters youngster Kenshi Sugiya and his father, Mitsuru, are a unique father-son tandem. Both of them have been professional athletes.
EDITORIALS
Nov 1, 2012

Wealth and power in China

The New York Times has reported that the family of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao controls assets worth $2.7 billion. In response, access to The New York Times in China is now blocked and every mention of the story in the media and on microblogs is being censured. The story is a reminder of the problems...
Reader Mail
Nov 1, 2012

Tyranny by any other name ...

It is interesting that Natan Sharansky, identified as "a human rights activist," writes in his opinion piece about "No more free passes for tyrants" (Oct. 30), yet doesn't utter a sound when the tyrant is Israel and the victims are Palestinian. On record as a vociferous advocate of confiscating Palestinian...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 30, 2012

Shinsei eyes REIT linked to nursing care

Shinsei Bank Ltd., the Japanese lender partly owned by J. Christopher Flowers, plans to set up a health care real estate investment trust to capture growth in one of the world's fastest-aging nations.
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Oct 29, 2012

Evidence of the Showa Emperor's deep regret

Checking the galley of the endnotes to "Persona," my biography of Yukio Mishima with Naoki Inose, I decided to augment a note on Japan's monarchical system. The tenno institution had a singular meaning for Mishima, and I set aside substantial space in the book for the subject.

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear