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COMMENTARY
Sep 5, 2011

Revolution no boon to the Copts

Ugly reality has dashed the high hopes of the "Arab Spring." In Egypt the fall of Hosni Mubarak has encouraged religious intolerance and persecution, especially against the Coptic Christian community.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 5, 2011

'Top Gun' blazed a trail for war propaganda

Americans are souring on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The military budget is under siege as Congress looks for spending to cut. And the army is reporting record suicide rates among soldiers.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 5, 2011

MLB scouts doing due diligence on Fighters' Darvish

The press box at QVC Marine Field isn't exactly state-of-the-art. Upfront are three sections of long desks topped with aging, faded wood looking out onto the field from ground level, behind a net and tinted glass. The rear resembles a school cafeteria, with an old television resting on a filing cabinet...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Alternative to Net domain racket

Regarding Esther Dyson's Aug. 30 Project Syndicate article, "'Protection racket' for Net domain names": It is not difficult to force Internet users to pay the huge and excessive prices demanded by "supposed" or "assumed" monopolies like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),...
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Sharing inventions of the mind

Haruki Murakami is indeed a "global citizen." Millions have read his intriguing tales, which are page-turners in many languages. While some will read his works on screen, others will on paper.
Reader Mail
Sep 4, 2011

Baby boomers serve a purpose

Regarding the Aug. 28 editorial "Global citizen Haruki Murakami": I was born in the generation after Japan's dankai (baby boomers), whose enormous population and aggressive self-assertion always overwhelmed us. They were always arguing that they would someday change not only Japan but also the world....
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Sep 4, 2011

Children — and their children — must be saved from Nature Deficit Disorder

When I first settled down to live here in Kurohime in northern Nagano Prefecture, I wrote an essay about what I considered to be an endangered species.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 4, 2011

These may be interesting times, yet we yearn to return to normality

"May you live in interesting times," goes the familiar curse — or as the Chinese say in a similar vein, "It's better to be a dog in times of peace than a human in times of chaos."
CULTURE / Books
Sep 4, 2011

Flowering of civic activism

MAKING JAPANESE CITIZENS: Civil Society and the Mythology of the Shimin in Postwar Japan, by Simon Andrew Avenell. University of California Press, 2010, 356 pp., $24.95 (paper) In recent years the growth of civil society in Japan has attracted considerable attention. The invaluable contributions of Japanese...
MORE SPORTS
Sep 4, 2011

Murofushi joins Athletes Commission

Hammer thrower Koji Murofushi, who won the gold medal at the 2011 IAAF World Athletics Championships, has been voted into the six-member IAAF Athletes Commission. Voting ended on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Sep 3, 2011

LCD business a keeper: Panasonic

Panasonic Corp. plans to keep its liquid crystal display business even after rivals Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. agreed this week to divest their LCD units amid intensifying competition from South Korean and Taiwanese producers.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Sep 3, 2011

American trumpeter makes his horn sing in Kansai clubs

On a Sunday in early August, American trumpeter James Barrett led his band through a set featuring rhythmic jazz and world music beats as part of the Saiin Music Festival in western Kyoto.
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Sep 2, 2011

Wine-tasting event will have your conscience feeling a buzz

For those who don't know their Merlot from their Chardonnay, the Three Country Premium Wine Tasting double event may provide the perfect opportunity to discover the difference. Pay a mere ¥2,000 on entry and you will have access to more than 100 wines. While your liver may not forgive you the morning...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 2, 2011

'Hanna'

Hollywood so often uses foreign-accented types for its villains, and American media in general spends so much time bashing Europeans as cheese-eating surrender-monkeys, that it's good to see ol' Europe hitting back. "Hanna," the slick new action thriller by Londoner Joe Wright, is the third film this...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 2, 2011

"Bologna Fiera Del Libro Per Ragazzi"

The Bologna Children's Book Fair is held every spring in Bologna, a city of ancient origins in the northern Italy. The fair also hosts a picture-book exhibition for which 2,836 artists from 58 countries submitted works this year. Seventy-six creators from 21 countries were selected for the show, including...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 2, 2011

From the need to know to the need to share

At a time when government seems unable to address our most pressing problems, we are about to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with rare evidence that Washington can work.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 2, 2011

"Naoki Ishikawa '8848'"

Naoki Ishikawa, an incessant traveler, took up professional photography just four years ago and has since documented many of his expeditions. He has won various international awards and was the second-youngest photographer to win Japan's Ken Domon Award.
BUSINESS
Sep 2, 2011

Noda oversaw biggest yen intervention since 2004

Incoming Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda oversaw Japan's biggest currency intervention in seven years last month as finance minister, but he may have to take even bolder steps to rein in the yen.
Reader Mail
Sep 1, 2011

Tea party endorses democracy

Professor Yoshi Tsurumi's Aug. 26 article, "The DPJ face of Obama perplexes Japanese voters," contains several assertions that are not factually correct. First of all, the American tea party is not "anti-government and anti-democratic." The tea party consists of Democrats, Independents and Republicans...
EDITORIALS
Sep 1, 2011

Unsavory ties for an entertainer

Popular TV personality Shinsuke Shimada and his agency Yoshimoto Creative Agency Co. hastily called a news conference on the night of Aug. 23 to announce his retirement from the entertainment industry, effective immediately, because of his relationship with a gangster.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Sep 1, 2011

Kusama: Quite dotty, but very avant-garde

Yayoi Kusama's art fully emerged in a big way when she moved from Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, to New York in 1959. Despite the obstacles — she suffered from mental problems and was an unknown Japanese female artist in a milieu dominated by white male artists and critics — by the second half of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 1, 2011

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes cover Japan tunes

Punk cover band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are touring Japan to promote their new EP "Sing in Japanese" this month. Comprised of players from famed punk and rock acts NOFX, Lagwagon, Swingin' Utters, and Foo Fighters, they will play Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka before performing at Yokohama's sold-out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 1, 2011

Sachiko Hara makes her mark in Germany

Tokyo-born Sachiko Hara, 46, was the apple of her ordinary, working-parents' eye. She was encouraged to get a degree in German studies from the prestigious Sophia University, and after that it seemed some sort of high-flying career was hers for the taking.
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 31, 2011

Discount strategies: Every dog, and man, has his day

The service industry is finally targeting guys.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 31, 2011

Destroying five myths about earthquakes

Earthquakes rattle our psyches as well as our structures. We Californians can crack jokes about jumpy East Coast types, but the truth is, our blood pressure also rises precipitously when the Earth suddenly springs to life, without so much as a warning.
EDITORIALS
Aug 30, 2011

Mr. Biden goes to Asia

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden concluded a brief three-country tour of Asia that took him to China, Mongolia and Japan. While there is always some trepidation when Mr. Biden travels — while he is a genuine foreign policy expert, he has a tendency to make off-the-cuff remarks that get him in trouble...

Longform

In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan