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COMMENTARY
Jul 30, 2009

Japan reaches a crossroad

With all eyes on a rising India, an awakened China and a roiling Islam, we tend to take good old solid Japan (still the world's second-largest economy, please don't forget) as a given. But that is a mistake: These are the times that try Japan's soul.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 29, 2009

Old problem festers on China's new frontier

WARSAW — Had the August 1991 putsch against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev not failed, the riots and death recently seen in Xinjiang could have been taking place in Russia. Instead of hearing about a crackdown in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, we might be reading about hundreds killed on the streets...
BUSINESS / JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Jul 27, 2009

Dollar beauty may be fading but it still tops currency pageant list

The Group of Eight countries and the outreach participants in the July 8-10 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, discussed promotion of an international currency system that is stable and functions well. But it remains an elusive goal to find concrete ways of reforming the system.
COMMENTARY
Jul 27, 2009

Threats against Iran feed off modern myths

NEW YORK — Several myths regarding Iran stand in the way of the United States and other nations reaching a peaceful relationship with that country. Much of the concern that Iran may attack Israel, if Iran successfully develops nuclear weapons, rests on the statement by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / JAPAN TIMES BLOGROLL
Jul 27, 2009

How to Japonese

The blog How To Japonese should appeal to anyone studying intermediate and advanced Japanese, but don't expect structured step-by-step courses. Launched in 2008 by Daniel Morales, a New Orleanian who first came to Japan in 2002 and currently works as a translation coordinator in Tokyo, the blog pretty...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2009

Pope's dream of heaven on Earth

HONG KONG — Of all the criticisms and critiques of the state of the world since the financial crisis that triggered global recession, the most devastating and yet the most profound and constructive came this month from such an unusual and unlikely source that many media ignored them. Yet the comments...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 25, 2009

Lifetime of travels at root of keen insights into Japan

One person you want to meet for a coffee in Tokyo: Stephen Mansfield. The British author and photojournalist has written 10 books (14, including collaborative work) and produced over 2,000 published articles for newspapers, magazines and journals since 1992.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jul 24, 2009

Franz Ferdinand ready for Fuji to rock

Barely a minute into our conversation, and without prompt Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thomson begins talking up the virtues of Japan
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WORDS TO LIVE BY
Jul 23, 2009

Translator Kiyoko Zaborszky

Kiyoko Zaborszky, 83, is a translator with a reputation for picking winners. She's worked on books with positive messages that help readers deal with difficult and often controversial issues such as adoption, organ donation, disease and dying. In a career spanning four decades, Zaborszky translated 31...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 19, 2009

Explaining a hold and a tale about 'Smokey' catching for the Carp

Checking out what is on the minds of fans and readers of the column this week as we go through the e-mail inbox, and Josh Barnett in Kobe wants to know, "What is a 'hold' and what does a pitcher need to do to be awarded one?"
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH
Jul 19, 2009

Tune in to nature's sounds

The phenomenal diversity of Japan, in its landscapes, climates, ecosystems, fauna and flora, has enthralled me for more than a quarter of a century. For part of each year I am extremely fortunate to be able to travel the length and breadth of the country seeking out its wilder places in order to experience...
Japan Times
Reference / SO WHAT THE HECK IS THAT
Jul 16, 2009

Ishigaki

Dear Alice, Is it weird to love a wall? I recently visited the Imperial Palace in Tokyo and was totally blown away by a high rock embankment on the far side of the moat. That rugged face! Those elegant lines! I am completely enchanted and want to know anything at all you can tell me. But there's one...
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 15, 2009

Remembering McNamara

NEW YORK — I first met U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, who presided over the U.S. buildup in Vietnam, in the summer of 1967. I had just returned from a trip to South Vietnam, where, as a reporter for The New Yorker, I witnessed the destruction, by American air power, of two provinces, Quang...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
Jul 14, 2009

Wit, humor help longtime columnist come to grips with life in Japan

Freelance journalist and longtime Japan resident Thomas Dillon was at first shy of being on the receiving end of questions.
BUSINESS / THE VIEW FROM EUROPE
Jul 13, 2009

Japanese choices in aviation market reveal overreliance on U.S.

For decades, Japan's military partner of choice has been the United States. The reasons are well known: The influence of the Occupation after World War II and the adoption of an American-style Constitution that put strong restrictions on Japan's ability to maintain any kind of martial force.
Reader Mail
Jul 12, 2009

Unbelievable remark on religion

Just read part of the first paragraph of Jan-Werner Mueller's July 5 article "The return of religion to Europe." Unfortunately, I could not continue after reading that "religion played virtually no role during the last American presidential election."
COMMENTARY
Jul 9, 2009

Spread of democracy stalls

Has the global spread of democracy run out of steam? For long, but especially since the end of the Cold War, democracy and free markets were touted as the twin answers to most ills. But while free-market tenets have come under strain in the present international financial crisis, with the very countries...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Jul 7, 2009

Cops crack down with 'I pee' checks

My blog has been getting periodic pings about rumblings in Roppongi: Tokyo cops cleaning out pesky foreign touts before Olympic inspectors see them; the U.S. Embassy warning Americans to stay away from the area after reports of drugged drinks and thefts.
COMMENTARY
Jul 5, 2009

Old killer press still admired if not emulated

SINGAPORE — Everyone knows the American news media is proud as papa of its reputation as the storied giant-killer of politicians and as the watchdog of government. Aggressive journalism decades ago by The Washington Post and other major media institutions actually dethroned an elected president, Richard...
CULTURE / Books
Jul 5, 2009

Why Murakami's best-selling '1Q84' is worth the wait

When Shinchosha decided not to run a pre-marketing campaign for Haruki Murakami's new and highly anticipated two-volume novel, the publishing house must have banked on the book creating its own hype. It worked. The void soon filled with publicity and media speculation about the book's only available...
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
Jul 5, 2009

Mud, mud, marvelous mud

About 20 years ago I had a large pond dug in our Afan woods up here in the Nagano Prefecture hills. It was in a place that was always waterlogged when the snow melted, and in spring there were lots of puddles that became home to thousands of tadpoles. But then, as the weather warmed up, the puddles would...
Reader Mail
Jul 5, 2009

Don't make whales the scapegoat

According to the anonymous writer of the June 28 letter "Whaling subsidies are not wasted," whales are consuming a large majority of the fish in the oceans. Unfortunately, the author seems to have the facts wrong. There are innumerable accounts of oceans, bays and rivers teeming with fish before the...
JAPAN
Jul 3, 2009

Hitachi delivers high-speed rail in U.K.

LONDON (Bloomberg) Britain's first bullet trains entered service in London this week, bringing high-speed travel to the world's oldest rail network, but government spending cuts prompted by the global recession may stunt plans to extend the project.
Japan Times
Events / Events Outside Tokyo
Jul 3, 2009

Jazz meets literature in concert

Three Japanese artists living in Berlin, together with a French musician, will stage two performances in Yokohama featuring music, dance and readings to mark the 150th anniversary of the opening of the city's port.
COMMENTARY
Jul 2, 2009

Don't bait the Russian bear

U.S. President Barack Obama's Moscow visit offers a historic opportunity to avert a new Cold War by establishing a more stable and cooperative relationship between the West and Russia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2009

More European hope, less American fear

PARIS — Since the arrival of President Barack Obama in the White House, there has been an undeniable rapprochement between Europe and the United States. But on the deeper and more fundamental level of emotions and values, is it possible that the gap between the two sides of the Atlantic has widened?...
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Jun 28, 2009

Jokichi Takamine: a man with fire in his belly whatever the odds

When I had tummy ache as a child, my mother would say, "Take a diastase." So, I naturally thought — as did my mother — that what I was putting into my mouth was a "diastase."
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Jun 28, 2009

Mythmaking and the Kamikaze 'volunteers'

NEW YORK — Lisa Hosokawa Garber, a fresh graduate of St. Andrews Presbyterian College in North Carolina, has sent me "Crosswind," her short, imaginative account of three months in the life of a youth training to be a Kamikaze pilot. It describes what its author calls a Shakespearean "twist of fate":...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Jun 26, 2009

How to conjure worlds from the fewest words

One evening in late May, a cozy rehearsal room in Yokohama was more like a drill hall as Mikuni Yanaihara called for another run through a dance scene in her latest play, "Gonin Shimai" ("Five Sisters").

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight