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SUMO / SUMO SCRIBBLINGS
Sep 8, 2011

Aki Basho: Normal sumo service resumes in the capital — almost

Sunday Sep. 11 will see the Sumo Association resume the closest thing to normal service they can hope for in the present era of post-scandal reflection. It will be he first tourney back in the Ryogoku Kokugikan after a summer of much discontent and thus "coming home" to the capital will offer the powers...
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Sep 8, 2011

Japan hoping to earn respect on hardwood

Head coach Thomas Wisman said that the Japan men's national team has attempted to "regain respectability" since he took the helm last year.
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2011

BOJ to maintain 'zero' rate, sees second-half recovery

The Bank of Japan's Policy Board unanimously agreed Wednesday to maintain the current virtually zero-interest rate policy while shunning additional monetary easing to cope with impacts from the recent sharp rise in the yen.
Japan Times
CULTURE
Sep 8, 2011

True glimpses of the underworld

Cloaked in mystery and perhaps a certain degree of myth, the yakuza constitute one of the hardest subculture groups in Japan to infiltrate. But when Belgian photographer Anton Kusters and his brother, Malik, saw a gangster walk by as they were drinking at a bar in Tokyo's entertainment district of Kabukicho,...
BUSINESS
Sep 8, 2011

JT seeking sale of government's 5 million shares

Japan Tobacco Inc. wants the government to sell its shares and use the funds to finance recovery efforts after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
COMMENTARY
Sep 8, 2011

China turns up the heat

As Chinese President Hu Jintao greeted his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino in Beijing recently at the start of a state visit, the official Xinhua news agency laid out terms for a sustained improvement in relations between the world's second biggest economy and its much smaller and weaker Southeast...
JAPAN / Q&A
Sep 7, 2011

Prestigious school seen as ticket to rise to the top of political ladder

Newly appointed Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may compare himself to a "dojo" (loach), but in reality he is an elite politician with a diploma from the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, better known as Matsushita Seikei Juku.
Japan Times
JAPAN / CABINET INTERVIEW
Sep 7, 2011

Hachiro hints at reactor restarts

New Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yoshio Hachiro hinted that some of the nuclear reactors currently undergoing stress tests will be brought back into operation before April if their safety can be confirmed.
EDITORIALS
Sep 7, 2011

With record rains comes misery

Typhoon No. 12 (Talas) has brought heavy rains mainly in western Japan. As of the night of Sept. 5, 37 people had died and 54 others were missing. Among the typhoons that hit Japan since 1989, when the Heisei Era started, the latest one caused the second largest number of deaths and missing victims,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 6, 2011

Law flawed but Noda should return donations: Fujimura

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Monday that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda should return any political contributions confirmed to have come from foreigners, who are barred by law from giving donations.
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...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years